Most of the participants in the international basketball tournaments are European Countries. Some of these countries are Italy, Germany, Greece, Spain and many more.
However, one European country is not active in these basketball tournaments; this country is England. They have participated in some of basketbal tournaments, but they only participated in the Olympics just once.
Though they have participated in some basketball tournaments, it doesn’t mean that there are no England National Basketball Team achievements. These few achievements will be discussed in detail shortly.
The England Men’s National Basketball Team
The England National Basketball team represents their country, England, in international basketball competitions. The team is organized by England Basketball, the sport’s governing body in England. The England men’s national basketball team joined in the 1946 European Championships, which is also know as the EuroBasket.
The team ranked 10th among all the ten groups. The players of the England men’s national basketball team then were: Colin Hunt, Douglas Legg, John Hart, Roland Legg, Frank Cole, Arthur Lee, Derius H ewitt, Stanely Weston, Ken Dight, and Charles Watson coached by W. Browning. In the year 1948, the England men’s national team participated in the 1948 Summer Olympics. However, they were unfortunate because they ranked 20th among all the 23 teams that participated that same year.
In the 1955 EuroBasket, the team which is composed of Arthur Cladingboel, Reg Fearn, William James, Gordon Cook, Dennis Wilkinson, Colin Wedge, Alan Bruce, Ugo Agnelli, Wilf Byrne, Keith Ledbrook, Michael Roblou, Ronald Rix and N. Smith did their best for the team but finished 12th among all the 18 teams. Again, in the 1961 EuroBasket, the team ranked last among all the 19 teams. The team was then composed of Raymond Kirk, Kornel Tober, Alan Wardle, Peter Creasey, Wilfred Byrne, Alan Tillot, Alan Hildyard, Ronald Hextall, Geoffrey Kaiser, Dennis Wakefield, George Whitemore and Terry Keogh and were coached by Thomas Vaughan.
The last year that the England men’s basketball team participated in international tournament was in 1981 EuroBasket. The team which was composed of David Lloyd, Neville Hopkins, David Berry, Martin Clark, Paul Richards, Nick Burns, Clive Hartley, Jim McCauley, Ian Day, Paul Stimpson, Dan Lloyd, Karl Tatham and coached by Victor Amber once again ranked last among all the 12 teams that participated in the particular event.
The England Women’s National Basketball Team
Jane Thackray who had more than 50 international caps was one of the members of the England women’s national basketball team. Also a member of the team was Andrea Congrreaves which was one of the most outstanding players produced by England, as well as some exciting up-and-coming talent. In the game for the bronze medal, England lost against the Nigeria national team, that’s why the team finished in the 4th place.
The future England National Team
In the year 2005, England and other countries, like Scotland and Wales, joined forces to form a new team. The new team would be the Great Britain National Basketball Team. The team’s goal is to field a competitive team capable of winning medals at the London 2012 Summer Olympics.
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