Ipswich Basketball Club hope the Archant Team of the Year award will not be the last they lift this season.

Nick Drane’s team saw off competition from Bury St Edmunds Rugby Club and Felixstowe Hockey Men’s first team to win the award at Trinity Park.

The team have made a solid start to life in Division Two of the English Basketball League, winning two and losing two of their opening four games.

This weekend, they will travel to Stratford and play the Eastside Eagles in the “Copperbox”, the Olympic venue that housed the Games’ handball matches last year, and that is a sign of how quickly the men’s team has developed.

“It’s going to be an amazing experience and it is something we have looked forward to, ever since it was announced,” said Ipswich player Colin Dockrell.

“We are playing at venues like the Copperbox and against teams such as Huddersfield who have quite a lot of financial backing behind them, so that shows how far we have come in the last two or three years and how we could progress further with a little bit of financial backing ourselves.”

Team mate Tom Sadler added: “We have made a pretty good start and every game has been competitive. I don’t think there will be too many blow-outs (one-sided games) in this league, so we have just got to try and keep chipping away and see where that takes us.”

Sadler and Dockrell are two larger-than-life characters in every sense of the word, the former standing at 6ft 9ins and Dockrell 6ft 8ins.

They have helped form a tremendous team spirit at the team’s Copleston base, much to the delight of coach Nick Drane.

“The secret to our success is hard work but we also have a fantastic camaraderie and some great characters,” said coach Nick Drane.

“We have a lot of fun but we also have a “go to war” mentality too.”