Draft:Sport in Brighton and Hove
Overview of sports in Brighton and Hove, England
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Brighton and Hove, a city on the south coast of England in the county of East Sussex, has a long history of sport stretching back to the 18th century. The city has a number of national sports teams, most notably Brighton & Hove Albion, the city's professional football team who play in the Premier League.
Team sports
American football
Brighton Panthers AFC Sussex Thunder
Basketball
Brighton and Hove's basketball team Brighton Bears was formed in 1973 and had their Division One debut in the 1981-82 season. In 1984 the team moved to Worthing due to high rents at the Brighton Centre and was known as the Worthing Bears. In the 1990-91 season the team entered the Premiership. In 1999, the team returned to Brighton due to dwindling crowds at Worthing[1] and entered the ULEB Cup in the 2003-04 season.[2] In 2006, NBA star Dennis Rodman played three games with the team during its final season:[3] it folded after owner Nick Nurse moved back to the United States.[4]
Cricket
Cricket first came to Brighton before the Regency era with the founding of Brighton Cricket Club in 1790. This club played seven first-class matches and played at a few different grounds, including the Prince of Wales Ground and the Royal New Ground. It became a part of Sussex County Cricket Club, the oldest county club in the country, when it was founded in 1839. They now play at the County Cricket Ground in Hove.
Brighton and Hove Cricket Club, which was founded in 1945 as an amalgamation of Brighton Nondescripts Cricket Club and Hove Cricket Club, founded in 1920 and 1918 respectively.[5] They were champions of the Sussex Cricket League in 1979, 2000 and 2007.[6]
Another club which has been present since the 18th century is Rottingdean Cricket Club, which is believed to have been formed in 1758.[7]
Football
Brighton and Hove's professional football team is Brighton & Hove Albion F.C., whose home ground is the 31,876-capacity Falmer Stadium. Founded in 1901, they were promoted to the Premier League in the 2017–18 season, ending their 34-year absence from the top flight,[8] having been relegated from the First Division in the 1982–83 season.[9] They finished sixth in the 2022–23 season, meaning they qualified for the UEFA Europa League; their first participation in European club football.[10]
The team's female counterpart, Brighton & Hove Albion W.F.C., was founded in 1967 and have played at Broadfield Stadium in Crawley since 2018; in 2023, Brighton & Hove City Council gave permission for the club to build a new stadium, which will be the first stadium purpose-built for women's football in England.[11] Since 2018 they have played in the highest league, the Women's Super League, with their highest placement being sixth in the 2020–21 season.[12]
The city also contains a number of semi-professional football clubs, including AFC Varndeanians, Brighton Electricity, Mile Oak, Montpelier Villa, Rottingdean Village and Saltdean United, who play in the Southern Combination, and Whitehawk, who play in the Isthmian League. Some of the city's former teams include Brighton Athletic, Brighton United, North End Rangers and Withdean 2000.
The first regional football league in the area, the Brighton, Hove & District Football League was formed in 1903 and reached ten divisions at its peak between 1967 and 1976. In 2015, the league folded and merged with the nearby Worthing and District Football League to form the Brighton, Worthing & District Football League.[13]
Hockey
Brighton & Hove Hockey Club is based at Blatchington Mill School and includes 10 men's teams, 8 women's teams and 14 junior teams, making them one of the biggest hockey clubs in the South of England. They play at two pitches at the school and use the nearby Nevill Pavilion as their clubhouse.[14]
Ice hockey
In 1935, Brighton and Hove's ice hockey team, the Brighton Tigers, was formed and played at the now demolished Brighton Sports Stadium. They were one of Britain's most successful teams during many of their 30 seasons, with their most important game in December 1957 against the Soviet Union, where they won 6-3 in front of a crowd of 4,000.[15] The Tigers won the English National League in the 1946-47 and 1947-48 seasons, the Autumn Cup in 1946, 1950, 1956 and 1958, the British National League in the 1957-58 season and the British Championship in 1960.[16] The team was disbanded in 1965 when their venue was demolished to make way for the Brighton Centre.[15]
A new team, the Brighton Royals, was formed in 1977 by two of the Tigers' former players. The Royals were also quite successful, with notable wins including 17-0 against the Solihull Barons in 1983 and 17-1 against the Hasting Monarchs in 1986. They also won many trophies domestically and abroad, including the Avon Sports Centre Cup in Bristol and the Tilburg Midnight Players trophy in the Netherlands. The team's last game was in April 1988, where they won 6-2 against the Telford Tornadoes.[17]
Pétanque
Brighton and Hove Pétanque Club
Rugby
Brighton Football Club Brighton & Hove Sea Serpents RFC Hove Rugby Club Sussex Merlins
Individual sports
Cycling
Golf
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Greyhound racing
Brighton Belle (greyhounds) Olympic (greyhounds) Regency (greyhounds) Sussex Cup
Horse racing
Motorsport
Snooker
Surfing
Brighton has numerous surfing schools and clubs situated near the beach.[18]
Swimming
Brighton SC Brighton Dolphin SC