Surrey United (basketball)
| Surrey Scorchers | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| League | British Basketball League | ||
| Established | 2005 | ||
| History |
Guildford Heat (2005–2012) Surrey Heat (2012–2013) Surrey United (2013–2015) Surrey Scorchers (2015–present) |
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| Arena | Surrey Sports Park | ||
| Capacity | 1,000 | ||
| Location | Guildford, Surrey | ||
| Team colours | Black, Duck Egg Blue, White |
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| Head coach | Creon Raftopoulos | ||
| Ownership | Surrey Sports Park | ||
| Website | www |
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| Uniforms | |||
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Surrey Scorchers is a basketball club based in Guildford, Surrey that currently competes in the British Basketball League. The team play its home games at the Surrey Sports Park.
The franchise was formed in 2005 as the Guildford Heat by fans of former BBL team Thames Valley Tigers, who folded during the same year. The club enjoyed plenty of success in their early history, even appearing in the ULEB Cup in 2007, but have since fallen on hard times and in 2012 the franchise was rebranded as Surrey Heat. Following the sale of the club by former owner Alison Reeve, the club was rebranded again as Surrey United in September 2013. From June 2015, the franchise was wholly owned by Surrey Sports Park and based full-time at the University of Surrey-owned facility. The franchise was rebranded as "Surrey Scorchers".
The town of Guildford has been home to several elite basketball teams down the years. With the opening of the Guildford Spectrum, the successful Kingston team uprooted, moved in and renamed themselves as the Guildford Kings in 1992, briefly calling the place home until they folded in 1994, as did the Guildford Pumas before they relocated to Sutton in 1999. However it was the first major team, the Guildford Pirates who played in the town from 1975 to 1982 that would come back to figure prominently in the birth of the new club, the Guildford Heat.
In 1982, the Pirates moved to nearby Bracknell, becoming the Bracknell Pirates and later the Thames Valley Tigers. For many years, the Tigers were one of the front runners of the British basketball scene, winning the league Championship in 1994, but it was in the new millennium that the successes dried up and for owner John Nike, the team was too much of a financial burden. In April 2005, he announced that he would no longer be funding the basketball franchise nor his ice hockey franchise Bracknell Bees.
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