Great Britain Bandy Association

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The Great Britain Bandy Association (GBBA) is the United Kingdom’s governing body for bandy. It is based in Littleport, near the border of Cambridgeshire and East Anglia. The group used to be called the Bandy Federation of England, then England Bandy Federation in January 2017, and it adopted the name Great Britain Bandy Association in September 2017 to cover the whole UK.

The GBBA’s men’s national team first played at the 2019 Bandy World Championship. A women’s national team was formed and made its international debut at the 2022 Women’s Bandy World Championship.

The Association aims to have a full-size indoor bandy field at the Littleport Ice Stadium, but funding for it had not been secured as of 2018. The president is Rev Lyn Gibb-de Swarte of Littleport, who has led local ice clubs. The vice presidents are Thomas Parker and Clare Ledbury. The chair is Andrew Hutchinson, and the treasurer is Tammy Nichol Twallin. The general secretary, fixtures and minutes secretary, is Cathy Gibb-de Swarte. They work to promote the sport and plan to introduce rink bandy around the country.

The Littleport Ice Stadium project includes plans for a 400-metre indoor speed skating oval and an inner ice pad 100 by 60 metres for bandy.

Bandy has deep roots in Britain. England is one of the sport’s early homes, with 19th-century bandy games in the Fens. The first national governing body, the National Bandy Association, was founded in 1891, and the first rules were written by Charles Goodman Tebbutt in 1882. Some clubs played football and bandy in winter, such as Nottingham Forest. The first international match, in 1891, was between Bury Fen Bandy Club (England) and Haarlemsche Hockey & Bandy Club (the Netherlands). England won the 1913 European Bandy Championships in Davos. After World War I interest waned and the NBA ended, but there is renewed interest now with the GB Bandy Federation. In January 2018, Prince William, president of the Football Association, attended a bandy event in Stockholm, showing support for the sport.