An Audience with…Chris “Pope Biggie” Bigley
Some of you reading this may have seen over the past month via social media that Mersey Tigers’ very own Chris Bigley has been looking for a summer job once the season is over, as his legal standing already outside of playing ball just will not be enough to fill the impending void of April through to September.
Since the Knowsley-based side have been able to ‘rest and recuperate’ for two weeks, Bigley instead has gone down the line of ‘preach and pontificate’, in the full title roles of self-styled…
Bishop of Twitter, Vicar of Toxteth Tiger, Successor of the Prince of the (David) Aliu, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church of Knowsley Leisure and Culture Park, Primate of Merseyside, Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Huyton Province, Sovereign of the State of Whatever’s In His Pockets, Servant of the Servants of Greenbank Ultras
That, Sports Fans, is one hell of a role to fulfil, and awfully difficult to try and print on the back of a jersey, so if you please just Pope Biggie for short, as his chosen papal name.
Mersey Tigers have just three weeks, and six games, in order to prevent going winless for an entire season; which would be a first in any BBL season since its inception.
His first audience of his new papacy begins this weekend, and is hoping to put right the wrongs of the season so far – tough ask however, with Mersey making a pilgrimage on Friday away to Plymouth Raiders, and then home for a Sunday service to face Newcastle Eagles.
All these sides are looking to repent recent poor form, which makes the task even harder it seems for Mersey.
However, before the public audience (his busy schedule now as Pope means he will miss the trip to Plymouth but is sure to be there in spirit), here at UKAmericanSportsFans.com were able to be granted a private audience this week with Pope Biggie and we asked him for his thoughts and feelings ahead of these two crunch games.
UKASF: Firstly, Your Hoopliness, thank you for your time. Who is your target man to subdue on Friday night?
Pope Biggie: Matt Schneck
UKASF: Three attributes as to why?
Pope Biggie: Strength, rebounding, will to win
UKASF: Who is your target man to subdue on Sunday?
Pope Biggie: All of them
UKASF: Three attributes as to why?
Pope Biggie: They don’t relent. Ever. And they’re hurting.
UKASF: Matt Schneck is killing pretty much everyone on the boards as he did in his rookie season at Cheshire, how do you prevent him from daubing in spray paint the words “Not going to happen” whilst your guys are out on court for forty minutes?
Pope Biggie: Use paint stripper.
UKASF: Does it make things harder, do you feel on a personal level, with all the jostling for position midtable, to face a side like Plymouth?
Pope Biggie: So they’ll be up for it. We’re trying to avoid the biggest wooden spoon ever. Well scrap more, trust me. But it comes down to more than that.
UKASF: After playing the last time against Newcastle, was that the real Newcastle Eagles side, or a side you saw as being experimental or just as they happened to be considering the injury problems they have suffered of late?
Pope Biggie: Eagles are Eagles you know. I think they were probably running through their sets after the first half, experimenting a bit. But they don’t understand how to lower the intensity levels, they can experiment with how they execute, but that doesn’t stretch to being soft and giving anyone an easy time. For our retrospective ambitions I think they’re in as bigger rut as us, and I think Fab feels that way. They don’t know losing, it’s not familiar to them so a few in a row – they’re hurting and want to win badly. So we have to match their desire to even compete. If we’re not at the races we’re looking at records on Sunday.
UKASF: How have you guys felt having had almost two weeks off – and how prepared are you going in to these last games hunting down a win – still confidence in the squad to do it?
Pope Biggie: Interesting question. Two weeks off has been different, I guess at this stage of the season it’s good to have a weekend off to recharge the batteries – and for me personally I think that was important, I haven’t shot the ball well recently and I think I needed to get away from it all to get back to being me. Time will tell if it’s worked.
Confidence in the squad? Well we’ve got nothing to lose. I think by now everyone expects us to finish on 0, and the way we’ve turned up at times this season who can blame them? But we have the ability to prove them wrong, we just need to go prove it on the floor.
UKASF: Thank you Pope Biggie, we know our time is up, we wish you good luck and hope this papal sideline you have isn’t too demanding so far!
Pope Biggie: It has. Audiences with my cardinals are tough…
