The British women's national ice hockey team represents Great Britain at the International Ice Hockey Federation's IIHF World Women's Championships. The women's national team is controlled by Ice Hockey UK. As of 2011, Great Britain has 476 female players. History From 1989 to 1997, the British women's national team competed in the European Championships. After 1999, the team has competed in the IIHF World Women's Championships. At present, Great Britain play in Division II. In 1989, Team GB re-entered the World of International Hockey, with a European Championship two-leg qualifying match against the Netherlands in Chelmsford. GB battled hard in both games but were defeated by an experienced Dutch side, winning both games by the margin of four goals to two, giving the Dutch an 8–4 aggregate win and a place in the European Championship. Below is a guide to GB's performances year by year from 1989 to 2005. Only 'competitive' games (challenge matches ignored) are counted for the records. 1990s No official competitions existed in 1990, however GB defeated the Dutch in Amsterdam 1–0 in a challenge match. In 1991, Team GB took part in the 1991 European Championship finishing 9th out of 10 teams. Placed in a very tough Group B, they lost their first three games to Sweden (0–16), Denmark (0–4) and Germany (0–6) before surprising the Czech Republic with a 2–2 draw in their final game. GB finished bottom of their group, and played Holland in the 9th/10th playoff which they won 3–0. After the break for an Olympic year, GB started 1993 in the newly formed World Championship Pool B. Following an opening loss against Latvia (0–3), GB repeated their performance against the Czech Republic from two years ago, this time with a 1–1 draw. France, dispatched GB easily in the third game by 7 goals to 2, and GB won their first International game in the final match of the tournament with a 1–0 win over Ukraine. giving GB a respectable 4th-placed finish out of 5 teams, with GB only missing a medal by one point. GB went to Denmark, for the IIHF World Women's Championships Pool B in March 1995, and faced a tough group on paper and proved to be a tough group on ice. GB fell to their worst defeat in 4 years, in the opening game with a 14–1 defeat to Denmark. Slovakia defeated GB 4–1 and in the final