Great Britain national bandy team

The Great Britain national bandy team represents the United Kingdom in international bandy for men since 2019. There used to be a team England in international bandy in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but when Britain eventually came back to the sport, it was decided to do it under the name Great Britain.

Great Britain
AssociationGreat Britain Bandy Association (GBBA)
Team colors   
First international
 Great Britain 5–0 Latvia 
(Vänersborg, Sweden; 21 January 2019)
Biggest win
 Great Britain 11–0 China 
(Vänersborg, Sweden; 22 January 2019)
Biggest defeat
 Great Britain 3–9 Estonia 
(Vänersborg, Sweden; 25 January 2019)
Bandy World Championship
Appearances1
Best result10th (2nd in B div.) (2019)

England
AssociationNational Bandy Association
Team colors   

Early days: 1890s to 1910s

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An England national bandy team was formed in the years around 1900. It was a natural consequence of England being the birthplace of bandy in the 19th century, bandy often being seen as the winter equivalent to either association football or field hockey. Early international games were played against the Netherlands, Germany and France. At the time, bandy in England was administered through the National Bandy Association.

The societal upheavals due to World War I then ended the interest for bandy in Britain.[1]

Present time: 2010s and 2020s

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After almost a hundred years, a new national federation for bandy was formed. The Bandy Federation of England joined the Federation of International Bandy in 2010 and England aimed to play in the World Championships in the coming years. Debuting in 2018 was the goal.[2]

The federation changed names to England Bandy Federation in January 2017 and to Great Britain Bandy Association in September 2017. The Great Britain national bandy team made its debut at the 2019 Bandy World Championship in Sweden and managed to become runners-up in the B Division in its début championship tournament,[3] but could not attend the 2020 World Championship in Russia due to problems getting visas for the players.[4] The early 2020s has since seen a hiatus in international play due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

THE 2019 LINE-UP
Name Number Position
Collin Jack 5 Defender
Alexander Smith 6 Defender
Thomas Parker 8 -
Nathan Gilbert 9 -
Martin Deacon 10 -
Jacob Signeul 15 -
Oscar Gillingham-Aukner 18 -
Robin Signeul 22 -
Christopher Hall 29 GK
Timothy Smith 35 GK
Alex Ward 42 -
Oliver Corcoran 57 -
Joe Edwards 64 -
Michael Willock 65 -
Cormac Åhlström Horgan 77 -
Lewis Enfield 98 -
Anders Girup - Manager
Hans Åhström - Coach
Patrik Larsson Coach

References

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  1. ^ Ilya Trisvyatsky (14 February 2013). "Bandy: A concise history of the extreme sport". Russia Beyond the Headlines. Retrieved 13 February 2014.
  2. ^ An official statement published at Facebook
  3. ^ "REVEALED: How Kate Middleton and Prince William helped revive THIS historic British sport". 30 January 2019.
  4. ^ @TheGBBA (20 February 2020). "Unfortunately the GBBA has decided to..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.