Features

There's uni hockey in Britain? Too right there is!

Wednesday, 22nd December 2004

It may surprise many people that the sport of Ice Hockey has a presence in British Universities.. and it's spreading. Three years ago there were around ten teams, but this current season there are now over twenty teams affiliated to the British Universities Ice Hockey Association (BUIHA), and that number will continue to grow with new clubs being formed and current clubs expanding to multiple teams.

So what does the BUIHA do? Put simply, we organise all the competitions that take place though the year. The regular season is the Universities Cup, with three Divisions, the third being beginners only. The end of the season is the National Championships, now in its fifth year.

The National Championships represent ice hockey at its best. Played for fun and pride. With twenty four hours of hockey over the course of the weekend it is a special event for every player regardless of ability or team.

And another shocker: Despite there being no ice facilities in Manchester, Manchester still has a team - the Metros. The Metros, in their first season of existance, couldn't have been given a hard task to start off, playing the two strongest teams of Division Two North in Sheffield and Newcastle. Both away! Unfortunately they were somewhat outclassed by Sheffield losing 11-0 and 17-1 by Newcastle.

The BUIHA has just launched its National Team; we have two experienced coaches in Matt Bradbury and Mike Urquhart in place to lead the team to success. In 2007 this team will then compete at the Winter Universiade against other countries such as Canada, USA and Finland, providing that sufficient sponsorship can be attracted.

Fixtures, Results, Standing and Stats as well as a great forum community is available on our website at http://www.buiha.org.uk

by Martin Sharpe, BUIHA Media Secretary