We’ve been to Israel. We’ve been to the USA. And all from the comfort of our sofas at home!
But we couldn’t make a list of the best England Lacrosse away destinations and not include Canada, could we?
Canada has a long history of being very very VERY good at lacrosse: five men’s World Indoor Lacrosse Championship titles, three men’s World Lacrosse Championship titles, and two women’s World Lacrosse Championship silver medals.
And that’s even before the one title and seven silver medals at U19 level!
The men’s World Lacrosse Championship has been held in Canada three times (1967, 1986, 2000), the women’s World Lacrosse Championship has been held there once (2013), and the men’s World Indoor Lacrosse Championship has been held there three times (2003, 2007, 2019).
On this latest virtual trip, we’ll be reminiscing about three memorable trips to Canada: the 1967 (and first!) men’s World Lacrosse Championship, the 2007 men’s World Indoor Lacrosse Championship, and the 2013 women’s World Lacrosse Championship.
You know the score by now; buckle up, enjoy the ride, and pretend you’re travelling oversees with us to watch/play some summer lacrosse!
1967 Men’s World Lacrosse Championship
The first ever men’s World Lacrosse Championship in 1967 was a four-team invitational tournament that coincided with Canada’s centennial lacrosse celebration.
However, the lacrosse community would have to wait seven more years until the next invitational tournament in 1974 and it was at this time that World Lacrosse (formally the International Lacrosse Federation or ILF) was formed and the idea of a formal 4-yearly tournament was born.
Despite this, the 1967 edition will always be remembered as the first men’s World Lacrosse Championship.
The tournament saw England, Canada, USA, and Australia battle it out to be top dog in a round robin mini-league event in Toronto, Ontario.
The USA were represented by their national champions, the Mount Washington Lacrosse Club from Baltimore, while the Canada team was made up of indoor (or box) lacrosse players from the Peterborough Petes and Green Gaels.
As seems to be the case with many of England’s early encounters with these three lacrosse-playing heavyweights, they struggled to impress themselves upon the tournament, losing all their games.
A narrow 9-11 defeat to Australia in their first game gave the England team some hope but a 15-3 defeat to the USA was followed by 11-8 loss to Canada in their final game, meaning they finished bottom of the league in fourth place.
The USA, on the other hand, won all their games meaning they returned home as champions of the world with Australia finishing second and Canada third.
Despite this less than pleasing result, it was still a huge honour for England to take part in the first ever men’s World Lacrosse Championship and we finished second seven years later so it’s not all bad, is it?
2007 Men’s World Indoor Lacrosse Championship
Now, this is exciting.
Indoor lacrosse, otherwise known as box lacrosse, hasn’t featured in our previous Best England Lacrosse Away Destinations articles yet.
But it’s here now and we can’t wait to tell you all about this growing version of lacrosse and the 2007 men’s World Indoor Lacrosse Championship!
This second edition of the competition took place in Halifax, Nova Scotia on the east coast of Canada and saw England make their first ever appearance at the World Championship, after missing the inaugural tournament in 2003.
An estimated 850,000 people tuned in to watch the spectacle in Canada alone but the worldwide number was much higher as the games were also streamed live across Europe.
England were drawn in group B alongside the Iroquois Nationals, Scotland, and the Czech Republic missing out on the veritable ‘group of death’ that was group A containing the USA, Australia, Canada, and fellow tournament newcomers, Ireland.
Poor Ireland.
The task for England was simple: finish top of the group and they would have an automatic place in the semi-finals, finish second or third and a place in the quarter-finals awaited, but finish fourth and they’d have to be content with a battle for seventh place.
Surely one of the top three spots was within England’s grasp?
Their first game, the toughest game, was against the Iroquois Nationals and they were suitably beaten 27-8.
Big wake up call.
England knew they had to hit the ground running on day two and they didn’t disappoint, defeating close neighbours Scotland 15-7.
Day three saw England play their final pool stage game against Czech Republic, who’d finished sixth (out of six) at the 2003 Championship.
It was going to be a tough match; Czech Republic have never been a push over and have a very accomplished indoor lacrosse team (one that would finish fourth at the 2011 competition).
But England were confident and managed to overcome their opponents by a narrow two goal margin, eventually seeing the game out 9-7.
This meant England finished second in the pool and qualified for the quarter finals where they would meet *pause for dramatic effect* Australia!
Australia had finished fifth at the previous World Championship and managed to scrape through the pool at this tournament winning just one game in the process.
A tense game with Australia ended 15-11 to England and saw them progress to the semi-finals where they would eventually succumb to the host nation, Canada, losing 24-9.
The stuffing had been well and truly knocked out of England after their semi-final defeat and they went on to lose the bronze medal match versus the USA 17-10, meaning they finished fourth in the tournament.
A definite disappointment but certainly not a bad showing for a team making their first appearance at a World Championship!
Watch highlights of the 2007 World Indoor Lacrosse Championship Quarter-Final between England and Australia above!
2013 Women’s World Lacrosse Championship
Our third and final memorable experience in Canada came in 2013 when it was the England women’s team who took centre-stage.
Held in Oshawa, Ontario, this edition of the Championship saw 11 nations take part for the first time with new entries including Finland, Hong Kong, Israel, and Latvia.
As usual, England were drawn in the top pool (pool A) along with the USA, Australia, Canada, and Wales.
A tough 17-7 defeat against the USA in their first game was quickly followed by a rousing 9-4 win over close rivals, Wales, that gave England the belief they could make it to the knockout stages.
Two 11-6 defeats then followed, first against Canada and then against Australia but the win over Wales was enough to see them through to the quarter-finals.
And it was Wales who England would meet again after they overcame Austria 21-0 in their quarter-final qualifier.
England went into the game with confidence but knew the danger that could come if complacency did set in.
No need to worry, however, as they dealt with Wales with the utmost professionalism defeating them by 10 goals to nil.
So far, so good.
But, if you are going to go the distance in a World Championship, you have to compete against and ultimately beat at least two of the top guns, i.e. the USA, Canada, and/or Australia.
The semi-final saw England pitted against one of those aforementioned top guns: the USA.
It was tough. England worked hard. But unfortunately, the USA were the better side, making it to the final, winning 21-8.
This left England battling for third place against a team they’d already played (and lost to) in Australia.
The game played out in similar fashion to the early pool stage meeting between the two sides and Australia came away as victors, taking home the bronze medal with a 12-6 win.
A tough pill to swallow at the time but it meant England returned home as the fourth best team in the world. Not a bad few days’ work!