Today’s League Championship Final (game 1) will be Luxol’s 1,000thcompetitive game.
Luxol Sports Club was founded in 1968. They played their first competitive match in the 1968/69 Second Division against Sliema Aperol on 9 December 1968. Luxol went on to win all the games and were consequently promoted to the First Division. Luxol went on to win the 69/70 first division league with another unbeaten run.
Luxol never looked back competing in the First Division for the last 42 years, achieving wins in all the competitions held by Malta Basketball Association.
In all they have won 12 League Championships, 15 times the MBA KO, seven times the MBA Shield, seven times the MBA Super Cup, twice the Louis Borg Cup and one Super 5 cup.
179 players have been capped for Luxol so far. They boast to have had most of the game’s local stars.
Among the athletes were Norman Falzon, Vince Saliba, Anthony Attard, John Tabone, Val Drury, John Drury, Tony Micallef Borg, Philip Degabriele, Charles Grech, Kevin Decesare, Steve Rizzo, Joe Boffa, Bernard Micallef, Martin Zahra, Salvu Vella, Ray Lautier, Lawrence Agius, Joseph Spice Spiteri, Mark Ransley, Andrew Cefai, Ruben Dalli, Ivan Attard, Edgar Caruana Montaldo, Ivan Riolo, Ray Dudu Muscat, Robert Azzopardi, Paul Sultana, Don Ross, Richard Schembri, Marco Mercieca, Dustin Falzon, Alex Bianchi, Andrew Cremona, Silvio Cassar, Steve Schembri, Dirk Schembri, Chris Sammut, A.Borg, A.B.Portelli, Nicola Vasovic and J.P.Bonnici.
Incidentally today’s match is the 820th for John Tabone. He believes that his players will rise for the occasion, even though he considers Athleta as a more complete and versatile outfit…but in basketball you’ll never know… Whilst he believes that it’s going to be very tough, he hopes that his players will enjoy the series.
A victory for either team today (starting at 2.30pm) will put them in pole position. The second match is to be played next Sunday. If a decider becomes necessary, it will be played next week.
One has to remember that administration wise, Luxol BC went through a stormy spell this season. However they brushed aside everything with flying colours.
Luxol Basketball Club won the following honours this season (2010/11) -Women’s First Division Championship, U/20 League Men, U/20 League Ladies and U/16 Boys.