BI Women’s Super League 1997-98

	P	W	L	PF	PA	Pts
Avonmore Snowcream Wildcats	16	16	0			48
Openet Naomh Mhuire	16	13	3			42
Tolka Rovers	16	12	4			40
Meteors	16	10	6			36
Blarney Spring	16	8	8			32
Killester	16	7	9			30
Supermacs Limerick	16	5	11			26
Riverisland Castleisland	16	1	15			18
Lee Strand Tralee	16	1	15			18

[1]

Date	Home Team		Away Team
	Semi-Finals
	Snowcream Wildcats	65	Meteors	43
	Tolka Rovers	64	Naomh Mhuire	61 ot
	Final
	Snowcream Wildcats	82	Tolka Rovers	68

[2]

BI Women’s Super League 1998-99

	P	W	L	PF	PA	Pts
Avonmore Snowcrem Wildcats	16	14	2			44
Tolka Rovers	16	9	7			34
Meteors	16	9	7			34
Killester	16	6	10			28
Supermacs Limerick	16	2	14			20

[3]

Date	Home Team		Away Team
	Quarter-Finals
	Crusaders	55	Killester	91
	Meteors	59	Supermacs Limerick	36
	Firhouse Coasters	50	Tolka Rovers	73
	Semi-Finals
	Snowcream Wildcats	84	Tolka Rovers	82
	Killester	63	Meteors	45
	Final
	Snowcream Wildcats	68	Killester	61

[4][5][6]

BI Women’s Super League 1999-2000

	P	W	L	PF	PA	Pts
Tolka Rovers	20	17	3			34
Avonmore Snowcream Wildcats	20	17	3			34
Meteors	20	11	9			22
University of Limerick	20	8	12			16
Killester	20	6	14			12
Crusaders	20	1	19			2

[7]

Date	Home Team		Away Team
	Quarter-Finals
	Tolka Rovers	81	Portlaoise Panthers	50
	Meteors	87	Blarney	30
	Killester	61	University of Limerick	46
	Snowcream Wildcats	106	Crusaders	32
	Semi-Finals
	Snowcream Wildcats	80	Killester	53
	Meteors	52	Tolka Rovers	48
	Final
	Snowcream Wildcats	57	Meteors	44

[8][9]

BI Women’s Super League 2000-01

	P	W	L	PF	PA	Pts
*Wildcats	15	13	2			26
Tolka Rovers	14	10	4			20
University of Limerick	15	7	8			14
Sasha Meteors	15	4	11			8
Killester	15	3	12			6

[10]

League abandoned 7 March 2001 due to outbreak of foot-and-mouth-disease and title awarded to Wildcats as they couldn’t be caught by their nearest challengers

BI Women’s Super League 2001-02

	P	W	L	PF	PA	Pts
*Tolka Rovers	15	12	3			24
*Waterford Wildcats	15	11	4			22
*University of Limerick	15	10	5			20
*DART Killester	15	6	9			12
Meteors	15	5	10			10
Glanmire	15	1	14			2

[11]

Date	Home Team		Away Team
	Semi-Finals
	Tolka Rovers	59	Killester	50
	Bausch & Lomb Wildcats	41	University of Limerick	65
	Final
	Tolka Rovers	66	University of Limerick	59

[12][13]

BI Women’s Super League 2002-03

	P	W	L	PF	PA	Pts
*University of Limerick	16	15	1			30
*Bausch & Lomb Wildcats	16	13	3			26
*St. Paul’s Killarney	16	10	6			20
*Sasha Meteors	16	9	7			18
DART Killester	16	8	8			16
Tolka Rovers	16	7	9			14
Drimnagh Dynamoes	16	7	9			14
Glanmire	16	3	13			6
Tipperary Talons	16	0	16			0

[14]

Date	Home Team		Away Team
	Semi-Finals
	St. Paul’s Killarney	62	Wildcats	57
	University of Limerick	72	Sasha Meteors	57
	Final
	University of Limerick	70	St. Paul’s Killarney	56

[15]

Report

_________________________________________________________

The Amateur Basketball Association of Ireland was founded in 1947 and set up the first National League for men in 1971. In 1979 the League brought in professional players from America and the ABAI became the Irish Basketball Association and also started up the first Women’s League with a 1st and 2nd Division.

In 1997 the two Divisions were merged into one Women’s Super League, with a Regional League bbelow this, which in 2003 reverted back to two Divisions – Super League and Division 1 – with another rebranding of the Association to Basketball Ireland.

Wildcats of Waterford won the first Super League title in 1997-98 defeating Tolka Rovers 82-68 in the Final, and the following year they defeated  Killester 68-61, They completed a hat-trick of Super League titles in 1999-2000 winning against Dublin’s  Meteors 57-44. In the 2000-01 season they were awarded the title after the league was abandoned due to an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease as they were too far ahead to be caught by their nearest challengers.

The 2001-02 season saw the wildcats knocked off the top spot when Tolka Rovers finally won the title 66-59 in the Final against the University of Limerick. The students of Limerick, however, would come back stronger the following year and win the final 70-56 against St. Paul’s Killarney in an All-Munster Final.

This marked the end of an era as in 2003 the IBA rebranded as Basketball Ireland.

References

__________________________________________________________________

Sources

[1] (1998) “Basketball”. Irish Independent. Monday, March 2, 1998. pp. 20-21.

[2] (1998) “Basketball”. Irish Independent. Monday, March 16, 1998. pp. 34-35.

[3] (1999) “Basketball”. Irish Independent. Monday, March 15, 1999. pp. 42-43.

[4] (1999) “Basketball”. Irish Independent. Monday, March 22, 1999. pp. 46-47.

[5] (1999) “Basketball”. Irish Independent. Saturday, March 27, 1999. pp. 46-47.

[6] (1999) “Basketball”. Irish Independent. Monday, March 29, 1999, pp. 40-41.

[7] (2000) “Basketball”. Irish Independent. Monday, March 13, 2000. pp. 38-39.

[8] (2000) “Basketball”. Irish Independent. Saturday, March 18, 2000. pp. 24-25.

[9] (2000) “Basketball”. Irish Independent. Monday, March 20, 2000. pp. 38-39.

[10] (2001) “Basketball”. Irish Independent. Monday, February 26, 2001. pp. 28-29.

[11] (2002) “Basketball”. Irish Independent. Monday, March 11, 2002. pp. 94-95.

[12] (2002) “Basketball”. Irish Independent. Monday, March 18, 2002. pp. 28-29.

[13] (2002) “Basketball”. Irish Independent. Monday, March 25, 2002. pp. 74-75.

[14] (2003) “Basketball”. Irish Independent. Monday, March 10, 2003. pp. 66-67.

[15] (2003) “Basketball”. Irish Independent. Monday, March 24, 2003. pp. 34-35.

Internet Archive

[38] Wayback Machine Web Archive – Basketball Ireland (2004) SuperLeagues Womens Results – League Table from the 17th of July [Internet] Available from: https://web.archive.org/web/20040717140926/http://www.basketballireland.ie/asp/results.asp?leagueID=13 [Accessed 26 March 2017]

[39] Wayback Machine Web Archive – Basketball Ireland (2006) SuperLeagues Womens Results – League Table from the 26th of May [Internet] Available from: https://web.archive.org/web/20060526043315/http://www.basketballireland.ie/asp/results.asp?leagueID=13 [Accessed 26 March 2017]

[40] Wayback Machine Web Archive – Basketball Ireland (2007) Womens – SuperLeague [Internet] available from: https://web.archive.org/web/20070703030653/http://www.superleagueball.ie/ [Accessed 26 March 2017]

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Ann Hanley, Killester and Ireland National Team.

About this document

Researched, compiled and written by Enda Mulcahy for the

Eirball | Irish North American and World Sports Archive

Last Updated: 13 January 2019

(c) Copyright Enda Mulcahy and Eirball 2019

You may quote this document in part provided that proper acknowledgement is given to the authors. All Rights Resereved.