While we may have just celebrated the turn of a new year, some things don’t change at Endeavour Ipswich Basketball Club.
For the ninth time since 2018, this basketball club from a small market town on the east coast of England, with a population of a little over 100,000 finds themselves involved in the Basketball England National Cup Finals weekend. An extraordinary record, especially when considering the size and geographical location of the club in relation to the other basketball powerhouses within the English Basketball community. The clue is fairly obvious when looking at the match ups for this coming weekend. Ipswich will again face off against teams from our nation’s capital, with the underdog ‘tag’ no longer one that Ipswich wear when playing in English Basketball’s showcase event. Ipswich belong in the same sentence as the very biggest and best names of the National League.
Back in the 2017/2018 season, Ipswich Basketball Club, without a trophy at any level on the women’s side of the programme since the mid 1990’s, relaunched their senior women’s programme – this launch was strategically timed with an obvious resurgence of interest and talent at the lower age groups in the club. The result; an undefeated season in WNBL Division Two and promotion to Division One, but more significantly, National Cup success at both women’s and u16 level. Since then, Ipswich have been an almost permanent fixture in January at the National Basketball Performance Centre in Manchester ever since. The club returned to the u16 final in 2023, losing to Manchester, as well as winning the u18 trophy in both 2020 and 2023, losing the final in 2022. The u18’s return to the final for the fourth time in five seasons, playing the mighty City of London Academy for the third time in four years. Further success in the senior competition was enjoyed last season, while our women’s team aim to be the first team to retain the trophy since Sheffield Hatters back in 2012.
Ipswich’s involvement at such a high level continues to bring with it an element of romance, with the lion’s share of both teams again consisting of home-grown talent. Harriet Welham, Danni Cazey, Hannah Gray, Kara Bassil, Cerys Leach, DeAnna Carrington, Katie Yorke, Julie Mae Bacabag and Issy Roberts have all been with the club since they started playing, while Louisa Gibbins, Kaiya Bateman, Angel Whyte, Maisie Keyes and Holly Ensoll joining the programme via the clubs Copleston based academy. Australian import Maddy Wormald is in her first season with the club, and has made an immediate impact, helping the team back to another championship game. Incredibly, seven of the players playing the u18 final on the Saturday will then suit up on the Sunday for the Senior team.
With our supporters bus almost sold out, and a number of friends and family from both teams making the trip to Manchester for both days, it’s time for the ‘Blue Army’ to assemble. So dust off those blue wigs, grab your t-shirts and hoodies and we will see you in Manchester.
Seats are still available on our supporters bus, and if you are making your own way there then you still have time to book your tickets here: https://shop.basketballengland.co.uk/products/sure-shot-junior-national-cup-finals-2024-25-full-weekend-pass
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