Young Warriors Callum Read and Ben Richards have spent the last week up in Dumfries, Scotland playing for GB under 18’s in the World Championships for their age group. Britain finished 5th in the 6 team group with a total of 4 points from the 5 games each side played narrowly avoiding relegation into the pool below.
Three of GB’s points were achieved thanks to a regulation time victory over Romania by 2 goals to 1 with the crucial 4th point which preserved GB’s status in Division 2 Pool A coming in the last game of the whole round robin schedule when Britain only just lost out to the Gold medal winning Lithuanians on penalty shots after a 4-4 draw.
Callum Read and Ben Richards both played in all 5 of GB games during the championships. Ben picked up 2 points during the tournament by netting a goal and also posting an assist, Warriors teenage winger had 5 shots on goal throughout the championships and also achieved a plus/minus rating of plus 1. Callum didn’t pick up a point during the round robin stages however he did prove himself to be valuable asset defensively at junior international level. The young blue liner didn’t pick up any penalty minutes during the tournament and had a plus/minus rating of -3 during the championships.
The stand out players for GB under 18’s were the Bracknell Bees duo of Ivan Antonov and Sam Duggan alongside the young Scottish forward Alex Forbes who plays his hockey in North America for the OHA Gold Mavericks. All 3 players posted 7 points during the tournament with Duggan GB’s top goal scorer as he was able to light the lamp on 5 occasions and average an impressive goal per match up.
Ben and Callum will now both be available for Warriors selection for the remainder of the season starting with this coming weekend’s challenge game against the Billingham Stars and then for the play off finals weekend which is also being held up in Dumfries in mid April.