Devils Quartet In Great Britain Squad For Worlds

Cardiff Devils have four players in a 28-man Great Britain squad for their pre-World Championship training camp and two international matches against Lithuania next month.

GB host Lithuania in Milton Keynes on Saturday, April 14 (7pm) and the following day in Coventry’s Skydome Arena (5.15pm).

Ben Bowns, Thomas Murdy, Mark Richardson and Matthew Myers are the Devils players involved, but there is no place for Josh Batch.

Welshmen Jonathan Phillips and Ben Davies, both former Devils forwards, are also in the GB squad.

After the games against Lithuania, the squad will be reduced to the 23 players who will represent Great Britain at the World Championship in Budapest, Hungary between April 22 to April 28.

Britain play in Division One Group A following their gold medal promotion in Belfast last year and will face hosts Hungary, along with Italy, Kazakhstan, Poland and Slovenia in the Papp Laszlo Sportarena.

Head coach Pete Russell said: “This was a tough squad to choose and a lot of talented players have been left out.

Goalie Ben Bowns in action for Great Britain. Pic: Dean Woolley.

“But I am happy with the roster for the training camp and the two Lithuania matches next month.

“The competition for places is intense and that will continue to be the case ahead of cutting the squad to 23 players for the World Championship.

“We did something extremely special last year in Belfast and that will live long in the memory, but that’s behind us now and we will face five very, very good teams in Budapest.”

Elite League leaders Devils are still striving to clinch their second successive title and can take a step towards that when they play Sheffield Steelers at Ice Arena Wales in Cardiff Bay tomorrow (Wednesday, 7.30pm).

Great Britain squad:

Netminders: Ben Bowns (Cardiff Devils), Thomas Murdy (Cardiff Devils), Jackson Whistle (Belfast Giants).

Defence: Dallas Ehrhardt (Manchester Storm), Steve Lee (Nottingham Panthers), Jeremy Lundin (Guildford Flames), Evan Mosey (Nottingham Panthers), Ben O’Connor (Sheffield Steelers), David Phillips (Sheffield Steelers), Mark Richardson (Cardiff Devils), Zach Sullivan (Braehead Clan), Paul Swindlehurst (Manchester Storm).

Forwards: Ollie Betteridge (Nottingham Panthers), Brendan Brooks (Braehead Clan), Ben Davies (Guildford Flames), Robert Dowd (Sheffield Steelers), Robert Farmer (Nottingham Panthers), Luke Ferrara (Coventry Blaze), Mike Hammond (Manchester Storm), Lewis Hook (Milton Keynes Lightning), Liam Kirk (Sheffield Steelers), Robert Lachowicz (Nottingham Panthers), Ciaran Long (Manchester Storm), Matthew Myers (Cardiff Devils), Jonathan Phillips (Sheffield Steelers), Brett Perlini (Nottingham Panthers), Colin Shields (Belfast Giants), Ross Venus (Coventry Blaze).

Remaining Devils fixtures:

Wednesday 14 v Sheffield Steelers H (7.30pm)

Friday 16 v Belfast Giants A (7pm)

Saturday 17 No game

Sunday 18 v Sheffield Steelers H (6pm)

Wednesday 21 v Manchester Storm H (7.30pm)

Saturday 24 v Belfast Giants H (7pm)

Sunday 25 v MK Lightning H (6pm)

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