WORCESTER Wolves are on the verge of signing a new American forward who will lead the line for the forthcoming season.

Director of basketball Mick Donovan believes the deal to bring Tom Peekes, a 6ft 7in forward, to Wolves can come to a successfukl conclusion in the next two weeks.

In America, Peekes, who played alongside another Worcester star, Andy Harper, at Albertson University, was named the Cascade Conference Player of the Year in 2003/04 and even earned first-team All-American honours.

Donovan said: "We are very close to signing Tom. We have been following the player for three months and Josh Cooprider has been working very hard with his contacts in the States to secure the player.

"Tom actually played with Andy Harper at Albertson University and holds several scoring records for his position and he is also an All-American.

"We have heard fantastic reports from all of our links and are extremely excited about bringing Tom to Worcester. We hope to confirm the deal in the next two weeks once the paperwork has been completed."

Meanwhile, the University of Worcester basketball team, who were crowned British University Champions for the second successive year at the Institute of Sport in Sheffield this year, are now aiming to become world champions.

As reigning British University Champions, they have been invited to represent the UK in the World Inter-University Games to be held in Dublin from October 9 to 13.

Donovan added: "This is a great opportunity to place our programme on the world stage. The universities within the tournament are travelling from countries where basketball is more like a way of life than a sporting pastime."

The university have sampled international competition before, when they went to Poland in 2005 to represent the UK in the European Championships.

Several of the team were unavailable due to club commitments and they only managed to secure an eighth-place finish, so this year they hope to do better with a full-strength squad.