Bristol Storm

The City Academy Bristol Storm are a British basketball team based in Bristol. They currently play in the England Basketball Women's National League Division 2 South.

The club has a strong development programme with its development women playing in the WEBBA local league, and will be running a summer league during June, July and August to help further develop other local players. It is coached and managed by Steve Brocklehurst. On March 24, 2007 Brocklehurst announced confirmation of the plans to launch a post sixteen boys Academy in partnership with The City Academy Bristol.

In addition to this the club will be branching out into Men's, under 14s and under 16s presuming the number of players continue to keep increasing during the summer months. As well as the partnership with City Academy, Storm have partnerships with St Mary Redcliffe and over forty two primary schools in the central Bristol area including St Patricks and Hannah Moore. A community programme is also underway with the New Deal Communities covering OBI, Midnight Madness, Youth Clubs etc.

2006-2007 season

History

Since the beginning of women's national league in the middle of the 1970s, there has been a representative at some stage of the decade.

The following information has been taken from the basketball website 'Pawprint'.

• 1976/1977 : The first team who were founder members of division 2 were either Avon Wanders in 1976 or Oakleigh (Bristol) in 1977.

Both (though it could be just the one) of these teams moved to Frome in 1978.

• 1979/1980 : It becomes a little clearer when Frome Comets finished third in the regionalised division 2 (South).

• 1980/1981 : Frome Comets won Division 2 South in 1981, but were not promoted

• 1981/1982 : finished third in Division 2 South, which justifies their decision the year before.

• 1982/1983 : No information.

• 1983/1984 : The Frome team moved to Bath and won the D2 title and gained promotion.

• 1984/1985 : finished mid table

• 1985/1986 : finished third

The overall record of this organisation was as follows;

NBL 1 1984-1986 P:40 W:24 L:16

NBL 2 1977-1984 P:78 W:47 L:30

This then saw a huge gap in any high level basketball in the South West until the emergence of the Bristol Broncos

• 1995/1996 : The Broncos entered NBL2. They managed a strong first season and finished third, but withdrew from the following season

Bristol Broncos overall league record is as follows;

NBL 2 1995-1996 P:18 W:13 L:05

• 2005/2006 : The West of England Basketball League experienced one of the most exciting climaxes to its regular season for a long time with new club Ravens, Thunder and Bristol Uni being tied until the final games of the season. The eventual league winners were the Ravens coached by Steve Brocklehurst after a close win over Thunder and a defeat against Bristol University but by less points than the reverse fixture. The Ravens then achieved the league and cup double eventually beating the UWE Women in an exciting final. This then brought out the decision of the need for another level for the Bristol players to play at to give them something to strive for. It was then that Ravens and Thunder agreed to merge and form the National League Club Bristol Storm.

• 2006/2007 : Saw the arrival of Bristol Storm Basketball Club based at the City Academy in the centre of Bristol the team was built around the players from the Ravens and Thunder local league teams. As additional strength former Backwell School players Nicola Gowing (Bath University) and Ruth & Trish Groves (UWIC) came home to play for the Storm.

Although the results on the court didn't go as hoped the players improved as the season progressed and in many games the team caused all its opposition problems for twenty to thirty minutes, but the lack of any true height exposed the team and prevented the progress that was hoped. Several wins were obtained though and enthusiasm for the next season sees the team building already.

External links

• Official website