The British women's national ice hockey team represents Great Britain at the International Ice Hockey Federation's IIHF World Women's Championships. The women's national team is controlled by Ice Hockey UK. As of 2011, Great Britain has 476 female players.
History
From 1989 to 1997, the British women's national team competed in the European Championships. After 1999, the team has competed in the IIHF World Women's Championships. At present, Great Britain play in Division II. In 1989, Team GB re-entered the World of International Hockey, with a European Championship two-leg qualifying match against the Netherlands in Chelmsford. GB battled hard in both games but were defeated by an experienced Dutch side, winning both games by the margin of four goals to two, giving the Dutch an 8–4 aggregate win and a place in the European Championship. Below is a guide to GB's performances year by year from 1989 to 2005. Only 'competitive' games (challenge matches ignored) are counted for the records.
1990s
No official competitions existed in 1990, however GB defeated the Dutch in Amsterdam 1–0 in a challenge match. In 1991, Team GB took part in the 1991 European Championship finishing 9th out of 10 teams. Placed in a very tough Group B, they lost their first three games to Sweden (0–16), Denmark (0–4) and Germany (0–6) before surprising the Czech Republic with a 2–2 draw in their final game. GB finished bottom of their group, and played Holland in the 9th/10th playoff which they won 3–0.
After the break for an Olympic year, GB started 1993 in the newly formed World Championship Pool B. Following an opening loss against Latvia (0–3), GB repeated their performance against the Czech Republic from two years ago, this time with a 1–1 draw. France, dispatched GB easily in the third game by 7 goals to 2, and GB won their first International game in the final match of the tournament with a 1–0 win over Ukraine. giving GB a respectable 4th-placed finish out of 5 teams, with GB only missing a medal by one point.
GB went to Denmark, for the IIHF World Women's Championships Pool B in March 1995, and faced a tough group on paper and proved to be a tough group on ice. GB fell to their worst defeat in 4 years, in the opening game with a 14–1 defeat to Denmark. Slovakia defeated GB 4–1 and in the final group game Holland put seven past the Brits, with only two coming back.
The 7th/8th playoff game saw GB take on Ukraine, the only side they had beaten in competitive hockey so far. Ukraine skated to a 2–0 victory which saw GB finish 8th out of 8 teams.
A trip to Slovakia was in store for GB in Pool B in 1996. GB started positively with a much better account against Denmark who they had been routed against the previous year falling only to a 5–0 defeat. They lost in their 2nd game against the Danes who GB had previously done well against collapsing to a 7–1 defeat. That scoreline was repeated in the final group round game against the Dutch to leave GB adrift at the bottom of their group.
The 7th/8th playoff saw GB take on Kazakhstan and for the first time in the tournament, team GB took the game to their opponents in a thrilling encounter. The Asian side was just able to edge ahead and won by the odd goal in 9 leaving GB in 8th out of 8 place and without a win in two years.
Following a re-structuring in 1999 for the World Championships, (and no championship in 1998 due to it being an Olympic year), GB finally came back into the new Pool B Qualifying Group to decide the final spot in Pool B for the following year.
In Székesfehérvár, Hungary, Great Britain opened brightly holding Italy to a 1–1 draw after 40 minutes in the opening game before Italy stepping the game up a gear to skate out to a 4–1 victory however the signs looked good. The next game was against the hapless South Africa, which ended to be a sporting contest on the opening puck drop with GB running up their highest ever victory at International level with a 22–0 victory.
After a slow start in the final game GB hit the host team Hungary hard with five quick goals in a match that ended up as 9–1 to the Brits, leaving them finish 2nd out of 4 teams.
2000s
It was back to Hungary in the year 2000, for the Pool B Qualifying Tournament. GB again had a strong start with the Brits 1–1 against the Group Favourites DPR Korea in their first game. Korea struck back with two 2nd period goals but despite a fightback by GB, the game ended up 4–2 to the Asian side.