The Sheffield Steelkings are Britain’s biggest para ice hockey club. Based at IceSheffield, the club competes in the British Para Ice Hockey League and runs three teams, from the senior Kings down to a junior programme started in 2026. Their line is simple: hockey is for everyone.
What is the Sheffield Steelkings?
The club was established in September 2014 with a handful of players and a plan to enter what was then the British Sledge Hockey League. Their first on-ice competition was a December 2014 friendly against the Manchester Phoenix Sledge Hockey Club (now Manchester Mayhem). Short of players, the game was played 4-on-4. Manchester won 7–0. That loss set the early goal: grow the roster, get faster, and become a full competitive side.
The Steelkings officially joined the British Para Ice Hockey League in 2015. The 2015 and 2016 seasons were still a climb against more experienced clubs. New members and better coaching turned the group into a full team. In 2017 they recorded their first league win, beating a travelling Manchester side 10–2 in front of a capacity crowd on IceSheffield’s Pad 2, without either starting goalie.
Teams
The club fields three sides, and the path is meant to move players up as speed, skill, and stamina improve.
Sheffield Steelkings A — the Kings The senior competitive team in the British Para Ice Hockey League.
Sheffield Steelkings B — the Stings The development “Bee” team. It launched at the end of 2019 after the roster outgrew one side. For the 2022 league season the Steelkings became the first British club to enter two teams.
Sheffield Steelkings C — the Clings The junior team, started in 2026 with support from a People’s Postcode Lottery community grant. It is the club’s dedicated junior programme, with child-sized equipment and training slots so young players can learn at their own pace. The Steelkings were already the first club to have junior players in British Para Ice Hockey League games, in 2022. John Plummer scored the first official league goal by a junior player, against the Peterborough Phantoms.
Domestic para ice hockey in the UK is fully inclusive. Able-bodied and disabled players, men and women, compete together. Players with a classifiable lower-body impairment can also be selected for Great Britain at World Para Ice Hockey events and, from there, the Paralympic pathway. National programmes sit under the British Para Ice Hockey Association, which falls under the English Ice Hockey Association.
Championships and achievements
- 2017 — first British Para Ice Hockey League win (10–2 over Manchester)
- 2018 — National Lottery Award for the Learn2Sledge programme, which opened the sport to hundreds of people across Yorkshire and the surrounding area
- 2019 — first British Para Ice Hockey Grand Slam (league title and playoff title)
- 2022 — winners of the inaugural Northwest Europe Para Ice Hockey League, in Antwerp, against hosts from Belgium plus teams from France and the Netherlands
- 2022 — first British club to enter two league teams, and the first to play juniors in the British league
- 2025 — second Grand Slam (league and playoffs)
- Hosts of the club’s own Kings Cup, plus games against international opponents
The 2020 and 2021 seasons were lost to Covid-19. The club returned for the first Northwest Europe league in 2022.
How to get involved
The club welcomes people who want to try para ice hockey, including players with a lower-body disability or impairment, and families looking for the junior sessions. IceSheffield also runs inclusive skating sessions during the week as a slower way to start.
Prospective players and supporters can write to sheffieldsteelkings@gmail.com.
Home rink
| Sheffield Steelkings Para Ice Hockey Club | IceSheffield | 23 Coleridge Road | Sheffield S9 5DA | United Kingdom | Website: sheffieldsteelkings.com
Hail to the Kings.