From Paris, France: The scene was set.  In arguably their biggest event to date, tournament founder Hammadoun Sidibe and his team put together a stage second to none for the 2011 edition of the Brand Jordan sponsored, Quai 54.  Eager to represent GB to the fullest, the Midnight Madness team pulled together a squad that blended youth, experience and pedigree and headed into the tournament with high hopes of finally breaking through and getting their hands on the elusive Q54 crown.

The 2011 squad featured a number of winners from last summer's MM (Sam Toluwase, Tayo Ogedengbe, Albert Margai, Will Neighbour and Clayfell Harris), alongside proven vets (Mike Martin, Olu Babalola, Perry Lawson and the irrepressible Germayne Forbes) and one young 'up and coming' future star (Robert Gilchrist).  MM's resident 'Voice Of Reason', Nhamo Shire sounded optimistic: "I like our team this year.  We had planned on another major big being here who ultimately wasn't available for this weekend, but our blend of experience, youth and talent should put us in a good position out in Paris - plus every year Germayne has played in this tournament he's been one of the best guards on show, so we're in good hands".  MM's coach Junior Williams added, "Olu, Germayne, Mike and Perry all have experience of the tournament and the other incoming guys are all hungry and earned their places on the team and have a point to prove, so I think we'll match up pretty well with most of the teams we see out there."

However, even the best laid plans can come unstuck when 'other factors' come into play, and sure enough the MM Q54 mission began to unravel from before the team even left London.

Arriving in good time at the airport to catch the short flight to Paris, Germayne Forbes was told he would not be able to travel as his passport had accidently been put through a cycle in his washing machine and was looking worse than the prospect of a NBA lockout (yep, that bad).  Instead of boarding the flight, Forbes 500 had to make his way to the passport office in search of an emergency passport and reschedule his flight for the following morning.  "Although we had to leave without Germayne, we knew he'd be able to catch a flight out to Paris and make our game as long as we played in the afternoon - it was just a matter of us getting our opening game (which was scheduled for a 12pm tip) switched to a later time" Shire said.  However, despite assurances that a later tip off would be possible, the MM squad were told on the morning of the game that they would in fact need to be ready to tip at 12pm, which ultimately meant going into battle without their best guard and ball handler suiting up.

Matched up against the 'Hood Mix', who featured the another French National point guard (not named Tony Parker) and an array of long, physical athletes, the MM squad knew it would be a battle from start to finish.  Inspired by an unstoppable Olu Babalola and the savvy play of Will Neighbour, MM raced out to a 7-2 lead.  However it didn't take long for the opposing coach to work out that without Forbes, MM were vulnerable at the guard spot and began physically denying Perry Lawson full court, forcing other players to handle the ball and initiate offense.  The turnovers started to pile up, compounded by poor free-throw shooting (2/7 in the first half alone), MM went in at the half down by 1 point.

Building upon their first half momentum the French team continued to pressure and deny both Margai and Lawson - neither of whom were able to find any rhythm.  Added to the mix was the customary questionable officiating which always seems to go against international teams in this tournament (Spain, Holland and Italy will testify), and in what ended up as being approximately 15 minutes of actual basketball action (because of the ludicrously short 12 minutes running clock per half) - the game was essentially over.  MM losing out 22-14.

To seemingly add insult to injury, 20 minutes after the game was over, Germayne Forbes came rushing to the sideline straight from the airport, only to find it was all over before it really all began.

"Usually I have some positive spin to put on a game when it doesn't go the way you want it to, but I'm still searching for answers on this one" Shire said.  "This is a great tournament, but there are some things that need a little tweaking.  First of all, the games are too short on the first day.  You've got teams coming in from as far afield as Japan - you can't play 12 minutes running clock, that's not a proper game, in these circumstances it's like playing 'next basket wins'.  Also, in our situation, I thought there could have been some more understanding and co-operation with letting us play the later game.  Games went on till 10pm on Saturday, but we have to play the earliest game at 12pm, with our best player arriving at the ariport at 12:10pm?  How does that help the tournament or us?  As for the refs, it is what it is.  Speaking to everyone else, it's like we've all come to expect that now.  Bottom line, we lost and we make no excuses for that - but this one feels like there were definately things working against us from the jump" he concluded.

MM's Jackson Gibbons took a more positive view: "Olu played great out there and Sam also played with fire.  It's unfortunate we couldn't play with Germayne, as everyone knows that we would have most likely beaten that team with his skill set on the floor - but that's how it goes sometimes.  Overall, it was a great event and looked amazing.  The team we lost to ended up losing to the overall winners by just 3 points, so we know we're pretty close to cracking this thing.  Just need to regroup and re-equip for next year".