ENL South Round-up week 22

LONDON, UK – Chelmsford and Romford continued to play cat and mouse at the top of the league whilst Streatham and Slough faced a big weekend at the bottom. In between all of that was news of a new arrival and love in the air ahead of Valentines day.

 
Invicta Dynamos Coach Kevin Parrish sniped back at online detractors as he reflected on import Ryan Ellis’s six goal haul against Streatham the previous weekend.
 
“Ryan has come in for a bit of criticism on the fans’ forum, but there’s no doubt he’s got unbelievable talent and skill” explained Parrish in an interview with the Medway Messenger.
 
“He may be lacking a little in fitness and consistency, but you’ve only got to look at where he’s come from to see his pedigree”
 
“He was in the All-American college side two years running, which is an incredible achievement, and he can shut a few people up with a good performance against Chelmsford”
 
Indeed the 26 year old Canadian came with high expectations, as accompany any player flown across the pond specifically to play in the ENL. Both Ellis and Noble are expected to stand out amongst their British counterparts, as are Dwayne Newman and Jakub Klima at Chelmsford, Joe Rand at Wightlink and Juraj Huska and Andrius Kaminskas at Romford.
 
Perhaps it is a little unfair for this added expectation however if you are taking up one of the limited import slots, then that is the reality, and failure to perform will mean criticism whether justified or not.
 
Personally I thought Ellis looked very good against us last week but given that we shipped 13 goals in that game I am not sure whether my assessment holds much weight.
 
In more positive news, the Dynamos website announced that Parrish and his partner have a new baby boy named Isaac, so congratulations to them both. Coming a week after Cardiff coach Mark Cuddihy’s wife gave birth, I calculate that both coaches must have been in amorous moods at the end of the 2010/11 season!
 
Speaking of love and romance, Streatham announced that the first 25 women through the door for the game against Bristol would receive a rose from utility player Dan Botting. It is a novel idea, but a real blow to any of our gay fans hoping to receive a flower from the lovely Mr Botting.
 
After Grant Baxter’s hip flexor bruise scooped bruise of the week last time round, Romford forward JJ McGrath takes this week’s honours with a long term bruise that has ripened to fruition in the last few days.
 
Not a view for anyone eating dinner is JJ’s big toe, that is not only bruised but also has the nail hanging off thanks to a slap shot from Streatham’s Stewart Tait earlier in January.
 
Despite last week’s round up stating that Jeremy Cornish would be returning against Romford this weekend, I am afraid I got my wires crossed so if anyone specifically headed to the game to see the big Canadian in action, please accept my apologies.
 
Chelmsford announced a Rock 4 Autism evening scheduled for the 10^th March. Rumours of a four piece set featuring Gary Clarke on lead vocals, Tom Long on guitar, Alan Green on the drums and Michael Ranby on the triangle, were sadly scotched in the official press release that Scooby, a proper rock covers band would be providing the music at the Chelmsford Social club.
 
Chelmsford would not be the first team to have players rumoured to be forming a band as regular readers of this column will remember the group Death Blood and Fire, formed by a few Milton Keynes Thunder players. Despite an official press release to Pro Hockey News and the obligatory Facebook group, the ‘rock band’ featuring the Goode brothers Harrison and Connor along with Martyn Snape and Mike Lucas turned out to be entirely fictional.
 
This was probably the last inaccuracy reported within this column before the Jeremy Cornish mistake last week.
 
On a slightly different note, Olympic official and friend of this column Joy Tottman kindly forwarded a digital display showing at a conference she was attending last week. Most of these displays usually show bland messages like ‘Coffee served at 2pm’ or ‘Seminars listed below’ however this one had a quote of the day, not from Gandhi (or Gandi as the ever humorous Ed Koral wrote on the free guest ticket sheet for the game this weekend) or Martin Luther King but from the Great One himself – Wayne Gretzky.
 
Quite what delegates thought when they saw ‘You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take’ as they entered the room is not known but I quite like it, even if I have heard it so many times it sounds cheesy.
 
I put it along with ‘twenty miles twenty smiles’ , ‘Who owwwwwwwns’ and ‘Hard to bear son’ as phrases that I have heard so many times over the years they actually make me cringe. Only ‘Good shift Carrsy’ stands out as a phrase I don’t mind repeated ad nauseum.
 
Bristol announced preparations for a legends game which took place on Saturday. The rink was packed for the event, which Pro Hockey News previewed with Pitbulls Captain Mike Hargreaves. A lot of players from past and present showed up to take part in the showcase which will hopefully show Bristol Council that hockey has decent traditions in the city and is worth them making moves to provide continuous ice provision.
 
Saturday
 
Wightlink and Romford faced off on the island with the visitors knowing that the game would be one of the bigger hurdles they will face in their title run in. With Jeremy Cornish banned (yes really), Wightlink played with Joe Rand as a solo import and managed to win the game 5-2.
 
Wightlink scorers were Richard Facey with a brace and one goal apiece for Steve Gosset, Dom Hopkins and Joe Rand. Romford goals came from Adam Smith and Tyrone Miller.
 
Whilst Wightlink may not be challenging for the title again this year this has to be a real boost for their confidence ahead of the play-offs. The result also left Chelmsford with a chance to close the gap at the top.
 
The Chieftains had a tricky looking home fixture against Cardiff but coasted through with a surprising 7-2 win.
 
A hat trick from Danny Hammond and one each for Gary Clarke, Jakub Klima and Alan Green gave Chelmsford their goals with Jamie Hayes hitting a brace for Cardiff.
 
Dwayne Newman was ejected for elbows after a big hit on Chris Jones.
 
Streatham travelled to Bracknell knowing that we really needed a win to catch up with Slough three points ahead of us at the bottom.
 
After the first period we looked in cruise control at 2-0 up and I really didn’t see us doing anything other than winning the game. I don’t know if it is the habit of losing or just a mental thing when you are struggling as a team but we basically fell apart from the second period onwards.
 
Individual errors and sloppy penalties were the familiar signals but Bracknell did play very well after the initial stages and were good value for their eventual 5-4 win. I also thought the referee Mr Pickett had a good game so we certainly could not blame anyone but ourselves for not winning.
 
A brace for Danny Hughes including a pile driver from the blue added to goals from Matt Jordan, Alan Lack and Tony Barclay gave the Hornets their win with our goals coming from Stevie Balmer with two and one each for Casimir Madren-Britton and Liam Rasmussen.  
 
Sunday
 
All eyes were on the Invicta versus Chelmsford game as title rivals Romford crossed their fingers and donned Mo’s scarves for the evening. In typical fashion Invicta proved to be a thorn in Chelmsford’s title ambition and skated off with a hard fought 3-2 win.
 
Invicta needed a hero and up stepped the familiar Andy Smith as he hit the game winner to add to goals from Justin Noble and Callum Fowler.   James Ayling and Danny Hammond scored for Chelmsford who will be kicking themselves that they could not take advantage of Romford’s slip up 24 hours earlier.
 
Streatham once again faced a must win game as they hosted a mid-table Bristol side, who are waiting for the play-offs.
 
Once again we took the lead and looked comfortable and cruising at 2-0 up going into the third. The familiar signs were there again though and Bristol hit four unanswered efforts, before we managed to get two right at the end and come away with a 4-4 draw.
 
Stevie Balmer hit two for Streatham with Warren Rost and Jerry Pavlus also getting on the score sheet. Eggy Bauba, Steve Osman, Jamie Newton and Steven Fisher getting the goals for Bristol.
 
Mike Hargreaves and Casimir Madren-Britton dropped the gloves with the latter using his significant height advantage to good effect. Hargreaves got a couple in but Britton got his shirt over and proceeded to thump him a fair few times on the top of the head and just missed a dangerous upper cut before the pair were split up.
 
It was a bit like Phil Collins drumming at the beginning of ‘Feel it in the Air tonight’, with Caz playing the follically challenged former Genesis star, and Mike standing in as a drum kit.
 
I have to say that I think Caz is a quality defenseman with good hands and skating ability and if someone can teach him an effective fighting technique there will be few in the league to touch him; such is his long reach and strength. Mike is no slouch in the fighting department but when you are looking up at a 45 degree angle towards your opponent, life is always going to be difficult.
 
So we finished a weekend were we really needed four points with only a single point to show for our efforts. It is safe to say we have a tougher than ever road to survival ahead of us now.
 
The final game took place at Slough where Bracknell needed to do Streatham a favour and ensure the Jets didn’t extend the gap at the bottom.
 
The Hornets capped a fine 4 point weekend with a 5-3 win to pretty much cement their place in the play-offs. Bracknell scorers were Shaun Rudkin, Ricky Rutherford, Ryan Webb, Danny Hughes and Tom Fisher.
 
The weekend’s results mean that Romford are now in pole position at the top and Streatham look to be in big trouble at the bottom.
 
Results
 
Saturday 11 February 2012
 
Bracknell Hornets 5 – 4 Streatham Redskins  
Chelmsford Chieftains 7 – 2 Cardiff Devils  
Wightlink Raiders 5 – 2 Romford Raiders
 
Sunday 12 February 2012
 
Invicta Dynamos 3 – 2 Chelmsford Chieftains  
Streatham Redskins 4 – 4 Bristol Pitbulls  
Slough Jets 3 – 5 Bracknell Hornets
 
Contact the author david.carr@prohockeynews.com