Liverpool Basketball Club
Club History
Local Development for National Success
The Roots
The roots of
Liverpool Basketball Club go back to the 1960’s, Liverpool YMCA and Paddington
Comprehensive School.
An inexperienced Tim Martyn-Jones, playing with the YMCA in the Merseyside and
Lancashire Leagues met the much more experienced Jimmy Rogers who, on release
from the Army, moved to Liverpool to continue his playing and coaching career.
Jimmy started coaching a group of youngsters at Paddington Comprehensive and,
after a year’s intensive effort, had instilled sufficient discipline that they
entered the Merseyside League as the YMCA’s Junior Section in the 1969/70
season. When they entered the League, the players decided on ‘Atac’ as the team
name, being a verbal expression of the way they intended to play basketball.
Following a disagreement with the YMCA’s Senior team, Atac moved in 1973 to
Riversdale College of Technology and became a separate Club, playing under the
name of Riversdale Atac for many years in the local leagues (Men, Women &
Juniors) and the England Central League/North West Counties League. The Club had
considerable success under Jimmy’s direction - in the 1978/79 season both the
Men’s & Women’s teams were Merseyside League Champions and also won the
Merseyside Cup competitions.
(A Liverpool Basketball Club first came into being in the 1980/81 season, as a
team founded to compete in the National League, funded by money from a lottery
called “Supercash”. They entered the 2nd Division and finished in 3rd place,
also losing in the National Trophy Competition Final to Solent Stars. They
continued for another season, but ran into a number of problems and ceased to
exist.)
In 1981, Jimmy Rogers left Liverpool for London and founded the Brixton ‘Top
Cats’, who have since then competed successfully in the NBL for many seasons.
They are currently in the NBL 1st Division. Tim Martyn-Jones took over as Head
Coach at the Club - continuing to play and being a player/coach until the end of
the 1989/90 season.
Early NBL
To become
eligible for entry to the NBL, Riversdale Atac moved Home Court to Everton Park
Sports Centre, changed name to Liverpool Atac and widened the team membership to
include the better players from other Merseyside teams.
Having reached the Finals of the National Founders Cup Competition in 1991 &
1992, Liverpool Atac gained membership of the NBL 3rd Division in 1993 and
finished in 3rd place, being promoted to the 2nd Division in the following
season. Having competed strongly in the 2nd Division for a couple of seasons,
the team were promoted to the NBL 1st Division in 1996, but failed to stay up
because of the retirement of a number of the more experienced players.
Tim Martyn-Jones resigned as Head Coach in 1997, handing over to Paul O’Brien –
who set about revitalizing the team in the 2nd Division as player/coach.
Under Paul’s direction the team finished 10th in the 1997/98 season and 5th in the 1998/99 season.
Liverpool Basketball Club
In 1999 the team
moved Home Court to the new Sports Centre at Greenbank and took the name of
Liverpool Basketball Club.
In the 1999/2000 season LBC finished 2nd Division runners-up to Manchester and
were promoted to the 1st Division.
Again, the promotion was a step too far and Liverpool found themselves back in
the 2nd Division the following season, having finished the 2000/01 season in
15th place.
Paul O’Brien resigned as Head Coach at the end of the 2000/01 season and Vic Fleming was recruited to take his place. Under Vic’s direction the team finished 12th in the 2001/02 season and were relegated to the 3rd Division for the 2002/03 season.
2002/03
In 2002 the Club
joined forces with the local basketball association, MBA. They idea was for the
local area to encourage a route for young players of every group and gender, to
make national league basketball an achievable goal. It was also important for
the Area to encourage diversity by promoting the wheelchair game.
The result was the re-naming of all local area, national league teams to play
under the banner of Liverpool Basketball Club. In addition, youth teams were
created again playing as LBC in the regional leagues.
All teams performed well, with the Senior Men having an unbeaten league record
thanks to the drive of Liverpool's new Head Coach, Billy Walsh.
Billy left the club at the end of the season for pastures new.
2003/04
An NBL
restructure and renaming of the new divisions meant that Liverpool gained
promotion to a higher division renamed Division 2.
Henry Mooney stepped into the Head Coach role, assisted by Paul Parry as a
player/coach. An excellent start as Liverpool retained many of it's quality
players from the previous season to give some of the more established teams a
bit of a scare.
The Senior team ended the season in 3rd place in the Division, laying the
groundwork for 2004/05.
The Club’s U18, U16 and U14 teams all played in their respective Regional Divisions of the NBL, the U18’s finishing 3rd, the U16’s 5th and the U14’s 3rd.
2004/05
For the 2004/05 season, the Senior team had lost most of it’s more experienced players from the previous season and was mainly based on local players. Coached by Henry Mooney, they ended the season in 5th place - qualifying for the Play-Offs but losing in the Play-Off semi-final to Nottingham Knights.
The U18 team, coached by Manneh Elliott, also finished the season in 5th place in their Division, but the U16 team, coached by Phil Rose, won their Division & qualified for the Play-Offs. They progressed to the 2nd round, where they lost by 5 points to Ellesmere Port. The U14 team, coached by Luke Elliott, finished 4th in their Division.
2005/06
In 2005 Henry Mooney recruited some EU and US players to augment the local talent. The Senior team again finished the season in 5th place, but won the Patrons Cup, beating UH West Herts Warriors 85-83 in overtime at the John Amaechi Centre in Manchester.
Manneh Elliott took the U18 team to 3rd place in their Division and new Coach Tony Walsh took the U16’s to 1st place in their Division & the Play - Offs, where they lost to Manchester in the 1st round. The U14 team, comprising mainly 12 year olds, were entered & coached by Luke Elliott in the Manchester Central Venue league. They finished bottom of their Division but gained the experience intended.
At the end of the season Henry Mooney resigned and moved to the new professional Everton Tigers British Basketball League club, taking a number of the more experienced players with him.
2006/07
A new Head Coach, Gary Proffit, was recruited for the Senior team in the 2006/07 season, but soon after the start of the season he had to resign due to family commitments. Paul O’Brien came back as Head Coach, assisted by Chiz Onuora as player/coach when Paul was unavailable due to family & career commitments. The team struggled on and finished the season in 11th place, being relegated to the 3rd Division for the following season.
Tony Walsh took over as Coach to both the U18 and U16 teams, the U18’s finishing the season in 3rd place and the U16’s in 5th place. Manneh Elliott coached the U14 team to 3rd place in their league in Machester.
At the end of the season Paul O’Brien & Chiz Onuora resigned - Chiz moving as a potential player to Everton Tigers. Manneh Elliott also resigned and moved to Everton Tigers to run their Junior teams from Toxteth Sports Centre.
2007/08
With no other candidates being able to give the commitment, Tim Martyn-Jones agreed to return as Head Coach to the Senior team, being assisted by Paul O’Brien as a player/coach. Having lost all it’s experienced players the team was young & weak, finishing the season at the bottom of the Division and was relegated to the 4th Division for 2008/09.
Tony Walsh continued coaching the U18’s and U16’s, taking the U18’s to 4th place and the U16’s to 3rd place in their Divisions. Dave Sullivan took over as coach to the U14 team, which was entered in the new Regional single venue competition.
2008/09
The Senior team continued to struggle for consistency and player commitment, but the younger players gained valuable experience playing in the Northern Regional section of the 4th Division. The team finished 10th, but retained NBL membership.
Tony Walsh’s efforts with the junior sides were rewarded with an U18 5th place and U16 3rd place, but there were insufficient players interested to run the U14 team.
2009/10
For 2009/10, some older, more experienced players returned and the Senior team also recruited some players from the local Universities. However, player availability & commitment were still issues that kept the team in the bottom half of the Division, finishing in 9th place.
The U18’s really came good this season under Tony Walsh’s direction, finishing 1st in their Division and proceeding into the Play-Offs. They were beaten in the 1st round by a team from the Premier Division, but have gained promotion to the Premier Division for the 2010/11 season. The U16’s were coached to 8th place in their Division by Alan Burgess and Dave Sullivan took an U14 team back into the North West Conference.
An ‘experienced players’ team was entered into the Founders Cup, coached by Gideon Herriman. They reached the 4th round, being beaten by a London team.