The Essex Pirates were a

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 ...

team from

Southend-on-Sea Southend-on-Sea (), commonly referred to as Southend (), is a coastal city and unitary authority area with borough status in southeastern Essex, England. It lies on the north side of the Thames Estuary, east of central London. It is bordered ...

, in the county of

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

. They were founded in 2009 and played their home games at the Southend Leisure & Tennis Centre. Following the loss of a major sponsor, the franchise withdrew from the league just two weeks prior to the start of the 2011-12 season and have remained inactive since, with much of their former fan-base now following Essex Leopards.

History

Basketball in Essex

Prior to the creation of the Pirates franchise in 2009, the county of

had previous flirtations with top-level basketball through the Essex Leopards franchise, still a synonymous name with the area. After mounting costs forced the Greater London Leopards to look away from their traditional

London Arena The London Arena (also known as London Docklands Arena) was an indoor arena and exhibition centre in Millwall, close to Cubitt Town area of Poplar, on the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England which was inaugurated in 1989 and demolished for h ...

home, the franchise moved out of

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and settled for a new nest in Brentwood in 1998. The venture lasted for five seasons before the club folded, to be replaced with the supporter-backed Essex & Herts Leopards in 2004. Though many fans consider it to be a direct continuation of the Leopards name, the new club was, in fact, a separate entity, formed from the rubble of the Ware Rebels. The club have risen to prominence in the lower leagues of the

English Basketball League The National Basketball League, or NBL for short, is a league competition representing semi-professional and amateur basketball clubs from England and Wales. It forms levels 2 to 4 on the British basketball pyramid, in line with the Scottish ...

, and are currently found alternating between venues in Brentwood and Basildon Sporting Village. The foundations of the new franchise were already in place through the Essex Basketball Club’s Advanced Apprentice-ship in Sporting Excellence (AASE) basketball training programme which was present at the South East Essex College, and the ambitious plans spearheaded by the programmes’ operator

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It i ...

Under 20's coach Tim Lewis.

Pirates set sail

The application to the British Basketball League, the country’s top league, was formally accepted on 11 June 2009, as well as plans to operate several initiatives alongside the BBL team and the existing AASE programme, included an England Basketball Division Four development team and a non-profit community coaching company to deliver coaching into primary schools across the county. The following months saw plenty of action and preparation in time for the inaugural season, and the club announced their first signings in August, with the inclusion of Spaniard starlet Pablo Rodrigo, British international Kyle Dodds and BBL veteran

Dean Williams Dean Williams may refer to: * Dean Williams (squash player) (born 1956), retired squash player from Australia * Dean Williams (footballer, born 1970), English football striker * Dean Williams (footballer, born 1972), English football goalkeeper * ...

, formerly of Guildford,

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 ...

and

Thames Valley Tigers Thames Valley Tigers was a British professional basketball team that competed in the British Basketball League (BBL) until 2005, when funding was ceased and the franchise folded. Based in Bracknell, Berkshire, the team's fans set up a new team to ...

becoming the first names on the roster. The eventual team sheet would be one centred on young, homegrown players, with the roster being predominantly British ranging from the ages of 20 to 26. The new team took to their home court at Southend Leisure & Tennis Centre for the first time on 3 October, in a home league encounter with London Capital, eventually going on to win a tight affair 61-60, despite being up 49-37 at the end of the 3rd quarter. Pirates 6ft11 forward Alan Metclalfe led the games’ scoring with 21 points, while Pablo Rodrigo and Colin Sing both fouled out within the last 2 minutes. Pirates secured their first away win a few weeks later on 15 October, with an 82-88 victory against the Worthing Thunder, Taner Adu of the Pirates posted 29 points for the visitors. On 27 November, the club announced the signing of former

Plymouth Raiders The Plymouth Raiders was a professional basketball team based in Plymouth, England. The team competed in the British Basketball League, the country's premier basketball competition. The club was founded in 1983 through a merger between two lo ...

guard, Haggai Hundert.

Home arenas

: Southend Leisure & Tennis Centre (2009-2011)

Season-by-season records

Notable former players

Josh Clark Josh Clark (born August 16, 1955) is an American stage and screen actor. Biography Clark was born in Bethesda, Maryland. He studied acting at the North Carolina School of the Arts. Acting career His first screen role was in the 1976 TV movie ...

* Myles Hesson * Haggai Hundert *

Marcus Knight Marcus Larae Knight (born June 19, 1978) is an American football coach and former wide receiver who is currently the wide receivers coach at Ball State University. He played college football at Michigan and professionally as a wide receiver a ...

* Walid Mumuni * Pablo Rodrigo *

* David Celestini

References

External links

Essex Pirates photos
from Pixel8 Photos
Essex Pirates
on

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Essex Pirates
on

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{{British Basketball League teamlist Defunct basketball teams in the United Kingdom Basketball teams established in 2009 Basketball teams in England Sports clubs in Southend-on-Sea Basketball teams disestablished in 2011 2009 establishments in England 2011 disestablishments in England Former British Basketball League teams