Basketball player Steve Butler turned his back on his team at the weekend for a different kind of home fixture.

Steve missed one of the Teesside Mohawks' most important matches of the season - to get married to his childhood sweetheart.

He married Thelma Rowbottom, 20, at Thornaby Methodist Church on Saturday and then went on honeymoon yesterday.

His team-mates went to the wedding service, but then boarded a coach to travel down for yesterday's match in Plymouth.

Steve, 24, said: "It is three years to the day since we got engaged and it just happens to have fallen on a Saturday and clashes with the Plymouth match.

"If I had known it would clash with the match I might have postponed it.

"Plymouth are one of the best teams so the lads were told they could only drink lemonade at the wedding so they were on good form."

The team's general manager, Trevor Lowes, said: "Losing a player of Steve's experience is always bad, particularly when they are crucial games.

"But we have to respect that getting married is a big day for him."

Unfortunately for Steve, his team was beaten by 77 points to 74.