Information about Cardiff CELTS Womens Basketball Club
We are the Cardiff CELTS Womens Basketball Club and we currently have two teams. Our first team plays in the English National League Division II (Midlands and South West Conference) and our second team plays in the WEBBA league.
Formerly known as Cardiff Clippers, the CELTS Womens teams now form part of the highly successful Cardiff CELTS Basketball Academy. The CELTS Basketball Academy has been so succesful and grown to such an extent that we have found it impossible to find a facility that can house all of our team's effectively...can anyone out there help us? We would love to get all the Academy teams (which are very closely connected) back under one roof.
The CELTS Women train and play all of their matches out of Eastern Leisure Centre, Llanrumney, Cardif (see Directions page for more details).
The Cardiff CELTS Basketball Academy includes a mens Division One team and junior teams, womens, senior and junior teams and two wheelchair basketball teams - all competing in various leagues.
The Academy is unique and enjoys the enviable position of being able to care for all basketball needs in Cardiff - it is, in fact, the only Club in Wales with such a comprehensive range of basketball teams.
The CELTS Basketball Academy benefits from highly experienced and expert coaches, including Tony Hinchey (former Welsh Women's Senior Coach), Chris Horrocks (an ex-professional, GB and Welsh International Player) and Holly Hinchey (2007 Coach of the Year in the Disability Sports Club category).
The Cardiff CELTS Wheelchair Basketball team has also benefitted from signing Cardiff's Wheelchair Basketball double paralympian, Caroline Matthews, during 2006.
More information about the CELTS wheelchair teams can be found here and more details about the CELTS mens' teams can be found here.
If you would like any more information about us, or womens basketball in general, and you cant find the answers on this website, please use the "Contact Us" page to send us an email...or you can email us directly at mail@cardiffbasketball.co.uk
Alternatively, please feel free to come along to one of our training sessions or matches - details of which can be found on the "Training Times" and "Fixtures" pages.
Spectators are always welcome and entry to our matches is free.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Club History
Thanks goes to the Pawprint website for some of this information....
There has been womens basketball in and around Cardiff for many years but the invent of the CELTS Basketball Academy in 2006 will hopefully lead to a much more structured and fruitful future for female ballers in the area.
In 1987 a Cardiff womens team, known as Cae' Castell Cardiff first entered the "English" National League Division 2 - a highly successful first season saw that team win the division and gain promotion in 1988.
In 1989 they were renamed Cardiff Bucaneers but, unfortunately were forced to withdraw from the English National League in 1990. For a few years womens basketball fell dormant in Cardiff and it wasnt until 1993 that a new club, now known as Cardiff Flyers entered Div 2 of the English National League. Again the team had a very successful first season and were promoted in 1994 - before again withdrawing in 1995.
Two years later (1997) the Cardiff Clippers emerged into the English National League Div 2 and, with a brief withdrawal from that league for the 2000/2001 season, have remained a constant force in Cardiff basketball ever since.
The 2005/2006 season saw the Cardiff Clippers win the English National League Div 2 but, having learned from the lessons of the previous Cardiff clubs, refused promotion to remain in the highly competitive English 2nd Division.
During 2006, the Clippers moved to the Coleg Glan Hafren venue and became part of the Cardiff CELTS Basketball Academy and the club has gone from strength to strength as a result.
The Celts (as we now are) have over 20 players registered and regularly more than 15 coming to training.
Come along and join us!