BRADFORD Bulldogs' ice hockey teams continue to thrive, but their newly-introduced ball hockey section has already made a huge impression.

Set up in September last year, they incredibly won the Ball Hockey UK Under-13 National Finals title in Rotherham last Sunday, beating Sheffield Steelers and Nottingham Huskies to lift the crown.

Neil Spawforth is chairman of the ball hockey section at Bradford, and he said: "It was brilliant, and all three age groups that went down last weekend (U10s, U13s and U16s) played their hearts out.

"Sheffield and Nottingham have had their ball hockey sections for a lot longer than us, and we only really set ours up for two reasons.

"One was to support the ice hockey players in the city to give them additional access to skills and competences, to improve their stick work and ball control for example.

"The other was to achieve a lower price point, to draw more people to the club as a whole.

"You don't need as much equipment to play ball hockey, and obviously it's much cheaper to access a stick and a ball than it is learning to ice skate.

"Ball hockey doesn't need to be seen as an affluent sport, and we follow the ethos of the ice hockey section, that we want to engage as many people as possible to get involved.

"Equipment costs are minimal for ball hockey and we run cheap sessions too down at Manningham Sports Centre, so it's a great way to see if kids enjoy hockey as a whole."

Spawforth's son Daragh was part of the U13s team that won last Sunday, and also plays ice hockey for the Bulldogs.

His dad said: "He was always interested in ice hockey, but he got into ball hockey to work on his fitness and ball control.

"He's found the skills transferable to a point, and there are quite a lot who play both versions of the sport here.

"Daragh really enjoys ball hockey now, because in his head, there's less pressure on it."

Despite only being formed four months ago, the ball hockey section of the Bradford Bulldogs is already catching the eye at national level.

Spawforth said: "A number of our U16 and U13 ball hockey players have been asked to trial for Great Britain's U16s.

"That's our main aim really, to help these kids go as far as possible in the sport.

"There's been a transfer of age groups at the turn of the year, with Ball Hockey UK running a 2021 season before Christmas and then starting the 2022 one now.

"That's to try and make up for time lost at age groups due to Covid, and it means that a lot of our U13s have just transferred up to U16s level.

"That means some of the U13s that won in Rotherham last Sunday won't be at that level for the next national finals in May, but we should have eight or 10 new players for that one, who weren't registered for last weekend, which is exciting for them."