Women's British Basketball League

Women's British Basketball League (WBBL)
Current season, competition or edition:
Current sports event 2018-19 Women's British Basketball League season
The WBBL logo, featuring the Molten GG7 match ball
Sport Basketball
Founded 5 June 2014
No. of teams 12
Country United Kingdom United Kingdom
Continent European Union FIBA Europe (Europe)
Most recent
champion(s)		 Sevenoaks Suns
(1st title)
Most titles Nottingham Wildcats
(2 titles)
TV partner(s) BBC Sport
Level on pyramid 1
Domestic cup(s) WBBL Cup
Related
competitions		 British Basketball League
Official website www.WBBL.org.uk

The Women's British Basketball League (WBBL) is the top-level women's basketball league in the United Kingdom, 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 Women's British Basketball League 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 an 12-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 current club representatives on the board of directors are:[4]

Franchise Representative
BA London LionsMark Clark
Caledonia PrideKevin Pringle
Cardiff Met ArchersLucy Power
Durham PalatinatesLee Davie
Essex Rebels
Leicester RidersJoe Pinchin
Manchester MysticsJeff Jones
Newcastle EaglesPaul Blake
Nottingham WildcatsChris Prior
Oaklands WolvesMichael Ball
Sevenoaks SunsLen Busch
Sheffield HattersBetty Codona

Teams

Former teams

Lions
Archers
Palatinates
Wildcats
Rebels
Locations of the 2018–19 WBBL teams

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.[5] 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
2014-15Sheffield Hatters (1)Nottingham WildcatsTeam Northumbria
2015-16Nottingham Wildcats (1)Team NorthumbriaSheffield Hatters
2016-17Nottingham Wildcats (2)Leicester RidersSevenoaks Suns
2017-18Sevenoaks Suns (1)Leicester RidersSheffield Hatters

WBBL Playoffs

The post-season Play-offs 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.[6]

Season Champions Result Runners Up Venue
2014-15Sheffield Hatters (1)84 - 69Nottingham WildcatsUniversity of Worcester Arena, Worcester
2015-16Team Northumbria (1)75 - 68Nottingham WildcatsThe O2 Arena, London
2016-17Sevenoaks Suns (1)70 - 61Nottingham WildcatsThe O2 Arena, London
2017-18Sevenoaks Suns (2)69 - 44Leicester RidersThe O2 Arena, London

Betty Codona Trophy

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
2014-15Sheffield Hatters (1)76 - 62Nottingham WildcatsBarclaycard Arena, Birmingham
2015-16Sheffield Hatters (2)79 - 45Barking Abbey CrusadersBarclaycard Arena, Birmingham
2016-17Sevenoaks Suns (1)82 - 67Leicester RidersEmirates Arena, Glasgow
2017-18Leicester Riders (1)68 - 53Sevenoaks SunsCheshire Oaks Arena, Ellesmere Port

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
2016-17Manchester Mystics (1)71 - 60Nottingham WildcatsBarclaycard Arena, Birmingham
2017-18Nottingham Wildcats (1)70 - 66Caledonia PrideArena Birmingham, Birmingham

Betty Codona Classic

The Betty Codona Classic is 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.[7] 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.[8]

The original format featured the top eight-placed WBBL teams after the first 8 games of regular season play.[9] 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
2013-14Nottingham Wildcats (1)69 - 43Loughborough RidersNottingham Wildcats Arena
2014-15Sheffield Hatters (1)79 - 73Nottingham WildcatsAll Saints Sports Centre, Sheffield
2015-16Nottingham Wildcats (2)89 - 81Sheffield HattersAll Saints Sports Centre, Sheffield
2016-17Nottingham Wildcats (3)86 - 59Sheffield HattersNottingham Wildcats Arena

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.co.uk.
  3. ↑ "About the WBBL". WBBL.org.uk.
  4. ↑ "WBBL Board members". WBBL.org.uk.
  5. ↑ "WBBL Championship". WBBL.org.uk. 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  6. ↑ "WBBL Play-offs". WBBL.org.uk. 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  7. ↑ "Wildcats win big at Betty Codona Classic". GBBasketball.com. 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  8. ↑ "Nottingham Wildcats Arena to host Betty Codona Classic". 2016. Retrieved 10 August 2016.
  9. ↑ "Betty Codona Classic". WBBL.org.uk. 2014. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
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