History
The West Craven Turbines were formed on the 11th April 2005 originally as an extra training session for players of West Craven High Technology College by then newly qualified coach Renko Ireton with the hope of improving basketball in the local area.
As the players of the then Year 11 began to improve both players and coach stated their desire to play competitive basketball the following season. The team the started training regularly one evening a week at the high school in Barnoldswick. The newly formed team was named The West Craven Turbines taking their name from the local industry were then entered in the Bradford District mens league for the 2005-06 season.
The club then started to build on their squad of players adding players from the local area attending training sessions, while still working closely with West Craven High to help develop more players for the future who wish to play at a higher level of basketball.
The brand new West Craven Turbines took to the floor for their first ever game on 11th October 2005 away against the Horsforth Hustlers which resulted in a 118-19 loss for the rookie team. The starting line-up on opening night included Tom Lupton, Matt Heald, Oliver Hylands, Michael Smith and Richard Bargh with Ben Capps, John Coates and Riley Handforth coming off the bench.
The Turbines earned their first ever victory on 16th October 2005 at home against the South Craven Ravens with a final score of 58-35 to the home team.
Over the course of the season the young Turbines put in a number of fine displays running both Bradford Maroons and Bradford College to within 2 shots of victory in the final seconds of both games.
The Turbines' second win of the season came at the hands of the visiting Queensbury Hawks towards the end of the season. In what was a very close game throughout the Turbines managed to hang on in the final minute of the game to by 1 point 47-46.
