Women's British Basketball League

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Women's British Basketball League (WBBL)
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event 2021–22 Women's British Basketball League season
Women's British Basketball League logo.png
SportBasketball
Founded5 June 2014; 7 years ago (2014-06-05)
No. of teams13
CountryGreat Britain
ContinentFIBA Europe
Most recent
champion(s)		Sevenoaks Suns
(3rd title)
Most titlesSevenoaks Suns
(3 titles)
TV partner(s)BBC Sport
Level on pyramid1
Domestic cup(s)WBBL Cup
Related
competitions		British Basketball League (men's counterpart)
Official websiteWBBL.org.uk

The Women's British Basketball League (WBBL) is 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 are in Leicester alongside the offices of the men's BBL.

Like the BBL, the organisation uses 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 runs two knockout competitions featuring all WBBL member teams - the WBBL Cup and WBBL Trophy.

History[]

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]

Corporate structure[]

Board members[]

The Women's British Basketball League is run by a 13-person board, which takes all decisions regarding League policies, issues and rules. The director of each member club – or franchise as it is known – sits on the board, ensuring equal representation.[3]

The League is therefore run by these thirteen representatives and is administered by a central office.

The current club representatives on the board of directors are:[4]

Franchise Representative
Caledonia Pride Kevin Pringle
Cardiff Met Archers Lucy Power
Durham Palatinates Lee Davie
Essex Rebels Susy Davies
Gloucester City Queens Alex Petheram
Leicester Riders Joe Pinchin
London Lions Mark Clark
Manchester Mystics Jeff Jones
Newcastle Eagles Paul Blake
Nottingham Wildcats Chris Prior
Oaklands Wolves Michael Ball
Sevenoaks Suns Len Busch
Sheffield Hatters Betty Codona OBE

Commercial Partners[]

The WBBL has thirteen Commercial Partners which are overseen by the Commercial Director, Bob Hope. The Commercial partners include:[5]

Teams[]

Team Location Arena Founded Joined Head Coach
Scotland Caledonia Pride Edinburgh Pleasance Sports Complex 2016 2016 Netherlands Bart Sengers
Wales Cardiff Met Archers Cardiff Archers Arena 2000 2014 United Kingdom Stef Collins
England Durham Palatinates Durham Sports and Wellbeing Park 2017 2017 United Kingdom Lee Davie
England Essex Rebels Colchester Essex Sports Arena 2018 2018 United Kingdom Tom Sadler
England Gloucester City Queens Gloucester Oxstalls Arena 2021 2021 United Kingdom Jay Marriott
England Leicester Riders Loughborough Loughborough University 2011 2014
England London Lions London (Barking) Barking Abbey Leisure Centre 2008 2014 United Kingdom Mark Clark
England Manchester Mystics Manchester National Basketball Performance Centre 2004 2014 United States Jeff Jones
England Newcastle Eagles Newcastle upon Tyne Eagles Community Arena 2005 2014 United Kingdom Chris Bunten
England Nottingham Wildcats Nottingham 1976 2014 United Kingdom Kendrick Liburd
England Oaklands Wolves St Albans Oaklands College 2009 2016 United Kingdom Lee Ryan
England Sevenoaks Suns Sevenoaks Sevenoaks Sports Centre 2005 2014 United States Len Busch
England Sheffield Hatters Sheffield All Saints Sports Centre 1961 2021 United Kingdom Vanessa Ellis

Former teams[]

Team Location Arena Joined Left
England Leeds Beckett University Leeds Carnegie Sports Arena 2014 2015
England Brixton Lady TopCats London (Brixton) Brixton Recreation Centre 2014 2016
class=notpageimage|
Locations of the 2021–22 WBBL teams

Competitions[]

WBBL Championship[]

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.[6] 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

WBBL Playoffs[]

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.[7]

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

Betty Codona Trophy[]

The WBBL Trophy, now officially the Betty Codona Trophy, is an annual 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

WBBL Cup[]

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

Betty Codona Classic[]

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.[8] 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.[9]

The original format featured the top eight-placed WBBL teams after the first 8 games of regular season play.[10] 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[]

The WBBL concludes each season with a number of individual awards based on overall performance from the year. [11] 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[]

References[]

  1. ^ Mark Woods (2014). "WBBL to upscale women's top tier". MVP 24-7. Retrieved 5 June 2014.
  2. ^ "WBBL: Oaklands Wolves and Basketball Scotland added to league". BBC Sport.
  3. ^ "About the WBBL". WBBL.org.uk.
  4. ^ "WBBL Board members". WBBL.org.uk.
  5. ^ Christie, Loren (12/02/19). "Commercial Partnerships". WBBL. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ "WBBL Championship". WBBL.org.uk. 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  7. ^ "WBBL Play-offs". WBBL.org.uk. 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  8. ^ "Wildcats win big at Betty Codona Classic". GBBasketball.com. 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  9. ^ "Nottingham Wildcats Arena to host Betty Codona Classic". 2016. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
  10. ^ "Betty Codona Classic". WBBL.org.uk. 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  11. ^ "Molten WBBL Coach of the Season Winners – Women's British Basketball League".

External links[]

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