Gerry Brooke looks back at the history of UK ice hockey

Ice hockey may be more associated with freezing Canadian winters than the mild-weather we get this side of the Atlantic, but it first gets a mention in the UK in 1895 when a match was played at Buckingham Palace.

Just a few years later, the first English club champions Niagara played at an ice rink close to St James’s Park station in London.

The sport was first played in Scotland a little later, about 100 years ago. The first English ice hockey league, formed in 1903/4, was won – rather unsurprisingly – by London Canadians.

But in 1910, England went onto win the first ever European Championship.

And in the first ever home international at London’s Princes Ice Rink, England defeated Scotland 11-1.

In 1913/14, the British Ice Hockey Association was founded and, 10 years later, Britain went on to win a bronze medal at the 1924 Olympics in Switzerland.

However, up until the mid-Twenties ice hockey remained a sport for a wealthy elite.

With so few rinks available in the UK, the players – often Canadians studying here – were forced to travel to Switzerland – their favourite haunt.

But after the first Canadian teams had visited this country in 1926, several rinks opened.

And then, between 1929 and 1930 – when, incidentally, an English League was formed – five new rinks opened their doors.

From 1935 to 1939, the sport, for a few short years anyway, entered something of a “golden age”.

Three large arenas – with capacity crowds – opened at Wembley’s Empire Pool (1935), Earls Court (1935) and Harringay (1936).

In 1936, the national team won the Olympic, World and European titles in Germany and then, in 1937/8, went on to retain the European Championship.

In 1938 the first game was televised.

In 1946/47, after the war years, ice hockey returned with leagues similar to those operating in the Thirties – but with much more home-grown talent.

The mid-Fifties saw the amalgamation of the English and Scottish Leagues but with a reduction to just five teams – Brighton Tigers, Harringay Racers, Nottingham Panthers, Paisley Pirates and Wembley Lions.

But after two teams withdrew the British League folded.

Then, in 1965, Brighton Sports Stadium – the home of the Brighton Tigers – closed.

Southampton Vikings folded in 1963 with the team moving to Wembley where they played as the Lions until the end of 1968.

Between 1965 and 1967, a Northern League was established, with Durham – always a hotbed of the sport – and Whitley Bay being the only English members.

A Southern League was established with five teams in 1970/1.

Despite some setbacks, the sport remained popular, with up to 7,500 spectators turning out to watch games at Wembley.

When Bristol joined the league in 1971/72, the majority of the team were former Southampton juniors who travelled up to the city for matches.

In 1976/77, the Southern League expanded from 10 to 14 teams, with Oxford and Cambridge Universities being among the new entrants.

The following year saw this split into two – an Inter-City League and a Midland League.

The game was now growing rapidly in popularity, with several clubs adding both reserve and junior teams.

Though there were few overseas players, the entertainment level was high enough to attract sizeable crowds.

1980/81 saw the end-of- season British Champion- ships screened by ITV Thames.

In 1982/83, with the British League revived, Whitbread (under the Heineken label) began a £5 million, 10-year sponsorship – the largest deal of its kind that the sport had

ever known.

The mid to late Eighties saw 11 ice rinks opened, including Cardiff, Basingstoke, Bracknell and Slough, and 1989 saw the UK returned to the World Championship for the first time in eight years.

In 1996/97 a “Superleague” sweep away the old Premier Division and Division One.

A match between Manchester Storm and Sheffield Steelers in the city’s 17,500-seat arena, shown live on Sky, attracted a record crowd of 17,245.

It was so popular that 1,500 fans were unable to obtain tickets.

Replacing the 1913 British Ice Hockey Association, Ice Hockey UK, the sport’s governing body, came into being 10 years ago.

Four new rinks opened in the millennium – the Coventry Skydome, Nottingham’s National Ice Centre, the Dundee Ice Arena and Belfast’s Odyssey Arena.

A year or two later, Ice Sheffield opened, a two-rink complex, followed later by Manchester’s new rink and another in Cardiff Bay.

But the country’s most successful team, Sheffield Steelers, collapsed with heavy debts. They were later revived.

In 2002/03, the Superleague went into liquidation, but the three surviving clubs – Belfast Giants, Nottingham Panthers and Sheffield Steelers – persuaded five others to join them in forming a new Elite League.

Then, with the collapse of the British National League (BNL) in 2005, Edinburgh Capitals and Newcastle Vipers also joined the new league.