CHELMSFORD,U.K-It’s been a busy few weeks for the Chelmsford Chieftains ice hockey team as they begin the summer of putting together a side to compete in the English National League 1 next season, as they gained promotion from the second division with an undefeated season.
First up for the management of the team was getting a coach in and the obvious choice was a no-brainer. Dean Birrell led the team to an almost perfect season last year with only three defeats all season and one draw. He was first choice for the management to lead the team into division 1 and Birrell had little hesitation in putting pen to paper for a second season. 
” I am happy to return, it has been a great ride so far and I am proud of what we have achieved to date. Our aim is to retain the basis of our team, retain our philosophy of Chelmsford based players from the junior set up,” Birrell said “As such, just because we have been promoted does not mean that we will go hell for leather to win division one, we want to retain our approach and not get drawn into a spending season to keep up.” First on his shopping list were his net minders and shortly after his own signing being announced the two goalies were announced and to many it was no surprise as both had been heavily rumoured to be signing from the end of the season anyway. Ben Clements returns for a second successive season after a solid and compelling season in 2008-09 where he battled with Mike Robinson for the number one spot. Clements grew in stature as the season went on and in some fans eyes was the better of the two over the course of the campaign. The problem of having two good solid net minders of roughly equal calibre is its always going to split the fans as to their perception of ‘the best’ so it wouldn’t really be fair on either to put one above the other. With Mike Robinson leaving the country to join his family in their emigration to Canada, it was always going to be a big gap to fill and who better to do it than former Chieftain favourite and returning south to answer the Chieftains call than Andy Moffatt. Moffs, as he is known widely around the league, moved home to Scotland with his family last summer to take up a playing role at the Dundee Stars where he was the standout net minder in the Scottish league. Almost every Stars fan was sad to see Moffatt leave and that is testament to his playing ability as when he left Chelmsford just over a year ago pretty much all Chieftains fans felt the same. Once again their will be an almighty battle for the starting spot which will be of great benefit to the club as a whole and Birrell knows this; “Ben performed very well for us last year and split the number one spot with Mike, and perhaps surprised a few in that his performances were arguably better than Mr Robinson. However it is an issue to only have one high quality net minder for us this year and the loss of Mike has been smoothed by the welcome return of Andy, who approached us,” Birrell said “I have a long history with Andy, who has matured in the past couple of years and I am sure will perform the same heroics that we have seem from him in the past. The net minder position is key for us and we now have two experienced candidates competing for the number one spot.” Birrell knows what his aims are for this coming season “We are aiming for a top four finish which I believe will be achievable if we keep the core of the team together and perhaps bring in one or two others as long as they fit the teams ethic and standards,” Birrell concluded Away from the ice the club has also announced that they have officially put a farm team together that will be playing in the ENL2 (South) league. When the Chieftains dropped from the English Premier League to ENL last summer they took on the name of the Warriors and re-branded them the Chieftains so it was fitting that the Warriors would be returning in the second tier. An off-ice staff member said, “It is the intention that the Warriors will be a feeder and farm team for the Chieftains to ensure the progression link into the Chieftains fold. All elements will mimic the Chieftains set up, colours, fundraising etc. This includes an extension of Dean Birrell role as head coach for both teams. The intention is to interview a short list of coaches from a list that Dean will control to ensure that both teams play in the same way to ensure that once a player makes the leap into division one hockey the fit is seamless,” Smith said “Therefore the Warriors are not being put on the ice to win the league but to gain valuable experience for players coming from the under 18’s. The Warriors are again part of the Chelmsford junior ice hockey club but the finances and running of which are being underwritten by Derek Bartlett and myself in the same way that the Chieftains are.” Certainly exciting times ahead for the Chelmsford ice hockey set up and we hope to bring you more news in the next few weeks as the squad grows and more players are announced. Contact the author at Pete.lewis@prohockeynews.com
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