Cheshire Jets: Former Mersey Tiger Calvin Davis fired up for double-derby

Jan 20 2011 by Alec Doyle, Chester Chronicle

CALVIN Davis has played on both sides of the Cheshire/Mersey divide but the Jets’ legendary centre says he holds no sentimental concerns about his former club.

Davis played in the first ever Tigers squad in 2007 but returned to the Jets the following season.

He tuned in to Sky Sports on Sunday to watch the Mersey Tigers’ crushing 93-66 defeat to Sheffield Sharks in the BBL Cup final.

And he reckons the result, and the Tigers defeat seven days earlier against Plymouth Raiders, did not pluck on his heart strings at all.

“I’m focused on the here and now,” said the 6ft 8ins Texan, the last remaining member of the all-conquering ‘Jetwash’ side of 2002.

“I’m not too bothered about what the Tigers do or what happens to them. I’m just worried about what we do and how we accomplish things here.”

The Jets face the Tigers twice this weekend, home and away, and 33-year-old Davis says he and his team-mates are “hyped” about their double-derby weekend.

“I feel strong and ready to play and we are all fired up,” he said.

“We haven’t beaten Mersey yet this year so that’s a big plus we’re looking towards.

“We’ve had two good weeks of practice all geared towards Mersey and we got two games in a row against them so we’re definitely ready.”

The Tigers looked a broken side on Sunday as they were given a lesson in basketball at the NIA in Birmingham.

Davis is hoping that the Jets can exploit that experience to improve their chances of victory.

“It does help when a team takes a knock like that,” he said.

“We’ve looked at tapes of the teams that beat them and we’ve kind of incorporated a couple of things that those teams did with what we already have and try to get two wins.”

And despite admitting that all players really want to play rather than train, Davis is convinced that after scraping two wins on their return to action a fortnight ago, the Jets have benefited from not playing at the weekend.

“I think we are sharp despite the break,” he said. “I think the last two games we had we weren’t as sharp as we should have been but the guys are looking good now.”