History of the Club
Early days – 1953
The Club grew out of Hillside school, small court, pre 1953 some local matches were played outside, a small local league started in Shorncliffe Camp. Very much a minority sport.
1953 – Folkestone Saints Basketball Club started officially, Dicky Steptoe co-founder liked the songs – ‘When the Saints go marching in
Saints is older than...
1953 – Saints founded
1954 – Microwave oven
1956 – Hard drive
1960 – Pace maker
1961 – Cordless tools
1974 – Barcode
1979 – Sony Walkman
1983 – Microsoft Word
1984 – DNA fingerprinting
1989 – World Wide Web
The First Saints Team
Hillside School in sports exchange with Middleburgh Holland, team became Folkestone Saints in 1953 –
No3 John Fuller, No 8 Mike Vernol, No 6 Robert Lee, No 9 Alex Jeffrey, No 12 Richard Steptoe, No 11 Tom Saunders, No 5 Eddie Blecher. Coach Arthur Hermitage
Arthur Hermitage - 50 years with Club
Founder, first Saints coach, long term President
Previously sports teacher at Hillside
Supported the club from the 1950s to 2000
1965
Richard Goss joined as a schoolchild.
Colin Amos was running the Club – also, ran the rock shop Old High Street; running two teams at that time. Red Devils also were a Folkestone team but disbanded
East Kent League 1961/62 formed: there were Folkestone, Royal Marines Deal, Herne Bay etc.
Won East Kent League Cup 1967
1972 Folkestone Sports Centre,
1980’s and 1990’s
- 1980s Folkestone had 4 teams. Including Folkestone Phantoms (Ladies); 60 adults registered at one point; National League Southern Division for a time. Ladies was stronger here: two division of 10 ladies teams. Saints Cherubs?
- No three point line, teams never reached 100 points
- Richard played with Martin Clarke (once captained England), even trained with his mother Francis Clarke (England Ladies 1960’s) and Tim Lewis, but Bob Ellis was best player he played with
- Kevin Edwards was assistant coach
Saints had a few names Cherubs, Phantoms, Stags, Beavers.
1990-2000’s
Richard Goss stepped down in the late 1990’s and Paul Jessop took over (no 12 in picture)
Paul also played National League for another Kent/Medway Club as did a few others Zach, Steve Towell, Tyler, James, Dave. Folkestone weren’t in the National League during this period.
Folkestone still doing well in Local League, long term rivals to Whistable and we played in Medway periodically also
Russell Levenston played for us for a few years then moved to Leicester where he brought Leicester Riders for a pound and made them Div 1 UK champions
Paul Jessop
Ran the club for a few years 2000 – 2006
2007
Mark Hinton became head coach, from Paul
Nick Lloyd and Bob helped with Juniors, with support from others
Saints junior programme (2016)
TIB Wimreux CHAMPIONS 2018
COVID 19!
2019/20 season postponed!
Lockdowns!
Workouts at home!
WHEN WILL IT END????
1-1 (Face to face sessions!)
Groups of 6 training!
Team only training sessions!… the nightmare of player and coach screenings!
Back to full sessions and matchdays!
2020 - Present Day
Biggest development post COVID have been around the Junior Setup and Junior National League
Flames strengthening and got to Finals of Ladies Cup 2023, but lost to Dartford
Men got to Finals of Mens Cup but lost to long-term rivals Whistable.
Some of the current Saints Junior Programme!
