Angus basketball star hopes to help GB to Riga glory

There must be something in the school dinners at Arbroath High that breeds them tall and quick. How else to explain that among the senior Great Britain teams battling this month for a place in the finals of the men’s and women’s European Championships, the lone Scots in each squad emerged through the same sports halls and the same club?

Fourteen years in age separates Gareth Murray, player-coach of Glasgow Rocks and a 60-cap stalwart of the male line-up, and Hannah Robb, who will today make just her second appearance for GB in the most vital of EuroBasket qualifiers, against Belarus in Riga.

Each is a Red Lichtie and product of the development programme at Tayside Musketeers – and seeing Murray start for his country at major tournaments fed Robb’s desire to follow suit.

“Having that kind of basketball talent, from home especially, it definitely gives you something to look up to,” the 22-year-old acknowledged.

“And it makes it all possible. I’m just a kid from Arbroath. But he’s done it, so why can’t I? And why can’t the next, then the next?”

The point guard has had her horizons broadened through her ability to shoot ball through hoop. An internationalist at youth level, her debut against Poland last November ended a lengthy hiatus for Caledonia’s females from the senior ranks.

This fare was what Robb had aspired to when her PE teacher and Musketeers coach, Laura Hare, had persuaded her that she had natural gifts.

“I wouldn’t say it was easy, because basketball wasn’t as big back then,” she recalled.

“You were competing with the likes of netball, and I played football too, but Laura showed me there was a route to make something out of basketball and that it was something that I could continue to do.”

Robb has been one of the prime beneficiaries of a prescient decision to establish a semiprofessional team in Scotland.

Based in Edinburgh, Caledonia Pride are in their fourth season in the Women’s British Basketball League.

An outlet for the best homegrown prospects to test themselves against seasoned performers at an early stage, some sink and some swim.

So powerfully did Robb power through the tides that she was lured away last summer by Leicester Riders for more money and a chance of domestic trophies.

“I just thought it was a good chance to focus on basketball with elite sport being able to continue right now,” she admitted.

“And Leicester were obviously able to accommodate that.”

It also thrust her into a brighter spotlight – a key reason why, in Latvia’s capital today, she will be asked to help GB obtain a precious victory that would secure their place in June’s finals.

Surprise semi-finalists at the 2019 edition, the stock of the Brits has never been higher, despite the agony of falling a single win short of subsequently qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics last spring. Robb’s colleagues now include players who feature Stateside in the Women’s NBA and at some of Europe’s richest clubs.

“Just being around all those experienced players, in the culture, the GB culture that they’ve created, it is just amazing to just be there – and see first hand how they do things,” Robb said.

Head coach Chema Buceta insists she is one for the future, a defensive specialist perhaps, and a safe and capable pair of hands. If the moment arises to contribute, she will be ready and willing to make her own declaration of Arbroath.

“If I was to get in, I’ll just play hard,” she added.

“There’s no pressure to do anything spectacular. Just enjoy the moment and have fun.”

TALENT: Hannah Robb, from Arbroath, is in Latvia with the GB basketball team.