Basketball

While Edinburgh Rocks maintain their recent run of good form to stay on course for a place in the Dairylea Dunkers Champion-ship play-offs, the Scottish League will this year stage play-offs of their own for the first time for several seasons.

It means the Scottish club season will be extended until the end of April, which has delighted national team coach Toni Szifris. He was concerned that lack of match practice might be a negative factor in the preparation of the Scottish team to go to Andorra in June for the European Promotions Cup.

Because the Scottish League play-offs were only formulated midway through the season, they are optional, and entries were invited, which resulted in seven of the 10 men's teams taking up the challenge originally proposed by Midlothian Bulls.

Disappointingly, last season's league champions, Glasgow d2, have not entered, and neither have bottom-of the-table Boroughmuir, who have won only two games this season, or Dunfermline Reign, who have moved on to the four-win mark and hoisted themselves two places off the bottom.

But competition has been fierce for the league positions which will give teams home advantage. The format will be byes for the first two teams, then the next highest will play the lowest, and so on to give four semi-finalists, which, it is believed, will be played over the best of three games.