UK's oldest para-ice hockey team celebrates 30 years

UK's oldest para-ice hockey team celebrates 30 yearsImage source, BBC SportImage caption, Cardiff Huskies have come a long way from a handful of players 30 years agoByChris HowellsBBC Sport WalesPublished1 hour agoCommentsFor one of the UK's original Para-ice hockey teams, May 2026 is significant for Cardiff Huskies as it is 30 years since their first competitive game.Just like many so many novel ideas, it all began with a few friends sharing drinks in a pub.And like so many other para-sports organisations, the Huskies really are more than just a club.Slow beginningSledge hockey, now known as Para-ice hockey, came to the fore at the 1994 Winter Paralympics when the sport was first introduced.Prior to the Lillehammer Paralympics, the sport - which had been invented in the early 1960s for patients at the Stockholm Rehabilitation Centre, Sweden - was little known.The speed and high-impact collisions attracted huge attention for a couple of weeks in March 1994, but after the Games in Norway ended the sport returned to largely being unknown.A year later, there were still no properly constituted clubs or league in the UK.Then it all changed when a few Cardiff Devils fans were lamenting the poor performance of their team in the spring of 1995."As these things do, it started all over a beer in a bar," said former Great Britain player Andy McNulty."I was a season-ticket holder at the Cardiff Devils and we had just watched a particularly poor game."I said to my mates, Ken Ridell and Jammo [David James], 'I could do better than that!'"Out of the blue Ken - who was an ice hockey referee as well - said, 'I might be able to sort something for you about that'."Apparently, he'd been asked a few weeks before to referee a [sledge hockey] game for the GB team."A couple of weeks later some equipment arrived provided by the wheelchair sports charity, WheelPower."They sent these plastic seats attached to a very ba...