Background
He was born in Crawley, Sussex but grew up in Rainhill, Merseyside and later resided in Hollym, East Riding of Yorkshire.
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Matt Lloyd
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Career
He has competed in ice sledge hockey at the 2006 Winter Paralympics, in at the 2007 European Championships, and is credited with inventing the sport of In March 2012 it was announced that Lloyd would be an Olympic torchbearer and would be carrying the Olympic torch through Scarborough. On 22 August 2015 Lloyd married Ruth Harvey on the ice at Widnes Ice Rink. The wedding was the first in the United Kingdom conducted at an ice rink and featured an ice hockey game as part of the celebrations.
In 2004 Lloyd took up the sport of sledge hockey (a variant of ice hockey and a Paralympic sport) playing for the Kingston Kestrels team
Lloyd was asked to train with the British Paralympic team early in 2005. In November 2005 Lloyd made his international debut as back-up goalkeeper against Italy in the Paralympic Qualifiers in Turin, Italy.
Lloyd represented Great Britain at the 2006 Winter Paralympics in Turin, the 2009 IPC Ice Sledge Hockey World Championships and the 2011 IPC Ice Sledge Hockey European Championships. In May 2007 Lloyd was approached to play the sport of, a version of traditional volleyball played by athletes with a disability.
Due to an injury within the team and Lloyd’s Paralympic experience, he made his debut for the Great Britain team in an international friendly against the Netherlands in June 2007.
Lloyd was selected for the Great Britain squad that competed in the European Championships that were held in Hungary in September 2007. In October 2005 Lloyd became chairperson of the British Sledge Hockey Association. Despite a British team competing in the 2006 Winter Paralympics, it was apparent that Ice sledge hockey was on the decline in the United Kingdom.
To reverse the trend, Lloyd came up with the idea of: essentially, Ice sledge hockey but played with sledges with wheels instead of skate runners.
Although sledges with wheels had been invented by Laurie Howlett of Unique Inventions and used in both Canada and Germany as training aids, Lloyd was the first person to recognise that the equipment could be used to develop a distinct sport. The first "official" game of Inline Sledge Hockey was played in December 2009 in Bisley, Surrey.
Inline Sledge Hockey is recognised as a sport by the British Roller Sports Federation and a full set of rules was drawn up in early 2010 by Geoff Gooding based on Inline Puck Hockey rules with the first Inline Sledge Hockey league due to be launched in October 2010 in the United Kingdom.
In May 2013 it was announced that Lloyd had been appointed Chairman of the newly formed Widnes Wild ice hockey club, which plays in the English National Hockey League. Inline Sledge Hockey feature
IPC European Championships Article 2011
Peterborough Phantoms Interview 2011
Mashsport Article 2010
Banners on the Wall Article.
Membership
Lloyd is a founding member of the Grimsby Red Wings team
