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Revision as of 08:01, 15 July 2007

Template:Infobox BBL team

The Guildford Heat, officially Poujoulat Heat Guildford by sponsorship, are a basketball club based in Guildford, England that currently play in the British Basketball League. The Heat play their home games at the The Spectrum and were formed in 2005 by fans of the former BBL franchise Thames Valley Tigers, who folded during the same year.

Franchise history

File:RaidersVsHeat.JPG
Heat playing at Raiders.

Basketball in Guildford

The town of Guildford has been home to several elite basketball teams down the years. With the opening of the Guildford Spectrum, the successful Kingston team uprooted, moved in and renamed themselves the Guildford Kings in 1992, briefly calling the place home until they folded in 1994, as did the Pumas before they relocated to Sutton in 1999. However it was the first major team, the Guildford Pirates who played in the town from 1975 to 1982 that would come back and figure prominently in the birth of the new club, the Guildford Heat.

Tigers demise, Heat rise

In 1982, the Pirates moved to near-by Bracknell, becoming the Bracknell Pirates and later the Thames Valley Tigers. For many years, the Tigers were one of the front runners of the league, evening winner the league Championship in 1994, but it was in the new millennium that the successes dried up and for owner John Nike the team was too much of a financial burnden. In April 2005, he announced that he would no longer be funding the basketball franchise nor his ice hockey franchise Bracknell Bees [1].

Immediately a consortium of fans was formed to save the club, headed by local fan Mike Davies, and they put together a viable package to take over the administration of the team. However, Nike failed to reach agreement in time for them to lease the franchise, and the deadline for entry into the BBL for 2005-2006 was reached [2]. The Tigers' BBL membership thus lapsed, but the fans obtained permission from the League to enter a new team in their place, and successful negotiations with the Spectrum Arena in Guildford led to the birth of the Guildford Heat.

Phoenix from the flames

The Heat played their first ever BBL game on October 1, 2005 against the Newcastle Eagles at the Metro Radio Arena, losing in overtime 89-88. The very next night they defeated the Leicester Riders in the BBL Cup 69-65 on home court. Their debut season saw victories over established teams such as London Towers, Plymouth Raiders, Brighton Bears, and reigning BBL Champions, Chester Jets. The Heat truly were the phoenix from the flames of the Tigers franchise.

They finished the 2005-06 season with an impressive record of 20-20, finishing 5th in the league and qualifying for the post-season playoffs, a remarkable achievement for the rookie club. In the first round of the playoffs, playing away from home the Heat demolished the London Towers 99-81, however the opposition in the semi-finals, the all-conquering Newcastle Eagles proved to much and the Heat succumbed to a 115-97 defeat. They also made the semi-final of the BBL Trophy, but missed out on a final following a nailbiting home defeat at the hands of eventual runners-up, the Leicester Riders.

2006-07 season

The arrival of American swingman Daniel Gilbert from Germany was a major coup for the Heat during the summer of 2006, proving playcaller Paul James still has great ability in spotting stars of the future. Guildford kick-started the season with a close away victory against the Scottish Rocks, 95-91 on October 1, 2006 which started a 3 game winning streak in the league Championship. The Heat also qualified for their first-ever cup final appearance after defeating Sheffield Sharks 87-81 in the semi-final of the BBL Cup.

On December 12, 2006, the club announced their first major sponsorship agreement with French chimney manufacturers Poujoulat, in what was reported as potentially a six-figure deal [3]. As a result of the contract which runs through to May 2008, the team was renamed as Poujoulat Heat Guildford to incorporate the sponsors name.

Just 18 months since the franchise's foundation, the Heat picked up their first ever trophy on January 7, 2007, with an 81-78 win in the BBL Cup final against the Scottish Rocks [4]. Over 600 Guildford fans travelled up to the National Indoor Arena, in Birmingham to see their team clinch the silverware in front of a bumper crowd of 3,785 people.

Despite seemingly looking to run away with the League title, Heat's season suffered a huge blow when a knee injury to Chad McKnight against Sheffield Sharks on February 3, effectively ruled the American out for the remainder of the campaign. The player was subsequently released, assumingly for the long-term injury. However a month later, The Independent broke the news that McKnight had been issued with a three-month suspension for testing positive for marijuana, along with former Leicester Riders star Steve Bucknall, who had also been released by his club [5]. A statement from the club confirmed McKinght was released because of the failed drugs test, though the player denied ever using the banned substance [6].

The Guildford Heat secured the 2006-2007 BBL League title thanks to a highly impressive 114-85 victory over London United at the Guildford Spectrum on April 8, 2007. It was their first League title in the franchise's history. The following week the Heat once again played host to London United in the BBL Playoff Quarter-final, with a place at the Finals Weekend up for grabs. The Heat managed to win the match 71-68 and will now face Scottish Rocks in the Semi-Final.

The Guildford Heat became the first ever British Basketball League club to achieve Sport England Clubmark Level 4 accreditation of quality. Clubmark is a scheme designed to encourage clubs to reach various levels of national standards in the community development work they deliver. The Guildford Heat are only the 9th team in the country to have achieved this accreditation, and this in addition to being recently named by England Basketball as the country's 10th biggest academy. [7].

2007-08 season

The Heat were admitted into the ULEB Cup for the 2007-08 season, becoming Britain's sole representatives in European competition, and the first British team to compete in Europe since Brighton Bears did in the 2003-04 season. The Heat were drawn against DKV Joventut of the Spanish ACB league, Alba Berlin of the German Bundesliga; Turk Telekom Sports Club from Ankara, Turkey; KK Šiauliai of Lithuania and, KK Bosna of Sarajevo in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The Heat will also compete in the inaugural BBL Cup Winners' Cup where they will square off with the BBL Trophy winners, the Plymouth Raiders, in a two-legged game

Home arenas

Guildford Spectrum (2005-present)

Head-To-Head records

Opposition Pld. W L
Alba Berlin - - -
Birmingham Bullets 4 3 1
Brighton Bears 5 3 2
Chester Jets 8 6 2
DKV Joventut - - -
Everton Tigers - - -
KK Bosna - - -
Leicester Riders 10 6 4
London Leopards - - -
London Towers 5 4 1
London United - - -
Milton Keynes Lions - - -
Newcastle Eagles - - -
Plymouth Raiders - - -
Reading Rockets - - -
Scottish Rocks - - -
Sheffield Sharks - - -
Šiauliai - - -
Turk Telekom - - -
Worcester Wolves - - -
Worthing Thunder - - -

Season-by-season records

Season Div. Pos. Pld. W L Pts. Play Offs Trophy Cup
Guildford Heat
2005-2006 BBL 5th 40 20 20 40 Semi-final Semi-final Quarter-final
2006-2007 BBL 1st 36 29 7 58 Semi-final 1st Round Winners

Trophies

League

  • BBL Championship Winners: 2006/07 1

Playoffs

  • None

Trophy

  • None

Cup

  • BBL Cup Winners: 2006/07 1

Franchise leaders

Players

Current roster

The numbers are established according to the official websites of the team (www.guildfordheat.com) and Britain's top professional league, the BBL (www.bbl.org.uk).

As of March 27 2007

5 United Kingdom Dean Williams Guard
6 United States Brian Dux Guard
7 United Kingdom Dan Wardrope Guard
8 United Kingdom Ben Clarke Forward
10 United Kingdom Jon May Guard
11 United Kingdom Mike Martin Forward
12 United Kingdom Roderick Wellington Forward
14 Canada United Kingdom Chris Brown Centre
15 United States Dave Mallon Centre
22 United States Daniel Gilbert Guard/Forward
24 Nigeria United Kingdom Kabir Abu Forward

Squad changes during 2006/07 season

In:

Out:

  • United States Marlin Capers - Transferred To London United
  • Nigeria United Kingdom Lekan Popoola - Transferred To Sheffield Sharks
  • Canada United Kingdom Rahdi Knapp - Transferred To Released
  • United States Chad McKnight - Transferred To Released

Notable former players

See also

Notes

  1. ^ BBC Sport (2006). "Backer Nike quits Bees and Tigers". BBC. Retrieved 2006-12-02. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  2. ^ BBC Sport (2006). "Tigers fans fail to secure deal". BBC. Retrieved 2006-12-02. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  3. ^ Guildford Heat (2006). "Guildford Heat become Poujoulat Heat, Guildford". Guildford Heat. Retrieved 2006-12-12.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  4. ^ BBC Sport (2007). "Guildford beat Rocks to claim cup". BBC. Retrieved 2007-07-15.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  5. ^ Richard Taylor (2007). "BBL kept in the dark on positive drug test". The Independent. Retrieved 2007-03-24.
  6. ^ Guildford Heat (2007). "Statement from the Heat board". Guildford Heat. Retrieved 2007-03-27.
  7. ^ Guildford Heat (2007). "Guildford Heat Achieve Sport England Clubmark Level 4". Guildford Heat. Retrieved 2007-05-26.
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