How another Crystal Palace are giving inner-city kids a sporting chance

Despite its issues and funding problems since the end of the 2012 Olympics, basketball has enjoyed a boom in participation with the London City Royals hoping to build it even further

The London City Royals are hoping to help continue the growth of basketball in this country (London City Royals / BBL)

It may seem hard to believe, but it wasn’t too long ago when Saturday evenings weren’t all about Strictly or X-Factor but basketball.

In the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, sports centres across the country – from Eastleigh to Manchester, from Hemel Hempstead to Sunderland – would rock, not to the sound of Simon Cowell’s latest on-stage creation but to a domestic competition that was etched in the nations’ consciousness as the nights drew in and the temperatures plunged.

There has been plenty of cold water under the bridge since those heady days but now perhaps the most iconic venue of that era is back in use – and Crystal Palace has a basketball team in the British Basketball League (BBL) again, albeit one known now as the London City Royals.

Palace won seven titles in 11 years between 1973 and 1984. Containing an eclectic mix of US and British talent, and also hoovered up more cup silverware than regular occupants of Selhurst Park could ever dream of.

The success of the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre-based club was one of the major reasons why Channel 4 began broadcasting the sport and why sponsors the size of Budweiser had their whistle wetted.

It was also a big factor in the sport arriving at the door of a previously unreachable inner-city audience.

“The club just grew and grew,” says Paul Philp, the former England and GB international, and a man who was widely seen as a black pioneer during his time at Crystal Palace.

“We went from nothing to one of the top ten teams in Europe. We were the first English team to win a game in European competition and went and played in places like Madrid and Milan – places where Basketball is huge. It was a completely different world.

“There was a time when we were probably one of the biggest clubs in English sport.

The Crystal Palace basketball team were one of the biggest in the country

“All of a sudden I would be walking around South London and everyone would recognise me. I would get asked for autographs on Oxford Street.”

Palace’s home venue was widely viewed as the home of British Basketball, attracting not just domestic finals but also European nights against some of the biggest clubs on the continent.

By the 1990s, though, those were distant memories and looking to have been consigned to history for good.

Which is where Nhamo Shire comes in. London’s ‘Mr Basketball’ was living alone in a bedsit on a Kings Cross council estate at the 14 but now the former Hemel Royal is intent on restoring an English basketball treasure to its former glories – and helping the sport offer hope to the kids across the capital.

Shire is the man behind the Midnight Madness scheme which has already shown just how powerful a vehicle basketball can be. And he sees the London City Royals as the missing piece in the jigsaw.

“We were getting kids involved in the sport as a diversionary activity but they were then saying ‘okay, so I can play and dedicate myself to basketball but where does this end up? Is a college in America the only outlet available to me,” he says.

“Now we want the London City Royals to be the bright aspirational beacon in English basketball. We have got a couple of local guys from Croydon in the team this year – Ashley Hamilton and Matt Bryan-Amaning - who have been playing in Europe and have come back to play in the UK for the first time ever.

“We want to flip the model on its head. We want to make sure that the stars of our team are relatable role models.

“When I used to walk home, me and my mates would be kicking a can. Now kids are bouncing a ball. We want to give a pathway to the professional game in this country.”

Despite its well-documented issues and funding problems since the end of the 2012 Olympics, basketball has enjoyed a boom in participation, not just in London but across the country.

A far cry from when Philp began playing as a young child in Brixton in the early 1970s.

“British Basketball was a very white middle class sport at that time, that’s just how it was,” he says.

The Royals are looking for a return to European competition (London City Royals / BBL)

“When I started at Crystal Palace, I was the only black player in the team. Across the league there were probably only three or four of us.

“Not many people had televisions back then so, when I was on, all my mates in Brixton would come around to my mums house and cram into a room to watch me play.

“Basketball didn’t really have an impact in the inner-cities until more and more black players began coming into the league and playing for clubs like Liverpool and Manchester.”

There’s no doubt that the arrival of a Crystal Palace-based club has re-energised the league.

“It’s great to see basketball back at an iconic location like Crystal Palace, which has always been synonymous with the sport in the UK for many decades,” says Andy Webb, the chief operating officer of the BBL.

“Ultimately, Royals have the opportunity to establish themselves as a leading club and I think everyone realises that it is not only about what they do at the professional level, but the roots they are laying down in the community.

But while the Royals are aiming for a return to European competition after a hiatus of over 30 years, Shire is well aware that there are no short-cuts.

“If you speak to some of the masterminds of European basketball, they will tell you that this country has such a deep talent base but the system isn’t there to support it,” he says.

“If we change the funding structure, not just in the professional game but also in grassroots, then I think that could change.

“But I’m quite long in the tooth when it comes to having that conversation. If we’re going to continue to wait for others to come in and recognise how good we are and what we offer then we could be waiting another 10 years.

“Hopefully what we’re doing here can quicken that process.”

The London City Royals are taking on the Worcester Wolves on Saturday 3 November, for more information visit www.londoncityroyals.com