National Basketball League (England)

The National Basketball League, or NBL for short, is a British basketball league. The league started in 1972 and continued through to 2003 when it was restructured and renamed the English Basketball League (EBA) National League. Until 1987 it was the first tier and only league system in England.

In 1960 a National Basketball League was introduced with nine members – Borehamwood Bullets, Watford Royals, Nottingham Dodgers, Aspley Old Boys (Nottingham), Birmingham Athletic Institute, Birmingham Dolobran, Doncaster Panthers, Manchester YMCA Comets, and Billingham Tech. However the London teams felt that competition was strong enough in their own London League so they shunned the new national competition. The two strongest teams in the country were Central YMCA and London Poly both from London and their omission had a detrimental effect on the standard of the National League.
A change of format in 1965-66 produced three sections, with a total of 16 teams, including two from Scotland; with a change of name to the British Basketball League known as the ‘Rosebowl’.
By 1972, the Scots had their own thriving National League, though also competing in the “Rose Bowl”, but when a London team, Sutton, defeated Edinburgh’s Boroughmuir Barrs in the 1972 Final, the Basketball Association decided that it was time to relaunch the idea of an English National League.

In 1972 the National League truly took off. The first season comprised just six clubs, plucked from regional and district leagues around the country, and was run in effect as a trial league. The six teams consisted of London-based teams Avenue (Leyton) and Sutton, Sheffield YMCA Scorpions and Liverpool Bruno Roughcutters from the North, Midlands club Loughborough All-Stars and touring team RAF Fliers.

After several successful seasons, expansion was implemented to 10 teams, and 1975 saw the addition of Division 2. The 1978–79 season was the first to adopt the post-season playoff format, while a year later the National Trophy was created.

In 1987, there was a breakaway by the league's elite clubs looking to formulate a fully professional league in the United Kingdom. The new league, operated by a new body, British Basketball League, was established as the country's top and only fully professional basketball league, though it retained the name National League Division 1, which was followed by Division 2 and Division 3 beneath it. The league was sponsored by Carlsberg and was known as the Carlsberg League.

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