The British Sledge Hockey Association (BSHA) is proud to announce that three of its members have been selected to join the European Ice Sledge Hockey programme. The three players are; Julie Plumbley (Peterborough Phantoms), Caroline Bonner (Coventry Flames) and Sarah Geddes (Basingstoke Bison). The trio are being supported by GB Team Manager, Captain Readford Geddes.
The European women’s sledge hockey programme is led by the Netherlands, Johan Balder, a Paralympic Ice Sledge Speed Racer and Dutch Ice Sledge Hockey Player. The intention of the programme is to develop an all-female European team to play against the female teams of Canada and the USA in May 2012.
Julie said, “I am so pleased to be given this opportunity. I only started playing Sledge Hockey after attending a British Paralympic Association talent ID day earlier this year. Thanks to the support of my team, the Peterborough Phantoms, I have developed as a player and it is my dream to play for both the European women’s team and the GB team next year. I’m also really honoured to get the chance to meet, and play with, Betty Meijer who was the first woman to play Sledge Hockey at an IPC event”.
Captain Geddes said, “It is great to see British Sledge Hockey working in cooperation with other countries to develop the sport of ice sledge hockey, inclusion and opportunities for women to play sledge hockey at the highest level. We hope that this will inspire European countries to develop female players with a few to developing national women’s team”.
BSHA Chairman said, “This is a great initiative for us to be involved in. In the early part of the last decade there was a British all-female team lead by Joanna Coates-McGrath, the Ice Maidens, but they disbanded due to a lack of competitive opportunities. The BSHA will do everything it can to support the initiative and we hope to see players from this programme participating at the World Championships next year”.
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