As part of the reception, the Riders have agreed to stage a short basketball demonstration in Town Hall Square at 3:30pm, before joining the Lord Mayor in the Tea Room.

The Riders were founded by students and lecturers at Loughborough University in April 1967 and were known as the Loughborough All Stars. They were founder members of the National Basketball League in 1972, and the British Basketball League in 1987, and are the oldest club in British basketball operating at the top flight.

The club moved from Loughborough to Leicester in 1981, backed by Leicester City Council and Leicester City Bus (hence the chance in nickname to “Riders”), before moving back to play at Loughborough University in 2000, following the closure of Granby Halls, at a new venue barely a stone’s throw from Victory Hall where the club played its first game.

In 2004 the Riders agreed a sponsorship deal with De Montfort University (DMU) and moved back to Leicester, where they now play their games at the DMU’s John Sandford Sports Centre.

Following a difficult period for the Club financially between 2005 and 2007, local business Jelson Homes stepped forward to sponsor the Club and the appointment of General Manager Russell Levenston began a turning point for the club. Part of the sponsorship deal with Jelson Homes was to ensure the future of the club by investing in ‘basketball in the community’ schemes, providing the youth of Leicester with basketball coaching programmes, such as the “Shoot to the Future” programme, run with the support of the Police. It is hoped that some of the youngsters from the coaching programme will also be in attendance at the reception.

Riders also now have an extensive underage programme for boys and girls, a Women’s team near the top of England Basketball’s Division One, one of the country’s largest Basketball Apprentice schemes at Charnwood College, and a partnership with Loughborough University, lead by the Great Britain men’s captain Drew Sullivan, and which includes a GB Futures player, Jamell Anderson, two Great Britain Under 20 men’s internationals and two Great Britain Under 20 women’s internationals, as well as a number of boys and girls in England Under age international teams. Membership in the Club is expected to reach nearly 1,500 this season. The Club’s community programmes reach nearly 15,000 young people in the City and County.

The Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders secured the BBL Cup in thrilling fashion as they defeated the Newcastle Eagles 80-85 at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham on January 13th 2012, in front of a bumper 7,500 crowd, and live on Sky TV, their first piece of silverware since they won the Cup and the Playoff finals in 2001.

Riders Photo – FIVE OR SIX

Story – BBL

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