Great Britain’s Head Coach Tony Hand has named his 22 man squad for the World Championships in Hungary later this month; showing minor changes to the roster that made the trip to the pre-olympic qualifers in February. A strong 41 man squad was announced just over a week ago, with notable inclusions from English Premier League (EPL) teams; two of which have made the final cut.
Four changes have been made to the team that was originally selected for the final Olympic qualifers in Latvia in February. Steve Lee, who was replaced by Jonathan Weaver for Latvia due to injury, has been included from the start. Fellow defender, Luke Boothroyd, has also been included fresh from his play-off winning services for the Manchester Phoenix. Forwards Ben Davies (Cardiff Devils) and Aaron Nell, of the EPL Swindon Wildcats, have also made the cut in the 22 man squad.
Luke Boothroyd has been included in the team to fly to Hungary. Photo by David Steadman
Unfortunately Ben O’Connor has been denied release from his KHL club to attend the tournament; whilst Rod Sarich, Mark Garside and Jason Hewitt will also miss out.
GB have began their training camp this week, following the EIHL and EPL play-off finals weekend, before heading out to Hungary on Friday.
They will face the hosts in the first match of the Division One – Group A tournament. The teams play a single round-robin series. Each teams plays each opponent once and the winner of the event will be promoted to the Top Division. The last-ranked team will be relegated to Division I Group B.
Coach Hand said: “All games are tough at this level and they will be five difficult games for us throughout the tournament.
“We are taking a strong team away with us, even though we have key guys out. I would love the team to come away with a medal.
“We are looking forward to the three-day camp now and get ourselves prepared for an important week.”
Netminders
Ben Bowns (Hull Stingrays)
Stephen Murphy (Belfast Giants)
Defencemen
Danny Meyers (Sheffield Steelers)
Dave Phillips (Belfast Giants)
Mark Richardson (Cardiff Devils)
Mark Thomas (Sheffield Steelers)
Steve Lee (Nottingham Panthers)
Luke Boothroyd (Manchester Phoenix)
Jonathan Weaver (Nottingham Panthers)
Forwards
David Clarke (Nottingham Panthers)
Robert Dowd (Troja-Ljungby)
Robert Farmer (Braehead Clan)
Ben Davies (Cardiff Devils)
Phil Hill (Cardiff Devils)
Robert Lachowicz (Nottingham Panthers)
Matthew Myers (Nottingham Panthers)
Greg Owen (Basingstoke Bison)
Craig Peacock (Belfast Giants)
Aaron Nell (Swindon Wildcats)
Ashley Tait (Sheffield Steelers)
Colin Shields (Belfast Giants)
The schedule of the games are as follows;
14th April@19:30 – Hungary v GB
15th April @16:00 – GB v Kazakhstan
17th April @16:00 – GB v Italy
19th April @16:00 – GB v Japan
20th April @12:30 – GB v South Korea
Through the Plexi 