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Plymouth Raiders
Club History It was in 1983 that the Raiders were first accepted for a place in the National Basketball League, in the then Division 2. Farley Health Products provided the first sponsorship under the name of the Glucodin brand and the first home NBL game was played at the Mayflower Centre on October 1st 1983. The game, against Merseyside Mustangs, resulted in a 1 point defeat (75-76) and for most of the season the Raiders’ inexperience in the top flight was exposed with just 6 victories in the 24 league games. The original team colours were Red with gold trims. Our first two Americans were Don Nolan and Dave Lutz and Dave married our scorer Dawn Marshall. Season two began with high hopes as we recruited quality American Micah Blunt and his step-brother ‘Truck’ Tunson along with dual national Dave Lester and experienced English players Rob Harper, Richard Parsons and Kevan Dacres. Things did not turn out quite as well as hoped with Blunt and Tunson leaving in November to be replaced by Juan Holcombe and a giant American with a wealth of experience who was to become a great favourite, Dave Downey. Downey played his first game at Sandwell and scored a then club record of 51 points in considerable style. Nine league victories and an appearance in the National Trophy Semi-Final were the haul that season. Downey was retained for the 1985/86 season and highly rated Appalachian State star Glenn Clyburn joined him but unfortunately could not settle and returned to the USA in November. He was replaced by former Plymouth Kanaries star Jimmy Smith who had returned to the city to marry another Plymouth girl attracted by the American imports. The highlight of the season was the appearance in the National Trophy Final which was played at the Mayflower Centre against the Division Champions, Calderdale Explorers, and which we lost 98-114. There were 11 league wins from the 22 starts. Severe financial restraints applied for the 1986/87 season and with crowd favourite Downey leaving for Argentina Jimmy Smith was the only foreign player in a year in which the aim was to survive. Only 4 games were won but Raiders were still in business and able to look ahead to re strengthening for the following year. Strengthen we did in 1987/88 as a new sponsor, JHB Oil from Penzance came forward and Downey returned to join new signing from across the pond, Chris Hughey. Chris and Dave became the Raiders’ ‘Twin Towers’ as the team went through the season with an impressive record and reached the top four play-offs. Those games are among the best remembered by long term fans as Raiders beat league champions Worthing Bears in the home first leg, lost by the same margin in the second leg and had to travel to Worthing again for the third game. There was to be no fairy tale ending as Worthing pulled through by 9 points before a full house at the Worthing Leisure Centre. In the second game Worthing’s Billy Hungrecker scored a league record 73 points despite all Raiders’ efforts to stop him. JHB Oils were taken over by Great Western Oils but the sponsorship continued through 1988/89 and GWO Raiders reached the first round of the play offs but went down at Birmingham where the Bullets won the one game required in this season 109-91. Jon Goodemote and John Miller, at 6’11” the tallest import, were the foreign players. Continuing as GWO Raiders Chris Hughey returned after a season’s break and he was joined by Harvard graduate Bill Mohler who worked for a local but American owned company as a scientist while he was here. The 1989/90 season saw Raiders finish in 9th place with an 8 win and 14 defeat record to just miss out on the play offs. Another two new Americans arrived as the 90/91 season began. Andy Goodemote, brother of Jon, and John Watson started the season but Watson left for Hemel as Raiders were in no position to pay him and Goodemote went home for Christmas and did not return. Chris Hughey came back again in November to replace Watson but an injury in January and the Gulf War caused him to return to the States. An upsetting season was the result and the leaking roof at the Mayflower Centre did not help as Raiders had to move out and play home matches at the Kitto Centre which was cold and failed to prove an attractive proposition for the fans. A rock bottom finish with a 4-14 record was the result. Jon Goodemote returned again as Raiders led a nomadic existence through 1991/92 by playing home games at several venues such as the China Fleet Club, Torbay Leisure Centre and Ivybridge Community College. As the season progressed extra players were signed with dual national Greg Modzeleski and America teacher Keith Orchard boosting the side to a 6th place finish with a 13-9 record. Ware was beaten away in the first round of the play-offs but Bury proved too strong in the Semi-Final. The team returned to the Mayflower Centre to play under the new roof on January 25th 1992 when Ware was the visitors. An improvement for the 1992/93 season as Jon Goodemote was joined by Kirk Lowry and despite no sponsor for the opening of the season 9th position was attained. A local newspaper appeal in December resulted in the involvement of Plymouth solicitors Wolferstans from the New Year and the Wolferstans Raiders were born. Bob Karruck who had been Head Coach for 10 years retired from the position and his deputy from this season, Vic Fleming was appointed to take over. Continuing as Wolferstans Raiders into 1993/94 Fleming signed highly rated American guard Trent Forbes and power forward Greg Todd as imports. Todd left to return home at Christmas and back yet again came Jon Goodemote. Despite being at the bottom of the league again Raiders reached the National Trophy Final and a great day out at the Sheffield Arena ended in a narrow defeat 62-60 at the hands of a Sheffield side which was to be promoted and take the Premier League title the following year. Fleming left for Germany and long serving player Gary Stronach took over as Player-Coach and led the team to 9th position after the 1994/95 campaign with a 7-15 record just missing out on the play-offs again. Waymon Boone was the sole American in the team but he broke Dave Downey’s individual club scoring record with 55 points against Swindon late in the campaign. With Wolferstans having sponsored for more than the original agreed time it was a relief when Mr Dan McCauley agreed to sponsor the team under the name of Rotolok on a two year deal starting 1995/96. Another new American Ted Hotaling arrived to fill the permitted single foreign spot and he proved to be a great hit with the supporters and with the local schoolchildren as he toured the city giving coaching lessons under the Sportsmatch scheme. Nevertheless the team made only 10th position having won just 7 of their 22 games. Before the 1996/97 season Hotaling was made a better offer by Cardiff and the number of foreigners permitted was raised to 2 so Raiders fans were in for more new faces. Jim McGilvery arrived and brought with him the big man Gary Stronach wanted, Kenny Ervin. A new venue for the team, the magnificent Plymouth Pavilions, began to attract the fans and the crowds grew as the season and the success progressed. From around 300 to open the season over 1300 made it for the end of season play-offs as Raiders added the Championship to league and National Trophy runners-up honours. The Wembley victory over Ware Rebels was all the more wonderful as it happened in front of at least 500 of our own Plymouth fans.
1997/98 Attendances at the Pavilions grew very quickly and after Christmas there were several sellouts including the top of the table clash with Richmond which was sold out 5 days before tip off! Raiders won their way to the National Trophy Final, again, and this time it was Richmond who took the honours and it was they who added the League title and the Play-Off Championship at the Raiders’ expense. Despite the disappointments of being runners-up in all competitions this was a very successful season with Jimmy Smith the only player to appear in all 36 games, Okonkwo topping the scoring averages with 22.9, McGilvery the total points scored with 787. McGilvery was voted the ‘Sports Personality of 1997’ by readers of the ‘Evening Herald’ and was also MVP of the All Star game while Okonkwo won ‘Player of the Month’ awards twice and Gary Stronach was ‘Coach of the Month’ for November. England played their European Championship match against Spain at the Pavilions before an almost full house and Raiders were often quoted as the benchmark for all NBL clubs to follow in terms of promotion of the game.
1998/99 The season started well and crowds grew to an average of nearly 1300 by Christmas when Raiders were in the top four in the table and had reached another National Trophy Final. Player-Coach Gary Stronach left his teaching post in the city to work full time on the club’s Raidercoach scheme which has kept him and other players fully committed to coaching in schools around the two counties of Devon and Cornwall. Ray Blackwell returned as the senior player for the 1999/2000 season and with Daniel Okonkwo moving on to play in the Lebanon the Raiders brought in forward Michael Schantz to replace him. Schantz arrived with a very good record at Hamilton College in New York State and provided solid support up front. Other new players to join the squad were Dean Williams and Jamie Burchell who were studying at Marjons and had previous NBL experience with London Towers and Solihull respectively. Raiders faced a heavy programme with the Uniball Trophy matches against Premier opposition to add to the league fixtures. This proved too much for them and although coming close to Brighton the end result was a string of defeats which upset the team and could be the cause of a few surprise league defeats. The end result was a disappointing league finish in 4th place although the disappointment was largely because of the huge success of the previous three years. The National Trophy quest ended earlier than usual with a second round defeat at Cardiff Clippers and so no silverware for the team. There was success in one sphere as the team won the NBL media awards in two categories as having the best overall media coverage and the best article on basketball. Apart from the two Americans Raiders signed Canadian/ Greek Nick Chatzinikolis just before Christmas in an effort to put some bulk in the front court and to help fill the gap left by Jamie Loveridge’s serious ankle injury. Gavin Love also missed most of the season with a back injury which required surgery.
2000/01 Apart from the Worthing defeats only Manchester Magic recorded a victory over the Raiders and that in the first leg of the Play offs after the Conference League title had been secured. Raiders overturned that in the second leg at the Pavilions and a trip to Wembley to face...Worthing Thunder... gave Raiders the chance to secure a second trophy and revenge. A fantastic day out for hundreds of fans and a classic match resulted in an 83-77 victory and the best season ever was over.
2001/02
2002/03
2003/04 The National Trophy was again to prove unattainable as Raiders went down to a surprise and heavy defeat at Sutton in the Semi final. In the league, however, good progress was made and the title was secured with just 2 defeats, by 5 points at London United and by 1 point at home to Reading who took the runners up spot. The Play off Final was reached once again but there was to be no third title won as Teesside took the final 80-75. Another fine season of basketball has ended and with it 20 years of the club’s England Basketball history as the Directors decided to take the step up into the British Basketball League for the next season.
2004/05 Coach Stronach had recruited Terrence Durham and rookie big man Gerrick Morris to work the boards with DeAntoine Beasley returning and Canadian forward Ryan French adding to the largely local and Marjons based players who had been part of the previous year’s success. Morris proved to be a star of the blocked shot, setting a BBL record of 12 blocks in one game against London Towers. He was, however, not so prolific in the scoring field where Raiders relied heavily on Durham and Beasley. The season had, however, set the standard required for competition at this level and Coach Stronach was able to determine the standard of players he would need to mount a winning campaign.
2005/06 A narrow 76-75 defeat at Chester opened the season and unfortunately the run of defeats had stretched to 7 before newcomers Guildford Heat were overcome in late October. That was to prove a one-off as a further 6 defeats followed and worse news was that Aaron was injured and unable to play many minutes pre Christmas. The New Year brought about a change of fortune as Raiders embarked on a 14 wins to 10 defeats run which pulled them into contention for a play-off place but ended with 9th position and no extension to their season again. Thoughts of what might have been had Aaron been fully fit came to mind but the big man had proved that he was able to play at this level as also had Lasker, Moore and Beasley. The post Christmas results certainly set the standard for a successful future.
2006/07 The season opened with defeat at Guildford and a heartbreaking overtime loss to Leicester at home but a home victory over Chester on October 21st sparked a 4 game winning run and the season came alive.
In the league Raiders held a play-off position for most of the season and finished in 5th place with a 20-16 record just missing out on home advantage in the play-off quarter final. That meant a long journey to Glasgow to face the Scottish Rocks and a 6 point defeat meant that the season was over.
However, the
BBL Trophy was in the cabinet, Aaron had won the MVP and a Player of
the Month award and was selected in the first five of the All Star
team while the Raiders had become a team which the rest of the BBL
now feared. The future looks bright with the club’s development
programme expanding and locally produced players such as Gavin Love
and Allister Gall proving that playing at BBL level is possible with
dedication and hard work. The future may depend on whether the best
players can be retained. |
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Terrence Durham was back from Portugal for the new
season and DeAntoine Beasley provided some stability by
returning. A tough programme was the order of the day
with another appearance in the BBL Trophy to add to the
league (Now reverted to EBL Division 1), the National
Trophy and the National Cup. Progress through the
National Cup provided the main interest in the first
half of the season and the Final was reached with
Teesside providing the opposition at Sheffield. The
famous George Williams Trophy was won with a fine team
performance and an 89-82 result.
The move to
the top flight of British basketball was to prove a difficult one
and the team found life tough even though they opened with a 63-46
win at the expense of Milton Keynes Lions. An early victory over
Birmingham Bullets in the BBL cup gave the team hope but too often
the opposition was too experienced at this level and a final league
position of 9th with 12 wins from 40 games was felt to be a
satisfactory return. 
