Falkirk Fury and Scottish basketball legend Jonny Bunyan honoured at testimonial match

Two sides made up of Jonny Bunyan’s past and present team-mates, Rocks Gladiators and Rocks Fury, faced off against each other (Pictures by Ross Wardrop/Falkirk Fury)

Jonny Bunyan’s sensational 13 years of service to Scotland’s professional basketball club, the Caledonia Gladiators, formerly known as Glasgow Rocks, was honoured over the weekend with a testimonial match and a special roast celebration dinner.

Over 1000 fans turned out to pay respects to the 32-year-old Scotland ace, who is now the longest-serving Rocks/Gladiators player.

First up for Jonny was the celebration dinner on Saturday night which saw him ‘roasted' by current and former team-mates.

The following day then saw the testimonial match, which was played at Gladiators’ state-of-the-art Playsport venue in East Kilbride.

Jonny Bunyan thanks the crowd during his testimonial match which took place over the weekend at Caledonia Gladiators' Playsport Arena (Pictures by Ross Wardrop/Falkirk Fury)

The contest saw a fantastic line-up of players who provided an entertaining game that 'somehow' managed to finish tied – forcing overtime and a win by two points for the Rocks Fury team.

Jonny, who returned to play with Fury midway through season 2023-24, saw his silverware continue from being the captain of the Gladiators team that had won the BBL Trophy in season 22-23 to a Fury senior men's side who won the treble in season 23-24.

His professional career with the then-named Glasgow Rocks began after playing for Fury as a 10-year-old up through the juniors before then spending a season in the US with prep school team Kimball Union.

Jonny was an immediate success as a 19-year-old in the BBL while at the same time still playing for Fury in the Scottish SBC league system for another three years.

The 22-23 season saw Jonny not only captain the Gladiators to their historic BBL Trophy win – but also receive a wider audience when the team were the subject of a BBC docu-series which showed the side play through the season to their eventual trophy victory, Jonny being one of the stars of the show with his on and off court activity.

Representing Scotland at all age groups, Jonny's international highlights featured being MVP in Scotland's under-16 men's Euro C tournament win in Malta and a fourth-place finish in Australia for Scotland’s senior men at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Jonny’s dad and Falkirk Fury head coach John coached the Rocks/Fury side on testimonial day and he spoke to the Falkirk Herald afterwards.

“This was a great weekend for Jonny and for the 1000-odd fans who turned out, showing just how popular Jonny is at the club,” he said.

“A big shout out goes to Sean Skelly, the Gladiators general manager, who really got this off the ground and for all at the Gladiators’ staff and volunteers who made it happen.

“It was also fantastic to see so many players take part in the testimonial game who have been key parts of Jonny's basketball career and I know Jonny is looking forward to continued success with Fury on court and with the the Gladiators as he works with their development programme.”

Testimonial teams

Rocks Fury (red): Jonny Bunyan, Kieran Achara, Keith Bunyan, Fraser Malcolm, Scott Russell, Murray Hendry, Ali Fraser, Patrick Whelan, Will Kemp.

Rocks Gladiators (blue): Jonny Bunyan, Gareth Murray, Prince Onwas, Kyle Jiminez, Lee Reilly, Fahro Alihodzic, Jack Hencher, Oscar Bladwin, Daniel Odoom, Bouna Ndiaye.