Under 16 - March 2007

Team England Win Tilburg Tournament

Last week the Team England under 16’s travelled to Holland to take part in the Chris Verwijst Tournament, an International Tournament for National Teams, with the exception of the host club Tilburg Trappers who are a club team, they are allowed to participate in the tournament because they have several over-age players to compensate for the National Team advantage of all the other teams.

The tournament was a huge success for the Team England squad which featured 2 Cardiff Dragons Players, Ben Davies and Tom Evans. The team had such a successful win that the EIHA Chairman Bob Wilkinson sent the following message to all the players who took part: - “On behalf of the English Ice Hockey Association and Youth Management Committee we wish to congratulate the England under 16 Team on their magnificent achievement in Holland. It is possibly one of the best England Teams that has ever played together. The team came away from Holland with a fantastic result. Our congratulations also to the England team coaches who must all be very proud of the boys. The comments the team received were very complimentary especially the ones regarding their discipline”.

After a busy week and playing a big part in Team England’s win both Ben and Tom are now back in training with their Dragon team mates but they took time out before this weeks training session to tell us all about their trip.

Firstly congratulations both on your win with Team England, how was the tournament and how did your games go?

The tournament was really good. We had a big opening ceremony before the games began and that was amazing. There was a singer, some 16-17 years olds doing break dancing – they were outstanding and some of the Tilburg Trappers Players were there also walking around on the ice, Jeff Burgoyne was one of them (ex Cardiff Devil). It was good to see him and he stayed to watch some of our games

Ben Davies

Ben Davies:
"Our first game in the group stages was against Latvia but we lost to them 3-2. We then played Tilburg in our second game. Tilburg are a club team and they were the tournament hosts, we beat them 11-1. In our third game we faced Switzerland and they are like an Olympic team. We had to either draw or beat them to go through. We were tied 1 all with them going into the third period and then they pulled their goalie and we scored an empty netter – that was a really good game”.

“We then went onto our semi finals where we met Poland; again we won beating them 6-2, so quite convincingly. The final was then between us (Team England) and Latvia, the team who beat us in our group stages. That was a really hard game. It was the first time that Latvia had entered into the tournament so they did really well. In the game we went 1-0 up, our goalie was outstanding and they couldn’t get anything past him until the 3rd period when we let one in so that took us to 1 all but luckily we scored just a few minutes later to make it 2-1 and we held on to win the game and the tournament. That was the best part of the trip for me the final game, and winning the trophy, the atmosphere was great and the cup we won was huge almost as big as the Stanley Cup. We don’t get to keep the cup it stays in Holland but we all came away with individual medals”.

“The best part of the tournament for me was playing against Tilburg with a crowd of 3000 - 4000 people that was really good, the atmosphere was great. Our toughest game I think was against Latvia in the final, there was a lot of pressure on our D-Men. The Latvian players played at such a faster pace and were so strong, so were the other teams we played against. They were all really good teams and all play at a higher standard. But we had more determination to win”

Tom Evans

Tom Evans:

So Tom how did it feel to win the tournament?

"I was ecstatic, we all skated around after we were presented with the cup holding it up like they do with the Stanley Cup showing it off to the crowd and taking photos, it was awesome. While we were happy with the win we were a bit sad too as it was our last time playing for Team England because of our ages; the next step is GB under 18’s. That is what we are both working towards and it would be awesome to achieve a GB place. We are off to the Hull Tournament next month and that is where the GB selection process begins".

In his praise for the team Bob Wilkinson went on to say – “This is the FIRST TIME EVER that an ENGLAND team has won this Tournament and the achievement is fantastic when you consider the other national teams that took part. Only once before have we come away with the title but that was with a Great Britain Team many years ago so once again thank you to everyone who made this achievement possible”.

The teams were in two pools. Following the round robin the top two in each group went into the 1-4th place play-off and the bottom two went into 5-8th place play-offs.

Final Standings: 1 England, 2 Latvia, 3 Eaglebrook, 4 Poland, 5 Switzerland, 6 Austria, 7 Netherlands, 8 Tilburg.

Congratulations Ben and Tom once more on your win with Team England from everyone here at Cardiff Junior Ice Hockey Club.

 

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