Great Britain made a winning start to their 2026 Men’s Ball Hockey World Championships campaign after winning three out of four of their opening Group B matches.

Hull’s Ethan Daintith played in all four of those opening matches, helping Great Britain to a 7-3 victory over the Cayman Islands, a 6-3 victory over Austria, and a 10-2 victory over Germany, before they fell to a 2-7 defeat to quarter-finalists India.

On Great Britain’s start to the World Championships, Ethan Daintith said: “I thought the first game felt really good; obviously, to start on a win was a very good start, and then we went into the game [against Austria] knowing it was going to be a lot harder. The first period we didn’t play our best hockey, so to come out with a win after going down was a really good result.”

Daintith registered eight points in Great Britain’s opening four matches, including an assist against the Cayman Islands, a goal against Austria, two goals and two assists against Germany, as well as two goals against India.

However, perhaps his most important point came against Austria as the 19-year-old scored his first senior goal for Great Britain men's Ball Hockey.

On his performances and the points he’s scored in the tournament so far, Daintith said: “Obviously I had a bit of nerves in the first game, so I was saying to my mates it’s time to relax, but I think once I got my first point I started to relax into it, and luckily I did that quite quickly into the game.”

“[Against Austria] I got my first goal and it just felt insane to score, because I’d been struggling to score in the first two games until that point, so it felt really good to score.”

Great Britain’s success so far at this tournament comes at an opportune time for ball hockey across the country as the inaugural season of the Great Britain National Ball Hockey League remains underway.

Daintith, who plays for Highland Frost in the NBHL Great Britain Division, started playing ball hockey at 16 years-old and has not only come up through the ranks of Great Britain but has also seen the growth of the sport in recent years.

On the growth of ball hockey especially in Great Britain, Daintith said: “It’s really good to play in front of crowds. When we’ve been playing, we’ve had a lot of GB fans, and it is really good to have fans behind you when you’re playing, especially in games when it's tight and you’re struggling to score … but watching all the games throughout the week, the crowds have been really good, and there’s so much atmosphere in the rinks.”

“It’s starting to become quite a big sport in the UK; there are a lot of ice hockey players coming to start playing, and it is starting to really grow as there’s a lot more people coming now and you’re meeting a lot more new people. Every single time you play, there’s someone new coming in to play for someone else, so the sport is really growing and a lot more people are starting to talk about it.”

Great Britain will hope to showcase the growth of the sport, whilst also inspiring more, throughout the remainder of the World Championships, which will see them battle it out for a place in the playoffs.

To secure their spot in the playoffs, Great Britain, who currently sit 2nd in Group B, need to finish in the top two of their group with two more ‘preliminary round-robin matches’ remaining.

On Great Britain and his individual plans for the tournament, Daintith said: “We’ve definitely got a chance of going the whole way, but it’s obviously how long we keep up our form for, which I think everyone knows we're going to go the whole way because that’s what everyone wants.”

“It’s a really good feeling. I went away with the U23s last year, and we played against Slovakia and Canada and people like that, and we really struggled against people like that, so to then come out here and get a few wins in Pool B and start really strong shows how much we are progressing as a group, and hopefully we will be able to go all the way.”

Today (24th June) will see Great Britain take on France in their final group stage match as they look to remain undefeated ahead of the play-offs.

The tournament final will then take place on Sunday 28th June after the remaining preliminary and knockout stage matches have been played.