Bethan Fagan

We are excited to announce the eight teams competing in this year’s edition of Junior League Elite 8s. Mohawks, Aces, London Titans, Bears, Wakefield Whirlwinds, Swansea Storm, Lothian Phoenix, and West Coast Warriors will all attend the competition.

This year’s event will once again take place in Nottingham at the Wildcats Arena, on Saturday 20^th of April.

The top two teams at the Elite 8’s competition qualify for the Junior League final, which takes place in May at the National Championship Finals 2024 (18th & 19th May) alongside the finals for the National League Divisions 1-3, Premier Division, and Women’s Premier League.

Entry is free for spectators. There is food and drink available for purchase in the lobby of the venue. Parking is free but limited, with additional parking available on the roads surrounding. 

Last year, Scottish Wizards and North Wales Knights came out on top of the 2023 edition of the event, claiming their space in a thrilling Junior League final at the National Championship Finals later that year. Scottish Wizards went on to win the title 35:55. 

Fixtures and results: https://britishwheelchairbasketball.co.uk/competition/kukri-junior-league-elite-8s-2024/

Image credit: BWB / Ahmedphotos

University of Worcester were named champions today at the BUCS Big Wednesday, where they won 34:74 in the wheelchair basketball final against University of Nottingham.

MVP and University of Worcester captain George Gray commented:
“It was a great game today, you know we expected the players that were playing and we came in with a good game plan. Starting off didn’t go particularly our way but we managed to make some adjustments and really perform well as a team.

“Our focus definitely was how can we win together as a team and I definitely feel like we’ve done that today. We won last year, but going into this season we started the season not so well, unfortunately we lost some games. What we did was we went away from it, we watched some film, we really looked at how we can improve. Especially coming into the playoffs we really worked together as a team, had a good game plan, video sessions, broke down the way we played our basketball and we were able to beat our potential rivals Loughborough in the semi-finals and we did very well as a team then. We used that momentum to come into the final and win back-to-back.

“I just want to give a shoutout to the University of Worcester for the supplies they give us and all the support they give us, also the University of Worcester arena again for allowing us to use the facilities and giving us the support that they do.”

University of Nottingham’s captain, Lewis Evans, commented:
“I had an absolute blast playing with the guys this season. The improvement we’ve had this season has been tremendous, from the first game of the season to the last like maximum effort, maximum improvement.

“This is some of the guys’ first season playing BUCS and first season in competitive wheelchair basketball and its been amazing to see the development and the intensity and everything that everyone has put into it has really come on to a good level of basketball being played. The score line doesn’t really show the effort we put in and how proud we are of our improvement and how lucky we are to be here so all smiles for us.

“Shoutout to Joe Bestwick and Lydia. Joe’s our head coach and he’s done a fantastic job with our development, coming in for individual sessions as well as team sessions and Lydia for our S&C and our physio has been massively instrumental in our physical development, doing team sessions and individual sessions for our scholars and for the rest of our athletes as well. They’ve been an integral part of our development and thank you a lot to them.”

Watch the game back live via the BUCS YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZWeYZh0h0U

Find out more about BUCS (British Universities and Colleges Sport) via their website: https://www.bucs.org.uk/

Photo credit: BWB / SA Images

In Spain, Amiab Albacete (Harry Brown, Simon Brown, Ben Fox, Lee Manning, Charlotte Moore, Phil Pratt) won 71:87 against Econy Gran Canaria. Ben Fox had 2 points. Lee Manning had 32 points, 21 rebounds and 3 assists. Charlotte Moore had 2 points and 2 rebounds. Phil Pratt had 11 points, 3 rebounds and 17 assists.

Servigest Burgos (Helen Freeman) were defeated 61:51 by Mideba Extremadura. Helen Freeman had 4 points, 1 rebound and 1 assist.

Amivel Reyes Gutierrez (Abdi Jama, Kyle Marsh) had a 72:50 over visitors Menarini Joventut. Adbi Jama had 4 points. Kyle Marsh had 19 points, 2 rebounds and 10 assists.

CD Ilunion (Gregg Warburton, Terry Bywater) won 78:58 against IMF Getafe. Gregg Warburton had 8 points, 3 rebounds and 6 assists. Terry Bywater had 12 points, 1 rebounds and 7 assists.

Bidaideak Bilbao (James MacSorley) were defeated 75:81 by UCAM Murcia (Lee Fryer, Peter Cusack). Lee Fryer had 24 points, 5 rebounds and 7 assists.

At home in the National League Premier Division, Sheffield Steelers (Maddie Thompson) had a 51:55 win on the road against Plymouth Fusion.

In the Women’s Premier League, Loughborough Lightning (Siobhán Fitzpatrick, Robyn Love, Laurie Williams, Lucy Robinson, Maddie Martin, Anastasia Blease) had a comprehensive victory over Worcester Wolves (Kayla Bell), winning 26:76. Robyn Love had 23 points, 6 rebound and 11 assists. Laurie Williams had 12 points, 9 rebounds and 10 assists. Lucy Robinson had 10 points, 7 rebounds and 2 assists. Anastasia Blease had 9 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists.

In Germany, Rhine River Rhinos Wiesbaden (James Palmer) had a 58:35 victory at home against BBC Münsterland. James Palmer 2 points and 4 rebounds.

In Italy, Briantea 84 Cantù (Sophie Carrigill) won 65:54 versus Dinamo Lab Banco di Sardegna.

Spanish League: http://bsr.feddf.es/ 
German League: https://rollstuhlbasketball.de/ 
BWB National League: https://britishwheelchairbasketball.co.uk/competition/national-league/ 
BWB Women’s Premier League: https://britishwheelchairbasketball.co.uk/competition/womens-premier-league-2023-24-2/ 
Italian League: https://www.federipic.it/ 
University of Alabama (USA): https://bamaadapted.com/sports/wbball?path=wbball 

Written by Justine Baynes, CEO of British Wheelchair Basketball

Photo: BWB / Ahmedphotos

With just under six months to go until we head off to the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris, it feels like a good time to start a regular update from BWB. I would love to be able to send all our members and supporters a regular email, but until we upgrade our digital communications platforms we will have to make do with this approach!

Paris 2024

We are now in full swing with our preparations for Paris 2024. Our GB Women’s and Men’s squads have a regular programme of camps and competitions over the next few months. We will be watching the upcoming repechage tournament carefully to see which teams will be joining us in Paris and are excited to see the competition draw to find out who we will be up against in the group stages.

I hope that many of you will be able to travel to Paris to cheer our teams on. We are also working to set up some get-togethers where all our families, friends and supporters can meet up here at home.

Club Conference

I am delighted to say that we will be holding a club conference on June 29th in Nottingham, where we hope to have representatives from all our clubs together. There will be a packed agenda for the day, where we will share a lot of the work that we have been doing in the last year or so and what we will be doing to ensure the growth of our sport. This will be followed by an evening awards ceremony to thank the people who have given so much to our sport.

More details will be published shortly about this event, including an agenda and ticketing information.

Junior Review

Last year we announced a significant review into how we deliver our sport for junior participants, and I would like to thank everyone who took part in that. The results were very positive, and we now have some solid evidence on which to base our development. This work aims to help clubs support younger players and ensure that young people can enjoy wheelchair basketball in a safe environment. We will be sharing much more detail about the specific initiatives at our club conference in June, such as a fund to help clubs put on more sessions, and access grants for equipment.

National League and Inspire Leagues

Our domestic leagues continue to deliver some outstanding performances. With the introduction of the Inspire Leagues we are now able to offer competitive and recreational opportunities to play, broadening our community. Of course, there is always work to do in this area and we welcome the support and dialogue from our clubs and partner organisations.

UK Sport

We have just submitted our next funding bid to UK Sport, which will enable us to deliver the performance programme through the LA Games cycle. After Paris 2024, we will find out what funding we will be awarded, to be implemented from April 2025. We then will be starting on the funding bid for Sport England, which is used to support the grassroots and community side of the game – that new four-year cycle begins in 2026.

Onwards and upwards!

Everything that we do is about attracting more people to play wheelchair basketball, which will lead to more people involved in the sport (coaches, officials, clubs, supporters etc). In turn, this enables us to attract more diverse sources of income and ultimately gives us a larger player pool from which to select our GB athletes at the Paralympics.

This year is going to be incredibly important for us as we enjoy the increased profile of our sport. I will share more in later updates about some of the activities that we have planned to maximise this opportunity. We hope to see you at one of our upcoming events, or in Paris this summer!

British Wheelchair Basketball takes bullying, abuse and misconduct very seriously. We are aware of some videos that have been broadcast about BWB and the people who work within the organisation. There is no place in any sport for abusive and derogatory language, misogyny or threats of physical violence.

We welcome dialogue and debate about the running of our sport, but this must be done in a constructive and respectful manner. We have reported the videos to the relevant authorities and are taking appropriate action. Wheelchair basketball is and must remain an inclusive, welcoming sport for all.

In the Champions Cup Quarter Finals, Amiab Albacete (Harry Brown, Simon Brown, Ben Fox, Lee Manning, Charlotte Moore, Phil Pratt) went undefeated, winning all three games in their group. In their opening game, Albacete won 75:44 against Bidaideak Bilbao (James MacSorley). In their second game of the weekend, Albacete delivered a strong team performance to win 54:93 against Italian side Porto Torres. In the final game, they won 80:73 versus German league leaders RSV Lahn-Dill.

In Group B of the Champions Cup, CD Ilunion (Gregg Warburton, Terry Bywater) also had a successful weekend. Ilunion won their opener against S.Stefano 73:92. In their second game, German side Thuringia Bulls took the win 65:81. Ilunion recovered to win 86:75 against Galatasaray.

Also in Group A, Bidaideak Bilbao (James MacSorley) were defeated 69:59 by RSV Lahn-Dill. In their final game of the weekend, Bilbao won 84:63 versus Porto Torres.

Amiab Albacete and CD Ilunion are through to the Champions Cup Final, which takes place 2nd – 5th May. More information can be found on the IWBF Europe homepage: https://www.iwbf-europe.org/

UCAM Murcia (Lee Fryer, Peter Cusack) competed in the EuroCup 3 group stages this past weekend. UCAM Murcia, in Group B, beat Panathinaikos (86-47), Sport Firenze (72-36), Mustang Konin (104-49) and CAPSAAA (105-40).

In the USA, the University of Alabama (Joy Haizelden) competed in the 2024 NWBA Women’s Intercollegiate Wheelchair Basketball National Championships. University of Alabama won both games, scoring 65:35 against Arizona and 75:57 against UT Arlington. Finishing the season in fine form, Alabama were crowned collegiate champions – their third time in a row lifting the trophy!

In the BWB National League, London Titans (Jack Perry, Jude Hamer, Gaz Choudhry) secured a 71:61 victory at home against Sheffield Steelers (Maddie Thompson). For London Titans, Jack Perry had 26 points, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists. Gaz Choudhry had 22 points, 12 rebounds, and 8 assists. For Sheffield Steelers, Maddie Thompson had 16 points, 2 rebounds, and 5 assists.

At home in the Women’s Premier League, East London Phoenix (Amy Conroy, Jude Hamer) claimed a 91:42 victory over Cardiff Met Archers (Jade Atkin). For East London Phoenix, Amy Conroy had 25 points, 5 rebounds, and 12 assists. For Cardiff Met Archers, Jade Atkin had 11 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists.

Spanish League: http://bsr.feddf.es/ 
German League: https://rollstuhlbasketball.de/ 
BWB National League: https://britishwheelchairbasketball.co.uk/competition/national-league/ 
BWB Women’s Premier League: https://britishwheelchairbasketball.co.uk/competition/womens-premier-league-2023-24-2/ 
Italian League: https://www.federipic.it/ 
University of Alabama (USA): https://bamaadapted.com/sports/wbball?path=wbball