Basketball returned to Royston Leisure Centre this past week.

Teams from Ware, Cambridge and Harlow joined hosts Corvus Cornix, for the start of the U17 Junior Central Venue League.

Corvus, last year’s runaway winners, looked to start the season with a flourish but faltered in the first game against a strong looking Cambridge Cats team.

A slow first half saw Corvus struggle to sore with Eddie Twyman, Rob Hall and Ryan Judge scoring a solitary basket each.

The game was lost in the third quarter with Cats scoring 10 unanswered points. Some more good work inside the key from Twyman reduced the deficit in the fourth but still saw Corvus lose their first game in the competition since late 2011, with Cats winning 25-12.

Corvus regrouped over their break and coach Grant Connell looked to work his tactical magic against a buoyant Hoops side.

It worked well as Twyman continued to find the basket from powerful drives in the first half and was backed up with scores from Ryan Judge, Zac Conley and a fantastic three point shot from distance from Charlie Stimson giving Corvus a 10 point lead to take into the second half.

Hoops regrouped and started to find their shooting from the perimeter, but Corvus responded with points from Hall, Twyman, Judge and another three pointer, this time from Leah Parcell keeping them eight points head going into the last quarter.

Points continued to be traded back and fourth making this the game of the day with five, three pointers being registered.

Twyman, Judge, Conley, Parcell completed the scoring for Corvus and meant they bounced back from the earlier defeat and kick-start their defence of the championship, winning 39-25.