Bermuda’s immaculate rink at the Pembroke Community Club will be the centre of attraction in November next year when it hosts the International Street and Ball Hockey Federation Masters World Championships.

The bid by the Bermuda Ball Hockey Association was accepted at the ISBHF semi-annual conference held virtually at the beginning of this month. The tournament will be held from November 11 to 16 and will mark the return of international action to Bermuda for the first time in seven years, with the island last hosting the same competition in 2018.

Jeremy Estey, who represented the BBHA at the meeting, believes Bermuda stands a good chance of winning a medal in next year’s competition.

“The Bermuda Ball Hockey Association is very excited to host the 2025 ISBHF Men’s & Women’s 35+ Master’s Ball Hockey World Championships,” Estey told The Royal Gazette.

“This event will bring up to 18 international teams to Bermuda with 400+ athletes, hundreds of international spectators, and thousands watching on live stream.

“Bermuda hosted this event in 2018 to huge success and we plan to build on that success again with a world-class event.

“This could be the best Bermuda team in our ISBHF history, and we expect to compete for a medal against the strong national teams from Canada, United States and Europe.”

At the beginning of the year, the rink underwent major refurbishments to make it more suitable for hosting international competitions with the flooring replaced and an energy-saving lighting system installed.

Meanwhile, 18 goals were scored in BBHA league matches played on Wednesday.

In the first fixture of the night, Appleby defeated Hamilton Princess 3-2. Mathieu Desjardins scored twice for Appleby with the other goal coming from Max Boivin, while Noah Vieira and Anthony Kapsimalis were the scorers for Princess.

Desjardins credited the win to tenacity as they were trailing for the better part of the game.

“It was one of those back and forth low-scoring matches and both goalies played amazing,” Desjardins said.

“Even when we trailed for most of the game, we never stopped working hard. We actually got lucky in the last few minutes of the match and it was a great win based on hard work from the boys.”

The second match of the night was full of goals as Positive Image Dental bested BDA Spirits 7-6 in a shoot-out after the match ended 6-6 in regular time.

Chris Allington, Andrew Leavy, Alex LaRouche, Jeremie Faucher, Shane Matchett, and a sub player scored for Positive Image in regular time. Out of six penalty takers from both sides, Jeremie Faucher was the only one who scored.

Sean McNulty and Jean-Michael Tremblay found the target twice each for BDA Spirits, while the other goals came from Robbie Bailey and Stefan Chamberland.

Allington, the Positive Image general manager, praised his team’s effort for fighting their way back to win.

“It was a hard-fought victory,” Allington said. “We came back from two goals down in the last two minutes and tied. The goalies were great and the last shooter of six was the only one to score.”