It's a busy time for everyone involved with the Bears at the moment but, as I've said before, that's the way we like it.

Three games in as many days last weekend, our first Trophy fixture against Tigers last night and a match-up with our old rivals London Towers to come at Burgess Hill on Sunday, but we're not complaining.

I know not many of our fans made it up to Crystal Palace on Monday for the exhibition match against Duke, the top American college team. Those of you who did will have seen the best and worst of us.

In periods of the match the team scared me because they were so good, at other times they scared me because they were so bad. We lost 93-84, but that doesn't tell the whole story. During that good spell in the second quarter we led by 22 points and everything we were trying to execute seemed to come off. We were awesome. It was then that Duke, not surprisingly I suppose, decided that they weren't too happy being pushed about by us.

They upped the tempo, got a little physical and we allowed them to rattle us. In the end four of our guys fouled out which is a lot. You could say we beat ourselves, but I think we proved to them that we aren't a bad little team either.

Regardless of the result it was a good exercise. The physical demands of three tough games in as many days took its toll towards the end of the Duke match, but overall I'm really pleased with the conditioning of the team.

We had a very good pre-season and are reaping the benefits.

Our league and National Cup campaigns are underway and now we turn our attentions to the Trophy.

The key to making progress is win your two home games and hope to pick up something on the road. Towers, our opponents on Sunday at the Triangle, look a little unsettled at the moment.

Coach Lindstrom seems to be trying a few guys out but don't forget that they have Kendrick Warren and Tyrrell Myers in their line-up, two players I rate among the best of the guys in England right now.

We're fierce rivals. Basically we don't like them too much and they don't care us a lot either so there are going to be a few fireworks on Sunday, regardless of who is wearing the blue vests and who is wearing the yellow.

Our biggest crowd of the season at the Triangle last year came in the Towers game and I would urge all you fans to get your tickets in advance for Sunday because I don't think there will be too many spare seats.

Our win over Milton Keynes Lions in the Cup means another home tie in the quarter-finals against Newcastle Eagles. At time of writing it looks as if we have secured a slot at the Brighton Centre for this game which is good news. Look out for an announcement in the next day or so.

Things are going well right now and I told the guys after the Duke game that they can only beat themselves at the moment. In terms of preparation and fitness we are light years ahead of some of the other teams and it's important that we maintain the momentum we have already built up.

See you on Sunday. Go Bears!