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England 116-134 Czechia
This game was always going to be one where the odds were stacked against us, due to Czechia having home court advantage for the Championships and the strength and depth of their squad. This was amplified with the game shape of the two teams, with Czechia's squad in better shape, despite three of our key players being on 9GS.

The first games of the season can always throw up some surprises with teams on equal enthusiasm, so I thought I would throw a GDP guess in to see where it would take us. Unfortunately my GDP guess was incorrect, which made the game almost impossible to win and it was a case of damage limitation. Our situation worsened just two minutes into the game when Ad Harris went down injured - this was a key loss as he's our primary rebounder and offers so much more than the backup Centres we had available to us. Czechia took full advantage and destroyed us in the first half, making the result slightly embarrassing but we recovered things in the third quarter to reduce the deficit.

Next week we face our easiest opponent, Montenegro. We will be looking to bounce back with a big win. Despite using more effort, Latvia lost to Bosnia which makes qualification extremely difficult for them. Serbia and Norway registered comfortable wins against Ireland and Montenegro respectively.

In the other groups, Hungary won a close fought game against Israel after the game went to overtime and Italy beat Estonia in another close encounter.

Montenegro 87-151 England
As mentioned last week, this game was all about building our PD as much as we could, in case it came down to those sorts of margins at the end of the group.

Montenegro have deployed the same tactics for almost two seasons now, so a double GDP guess of PtB was an obvious choice, along with our selection of RnG as an offence with Kemp and Duguid in good shape. +64 is a nice PD to gain against our weakest opponents, but with Montenegro likely to normal every other game this season, the difference in enthusiasm between them and our direct opponents will be bigger, meaning the PD could also go that way. Nine of twelves players scored in double digits, with Duguid top-scoring with 25 points. Buchan missed only one shot all game, shooting 10/11 adding 22 points.

Next week we face our neighbours across the Channel, Ireland. They picked up a nice win against Norway yesterday, but it was at the expense of enthusiasm using CT so it should be another easy win and a chance to boost our PD. Bosnia used more effort to beat Serbia in a game which further widens the interest of how this group will develop, as the latter will face hosts Czechia next week and another loss would make put a serious dent into their qualification hopes.

In the other groups, Spain beat Germany which almost seals their qualification, whilst Israel kept their Championship hopes alive with a win against Finland, whilst Portugal defeated Hungary in the same group to make Pool-C one to keep an eye on.

England 129-103 Ireland
The score line doesn't tell the entire story of this game, as it looks to be a comfortable win, but it was anything but. Going into the last five minutes of the final quarter, Ireland were level with us and threatening to totally derail our season and leaving me sweating. A 29-5 run put us out of sight and allowed us to move on and forget the game pretty quickly.

With Ireland using CT vs Norway last week, I expected this game to be a foregone conclusion, given the enthusiasm advantage and the strength of our players. The ratings and PP100 maybe show that we were robbed of an easier win and an opportunity to sure up our PD, just in case it did come down to that, which is frustrating. Duguid, Kemp and Kanjilal continued their impressive starts with to the season.

Next week is our biggest game of the season yet as we play Bosnia. We do have an enthusiasm advantage due to their use of more enthusiasm vs Serbia two game weeks ago, but their ratings clearly show they are a great team and are a lot better than their ranking suggests. A loss and our campaign is virtually over, so it is a must win game. Serbia's campaign is almost certainly over now as they lost a crunch game to Czechia, who are all but qualified.

In other groups, Finland egded past Portugal to leave Pool-C open and Bulgaria continued their perfect start beating Slovenia who are eliminated.