Benji and Charlie Labradors are hockey-loving brothers from England.
Benji and Charlie Labradors are hockey-loving brothers who are a big part of the Dog Twitter community, but unlike most hockey dogs, they live clear across the Atlantic Ocean in England.
What’s more, their dad is Matt Lloyd, who played on the Team Great Britain sled hockey team in the 2006 Paralympics in Turino, Italy, and also in the 2009 World Championships in the Netherlands and 2011 European Championships in Sweden. He also played for the Team Great Britain sitting volleyball team in the 2007 European Championships in Hungary, and developed the sport of inline sled hockey.
Nowadays Dad is the general manager for the YKK Widnes Wild, a hockey club who play in the National Ice Hockey League Division 2 North, the United Kingdom’s fourth-ranked professional league. This roughly equates to Single-A North American minor league baseball, or USHL hockey.
(Some pro sports teams in the United Kingdom have a title sponsor, like what sometimes happens in Korean baseball or auto racing around the world, e.g. Arrow McLaren SP in IndyCar, ROKiT Williams in Formula One or Red Bull KTM in MotoGP/Supercross.)
Widnes is in the northwest part of England in the Cheshire region, and the Wild play in a Planet Ice facility.
Benji is the older brother “wearing luxurious yellow fur,” as his mum Ruth described it, while Charlie is more of a “glossy black.” Charlie also celebrated his Gotcha Day over several days last week, which was fun (swimming and cheeseburgers were involved).
They’re friends with Canadian Penny and PeytonReads, and their adventures can be followed at the handle @Charlie_Benji.
We got the chance to chat with them via email earlier this week to learn more about their lives and passion for the game.