Crystal Palace was a

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

team competing in the National Basketball League (NBL) and then the

British Basketball League The British Basketball League (BBL) is a men's professional basketball league in Great Britain and represents the highest level of play in the countries. The league is contested by 10 teams from England and Scotland. There are no clubs howeve ...

(BBL), until they merged with the

London Towers London Towers were a professional basketball team based in London, England. They enjoyed considerable success in the 1990s and early 2000s, collecting 3 titles in the British Basketball League (BBL) as well as regularly competing in European c ...

in 1998. They played in the

Crystal Palace Sports Centre The National Sports Centre at Crystal Palace in south London, England is a large sports centre and outdoor athletics stadium. It was opened in 1964 in Crystal Palace Park, close to the site of the former Crystal Palace Exhibition building which ...

and were the most successful team in Britain throughout the seventies and early eighties.

History

In 1966 the Old Suttonians basketball club was founded by several ex pupils of

Sutton Grammar School Sutton Grammar School (formerly Sutton Grammar School for Boys) is a selective state grammar school for boys aged 11-18 with a Mixed-sex education, coeducational sixth form. Located in South London, the school's main site is in Sutton, London, ...

including David Last and Terry Doherty who both performed the role of director of the club in future years. In 1972 the club entered the new

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

as Sutton basketball club and finished third of six teams. the following season they relocated to Crystal Palace and became the Sutton & Crystal Palace club. Success arrived quickly with a league and cup double the very next season. In 1975 the club dropped the Sutton prefix and gained sponsorship from

Cinzano Cinzano () is an Italian brand of vermouth, a brand owned since 1999 by Gruppo Campari. History Cinzano vermouths date back to 1757 and the Turin herbal shop of two brothers, Giovanni Giacomo and Carlo Stefano Cinzano, who created a new "verm ...

which helped propel them into being the best club in Britain. The team would go on to complete three consecutive doubles of

and

National Cup The English National Cup is an annual basketball knock-out competition held between professional, semi-professional and amateur teams from the various divisions of the National Basketball League. For most of the competition's history, the draw has ...

. The team became regarded as the pioneers of UK basketball and their early players included Jim Guymon, Martin Hall, Barry Huxley, Mark Saiers, Alan Baillie, Pete Jeremich and Paul Philp. An incredible treble ensued in the 79–80 season and other players to represent the club included players such as Dan Lloyd, Bob Roma,

Paul Stimpson Paul Stimpson (born 1959) is a former English basketball player. Paul Stimpson gained over 120 senior international appearances for England and Great Britain. He captained England and represented his country on 112 occasions and is one of the m ...

, Mick Bett and

Alton Byrd Joseph Alton Byrd (born March 11, 1958) is an American-British former professional basketball player who is the Vice President of Business Operations for the Long Island Nets of the NBA G League. He grew up in the San Francisco area, where he wa ...

, the latter considered the man who revolutionised basketball in Britain. Further success followed and it was not until the advent of

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

TV coverage and big spending football club takeovers that Palace lost their mantle as top club.
In September 1986 Crystal Palace and Brunel Uxbridge & Camden Ducks joined forces with fixtures being split between the

and

Brunel University Brunel University London is a public research university located in the Uxbridge area of London, England. It was founded in 1966 and named after the Victorian engineer and pioneer of the Industrial Revolution, Isambard Kingdom Brunel. In June 1 ...

. Immediate glory returned to the club when after finishing fourth in the league they went on to win the 1987 play Off's but after just one season the club ran into financial difficulty and were forced to sell many players and change their name back to just Crystal Palace.
Players from the highly successful junior programme led by Roy Packham and Mark Dunning made up the team along with a number of talented juniors from Kevin Hibb's Kingston Junior programme. Graham Hill, Derek Johnson, Brian Moore, Roger Hosannah, Derek Lewis, Paul Smith, Michael Hosannah and Adrian Cummings were notable juniors that made the transition to the senior team which was led by Daryl Reshaw and Shaughan Ryan. Following the completion of the 1988 season the club dropped out of the Carlsberg League into the National League before failing to compete for the first time in the 1990/91 season. A return to action came the following season when Crystal Palace lined up in the third division of the revamped Carlsberg League finishing runners up to another former basketball giant the

Solent Stars The Solent Stars were a basketball club from Southampton, who were one of the founder members of the British Basketball League, where they competed from 1987 to 1990. For the rest of their existence, the club competed in the English Basketball ...

.
The returning Tim Lewis led the home grown talent along with Junior Peters Clinton ford, Brian Moore, Tunde Orelaja, Roger Lloyd and Adrian Jones. This team gain promotion two years running. Palace1996

The 1993–1994 season saw

Budweiser Budweiser () is an American-style pale lager, part of AB InBev. Introduced in 1876 by Carl Conrad & Co. of St. Louis, Missouri, Budweiser has become a large selling beer company in the United States. ''Budweiser'' may also refer to an unrelat ...

sponsor tier 1 of the league which as a consequence meant the National League was restructured moving Palace into division one where they finished Runner-up to

Coventry Crusaders The Coventry Crusaders were a Coventry-based basketball team competing in Division 1 of the English Basketball League at the time of the club's closure. The team played their home games at the Coventry Sports & Leisure Centre, and their home col ...

. The following season

returned to the club as player/general manager kick starting a successful season as they won Division One. The league win was repeated the following year because Palace had remained in the National League after their application to join the Budweiser League (tier 1) was rejected.
The team continued the development of British talent. Richard Scantlebury, Neill Rickets, Andy Powlesland, Graham Hill, Adrian Cummings, Ade Orelaja and Time Lewis all becoming permanent fixtures in the team. In 1996 a return to the top tier in for the first time since 1988 ensued. Transition back to the BBL was difficult, other talented British players such as, Barry Gooch, Jason Crump, Clive Lindo, Jimmy Markham joined the club along with Junior Williams and Wayne Henry. A lack of sponsorship and the retirement of Alton Byrd had a major impact on the club. The Club tried to hang on to its ethos of growing local talent, Graham Hill a former junior and senior player was given the coaches job but after two mediocre seasons and despite the best efforts of club stalwarts Roy Packham and Terry Doherty the club merged with

and the name Crystal Palace (the most successful UK basketball club in history at the time) ceased to exist.

Record in European competition

Season-by-season records

Notable players

Mark Saiers Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * Fin ...

* Alan Baillie *

* Dan Lloyd * Pete Jeremich * Mick Bett * Jim Guymon * Bob Roma * Paul Philp * Barry Huxley (Capt.) * Richard Scantlebury * Neill Rickets * Tim Lewis * Graham Hill * Andrew Powlesland * Adrian Cummings * John Johnson * Tom Seaman * Bubba Jennings *

Joel Moore Joel David Moore (born September 25, 1977) is an American character actor and director. Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, Moore studied acting in college before relocating to Los Angeles to pursue a film career. His first major role was as Owen ...

* Joe White *

Trevor Anderson Trevor Anderson (born 3 March 1951) is a Northern Irish former footballer and manager. He played as a forward. Playing career Born in Belfast, Anderson began his playing career at Portadown before signing for Manchester United in October 197 ...

* Michael Hayles *

Flemming Wich Flemming is a surname and a male given name referring, like the more common ''Fleming (disambiguation), Fleming'', to an inhabitant (or descendant thereof) of Flanders,

History

Record in European competition

Season-by-season records

Notable players

References

See also