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Phoenix star Hamer leads GB scoring in Gold Medal successes

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Great Britain's Under-18 in-line hockey squad have enjoyed great success in two International tournaments in the USA, with Salford-born Phil Hamer excelling as the leading scorer in both events.

Seventeen-year old Phil Hamer was largely instrumental in the Great Britain squad lifting the Gold Medal in both the FIRS Junior World Championships and AAU Junior Olympics held last week in Philadelphia. The squad played a total of 14 games in a four-day period in the tournaments that ran concurrently, In the World Championships GB recorded wins over Namibia 8-2, Mexico 9-3 and Switzerland 4-1 with a loss to the host USA team 0-4. In the quarterfinal GB beat Germany 9-5 and in a terrific semi-final match-up against the Czech Republic, it was Hamer who notched the overtime winner as GB won 6-5 to set up the final appearance against the USA.

Having suffered the shut-out loss in the round-robin stage of the tournament, Great Britain and Hamer were in determined mood and they thoroughly avenged the loss with a resounding 7-3 to claim the Gold Medal. Hamer finished the seven games with a tournament leading 13 goals and 4 assists for 17 points and he commented, "It was an excellent achievement for the team and I was lucky enough to lead the scoring charts. The semi-final win over the Czechs was probably the best result as their squad included a player who has been drafted into the NHL by the Carolina Hurricanes, so to get the OT winner was very pleasing for me personally."

Running alongside the World Championships in the same Feasterville Complex was the U-18 AAU Junior Olympics in-line competition and such is the depth of the game in North America, the USA fielded no less than four teams. GB opened this campaign with a 4-0 loss at the hands of the USA Stripes teams before beating USA Majors 4-2 and then crushing Namibia 8-0. A 3-3 tie against USA West saw GB progress to the quarterfinals and a narrow 5-4 defeat of New Zealand set up a semi-final clash against USA Stripes. Once again, the GB squad showed their mettle and a 3-1 victory set up the final against the USA Majors squad.

The Great Britain squad, with Hamer is excellent form showed true bulldog spirit in thrashing their hosts 11-3 to lift their second Gold Medal in fine style.

The Salford sniper again topped the scoring charts with 6 goals and 4 assists for 10 points in the seven games player and he paid tribute to his team-mates saying, "It's been a fantastic week for us all and to win both gold medals against such quality opposition is unbelievable. The whole squad were magnificent, we got great goaltending and it was great for my Phoenix team-mate Adam Summerfield too to be a big part in this success."

Hamer added, Both Adam and I are really looking forward to the new ice hockey season and playing for the Manchester Phoenix, and preparing for these in-line tournaments has been excellent training for us both, physically and mentally."

Manchester Phoenix Head Coach Tony Hand MBE commented, "I knew both Phil and Adam were going away to represent Great Britain, and when I heard the news of their double gold medal success I was delighted for them both, and the whole squad. In-line is a slightly different discipline to ice hockey, but the training and preparation are not too dissimilar. Adam is a very promising young goalie and Phil is an outstanding prospect who I'm really looking forward to working with next season. He trained with us last year and the promise he showed convinced me to sign him to the Phoenix Elite League team. It'll be a big step up for him, but he's a very level-headed young man with tremendous potential. "