BIG-time basketball ret-urns to Fleming Park tonight (8pm) when Solent Stars aim to kick up a Storm in the opening match of the 1999/2000 Uni-ball Trophy.

As the only non-Dairylea Dunk-ers outfit in the Group A pool, Alan Cunningham's National Division 1 champions are outsiders to claim a top two qualifying place against high-brow competition from Derby Storm, Satur-day night's hosts Birmingham Bullets and the London Leopards.

But for Cunningham, Colin Irish and Panji Grainger, it's a dream chance to get reacquainted with England's elite and, typically of a man who has won every major honour in domestic basketball, the Solent coach is in no mood to provide cannon fodder for the big guns.

"Our ambition is to try and win the Uni-ball Trophy - we're not going into it thinking we are happy to compete," he said.

"It's great recognition for the team to have the chance to play with the big boys! I've done well in this competition before and, having come from Division 2 like we did and then winning the first, it's a trophy I'd like to get myself accustomed with again."

Stars have had an untypically shaky start to the season while new signings Toby Tripalin, Chris Harper, Sean Cameron and Chris Blunt have been settling in and man mountain Irish has been working his way back to fitness.

They lost their first two Division 1 matches against title rivals Coven-try and Plymouth and got a timely pre-Uni-ball warning when clawed 110-88 by the London Leopards in the National Cup two weeks ago.

Derby - last season's beaten Uni-ball finalists - also lost their opening league game but came good last week with wins over Chester Jets (away, 83-70) and Milton Keynes (home, 94-85).

For the 16 teams involved, it's all about reaching March's prestigious Uni-ball Trophy final. Last spring, 8,000 saw Manchester Giants defeat Derby at Birming-ham's NEC and, this year, a bigger crowd is anticipated as the event moves to the city's National Indoor Arena.

To mark the grand opening of the competition, Radio 5 Live will be broadcasting part of their regular Hoops programme live from Eastleigh tonight.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.