Women's British Basketball League
Current season, competition or edition: 2023–24 Women's British Basketball League season | |
 | |
| Sport | Basketball |
|---|---|
| Founded | 5 June 2014 |
| General Manager | Emily Clarke |
| No. of teams | 11 |
| Country | Great Britain |
| Continent | FIBA Europe |
| Most recent champion(s) | London Lions (2nd title) |
| Most titles | Sevenoaks Suns (3 titles) |
| TV partner(s) | BBC Sport |
| Level on pyramid | 1 |
| Domestic cup(s) | WBBL Cup WBBL Trophy |
| Related competitions | British Basketball League (men's counterpart) |
| Official website | WBBL.org.uk |
The Women's British Basketball League (WBBL) was the top-level women's basketball league in Great Britain, founded on 5 June 2014 as the women's counterpart to the British Basketball League (BBL). The league's headquarters sat in Leicester alongside the offices of the men's BBL. It was replaced by Super League Basketball like the men’s competition.
Like the BBL, the organisation used a franchise-based system so there is no promotion and relegation between the WBBL and the English Women's Basketball League, which forms the lower divisions. Along with the WBBL Championship and the post-season Play-offs, it also ran two knockout competitions featuring all WBBL member teams - the WBBL Cup and WBBL Trophy.
History
[edit]Officially approved by the British Basketball League and England Basketball, the newly created Women's British Basketball League was announced to the public on 5 June 2014, and the 2014–15 season was the league's first full season of competition.
The initial line-up included pre-existing teams from England and Wales, competing in a franchise-based organisation similar to the men's British Basketball League model, with no promotion or relegation in operation with the lower leagues.[1] All eight teams from the pre-existing English Basketball League Division One (Women) competition were selected as member clubs, as well as the two finalists from the 2014 Division Two (Women) Play-offs, Brixton Lady TopCats and Leeds Beckett University. Since the league's inauguration, both Leeds and Brixton have resigned from the league, but three new clubs have joined in that time, including the league's first member club from Scotland.[2]
Teams
[edit]| Team | Location | Arena | Founded | Joined | Head Coach |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Caledonia Gladiators
|
East Kilbride | Playsport Arena | 2016 | 2016 |  Miguel Ángel Ortega Marco
|
 Cardiff Met Archers
|
Cardiff | Archers Arena | 2000 | 2014 |  Stef Collins
|
 Durham Palatinates
|
Durham | Sports and Wellbeing Park | 2017 | 2017 | |
| Essex Rebels
|
Colchester | Essex Sports Arena | 2018 | 2018 | Ashley Cookson
|
| Leicester Riders
|
Loughborough | Loughborough University | 2011 | 2014 | Ben Stanley
|
| London Lions
|
London (Stratford) | Copper Box Arena | 2008 | 2014 |  Styliani Kaltsidou
|
| Manchester Giants
|
Manchester | National Basketball Centre | 2004 | 2014 |  Marg Jones
|
| Newcastle Eagles
|
Newcastle upon Tyne | Vertu Motors Arena | 2005 | 2014 | Noelia Cacheiro
|
| Nottingham Wildcats
|
Nottingham | Nottingham Wildcats Arena | 1976 | 2014 | Karen Burton
|
| Oaklands Wolves
|
St Albans | Oaklands College | 2009 | 2016 | |
| Sheffield Hatters
|
Sheffield | All Saints Sports Centre | 1961 | 2021 | Vanessa Ellis
|
Former teams
[edit]| Team | Location | Arena | Joined | Left |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Leeds Beckett University
|
Leeds | Carnegie Sports Arena | 2014 | 2015 |
| Brixton Lady TopCats
|
London (Brixton) | Brixton Recreation Centre | 2014 | 2016 |
| Gloucester City Queens
|
Gloucester | Oxstalls Arena | 2021 | 2022 |
| Sevenoaks Suns
|
Sevenoaks (Guildford) | Surrey Sports Park | 2014 | 2023 |
Competitions
[edit]WBBL Championship
[edit]The WBBL Championship is the flagship competition of the Women's British Basketball League and features all member teams playing a 22-game regular season (in a round robin format), from October through to April. Matches are played according to FIBA rules and games consist of four-quarters of 10 minutes each. Two points are awarded for a win, with overtime used if the score is tied at the final buzzer – unlimited numbers of 5-minute overtime periods are played until one team is ahead when a period ends. At the end of the regular season, the team with the most points is crowned as WBBL Champions. If points are equal between two or more teams then head-to-head results between said teams are used to determine the winners. In the case of a tie between multiple teams where this does not break the tie, the winners are then determined by the points difference in the games between said teams.[3] Following the completion of the Championship regular season, the top eight ranked teams advance into the post-season Play-offs which usually take place during April.
| Season | Champions | Runners Up | Third Place |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-15 | Sheffield Hatters (1) | Nottingham Wildcats | Team Northumbria |
| 2015-16 | Nottingham Wildcats (1) | Team Northumbria | Sheffield Hatters |
| 2016-17 | Nottingham Wildcats (2) | Leicester Riders | Sevenoaks Suns |
| 2017-18 | Sevenoaks Suns (1) | Leicester Riders | Sheffield Hatters |
| 2018-19 | Sevenoaks Suns (2) | Leicester Riders | Sheffield Hatters |
| 2019-20 | Season cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic | ||
| 2020-21 | Sevenoaks Suns (3) | Leicester Riders | London Lions |
| 2021-22 | London Lions (1) | Sevenoaks Suns | Sheffield Hatters |
| 2022-23 | London Lions (2) | Caledonia Gladiators | Leicester Riders |
WBBL Playoffs
[edit]The post-season Playoffs usually takes place in April, featuring the top eight ranked teams from the WBBL Championship regular season compete in a knockout tournament. Teams are seeded depending on their final positioning in the Championship standings, so first-place faces eighth-place, second versus seventh-place, third against sixth-place and finally fourth plays the fifth-placed team. Both the Quarter-finals and the succeeding Semi-finals are played over a two-game series (home & away) with the higher seed having choice of home advantage in the either the 1st or 2nd leg – an aggregated score over the two games will determine which team will advance to the next stage. As with the Quarter-finals, teams in the Semi-finals are also seeded, with the highest-ranking team drawn against the lowest-ranking team in one Semi-final and the two remaining teams drawn together in the other Semi-final. The culmination of the post-season is the grand Final, a one-off game played at the end of April, where the winners will be crowned as Play-off Champions.[4]
| Season | Champions | Result | Runners Up | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-15 | Sheffield Hatters (1) | 84 - 69 | Nottingham Wildcats | Worcester Arena, Worcester |
| 2015-16 | Team Northumbria (1) | 75 - 68 | Nottingham Wildcats | The O2 Arena, London |
| 2016-17 | Sevenoaks Suns (1) | 70 - 61 | Nottingham Wildcats | The O2 Arena, London |
| 2017-18 | Sevenoaks Suns (2) | 69 - 44 | Leicester Riders | The O2 Arena, London |
| 2018-19 | Sevenoaks Suns (3) | 60 - 55 | Leicester Riders | The O2 Arena, London |
| 2019-20 | Season cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic | |||
| 2020-21 | London Lions (1) | 93 - 71 | Newcastle Eagles | Morningside Arena, Leicester |
| 2021-22 | London Lions (2) | 70 - 45 | Sevenoaks Suns | The O2 Arena, London |
| 2022-23 | London Lions (3) | 57 - 41 | Leicester Riders | The O2 Arena, London |
Betty Codona Trophy
[edit]The WBBL Trophy, now officially the Betty Codona Trophy, is an annual pool stage and knockout tournament featuring all WBBL member clubs.
For the first two seasons, pairings were drawn completely at random – there were no seeds, and a draw took place after the majority of fixtures have been played in each round. A preliminary round took place between the lowest-finishing teams in the previous league season, so that the tournament proper started with eight teams in the first round.
From the 2016-17 season, the format was revamped, splitting the teams into a number of geographical groups. The top teams from each group qualify for the semi-finals, which are played as straight knockout ties.
| Season | Champions | Result | Runners Up | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-15 | Sheffield Hatters (1) | 76 - 62 | Nottingham Wildcats | Barclaycard Arena, Birmingham |
| 2015-16 | Sheffield Hatters (2) | 79 - 45 | Barking Abbey Crusaders | Barclaycard Arena, Birmingham |
| 2016-17 | Sevenoaks Suns (1) | 82 - 67 | Leicester Riders | Emirates Arena, Glasgow |
| 2017-18 | Leicester Riders (1) | 68 - 53 | Sevenoaks Suns | Cheshire Oaks Arena, Ellesmere Port |
| 2018-19 | Leicester Riders (2) | 76 - 74 | Durham Palatinates | Emirates Arena, Glasgow |
| 2019-20 | Leicester Riders (3) | 70 - 66 | Durham Palatinates | Emirates Arena, Glasgow |
| 2020-21 | London Lions (1) | 96 - 64 | Nottingham Wildcats | Worcester Arena, Worcester |
| 2021-22 | London Lions (2) | 72 - 36 | Sevenoaks Suns | Emirates Arena, Glasgow |
| 2022-23 | London Lions (3) | 81 - 70 | Leicester Riders | Emirates Arena, Glasgow |
| 2023-24 | London Lions (4) | 83 - 67 | Essex Rebels | Utilita Arena, Birmingham |
WBBL Cup
[edit]The WBBL Cup is an annual knockout competition featuring all WBBL member clubs. It is a straight knockout competition.
| Season | Champions | Result | Runners Up | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016-17 | Manchester Mystics (1) | 71 - 60 | Nottingham Wildcats | Barclaycard Arena, Birmingham |
| 2017-18 | Nottingham Wildcats (1) | 70 - 66 | Caledonia Pride | Arena Birmingham, Birmingham |
| 2018-19 | Sheffield Hatters (1) | 62 - 60 | Sevenoaks Suns | Arena Birmingham, Birmingham |
| 2019-20 | Sevenoaks Suns (1) | 74 - 64 | Durham Palatinates | Arena Birmingham, Birmingham |
| 2020-21 | Leicester Riders (1) | 78 - 67 | Sevenoaks Suns | National Basketball Centre, Manchester |
| 2021-22 | London Lions (1) | 87 - 47 | Newcastle Eagles | Arena Birmingham, Birmingham |
| 2022-23 | London Lions (2) | 95 - 42 | Leicester Riders | Arena Birmingham, Birmingham |
| 2023-24 |
Betty Codona Classic
[edit]The Betty Codona Classic was an annual three-day tournament named in honour of Betty Codona OBE, a stalwart of women's basketball in Britain for over 50 years and founder of the country's first women's team, Sheffield Hatters.[5] The competition was originally set up as an independent event for the top clubs in Women's basketball and predates the creation of the WBBL by a year, but was adopted as an official WBBL competition after the league was established.[6]
The original format featured the top eight-placed WBBL teams after the first 8 games of regular season play.[7] For the 2016/2017 edition, the competition was moved to become the opening event for the WBBL season, resulting in a two-tiered format where the Classic Cup was contested by the top four from the previous season's league, with fifth to eighth placed teams from last year's league competing for the Classic Plate.
| Season | Champions | Result | Runners Up | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013-14 | Nottingham Wildcats (1) | 69 - 43 | Loughborough Riders | Nottingham Wildcats Arena |
| 2014-15 | Sheffield Hatters (1) | 79 - 73 | Nottingham Wildcats | All Saints Sports Centre, Sheffield |
| 2015-16 | Nottingham Wildcats (2) | 89 - 81 | Sheffield Hatters | All Saints Sports Centre, Sheffield |
| 2016-17 | Nottingham Wildcats (3) | 86 - 59 | Sheffield Hatters | Nottingham Wildcats Arena |
Individual awards
[edit]The WBBL concludes each season with a number of individual awards based on overall performance from the year. [8] The three end-of-season awards are; MVP Award (Most Valuable Player - which proposes the player with the best performance over the year); the Young Player of the Year (the best performance of a younger player usually at the age before or during university); and Coach of the Year (the coach with the best performance over the season). The WBBL also awards MVP Awards for the Playoffs, Trophy and Cup finals. In addition, 'Team of the Year' and 'Defensive Team of the Year' places are awarded to demonstrate the best five players in the league as well as the best five defensively players of the year in the league.
| Season | Most Valuable Player | Young Player of the Year | Coach of the Season |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014-15 | Steph Gandy (Sheffield Hatters) | Savannah Wilkinson (Barking Abbey Crusaders) | Vanessa Ellis (Sheffield Hatters) |
| 2015-16 | Amber Stokes (Nottingham Wildcats) | Georgia Gayle (Sheffield Hatters) | Dave Greenaway (Nottingham Wildcats) |
| 2016-17 | Ashley Harris (Nottingham Wildcats) | Gabby Nikitinaite (Sevenoaks Suns) | Len Busch (Sevenoaks Suns) |
| 2017-18 | Cat Carr (Sevenoaks Suns) | Holly Winterburn (Leicester Riders) | Len Busch (2) (Sevenoaks Suns) |
| 2018-19 | Sarah Toeiana (Sheffield Hatters) | Holly Winterburn (2) (Leicester Riders) | Len Busch (3) (Sevenoaks Suns) |
| 2019-20 | Not awarded due to Covid-19 | Not awarded due to Covid-19 | Not awarded due to Covid-19 |
| 2020-21 | Cat Carr (2) (Sevenoaks Suns) | Holly Winterburn (3) (Leicester Riders) | Len Busch (4) (Sevenoaks Suns) |
See also
[edit]- Basketball in England
- British Basketball League
- English Women's Basketball League
- Women's Super League, the Irish equivalent; includes teams from Northern Ireland
References
[edit]- ^ Mark Woods (2014). "WBBL to upscale women's top tier". MVP 24-7. Retrieved 5 June 2014.
- ^ "WBBL: Oaklands Wolves and Basketball Scotland added to league". BBC Sport.
- ^ "WBBL Championship". WBBL.org.uk. 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
- ^ "WBBL Play-offs". WBBL.org.uk. 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
- ^ "Wildcats win big at Betty Codona Classic". GBBasketball.com. 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
- ^ "Nottingham Wildcats Arena to host Betty Codona Classic". 2016. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
- ^ "Betty Codona Classic". WBBL.org.uk. 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
- ^ "Molten WBBL Coach of the Season Winners – Women's British Basketball League".
External links
[edit]- Official websites:
| Competitions |
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| Seasons | |
| Other |
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