Back in June this year we were hit with the news that Worthing Leisure Centre, the home of Worthing Basketball for the last 35 years was going to be out of action. South Downs leisure had made the decision to turn the main sports hall into a Gym to ensure safety for all the members. All equipment would be socially distanced. Initially we were told that this would happen till December 2020 and we discussed with Basketball England and other clubs that we would play away games until December. We were then hit with the further news that they had made the decision to keep the gym in the hall until March 2021, which wouldn’t see us back there till later in the season.

When we were first made aware of the situation we looked at other venues we contacted Sussex Bears to see if they could accommodate us, with us sharing their venue. It was then announced Division 2 & 3 couldn’t continue. We enquired again to which we were advised this wouldn’t be a possibility. As there are lots of local schools around which have basketball courts but they unfortunately don’t the specification for what is needed for men’s games.

At the time Durrington High School were having their new sports hall built with a completion date of November 2020 which was perfect timing and we are grateful to the school for accommodating not only our Juniors to continue to train there but also our men’s can train there too .In previous seasons we have used Worthing Leisure Centre however we were hit with another blow that upon us visiting the new sports hall ready for our guys to start training in there w/c 30th November. Unfortunately the backboards and rims are not the correct ones for Men’s Division 1 to be used in games, the rims need to be sprung and the backboards need to be perspex glass

As a club with no supporters being allowed into games and our coaching that we do in schools dropping by more than 70% it has put a massive financial strain on the club. While we are awaiting for Sport England to confirm funding for basketball this will help towards covering wages, hall hire, game day hire, officials and away travel, we don’t have the spare money to pay for new backboards or rims to allow us to continue playing in the league as without a venue we cant play home games. As well as benefiting Worthing Thunder and Worthing Thunder Junior, it was also benefit Durrington High School and many outside organisations as they will have a “state of art” sports hall.