Great Britain mixed

Profile

Explains one of the captains Ben Mitchell, “The GB Mixed team was selected from about 70 people that came and tried out at four sessions during the Winter. Of the 25 on the squad, 12 played in last year's successful EUC team. We come from various Open, Women's and Mixed clubs around Britain.

We typically play for clubs such as Abstract, Bristol Plastic Factory, Clapham, Fire of London, Fusion and HRH (London Women's team) but there is a core of nine players from the Mixed, Open and Women's club LeedsLeedsLeeds.

In the past some of the older players played for 'pre-geo' British teams such as Catch 22 and Chevron Action Flash. We've got a healthy blend of youth and experience. The old guys being Ben Mitchell,Duncan Pocklington, Isla Ford and our Coach/Captain Barry O'Kane.

The young blood about to make their mark are players such as Roy Van Cleef, Gemma Taylor and Lindsay Cuthberson.We will hopefully be drawing greatly from our experience of winning last year's Euros. We struggled early on in that tournament, losing badly in a show game to Germany but used the rest of the week to get our game together in time for a very exciting rematch against them in the Final. We will go to Worlds with the confidence of that result, plus the fact that we feel we have strengthened the team.

Our methods are closely tied in with our philosophy that we have no stars on the team and rely equally on each other's contribution. We feel that the star players from GB have all gone into the Open and Women's squads, leaving us to quietly and confidently go about our business. This style requires us to play as a team as much as possible and we have two or three fairly structured offensive strategies. However, we feel we have enough flair to cope with most things that our opponents will throw at us.

Worlds Experience

Between the player son the team, we've attended about 36 WUGC or WUCC events

Major Tournaments Won

Europeans 2003

Offense and Defense

Continues Mitchell, “On D, we rely mostly on hard Man D with a strong sideline support, though we may use different options should the weather, or opposition, warrant that sort of thing.

We play with O and D lines, but that is more to aid gelling than because either line specializes greatly. Both lines can do each task in almost equal measures. We have trained pretty hard this year. In addition to monthly training sessions, we have played together in the British Mixed Tour (there are usually about 20-24 teams in each of these four events), playing against some of Britain's best players. We have also attended the Euromix tournament near Munich which we feel was great preparation for Worlds. Most of us have also played for our club teams in this year's UK Open Tour. The high level of competition in those tournaments provides even more great preparation.”

Look for these players for Great Britain

Katy Pugh ,#7 a D-line handler

Karen Levey, #14 an extremely fast D player

Rob Whitehouse, #9 watch out for his 'spinal' throw

Ben “Rhino” Mitchell, #6 veteran handler

Joe “Collapsimal” Bolton, #10 strong offensive receiver - quick, fit and very stretchy

Rich Hims, #55 as a D player to watch out for. Rich looks like Brazilian footballer Ronaldo.

Carol Gardner, #21 good awareness and very safe hands as a primary receiver.

Roster Size

Team Colors

Red, White & Blue

Captain

Barry O’Kane

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