Turn the clock back to the mid-to-late 1980’s and two best friends, Nick Hamilton and Steve Mansell would hire half a basketball court at Worthing Leisure Centre for an hour to shoot around. Back in those days there were no outdoor courts, so this was the only opportunity outside of school time to hone their skills. These were also the time of teacher strikes in the UK so there were no after-school clubs; a generation of children were robbed of time on the court… but PE teacher (Dave Thomas) secretly gave them the keys to the gym so they could get in at lunchtimes to play.
Those bookings at WLC were done so under the name “Worthing A.O.K”, which stood for the Alley-Oop Krew [sic], and this would be the name of the local league club that was formed by brothers Nick Hamilton and Chris Lowrey in 1988 and entered into the Sussex League, playing out of Angmering School. Worthing AOK proved to be very successful over the years, winning League and Cup honours and welcoming a large number of players during their existence. As the players and team administrators all got older and found other commitments (work and families) the Club sadly, folded.
Many years later, in 2017, a reunion game was organised by Nick and Chris in Barnham and a large group of ex-AOK players dusted off their boots and knee braces to grace the court together. So successful and enjoyable was this event that it became a regular occurrence.
Being made aware of the GB Masters tournaments (held annually across the country and providing competition for 40+, 50+, 55+ and 60+ age categories, the team entered in the 2018 as Worthing Grizzles (an homage to the ex-National League franchise in the town, the Worthing Bears).
In 2018, Nick Hamilton started a Facebook group for senior players in Sussex and held a monthly session at Worthing High School, to provide an opportunity for more senior players across Sussex to get back into the game. And as the clientele at these sessions were “old dinosaurs from Sussex”, the club became known as Sussex Raptors.
The Raptors Men entered GB Masters again in subsequent years at Manchester, Norwich and Sheffield.
As an Assistant and Head Coach of a junior girls and ladies’ teams, Nick Hamilton became increasingly frustrated by the lack of opportunities being made available for female participation in the game and so in 2023 decided to form his own Club that would champion women’s and girls’ basketball whilst providing more structure to the already established senior men’s (veterans) team.
The following 12 months saw a copious amount of paperwork completed (GDPR Policies, H&S Policies, Club Constitution, etc.) and in early 2024, Sussex Raptors Basketball Club became a legal entity and formally put an entry into the Sussex League for a ladies team.
