The Calderdale Explorers are an English

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

club, based in Halifax, West Yorkshire. The Explorers compete in

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 B ...

Division 3 North. A previous incarnation of the club was a founding member of 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 howev ...

, reaching the playoff semi-finals during the league's inaugural season in 1987-1988.

History

The team was established as the Halifax Explorers in 1982, when they entered Division 2 of the National Basketball League. They changed their name to

Calderdale Calderdale is a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England, whose population in 2020 was 211,439. It takes its name from the River Calder, and dale, a word for valley. The name Calderdale usually refers to the borough through which the up ...

after just one year, and in 1986 the club won promotion to Division 1, which was then the top tier of basketball in England. In 1987, the Explorers joined 14 other teams from the

National Basketball League (England) 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 Scottish National Basketball League to form the new

. The Explorers were successful in the new top flight, finishing fifth in league competition and reaching the playoff semi-finals while also reaching the quarter-finals of the

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 ha ...

. However, the club were forced to withdraw from the professional league after just one season, as they could not afford the court hire charge of just £14 at their North Bridge Leisure Centre venue. The club returned to competition in NBL Division 2 a year later in 1989, but ongoing financial issues meant the club soon folded in 1992, just a decade since they were founded. The club was revived in 2014, initially as a junior club competing in local competitions. A senior National League team was added in March 2015, entering the National Development League for their first season before the league was rebranded as Division 4. A steady record for improvement culminated with winning the Division 4 (North) league title at the end of the 2017/2018 season, earning promotion to Division 3. The Explorers were coached in Division 3 by Peter Broderick, who played for the old club in the 1990s.

Honours

NBL Division 4 League Champions * 2018

Season-by-season records

References

{{reflist Basketball teams in England Sport in Halifax, West Yorkshire History of West Yorkshire