England men's national basketball team

History

Eurobasket 1946

England's first European championship appearance was at Eurobasket 1946. They lost all four of the games that they played, and subsequently finished last in the field of ten teams.

Eurobasket 1955

A few years later, England qualified for the Eurobasket 1955 in Budapest, where the English Team had a couple of strong showings. After losing their preliminary round games they beat Switzerland, a major player at the global stage until the mid-50s. The victory marked England's first victory at a major international basketball event. Later, England outscored Austria as well. Eventually, the team placed second in the five teams of the classification group, moving to the 9–12 classification semifinals. There, however, England could not take advantage of the gained self-confidence and lost the next two games. Overall, England finished in 12th place out of the 18 teams, a considerable improvement from its last eurobasket appearance in 1946.

Eurobasket 1961 and 1981

Despite the improvements in the preceding years, Team England did not do well at the Eurobasket 1961 or the Eurobasket 1981 and lost most games. Its lone victory, however, came in 1981 when they beat the elite team of Greece. This victory still stands as one of the major surprises in the history of the tournament.

Commonwealth Games

Melbourne 2006

The men's and women's teams were competing for the first time as England in a major multi-sport event, and it was the first Commonwealth Games in which basketball was featured.

The men's team included Steve Bucknall, the second Englishman to play in the NBA. John Amaechi, who played 284 games in the NBA, came out of retirement to participate in Melbourne. Having lost to Australia in the semi-finals, they faced Nigeria in the Bronze medal match. The teams were tied at 15 points to end the first quarter. Robert Reed and Andrew Bridge led the way as England found their stride in the second phase, and they pulled away in the second half of play. Reed played like a snake possessed and was the top scorer for England with 16 points and dominating the Nigerians who had no answer to his all action style. Michael Martin also contributed with 13 points. England won the game 80–57 to claim the first bronze medal in Commonwealth Games basketball

Team

• Antony Burns
• Jermaine Forbes
• Andrew Bridge
• Ronnie Baker
• Delme Herriman
• Andrew Sullivan
• Fabulous Flournoy
• Mike Martin
• Robert Reed
• John Amaechi
• Julius Joseph
• Richard Windle

Coaching Staff

• Coach – Peter Scantlebury
• Assistant coach – Michael Hayles
• Assistant coach – Tim Lewis

Competition charts

Olympic Games

A red box around the year indicates tournaments played within England

Played alongside Scotland and Wales as Team Great Britain.

FIBA World Cup

Played alongside Scotland and Wales as Team Great Britain.

Eurobasket

Played alongside Scotland and Wales as Team Great Britain.

Commonwealth Games

Current squad

At the FIBA EuroBasket 2003 qualification: (last official squad before formation of Team Great Britain)

• Club – describes last club before the tournament
• Age – describes age on 21 Nov 2001

Past squad

1946 EuroBasket: finished 10th among 10 teams

Colin Hunt, Douglas Legg, John Hart, Ronald Legg, Frank Cole, Arthur Lee, Derius Hewitt, Stanley Weston, Ken Dight, Charles Watson (Coach: W.Browning)

1948 Olympic Games: finished 20th among 23 teams

Colin Hunt, Douglas Legg, Ronald Legg, Frank Cole, Robert Norris, Stanley Weston, Lionel Price, Trevor Davies, Malcolm Finlay, Stanley McMeekan, Sydney McMeekan, Alexander Eke, Harry Weston

1955 EuroBasket: finished 12th among 18 teams

Arthur Cladingboel, Reg Fearn, William James, Gordon Cook, Dennis Wilkinson, Colin Wedge, Alan Bruce, Ugo Agnelli, Wilf Byrne, Keith Ledbrook, Michael Roblou, Ronald Rix, N.Smith

1961 EuroBasket: finished 19th among 19 teams

Raymond Kirk, Kornel Tober, Alan Wardle, Peter Creasey, Wilfred Byrne, Alan Tillot, Alan Hildyard, Ronald Hextall, Geoffrey Kaiser, Dennis Wakefield, George Whitmore, Terry Keogh (Coach: Thomas Vaughan)

1981 EuroBasket: finished 12th among 12 teams

David Lloyd, Neville Hopkins, David Berry, Martin Clark, Paul Richards, Nick Burns, Clive Hartley, Jim McCauley, Ian Day, Paul Stimpson, Dan Lloyd, Karl Tatham (Coach: Victor Ambler)

References

References

1. "British Basketball Federation : The home of GB Basketball".
2. "Melbourne 2006 report".
3. [http://www.melbourne2006.com.au/Sports + et + + Venues/Basketball/News/20060324 Angleterre + prendre + Basket-ball + bronze.htm Melbourne rapport 2006]
4. [https://web.archive.org/web/20161105032719/http://archive.fiba.com/pages/eng/fa/team/p/sid/3412/tid/278/_/2003_European_Championship_for_Men/index.html England {{! 2003 European Championship for Men], ARCHIVE.FIBA.COM. Retrieved 2 November 2016.