First ever Underwater Hockey World Championships

I wondered if anyone can remember when the 1st World Underwater Hockey (aka Octopush back then) Championships (they were supposed to be held in England) were? The Championships were cancelled because of South Africa. (I am getting rather old now as I was supposed to play as a member of the Australian team but I cant accuritely remember the year.

As far as I know, the first WC in uw hockey was held in 1980 in Vancouver, British Colombia, Canada - mens only competition. In 1982 a womens only was held in Australia; and in 1984 the first combined WC was held in Chicago Illinois, USA - month was likely April. I was there - 8 countries (8 mens, 4 womens teams).

Carol

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Carol Rose

Thanks Carol,
There was one WC before the 1980 Canadian WC but the British Government cancelled it because South Africa was going to send a team. Hopefully someone will remember but thank you so much for your quick reply.

There was a World Championships scheduled to be held in England in September 1979 which was cancelled.

The official letter I have in front of me that was sent to player's (my dad - Snow was on the team) says:
'The reasons for the cancellation are totally political. The U.K Government would not give any grants nor allow any of their pools to be used for any competition including a team from South Africa.'

Also, the 1982 competition has now been sanctioned as a World Championships (we were informed of this decision in Jan 06). In the women's division there was Canada, Australia and New Zealand and the mens division was Australia and New Zealand.

1984 is the year that saw a lot of countries compete in both divisions. It was the first Worlds that saw countries from all over the world compete.
Those countries were: (womens) Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Canada. (Mens) Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Netherlands, Zimbabwe, USA, maybe South Africa and England.