British Universities Ice Hockey Association

The British Universities Ice Hockey Association was founded in spring term 2003 by an group of enthusiastic hockey players from the universities of Oxford, London, Nottingham and Newcastle.

History of the BUIHA

Although still a young organisation, the British Universities Ice Hockey Association, or BUIHA, was formed in response to the growing number of universities with ice hockey programmes in an effort to provide students with competitive ice hockey whilst at university, no matter what their level of play.

The notion to form the BUIHA first arose in Easter 2003. The idea was to simply form a divisional competition for the existing university teams. Development over the summer of 2003 led to a committee being put in place, a schedule being set and a number of teams signed up to take part in the first ever BUIHA University Cup. The National Championships was already an existing competition. Indeed, the 2003/4 formative season finished in style at the National Championships weekend where the then 13 member teams battled it out for The Rawlinson Plate & The Hopkins Plate.

The following season, to further the BUIHA objective of progression at all levels of the sport, the BUIHA introduced Division 3. Also joining the BUIHA in its second season were a number of new university teams, a number that would be again bolstered in its 3rd season bringing the total teams for 2005-6 to 29.

The 2008-9 Season saw the Bristol Lions enter for the 1st time. With a number of other clubs joining with a view to entering the 2009-10 season, including the Surrey Sharks and the University of Glasgow.

The National Championships

It all began over a couple of pints one rainy afternoon in Oxford, the precise details of which are lost in the mists of time. The then secretary of the Oxford Vikings, Alexis Rawlinson, came up with the idea of organising a tournament for all the university ice hockey teams in the UK. At the time this was not such a daunting organisational prospect, given that there were only seven teams.

A few weeks later five teams (blues squads were not invited as they were above the standard of all other teams) gathered for a late night ice hockey session at Oxford Ice Rink starting at 11pm and running all the way through to the morning. The result of this was a narrow Newcastle victory by one point over the Oxford Vikings. Newcastle arranged the next two events at the NIC in Nottingham, which saw victories for Newcastle in 2002 and London in 2003.

For 2004, to recognise the contribution of Alexis to British University Ice Hockey, the top National Championship trophy was renamed the Rawlinson Plate.

2004 also saw the introduction of a 2nd Tier of competition due to the introduction of many new teams. The BUIHA is now host of a range of new teams from England, Scotland and Wales as well as the original 7 that entred the first National Championships in 2001. From 2005 onwards Teir II was re-named The Hopkins Plate.

Team Great Britain

Launched at the end of the 2004-5 season, Team Great Britain is the national university side that will compete against other national universtiy sides, including competing at the bi-annual FISU World University Games. Mike Urquhart & Matt Bradbury have agreed to coach the team. Any person attending university anywhere in the world whom is a UK & Northern Ireland citizen between 17 and 28, no matter to what level they have played our great sport.

Member Teams

Midlands

* Birmingham Eagles
* Nottingham Mavericks
* Warwick Panthers

North

* Bradford Sabres
* Huddersfield Hawks
* Hull Hawks
* Manchester Metros
* Newcastle Wildcats
* Northumbria Flames
* Sheffield Bears

Scotland

* Edinburgh Eagles

South

* Bristol Lions
* Cambridge Blues
* Imperial College Devils
* Oxford Blues
* Southampton Spitfires
* Surrey Sharks
* Universities Of London Dragons

Wales

* Cardiff Redhawks

External links

* [http://www.buiha.org.uk British University Ice Hockey Association official web site]