Story by Mike Shaft
Goodbye Glasgow, Hello Guildford
From the ashes of the Kingston/Glasgow franchise would rise Guildford. Now there was no problem retaining the best of his stars and bringing in some new big names.
No Final 4 at Wembley would be without Kevin Cadle and his team would continue to dominate until, once again they would go out of business.
It is difficult to know how much of the Cadle success during these early days was attained by the purchasing power of his organisations, however other teams also had the purchasing power but did not achieve the success that Cadle has.
When the Guildford franchise went out of business, Cadle was snapped up by the new owners of the London Towers who had bought a losing franchise and were determined to turn it around.
Hello London Towers
The London Towers situation offered Cadle the opportunity, once again, to prove just how good a coach he really is.
Since he had gained such success in recent years, players knew that getting into a Cadle team meant winning medals.
Players like Martin Henlan, Danny Lewis, Tony Windless, Neville Austin and Steve Bucknall were recruited to keep the Cadle dynasty going.
The success continued, and although there were some close calls, he would win the equivalent of at least one trophy every season until the 1997/98 season when unbelievable each trophy in the Budweiser League would go to a different team and not one went to London Towers.
Photo – Bruce Stidham
It is difficult to know what went wrong last season.
The sight of a rather dejected London Towers team leaving their home court at the end of their semi-final defeat by the Thames Valley Tigers will be an abiding memory but the success that Da Boss has attained should not be obscured by his one serious failure in fifteen years.
Kevin Cadle will be more concerned that in that time, and with the calibre of teams he has had, he has failed to win a European trophy.
There is no doubt that the Cadle Dynasty is not over. Da Boss will be back. The question is, who is he going to replace and when?
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