Freeman: I am ready to Rock

ALI EVANS: the Scotland pace bowler is having treatment on the knee injury which cut short his involvement in the national team’s tour Down Under to prepare for the World Cup Inverleith have made a poor start to the season, third from bottom but convinced they can do better. Greater consistency and better finishing in front of goal would certainly help but whether Kelburne are unlikely to afford the the scoring chances that other teams might.

Kelburne were helped by the AAM Gordonians’ surprise defeat of PSL Team Sport Clydesdale which dropped the victims from first to fifth over the weekend. If Gordonians are to be viewed as serious challengers for the leading positions, they will have to follow up with a win away to Western Wildcats, who are beginning to show the form that should enable them to consolidate a place in the top four.

Apart from winning the league part of this year’s competition, the top four play-offs will be meaningful in terms of European representation, for so long the province of Kelburne. Kelburne, Grange, Western Wildcats and Gordonians occupy these places, all on 12 points but from different numbers of games played. Clydesdale, who play Hillhead, and Edinburgh University, who take on Watsonians, are only two points behind these four.

ICE HOCKEY

Tom Muir, the 28-year-old Fife Flyers defenceman, was yesterday ordered to sit out the next three games, having fallen foul of the disciplinary officials after an incident involving the Dundee Stars captain Chris Blight at Dundee Ice Arena on Sunday, writes Nigel Duncan.

The league’s Department of Player Safety automatically reviewed the twominute minor and 10-minute misconduct penalty received for checking to the head after 16 minutes of the third period.

A statement said: “The Department of Player Safety has reviewed this incident and the hit is an illegal check to the head, in which the head was recklessly targeted, with the elbow making principal point of contact with Chris Blight’s head. The Department of Player Safety has upgraded the two-minute minor plus 10-minute misconduct penalty received to a fiveminute major plus game misconduct for checking to the head and neck under IIHF rule 124 for this hit and has suspended Muir for three matches.”

Muir, who is in his 14th season with the Kirkcaldy club, is an integral part of seventh-placed side’s defensive unit and will be missed by Flyers who have only won two of their last five games.

Danny Stewart, Fife’s associate player/coach, said the club is pondering whether to an appeal but said: “It [the suspension] is something we’re going to have to deal with.”

BASKETBALL

Tommy Freeman, the Glasgow Rocks guard, claims he is now back to his best, having pushed through a crisis of confidence since his arrival at the Emirates Arena last month, writes Mark Woods.

The American, who spent a season out of the sport, has looked more like his former self in recent appearances and now plans to shoot down Cheshire Phoenix tomorrow. With Kieron Achara, the Great Britain captain, settling in, Freeman believes Glasgow can start closing on the early BBL pacesetters.

“Our offense is getting more fluid every week and that makes life easy for me and everyone else,” Freeman said. “Things can sometimes take a while to click at the start of any season and we’ve also had Kieron coming into the middle of that. Hopefully when we move into the year, we start playing at our best and give other teams a lot more trouble.”

Cheshire will be a man down after the Scottish forward Gareth Murray left in midweek for a move to France while David Aliu is suspended, with the free-spending visitors linked with the signing of the former Denver Nuggets forward Julius Hodge.

“It will be another tough test for us at home,” said Freeman. “Getting above .500 would be huge for us this weekend but it won’t come easy. It’s going to be a battle. Cheshire are very talented.

“I have played against Demond Watt and Mike DiNunno in college. They are very good players that can put the ball in the basket, as well as Watt being a force on the defensive end.”