Essex Leopards
| Essex Leopards | |||
| Founded | 1997 / 1994 | ||
| Hall | Brentwood Leisure Center | ||
| Homepage | leopardsbasketball.co.uk | ||
| Chairman | Fred Dicker | ||
| General Director | Gareth Roberts | ||
| Trainer | Robert Youngblood | ||
| league | EBL1 2012/13: 4th place |
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| Colours | Black / white / gold | ||
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| successes | |||
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as Leopards : BBL Regular Season 1996/97, 1997/98; National Cup 1997 as Essex Leopards : EBL Play-offs 2012; EBL Regular Season 2012; National Cup 2006, 2012 |
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The Essex Leopards are a professional basketball team from Brentwood , England . The club was founded in 1997 in Ware (Hertfordshire) as Ware Fire and in 2003 went into a de facto merger with the remnants of the discontinued British Basketball League - Leopards franchise . Subsequently, from 2004 onwards, they competed at the old Leopards' venue in Brentwood as Essex & Herts Leopards . From 2006 they played again in venues in London and called themselves London Leopards . When a new BBL franchise with the East London Royals was to be set up at the London venue Barking Abbey Academy, they left the city limits of London and returned to their old name.
history
Leopards (1994 to 2003)
London businessmen bought the Guildford Kings' license in the British Basketball League (BBL) in 1994 , which ten years earlier can be regarded as the most successful English professional team with four successive championships between 1989 and 1992. As Leopards , the team was allowed to play in the London Docklands Arena in competition with local rivals London Towers , who had moved to Wembley Arena . In their first season 1994/95 the Leopards reached the play-offs for the championship of the BBL, in which they were eliminated in the first round against the Towers of all places. The following year they were eliminated in the first round against the Manchester Giants , before finishing regular time first in the 1996/97 season in front of the Towers. With John White they put the " Most Valuable Player " (MVP) of the league in the 1996/97 season. In the National Cup you could defeat the Towers in the semifinals and won your first national title in the final against the Sheffield Sharks . In the league cup BBL Trophy, however, the Towers won in the quarter-finals against the Leopards and were able to win the competition in the end. In the play-offs of the championship, the two London rivals faced each other in the final game and the Towers won the 1997 championship with one point difference 89:88.
From the 1997/98 season they called themselves Greater London Leopards and ended the regular season tied with the Birmingham Bullets in first place, with Eric Burks again becoming a player of the Leopards MVP of the BBL. In the first round of the play-offs, however, they were eliminated again against the Manchester Giants like two years earlier. In the following season they only just reached the eighth place in the play-offs, in which they were eliminated in the first round against the Sheffield Sharks , who in turn were eliminated in the semifinals against the eventual champions London Towers. For the following season one moved as home ground to Brentwood in Essex outside the administrative boundaries of Greater London . From a sporting point of view, this change was not very profitable, as the play-offs were missed for the first time in club history.
In the 2000/01 season, however, they were behind the Towers in the then existing Southern Conference of the BBL runner-up with the third-best record of all teams in the BBL. The final game in the National Cup they lost with two points difference against the Leicester Riders and in the play-off semi-finals of the championship they were eliminated against the Sheffield Sharks. However, this sporting rebirth was of rather short duration, in the following season it was again only just enough to move into the play-offs, in which they were then eliminated immediately. In its last season 2002/03, the Leopards named according to their venue in Essex consequently in Essex Leopards around and got the Americans Mike Taylor a young new coach of the German 2. Basketball Bundesliga came to England. They won a third of the season's games, which was only enough for the penultimate place in the table, and since the name change had not brought any new sponsors, the Leopards suspended themselves from play for the following season and finally stopped completely. The Leopards supporters found a way to bring basketball back to the Brentwood Center.
Ware Fire / Rebels (1997 to 2004)
In 1991 the Watford Rebels had settled in Wodson Park in Ware and played successfully in the "National Basketball League" existing below the BBL. After winning the championship in 1997, the Rebels moved again and played in Stevenage , before moving two years later to Worthing in Sussex , where they later played as Worthing Thunder in the BBL. After the rebels had moved, the Ware Fire was founded in 1997 and started as a new team in the fourth division of the NBL. After three years they made it to the third highest category of the NBL and since the original Rebels now played as Thunder in Sussex, they called themselves Ware Rebels from then on and made it through to the second highest division of the NBL under this name. After a third place in the 2001/02 season, it was enough for promotion to Division One of the NBL, where they reached a tenth place in the first season 2002/03. In the 2003/04 season they reached eighth place in Division One of the “English Basketball League” (EBL), as the previously existing NBL was now called.
Essex / London Leopards (since 2004)
After the end of the BBL franchise Leopards in Brentwood, the supporters of this team had founded a group "Leopards Alive", which endeavored to continue the club. After it became clear that there were not enough financial resources to continue a franchise in the BBL, a cooperation was entered into with the Rebels, which in turn moved to Essex as Essex & Herts Leopards , in addition to the old venue in Wodson Park Was also playing at the Leopards' previous venue at the Brentwood Center. In the second season they also used the Goresbrook Center in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham as a venue and improved to sixth place. As a lower-class team, they were also invited to the BBL Trophy, which previously existed as a league cup, but where they lost all four games. The National Cup, however, now took place without the participation of the BBL teams and here the new Leopards won their first title in 2006 in the final against the Reading Rockets.
After the partial move to the Goresbrook Center, they fell out with the owners of the Brentwood Center in Essex and from 2006 only played in Dagenham or Ware. As a result, the name was changed in London Leopards . While they were eliminated early in the cup competitions, they achieved their best placement so far in fourth place in the EBL. Subsequently, the Goresbrook Center venue within the London city limits was given up again in 2007 and only played in goods for one season before returning to the Brentwood Center in 2008. After a third place in the 2008/09 season they reached the " Final Four " tournament for the first time in the play-offs of the EBL, where they were eliminated in the semi-finals. Then the roots of the Ware team were cut and the venue in Ware was abandoned in order to play again within the city limits of London in addition to the Brentwood Center in the Barking Abbey Basketball Academy. From the following season, the teams of the Academy were integrated into the club, which took on as BA London Leopards .
After finishing the 2009/10 season only as a table ninth and missed the EBL playoffs, they reached the play-offs under the new name BA London Leopards in the following season as runner-up in the table, which the team did not do before being eliminated again Semifinals saved. In the following season they improved to first place after regular time and won both the National Cup and for the first time the play-offs of the EBL. The application for membership in the BBL, which has been running for a year, led to success and at the end of June 2012 they received the assurance that they would be able to play in the BBL from the 2013/14 season. Before that, however, there had been a falling out with the Barking Abbey Basketball Academy, which in turn led a consortium that was seeking admission to the BBL as East London Royals . Instead of the Barking Abbey Academy, they played in Basildon . In the end, both applications for membership were unsuccessful, as the London Leopards did not raise enough financial resources to participate in the closed professional league. In the 2012/13 season they were eliminated as fourth in the table and defending champion in the semi-finals against eventual champions Reading Rockets, who were able to bring back the championship. Since there was no longer a venue within the boundaries of London, the name London Leopards was given up again in favor of the old name Essex Leopards .
Web links
- Essex Leopards »About Us - Own profile on the Essex Leopards website
- London Leopards basketball - team details, stats, news, roster - profile on the websites of Eurobasket.com (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ 2005-06 BBL Trophy. British Basketball League , accessed May 25, 2013 (competition overview).
- ↑ Mark Woods: Leopards out of the BBL, Royals, Tigers doubt. MVP247.com, April 29, 2013, accessed May 25, 2013 .