| Underwater hockey in Great Britain | |
|---|---|
 An underwater hockey match during the 2009 Student Nationals in Bangor | |
| Country | Great Britain |
| Governing body | British Octopush Association |
| National team(s) | Great Britain |
| Nickname(s) | Octopush UWH |
| First played | 1954 in Southsea, Hampshire |
National competitions | |
Club competitions | |
Underwater hockey in Great Britain was first played in Southsea, Hampshire where it was invented in 1954. [1] It is governed nationally by the British Octopush Association.
Underwater hockey was started by Alan Blake in 1954. Blake was a founder-member of the then newly formed Southsea Sub-Aqua Club, he and other divers including John Ventham, Jack Willis, and Frank Lilleker first played this game in the Guildhall Baths in Portsmouth. [1] [2] CMAS (the world governing body for underwater hockey) however, still states on its website that the sport originated with the Royal Navy in the same time period.
The first rules were tested in a 1954 two-on-two game and Alan Blake made the following announcement in the November 1954 issue of the British Sub-Aqua Club's then-official magazine Neptune: "Our indoor training programme is getting under way, including wet activities other than in baths, and our new underwater game "Octopush". Of which more later when we have worked out the details". [3]
The first underwater hockey competition was a three-way tournament between teams from Southsea, Bournemouth and Brighton underwater hockey clubs in early 1955. Southsea won, and are still highly ranked at national level today winning 20 out of 52 national championships, which have been played annually since 1969. [4]
Great Britain's men's national team played in the first Underwater Hockey World Championships in 1980, finishing as runners-up up. Great Britain's women's national team first World Championships appearance was the fifth edition (fourth with a women's tournament) in 1988, resulting in a fourth-place finish. [5]
Both men's and women's teams competed in the first edition of the European Championships in 1985, held at Crystal Palace Aquatics Centre, London, with both teams winning gold. [6] The UK hosted the tournament again in 1993, this time at Ponds Forge, Sheffield. [7] [8] In the next edition, in 1995, the women's team claimed a second gold medal in the tournament [9] with a third coming in 2008, [10] and a fourth in 2010. [11]
Great Britain's first gold medal in the World Championships was in 2002 in the U-19 men's division, with further golds coming in the 2009 and 2011 women's tournament. [5]
The country, hosted its first World Championships in 2006, and its first Junior World Championships in 2019, both at Ponds Forge, Sheffield. [12] [13]
The sport was badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, seeing the majority of tournaments in 2020 and 2021 cancelled; in addition to 41 clubs out of the 114 registered at the start of the pandemic (36%) folding. [14]
Today there are 70 clubs registered with the British Octopush Association (68 British and 2 Irish). [15]
Underwater hockey is govererned nationally in Great Britain by the British Octopush Association (BOA) and has been since 1976. They were recognised as the official governing body for the sport a year later by the British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC), governing body for all sub-aqua sport in the United Kingdom, who also still govern the sport but to a limited extended. In 2013 the BOA affiliated itself to BSAC. The BOA runs the Great Britain national team at all levels and is responsible for major national competitions. [16] [17]
Scotland and Wales have their own governing bodies for underwater hockey that work with the BOA, Scottish Underwater Hockey and Underwater Hockey Wales respectively. These organise regional competitions for the respective home nations and also run national teams. However the use of the Scottish and Welsh national teams is limited with the Great Britain side being favoured for the majority of competitions. [18] [19] [20] [21]
Underwater hockey in Ireland operates as part of an all-Ireland basis. Therefore, the control in Northern Ireland is that of Comhairle Fo-Thuinn not the BOA. [22]
Together with Ireland's Comhairle Fo-Thuinn, Scottish Underwater Hockey and Underwater Hockey Wales organise the Cetic Cup for national teams of the three nations. The tournament began in 2022.
| Year | Venue | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 |   Haverfordwest |  Scotland A | Wales A |  Ireland B | Ireland A | Wales B | Scotland B | [23] |
| 2023 |  Kirkwall | Reformatted due to lack of competitors: Orkney (rep. Scotland) vs Limerick (rep. Ireland) | [24] | |||||
| 2024 |  Limerick | Scotland A | Wales A | Scotland B | Merrows (c) | Belfast (c) | — | [25] |
(c) = club team
Of the 68 British clubs associated with the BOA, 56 are English, 8 are Scottish, and 4 are Welsh. 10 of the 68 clubs are student clubs, these clubs are associated with the universities of Aberdeen, Bangor, Edinburgh, Lancaster, Liverpool, Oxford, Sterling, Plymouth, York, and Warwick. In addition, the BOA had three associated Irish clubs. [15]
The BOA operates all major underwater hockey competitions in the UK including the National Championships, Nautilus, Ladies National Championships, Veterans Championship, Student Nationals, and Junior Nationals. [26] [27] [28] Other competitions also run throughout the year.
In the UK, the majority of club competitions are mixed-sex.
Competitions are usually held at the John Charles Centre for Sport in Leeds or Ponds Forge in Sheffield.
The national championships are a multi round tournament beginning with qualifiers after new year and the finals in late spring or early summer. The winners of the BOA national championships are: [29] [30]
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The Nautilus competition is an annual national mini-league tournament held in the autumn. Winners are: [31] [30]
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The ladies only national championship is usually held in late winter or early spring. Winners are: [32] [30]
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From 2018 to 2022, the BOA held the veterans championship for player over 50, winners of the competition are: [30]
| 2020s | 2010s |
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British underwater hockey student national were formalised as a BOA event for the first time in 2020. Previous events were informally organised by participating universities, with one university hosting. [33] [30] The first formal BOA student nationals was to be held at The Alan Higgs Centre in Coventry before being cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Subsequent events have been held at John Charles Centre for Sport in Leeds. Winning universities are: [lower-alpha 1]
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Junior nations is currently split into five age categories, the top category has varied through history and is currently an U-21s competition. Winners of the competitions are: [30]
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In 2024, the BOA started an 4s tournament to be held in the winter (W) and summer (S) of each year. Winners of the competitions are: [30]
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A special one-off post COVID-19 restart tournament took place in August 2021 and was won by Southsea. [30]
Outside of the above tournaments which are organised by the BOA and apart of the BOA calendar. A number of other underwater hockey competitions occur in Great Britain on a more local or invitational level. These include, but are not limited to:
The BOA currently operate elite, masters, under 24s, and under 19s teams for both the men's and women's Great Britain squads. [35] Training camps are usually held across one weekend in odd numbered months. [36]
| [lower-alpha 2] | Men's Elite | Women's Elite | Men's Masters | Women's Masters | Men's U-24 | Women's U-24 | Men's U-19 | Women's U-19 | T | ||||||||
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 | 0 | 2009, 2011 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2002 | 1 | 0 | 3 | ||||||
 | 1980, 1990 | 2 | 2013, 2018 | 2 | 1994, 1998, 2016 | 3 | 2006 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2004, 2006 | 2 | 2004, 2006 | 2 | 12 | ||
 | 1984, 2009, 2016, 2023 | 4 | 1994 | 1 | 1996, 2002, 2013 | 3 | 2013 | 1 | 2019, 2024 | 2 | 2013, 2015 | 3 | 2017, 2019 | 2 | 0 | 16 | |
| T | 6 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 30 | ||||||||
 | This section needs expansionwith: any medals prior to 2008. You can help by adding to it. (January 2022) |
| [lower-alpha 3] | Men's Elite | Women's Elite | T | ||
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| 1985 | 1 | 1985, 1995, 2008, 2010 | 4 | 5 |
| 2008, 2017 | 2 | 1993, 2019 | 2 | 4 |
| 1999, 2019 | 2 | 1997, 1999, 2001, 2017 | 4 | 6 |
| T | 5 | 10 | 15 | ||
| Event | Location |
|---|---|
| 1985 European Championships | Crystal Palace Aquatics Centre, London |
| 1993 European Championships | Ponds Forge, Sheffield |
| 2006 World Championships | |
| 2019 Junior World Championships |
Underwater hockey (UWH), also known as Octopush in the United Kingdom, is a globally played limited-contact sport in which two teams compete to manoeuvre a puck across the bottom of a swimming pool into the opposing team's goal by propelling it with a hockey stick.
The British Sub-Aqua Club or BSAC has been recognised since 1954 by UK Sport as the national governing body of recreational diving in the United Kingdom.
Sport in Ireland plays an important role in Irish society. The many sports played and followed in Ireland include Gaelic games, association football, horse racing, show jumping, greyhound racing, basketball, fishing, motorsport, boxing, tennis, hockey, golf, rowing, cricket, and rugby union.
Sport in the United Kingdom plays an important role in British culture and the United Kingdom has played a significant role in the organisation and spread of sporting culture globally. In the infancy of many organised sports, the Home Nations were heavily involved in setting out the formal rules of many sports and formed among the earliest separate governing bodies, national teams and domestic league competitions. After Partition of Ireland in 1922, some sports formed separate bodies for Northern Ireland, though many continued to be organised on an all-Ireland basis. For this reason, in many though not all sports, most domestic and international sport is carried on a Home Nations basis, and England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland are recognised as national entities. This is in contrast to the majority of other states that participate in international sports which field a single national team to represent the entire polity.
Sport plays a central role in Scottish culture. The temperate, oceanic climate has played a key part in the evolution of sport in Scotland, with all-weather sports like association football and golf dominating the national sporting consciousness. However, many other sports are played in the country, with popularity varying between sports and between regions.
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Underwater sports is a group of competitive sports using one or a combination of the following underwater diving techniques - breath-hold, snorkelling or scuba, usually including the use of equipment such as diving masks and fins. These sports are conducted in the natural environment at sites such as open water and sheltered or confined water such as lakes and in artificial aquatic environments such as swimming pools. Underwater sports include the following - aquathlon, finswimming, freediving, spearfishing, sport diving, underwater football, underwater hockey, underwater ice hockey, underwater orienteering, underwater photography, underwater rugby, underwater target shooting and underwater video.
The Welsh Association of Sub Aqua Clubs (WASAC) was the national governing body (NGB) for Sub Aqua in Wales until January 2016. Sub Aqua is a broad term encompassing both recreational underwater activities such as recreational diving and snorkelling, and competitive underwater activities including underwater sports as underwater hockey
Underwater Hockey Wales is responsible for underwater hockey in Wales. It is the association representing British Octopush Association (BOA) clubs based in Wales. Underwater Hockey Wales is affiliated to the Welsh Association of Sub Aqua Clubs – the national governing body for underwater sports in Wales, comprising scuba diving, underwater hockey, and snorkelling.
The Northern Ireland Federation of Sub-Aqua Clubs (NIFSAC) is the National Governing Body (NGB) for Sub Aqua in Northern Ireland. Sub Aqua is a broad term encompassing both recreational underwater activities such as recreational diving and snorkelling, and competitive underwater activities such as underwater hockey.
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Comhairle Fo-Thuinn, also known as Irish Underwater Council (IUC) and trading as Diving Ireland, is the national governing body for recreational diving and underwater sports in Ireland.
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British Octopush Association (BOA) is the governing body for underwater hockey in Great Britain.
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The 2007 CMAS World Games was the first and only edition of the CMAS World Games, an Olympic style tournament for underwater sports organised by the Confédération Mondiale des Activités Subaquatiques (CMAS) and hosted in Bari, Italy.