SWINDON Shock player Ben Fox says that lifting the Division Two trophy at the British Wheelchair Basketball National Championships has yet to sink in.

Despite finishing runners-up to Warwickshire Bears in the regular season, with the Bears inflicting Shock’s only defeats during the league campaign, it was the Swindon side who had the last laugh.

Having dispatched North Wales Knights 77-64 in the play-off semi-finals last Saturday, Shock followed it up with a 60-57 over Warwickshire to clinch the Division Two crown.

Fox, who was representing Great Britain U23s in Dubai last month, was pivotal in their success, scoring 62 points over the two games, and said his side had to survive a late scare to clinch the title.

“Even now I still can’t quite believe Sunday happened and you can tell from the pictures that we went a bit crazy at the end,” he said.

“We were quite nervous but we were all up for it and knew we were going to give the Bears a good game.

“We knew that if we stayed in the game, then we could cause them a problem and we did. We had quite a tough semi-final on Saturday and it went to overtime, which we ended up winning by 13 points.

“The final was against a team we had already lost to twice and they were our main rivals and we got off to a really good start and were up by nine points after the first quarter.

“By half-time we were leading by two and then at the end of the third they came back into it and we were down by two but somehow in the fourth we managed to win it.

“There was a little bit of a panic when we went behind and we were down by two points with five minutes to go and I think we scored with 14 seconds to go and held on for the victory.”

Swindon will now make the step up to Division One next season and Fox believes that will be vital to the growth of the sport in the town.

“It is so important for us to go up a division for the development,” he added.

“For the club, especially in Swindon where basketball is not a number one sport, hopefully our success will attract new players and funding.

“The step up will be great for the players and I think that everybody will be ready for the new challenge that awaits.

“Hopefully people will get behind us now and keep the club running.”