We are the Cardiff CELTS Wheelchair Basketball Club and we currently have two teams which play in the third and fourth divisions of the Great Britain National League.
The 2006/2007 season was the Club's inaugural competitive season - and we got off with an excellent start. Our 4th division team won their national league division and our third division team finished a very respectable 5th in the southern region of the 3rd division. 2007 also saw the CELTS, as a Club, recognised as the "Best Performing New Club" by the Great Britain Wheelchair Basketball Association.
The 2007/2008 season was another incredible season - with our first team improving on their inaugural season to finish 4th in the 3rd Division south. If we can continue with this level of improvements we should be entering into playoffs in the next few seasons for promotion to the 2nd division. The CELTS second team continue to enjoy their challenges in the 4th division - which has been much more competitive through the 2007/2008 season. The CELTS 2 lost out in a number of close matches to finish the league season in 5th place. We are all looking forward to the new season....BRING IT ON!
We are always aiming to progress and build (whilst having as much fun as possible!) - so come along and support us ...entry is free to all our matches!
And if you fancy "having a go" we would love to hear from you - new players are ALWAYS welcome.
The Cardiff CELTS Wheelchair Basketball Club forms part of the Cardiff CELTS Basketball Academy. Further details about our fellow CELTS womens teams are available at this site and about the CELTS mens teams at this site.
During the 2006/2007 season, the Cardiff CELTS Wheelchair Basketball Club was the only Wheelchair Basketball Club in Wales. We have made such good progress that it seems that more wheelchair basketball clubs in Wales will be evolving very soon.
If you would like any information about us, or about wheelchair basketball in general, and you can't find the answers on this site please contact us - see the "Contact Us" link on the left for further details.
Alternatively, please feel free to come along to one of our training sessions or matches - we train on Thursday evenings and play our home matches in the sports hall at the Trowbridge Campus of Coleg Glan Hafren in Cardiff. Check out the Training Times, Directions and Fixtures pages on this site for more info.
Spectators are always welcome but if you would like to join in on your first visit to training please contact us first.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Club History
The Cardiff CELTS Wheelchair Basketball Club began over 5 years ago (in 2002) as the Cardiff Bay Tigers. It was only in the 2006/07 season that the Club was ready to enter teams in the Great Britain National League - it has taken this long to build up a core base of players and raise the funds necessary to buy the basketball wheelchairs that are needed for people to participate.
During 2006 the Club has changed dramatically. It began with moving from its original venue, in Cardiff Bay, to Coleg Glan Hafren's Trowbridge Campus and, as part of that move, the Club became part of the Cardiff CELTS Basketball Academy.
The Club is now partially based at Glan Hafren and partially at the Tal-y-Bont sports centre which is on the Cardiff University Campus.
The Cardiff CELTS Basketball Academy has mens and womens, senior and junior able bodied teams as well as the Club's two wheelchair teams - giving it a complete range of basketball teams. The Academy has absorbed the well established and respected mens and womens Cardiff Clippers teams and will benefit from coaching by Tony Hinchey (former Welsh Women's Senior Coach), Chris Horrocks (an ex-professional, GB and Welsh International player) and Holly Hinchey (Basketball Development Officer for Cardiff).
The Cardiff CELTS Wheelchair Basketball Club has also benefited by signing Cardiff's Wheelchair Basketball paralympian Caroline Matthews during 2006.
Our Head Coach, Holly Hinchey, has won the Sports Council for Wales' Coach of the Year 2007 Award in the "Coach to Disabled Persons : Participation" category! It is a very well deserved award and just a small recognition of all the wonderful work Holly does with the Club. We are always developing our players and encouraging and mentoring them as coaches - and we now have a number of Assistant Coaches qualified in both Wheelchair Basketball and the running game of basketball.
The Club currently has two teams competing in the Great Britain National League and we are looking forward to the new season starting in September 2008 and to further developing Wheelchair Basketball in Cardiff. We'd love to hear from you if you would like to get involved.
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