How Leeds Knights' youngsters plan to help Great Britain land World Championship gold

‘Home’, for Hamill these days is West Yorkshire, Leeds Knights to be more specific, the 18-year-old forward having made a positive impact in his first full season of NIHL National hockey.

The Belfast-born youngster has been a livewire addition to the Knights’ ranks since being brought in by head coach Ryan Aldridge, his willingness to play the physical game and, on occasion, drop the gloves, winning him many fans.

He has also contributed offensively, too, the 5ft 9ins winger posting three goals and six assists in 22 appearances so far.

Hamill won’t make his 23 appearance for the Knights until after Christmas, however, his Division 2A mission in Lithuania with the Under-20s seeing him not return to the UK until Sunday, December 18.

Along with fellow Knights Archie Hazeldine, Tate Shudra and Oli Endicott, who also make the trip to Kaunas, he will miss three Knights games, starting with this Saturday’s top-of-the-table clash with Peterborough Phantoms, who drew level on points with the Knights on Sunday night.

With defensive pair Sam Zajac and Jordan Griffin major doubts for the weekend through injury, the loss of four further members of the Knights’ roster could not have come at a worse time for Aldridge.

But being away with the national programme is certainly not something anyone will begrudge the Leeds quartet, with Hamill, Hazeldine and Endicott having already represented their country earlier this year, when they returned from the Under-18 worlds in Estonia with a bronze medal back in April.

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That experience only whetted Hamill’s appetite for more of the same, with GB’s opening game taking place this Sunday against the hosts.

“Last season’s experience with the GB 18s was one of the best I’ve had in hockey,” said Hamill. “So to get the opportunity to represent your country and do it all over again is fantastic - it’s one of the things that everyone dreams about in their hockey career.

“The standard of hockey is just outstanding, the speed, skill, it’s just good hockey and everyone comes closer together as a team, I mean you may not know everyone to start with but at the end of it everyone is best friends and it all adds up to a great experience.

"Getting a medal has to be the initial target and if everyone works hard and works together and sticks to the plan that the coaches are putting in place then I have no doubt that we can go for gold out there.

“If we came back with any kind of medal that would be a big achievement – we got bronze last year at 18s – but we want to go for gold (and promotion) this year.

"That’s the plan and that’s what we’ve said from the very start, so we’re hopefully going to come back with that too.”

Hamill was understandably disappointed to be leaving his Knights’ team-mates on such a relative low note, the leaders having seen their status as the only NIHL National team yet to lose in regulation end on Sunday night in a 4-1 defeat at home to Swindon Wildcats.

“It was a tough one to take,” added Hamill. “We battled hard for the full 60 minutes, now it is about how we bounce back from this.

“Realistically we obviously weren’t going to go unbeaten (in regulation) all year. It’s tough seeing a four-game winning streak end but we’ve just got to get another winning streak going again.

“If we’re not playing or training, I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on how things are going back here this weekend. I’ll be watching the stream - hopefully I won’t have to pay for it though!”