GRAEME Hill, the former Great Britain, Scotland, and Livingston point

guard, has been cleared to play in the Budweiser Irish League for

Belfast's Star of the Sea after an 18-month battle with red tape.

Hill heard the news just as he was about to go into hospital again for

an operation on an injured knee. After the Cumnock Academy former

pupil's request for a Category A registration (naturalised foreign

player) had been turned down by the Irish Basketball Association for the

second year in a row, Hill made a special trip to Dublin to appeal, and

this time it was successful.