RN Ice Hockey Association (RNIHA)

The Royal Navy Ice Hockey Association (RNIHA) was set up in late 2006 to promote ice hockey in the RN and is responsible for the day-to-day running of the sport within the Senior Service.  The Navy is proud to boast of the recent success of its teams, the Command-level teams never finishing less than 3rd at any of the Tri-Service Command Championships since 2006, finally winning the competition in 2009.  The top flight team has also won the Inter-Services trophy twice since its inception in 2007 (back to back wins in 2007 and 2008) and finished a respectable 14th in the 2009 European Services Championships in Switzerland, ahead of both the British Army and Royal Air Force.
 
There are records of a RN ice hockey team dating as far back as the 1930s.  More recently, in the early 1990s, Royal Navy players played as part of the Gosport-based Sentinels in English Division 1.  That primarily civilian team disbanded in the mid-90s, forcing enthusiastic RN personnel to play as part of the Army team until two keen and determined junior ratings, Able Seaman Kevin Cave and Leading Seaman Stephen Knightley re-started the team in 2006.  Canvassing for players throughout the service, they managed to find enough skaters by word of mouth to enter an RN team in the 2nd annual Tri-Service Command Championships, the first RN team to particiapte in the competition. 

Despite most of the players meeting for the first time outside the rink on the first day of the tournament, the sailors and marines impressed with a 3rd place out of the 8 competing teams.  The next year, the Navy hosted the competition and expanded the format to include the first ever Inter-Services where the best players of from the Royal Navy, Royal Air Force and British Army would be selected from the competing unit teams to determine the HM Forces Champions.  Under Navy leadership, the Combined Tri-Service Command and Inter-Services Championships have become one of the largest ice hockey competitions in the UK, with over 60 hours of hockey played over 3 days. 

Learning from the problems with the Sentinels, the team is now run for and by military personnel including reservists and MOD employees.  The association also welcomes retired service members and a small number of interested civilians.  Priority will always be given to military members (including reservists) when selecting teams for fixtures and Forces Sports regulations only allow serving members, reservists on full-time service and foreign personnel on a full-time exchane to represent their service Inter-Service competition (Army, Navy and RAF).

Players from the Navy have also been selected to represent the Combined Services against a few professional teams in a number of charity events over the last few years, raising thousands of pounds for a number of worthwhile defence and local charities. 

The Navy originally selected the Link Centre in Swindon as its home venue (chosen for being almost equidistant between the 2 main naval bases in the South of the UK) and started up its own forthnightly training session in 2007. The home ice was moved to Gosport in 2009 and the fixture schedule expanded to include 2 games a month against service and civilian teams throughout the UK. 

For more information and news about Royal Navy ice hockey, visit the RNIHA website www.rniha.org.uk.  The site also contains contact details for personnel interested in joining the team, details of fixtures and training and the necessary paperwork required to join the asscociation.

The Royal Navy Ice Hockey Team was started by Kevin Cave and Steve Knightley and first dressed as a team in 2006 since when it has gone from strength to strength. Tri-service champions two years running (2007, 2008), this strong team of RN and RM serving personnel is hoping to retain the title in 2009 having competed at international level in Switzerland earlier in the year.

The team has taken part in many charity games including for ‘Children In Need’ and ‘Help For Heroes’ and has more in its future programme, one of them being at Gosport against the Solent Devils.

All standards of players are welcome.

Contact
Lt. Adam Lappin
General Secretary
[email protected]