The top 12 teams in the UK played at the British Championship 2008. They had all qualified by reaching the semi-finals in one of the three championship tournaments: University Championship 2007, Southern Regional Championship 2008 and Northern Regional Championship 2008. There were four groups of three teams, with three groups containing a champion team and 3rd and 4th placed teams from two of the other tournaments and a fourth ‘group of death’ containing all three runners-up.

Jammy Dodgers, the Northern Champions, opened the tournament with a convincing 6-1 victory over Snoop Dodge (Leicester), 4th in the Southern Championship. They were victorious in their second match, by 4-2 over Staffs Uni Sentinels (University 3rd) to finish top of their group and qualify for the semi-finals.

They faced Leicester League rivals Leicester City Ligers in the Semi-Final stage of the competition. Their opponents had finished 4th in the Northern qualifier, but were on fire as they demolished University Champions, Balls of Steel, by six games to one. The Ligers battled to a 2-2 draw with Dodge Vipers (Northampton), 3rd in the Southern Championship, doing just enough to win their group. The semi-final went all the way to the seventh game, but Jammy Dodgers just had the edge over the Ligers running out 4-2 victors.

Surprise package of the day was Leeds Met Carnegie II (3rd in the North). After beating Worcester Tigers 5-2, they faced the in form Southern Champions, New City Outlaws (Milton Keynes). Both teams had bettered the Tigers, so this was the group decider. Both teams won one and there were two draws in the first four games. The Leeds Met team took the lead with a narrow 3-2 win in the fifth only for the Outlaws to square the match at 2-2. A tense seventh, deciding game had the Outlaws in front five players to two with just 30 seconds on the clock, but a catch and two big hits from the Mets second team had them emerge as group winners and march into the semi-finals.

The ‘Group of Death’ was true to its name. Leeds Met Carnegie I, runners-up in the Northern Championship, lost both their games, leaving all their hopes with their second team. In the deciding group match, Northampton Cobras (Southern runner-up) came back from three games down against Warwick University Warriors (University runner-up) to level the match at 3-3. The seventh game seesawed between the two teams and it finished as a 3-3 draw, as did the match. Group winner was decided by adding up the Players On at the end of each game in the match, the Warwick Uni team winning by the closest of margins, just 18 POs to the Cobras 17.

Leeds Met Carnegie II and Warwick University Warriors played out a real nail biter in the semi-final. After losing the opening game to Warwick and drawing the second, they went into a 2-1 lead. Warwick took the next two to lead 3-2 with just one game remaining. Leeds Met II pulled out all the stops to level the match with a 5-2 game win. The match went into one-minute Overtime. The Met second string went into an early lead and held on to win 6-3 and make the Final.

The third place play-off was also a close affair. Leicester City ligers went into an early 2-0 lead only for Warwick Uni to reply with three unanswered games and lead 3-2. The Ligers then went into overdrive in the final two games and blasted two 6-0 wins to take third place.