British Universities Ice Hockey Association

British Universities Ice Hockey Association	British Universities Ice Hockey Association
 	
Abbreviation 	BUIHA
Formation 	2003
Legal status 	Not-profit organisation
Purpose/focus 	UK university ice hockey
Location 	University of Nottingham Sports Centre
Region served 	UK
Membership 	UK university ice hockey clubs
Chairman 	A Miller
Main organ 	BUIHA Executive Committee
Affiliations 	British Universities and Colleges Sport
Website 	BUIHA
The British Universities Ice Hockey Association was founded in spring term 2003 by a group of enthusiastic hockey players from the universities of Oxford, London, Nottingham and Newcastle.
== History of the BUIHA==
Although still a young organisation, the British Universities Ice Hockey Association, or BUIHA, was formed in response to the growing number of universities with ice hockey programmes in an effort to provide students with competitive ice hockey whilst at university, no matter what their level of play.
The notion to form the BUIHA first arose in Easter 2003. The idea was to simply form a divisional competition for the existing university teams. Development over the summer of 2003 led to a committee being put in place, a schedule being set and a number of teams signed up to take part in the first ever BUIHA University Cup. The National Championships was already an existing competition. Indeed, the 2003/4 formative season finished in style at the National Championships weekend where the then 13 member teams battled it out for The Rawlinson Plate & The Hopkins Plate.
The following season, to further the BUIHA objective of progression at all levels of the sport, the BUIHA introduced Division 3. Also joining the BUIHA in its second season were a number of new university teams, a number that would be again bolstered in its 3rd season bringing the total teams for 2005-6 to 29.
The 2008-9 Season saw the Bristol Lions enter for the 1st time. The sole new enterant in the 2009/2010 season were the newly formed Kent Knights, who arrived on the scene with an old friend lining up in a Knights roster. It was the time that Old Skool had ended his associaion with Imperial College Devils and was playing for his University for the very first time. The 2010/11 season has the interest of several new Universities looking to enter teams including Oxford Womens Blues, Unversity of Bath, UCLAN, Anglia Ruskin University. The University of Bangor and Plymouth University.
== The National Championships==
It all began over a couple of pints one rainy afternoon in Oxford, the precise details of which are lost in the mists of time. The then secretary of the Oxford Vikings, Alexis Rawlinson, came up with the idea of organising a tournament for all the university ice hockey teams in the UK. At the time this was not such a daunting organisational prospect, given that there were only seven teams.
A few weeks later five teams (blues squads were not invited as they were above the standard of all other teams) gathered for a late night ice hockey session at Oxford Ice Rink starting at 11pm and running all the way through to the morning. The result of this was a narrow Newcastle victory by one point over the Oxford Vikings. Newcastle arranged the next two events at the NIC in Nottingham, which saw victories for Newcastle in 2002 and London in 2003.
For 2004, to recognise the contribution of Alexis to British University Ice Hockey, the top National Championship trophy was renamed the Rawlinson Plate.
2004 also saw the introduction of a 2nd Tier of competition due to the introduction of many new teams. The BUIHA is now host of a range of new teams from England, Scotland and Wales as well as the original 7 that entred the first National Championships in 2001. From 2005 onwards tier II was re-named The Hopkins Plate. From the 2011 the Tier III plate is to be renamed the Andrew "God" Miller Premier trophy. The Plate itself is to be melted down and recast into a 5 meter high, 1 centimeter circumfrence, trophy with a sculpted head of the BUIHA Chairman on top. Every team captain that subsequently wins this competition has to accept the trophy by kissing the chairmans sculpted forehead.
At the 2009-2010 National Championships the BUIHA Committee recognized that this competition should introduce another category that measures a vital part of hockey which takes place both on an off the ice, heckling. For three years it has been undeniable that one player has brought banter to a new level in the BUIHA, and this individual will be surely be sorely missed at next year's nationals. James Zeller of the 2010 National Champion Div I Sheffield Bears was the first winner of the "bant of the year award.' Never has a player garnered the hatred of multiple teams, across multiple divisions for merely trying to promote the ideals of fair play, in a loud, spirited manner. Sir, you are a gentleman and a scholar.
== The Cup Competition==
Created in Autumn 2004 by the founding BUIHA committee the cup competition was envisioned as a league type competition available to university clubs in the UK.
Operating within the EIHA recreational section the clubs involved played a round robin format with the winner being declared at the end of the season as the team with the most points (using goal difference as a tie breaker).
Founding clubs of the initial 2 divisions (in alphabetical order) were:
Division 1
*Cambridge University Blues
*University of London Union Purples (name subsequently changed to Dragons)
*Universities of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent Ice Hockey Club Mavericks A
Division 2
*Cambridge University Eskimos
*Imperial College Devils
*Newcastle University Wildcats
*Oxford University Vikings
*Universities of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent Mavericks B
*University of Warwick Panthers
From the 2008/2009 season the BUIHA operated directly under the EIHA board after being awarded a section of their own and separating from the Rec section. This has led to several improvements to the way the organisation can operate.
== Team Great Britain==
Launched at the end of the 2004-5 season, Team Great Britain is the national university side that will compete against other national university sides, including competing at the bi-annual FISU World University Games. Mike Urquhart & Matt Bradbury have agreed to coach the team. Any person attending university anywhere in the world who is a UK & Northern Ireland citizen between the ages of 17 and 28 is able to play for the team. This disregards the level to which they have played the sport.
== Winners==
=== Division 1===
Year	Cup Competition 	Cup Competition 	National Championship	Playoffs
2001	n/a 	n/a 	Newcastle Wildcats 	n/a
2002	n/a 	n/a 	Newcastle Wildcats 	n/a
2003	n/a 	n/a 	London Dragons 	n/a
2004	Cambridge Blues 	Cambridge Blues 	Nottingham Mavericks 	n/a
2005	Nottingham Mavericks	Nottingham Mavericks	London Dragons 	n/a
2006	Nottingham Mavericks	Nottingham Mavericks	Nottingham Mavericks 	n/a
2007	Nottingham Mavericks	Nottingham Mavericks	Sheffield Bears 	n/a
2008	North 	South 	 	
2008	Nottingham Mavericks	London Dragons 	London Dragons 	London Dragons
2009	Nottingham Mavericks	Oxford Blues 	Nottingham Mavericks 	Oxford Blues
2010	Newcastle Wildcats 	London Dragons 	Sheffield Bears 	Oxford Blues
=== Division 2===
Year	Cup Competition 	Cup Competition 	Cup Competition 	Cup Competition 	Cup Competition 	Cup Competition 	National Championship 	Playoffs
Year	North 	North 	North 	South 	South 	South 	National Championship 	Playoffs
2004	Newcastle Wildcats 	Newcastle Wildcats 	Newcastle Wildcats 	Nottingham Mavericks B	Nottingham Mavericks B	Nottingham Mavericks B	Sheffield Bears B 	n/a
2005	Edinburgh Eagles 	Edinburgh Eagles 	Edinburgh Eagles 	Cambridge Eskimos 	Cambridge Eskimos 	Cambridge Eskimos 	Nottingham Mavericks B	n/a
2006	Nottingham Mavericks B	Nottingham Mavericks B	Nottingham Mavericks B	Southampton Spitfires 	Southampton Spitfires 	Southampton Spitfires 	Cardiff Redhawks 	n/a
2007	Northumbria Flames 	Northumbria Flames 	Northumbria Flames 	Birmingham Eagles B 	Birmingham Eagles B 	Birmingham Eagles B 	Oxford Vikings 	Birmingham Eagles B
2008	Sheffield Bears B 	Sheffield Bears B 	Sheffield Bears B 	Nottingham Mavericks B	Nottingham Mavericks B	Nottingham Mavericks B	Northumbria Flames 	Nottingham Mavericks B
2009	North 	North 	Central 	Central 	South 	South 	 	
2009	Northumbria Flames 	Northumbria Flames 	Manchester Metros 	Manchester Metros 	Cardiff Redhawks 	Cardiff Redhawks 	Manchester Metros 	Northumbria Flames
2010	Hull Ice Hogs 	Hull Ice Hogs 	Manchester Metros 	Manchester Metros 	Oxford Vikings 	Oxford Vikings 	Manchester Metros 	Manchester Metros
=== Division 3===
Year	Cup Competition 	Cup Competition 	National Championship 	Playoffs
2006	n/a 	n/a 	Nottingham Mavericks C	n/a
2007	Sheffield Bears C 	Sheffield Bears C 	Cardiff Redhawks B 	n/a
2008	North 	South 	 	
2008	Northumbria Flames B	Nottingham Mavericks C	Nottingham Mavericks C	n/a
2009	Sheffield Bears C 	Cardiff Redhawks B 	Cardiff Redhawks B 	Cardiff Redhawks B
2010	TBC 	TBC 	Nottingham Mavericks C	TBC
Notes:
Seasons 2007-2009 saw the winners of the regional conferences play off against one another to determine an overall division champion (bold). From the 2010 Season a longer running playoff format was put in place with the top four sides in each conference in Division 1 playing off against in each other before the National Final, in Division 2 the top two sides of each conference qualified for the conference playoffs along with the best two runners up, before the two finalists meet in the National Final
== Member teams==
=== Midlands===
*Birmingham Eagles
*Nottingham Mavericks
*Warwick Panthers
=== North===
*Bradford Sabres
*Huddersfield Ice Hawks
*Hull Ice Hogs
*Manchester Metros
*Newcastle Wildcats
*Northumbria Flames
*Sheffield Bears
=== Scotland===
*Edinburgh Eagles
=== South===
*Bristol Lions
*Cambridge Blues
*Imperial College Devils
*Kent Knights
*Oxford Blues
*Southampton Spitfires
*Universities Of London Dragons
=== Wales===
*Cardiff Redhawks
== BUIHA Committees 2002-9==
=== Executive Committee===
 	Chairman 	Vice Chairman 	Secretary 	Tresurer 	Fixtures Secretary	Player Rep 	CTO 	Events Co-Ordinator
2002-4 	R Ellis (ULU) 	G Brewer (Ncl) 	C May (Ox) 	- 	A Miller (Ncl) 	- 	- 	-
2004/5 	S Hopkins (Nott) 	S Clifford (Nott) 	R Ellis (ULU) 	- 	A Miller (Ncl) 	- 	- 	-
2005/6 	S Clifford (Nott) 	A Batchelder (EIHA) 	C Davila (Lon) 	R Whyatt (Nott) 	T Brooks (Shef) 	- 	- 	-
2006/7 	S Clifford (Nott) 	A Batchelder (EIHA) 	A Miller (Ncl) 	R Whyatt (Nott) 	- 	- 	- 	-
2007/8 	A Miller (Ncl) 	S Hopkins (Nott) 	- 	R Whyatt (Nott) 	R Grant (Unat) 	D Needham (ULU) 	- 	-
2008/9 	A Miller (Ncl) 	S Hopkins (Nott) 	R Grant (Unat) 	R Whyatt (Nott) 	- 	K McCormack (Nor) 	- 	-
2009/10	A "God" Miller (Nor)	S "Shorts" Hopkins (Nott)	R "Awesome" Grant (Unat)	A "I love Money" Beevers(Hudd)	- 	A "Sharona" Perona-Wright (She)	J "Magic" Staton (Car)	S "Dad" Farey (Nott)
2010/11	TBC 	S Hopkins (Nott) 	TBC 	A Beevers(Hudd) 	- 	TBC 	J Staton (Car) 	S Farey (Nott)
=== Non-Executive Committee===
 	NGB Secretary 	Events Coordinator	Marketing and PR 	Officials Liaison 	Coaching Liaison	Webmaster
2002-4 	S Hopkins (Nott)	- 	- 	A Batchelder (EIHA)	- 	E Eckered (Ox)
2004/5 	S Hopkins (Nott)	- 	M Sharpe (ULU) 	S Clifford (Nott) 	- 	M Sharpe (ULU)
2005/6 	S Hopkins (Nott)	- 	P Andrews (Shef) 	S Clifford (Nott) 	- 	M Sharpe (ULU)
2006/7 	Unknown 	Unknown 	Unknown 	Unknown 	Unknown 	Unknown
2007/8 	- 	S Farey 	A Miller & R Grant	A Batchelder (EIHA)	- 	-
2008/9 	- 	S Farey 	A Miller & R Grant	A Batchelder (EIHA)	L Moralee 	-
2009/10	- 	Exec Committee 	A Miller & R Grant	A Batchelder (EIHA)	L Moralee 	D "Pie Man" Rogers (Car)
2009/10	- 	Exec Committee 	TBC 	A Batchelder (EIHA)	L Moralee 	D Rogers (Car)
Category:Ice hockey in Great Britain