Guildford Kings
| Guildford Kings | |||
| Founded | 1973 | ||
| resolution | 1994 | ||
| Hall | The Spectrum (1,800 seats) |
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| Trainer | |||
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| Colours | Red, navy blue, white | ||
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| successes | |||
| 4 times BBL play-offs 1989 to 1992; 4 times BBL Regular Season 1989 to 1992; 3 times BBL Trophy 1990 to 1992; NBL play-offs 1986; NBL Regular Season 1984/85; 7 times National Cup 1985 to 1988, 1990, 1992, 1993 |
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Guildford Kings was a basketball club from Guildford in Surrey ( England ). The club, founded in London in 1973 as the London YMCA Metros , was based in Kingston upon Thames from 1979 to 1992, with a one-year break . During this period from the mid-1980s, the Kingston Kings were among the dominant basketball teams in the United Kingdom , which, in addition to numerous national titles, also achieved the farthest advance of British club teams in European competitions. After entering the round of the best eight teams in the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1988 , they sensationally eliminated the Soviet champions CSKA Moscow in the 1990/91 Cup of National Champions in the round of 16 and also made it into the round of the best eight teams in this competition. After two years at the new location in Guildford, the license of the closed professional league British Basketball League was sold in 1994 to the Leopards , who returned to a location in London.
history
Foundation (1973 to 1979)
James Naismith had invented the basketball game in 1871 as director of the YMCA in Springfield (Massachusetts) and a team from the Central YMCA in London was one of the leading English teams, winning the National Cup eight times between 1957 and 1969, what was then the English championship . After the introduction of the “National Basketball League” (NBL), this basketball team formed the London YMCA Metros , whose men's team can be viewed as a semi-professional team due to the corresponding sponsors , which no longer had much in common with the original team in the YMCA. As the London YMCA they finished third in the NBL in 1974 and 1979.
Kingston Kings (1979 to 1988)
The then owner of the YMCA Metros moved the team in 1979 to the southwest of London to Kingston upon Thames, which was incorporated from Surrey to Greater London in 1965 . Here the team took on the name Kings and from the mid-1980s was able to outstrip the London rival Crystal Palace , originally from the neighboring district of Sutton . In 1985 you not only won the National Cup, which you could defend three times in a row, but also took first place in the NBL, but lost the final game in the play-offs of the NBL against Manchester United . A year later you could win the play-off final against the Birmingham Bullets in 1986 as second in the main round . The following year, however, in 1987 they lost the play-off final against Crystal Palace as second in the main round. Then the closed professional league British Basketball League (BBL) was introduced, which brought together the best English and Scottish teams and in which you as a founding member finished second after the end of the main round of the first season 1987/88 and in the play-offs in the semifinals lost to Murray Livingston. In the European Cup Winners' Cup , Den Helder Kings and Galatasaray Istanbul were defeated in the first two rounds and entered the group stage of the eight best teams. Here they finished third in the group of four behind the eventual title winner CSP Limoges and the German representative TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen .
Glasgow Rangers BC (1988/89)
The Scottish businessman David E. Murray had taken over the majority in the football club Glasgow Rangers in 1988 and has now also bought the majority in the Kings. After the transfer of the Kings to Glasgow , he made himself with the Rangers BC competition to his previous franchise Murray Livingston. The American Kevin Cadle continued to act as coach and the Manchester Giants brought Alton Byrd back to Scotland, who had previously played for Murray for several years. The Rangers finished first in the regular season ahead of Livingston and Alan Cunningham was voted BBL's Most Valuable Player (MVP). In the final game of the play-offs, the two Scottish franchises from Glasgow and neighboring Livingston , located between Glasgow and Edinburgh , faced each other. The Rangers won the final with three points difference 89:86 against the defending champion, against whom they were still defeated in the semi-finals of the League Cup BBL Trophy, and the franchise now also won their first championship of the BBL.
Return to Surrey (1989-1994)
Despite the sporting success, they returned to Kingston after a year, while the Murray Club Livingston was set as a franchise and there was no longer a Scottish franchise in the BBL. The team remained largely together and in the 1989/90 season they were dominant and won all games at national level except for three games in the regular season and one game in the BBL Trophy. In addition to these two competitions, they also won the National Cup, in which the Scottish team had not participated a year earlier. In the following season, they also took part in the European Cup and won the first round against the Dutch champions Den Helder Kings. In the round of 16 they met the renowned team from CSKA Moscow , which had won this competition four times in the 1960s and 1970s and was a huge favorite as a representative of the Soviet Union , which was considered the leading European basketball nation alongside Yugoslavia at the time. The Kingston Kings managed to surprise the Moscow team with their American style of play, and to defend their 16-point lead from the first leg in the defeat in Moscow by two points. In the group stage of the best eight teams in the quarter-finals, they achieved four wins in 14 games and came seventh ahead of CSP Limoges, who would win this competition two years later. At the national level, they were almost even more dominant than before and only lost one game in the regular season in which Alton Byrd was elected MVP of the league. However, you lost the semifinals in the National Cup against the Sunderland Saints , so that you could only defend two of the three titles with the championship and the BBL Trophy.
In the 1991/92 season, after three defeats in the regular season and one defeat in the semi-final second leg of the BBL Trophy against local rivals London Towers , you could win all games again and also unite all titles at national level . Alton Byrd was again MVP of the BBL. In the second round of the national championship cup, however, they lost both games against the Belgian champions Racing Basket Mechelen and missed entry into the round of 16 group stage of the competition organized as "FIBA Europaliga", to which several clubs from one country were invited. The Kings have now moved beyond the London city limits to Guildford in the newly built hall The Spectrum . The dominance of the Kings was now over. In the BBL Trophy they lost the final game against the Thames Valley Tigers , while in the National Cup the final against the Worthing Bears could still be won and this title was defended. But in the championship, the Bears around Alan Cunningham and the new MVP Colin Irish , both previously active with the Kings, proved to be superior and they lost in the play-off semifinals against the main round first Bears with one point, who then also won the championship title . In the following season, the Tigers and the Bears shared the title among themselves. In the play-offs, the Kings could move into the final, where they lost to the Worthing Bears, who defended their championship title. The owners then sold the franchise, which after the change of ownership went back to London as Leopards in the Docklands Arena, which had previously left the London Towers.
Eleven years later came with the Thames Valley Tigers, who had previously played as "Pirates" from 1975 to 1982 in Guildford, again a BBL franchise to Guildford, but they play as "Heat" in Surrey Sports Park.
Web links
- Competition History - British Basketball League BBL - Season history on the BBL website (English)
- England Basketball: Senior Men - Cup Competitions - Overview of cup winners on the website of the English Association (English)
- England Basketball: Senior Men - League - Overview of the seasons of the national English leagues
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Javier Gancedo: From YMCA to the Towers: London clubs in European competitions. ULEB , February 12, 2013, accessed May 26, 2013 .
- ↑ Senior Men - Cup Competitions. (No longer available online.) England Basketball . Archived from the original on April 2, 2013 ; accessed on May 26, 2013 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Cup Winners' Cup 1987–88 (sic!). Linguasport.com, accessed on May 26, 2013 (English / Spanish, competition overview).
- ↑ ( Page no longer available , search in web archives: Title allegedly: Basketball Performance Institute. )
- ↑ Champions Cup 1990–91. Linguasport.com, accessed on May 26, 2013 (English / Spanish, competition overview).
