ENL South Round-up week 28

LONDON, UK – Romford faced the biggest test of their league title charge and a popular player announced his early departure. Elsewhere Streatham had an unexpected guest in the locker room and Slough hosted a celebrity.
 
With a number of clubs counting down the days till the play-offs, it was matters at the top and bottom of the table that were in the spotlight during the week.

 
At the top, Romford Raiders knew that a win in Cardiff on Saturday would be a huge step towards lifting the ENL South league title. After a weekend rest thanks to the postponement of their game against Wightlink, Romford had assured supporters that the licensing issues would be resolved in time to complete the necessary fixtures.
 
“I don’t think last weekend off helped, but maybe it’s all given us a bit of rest and time to recover from niggly injuries” explained Jason Buckman in an interview with the Romford Recorder.
 
“It has been a perfect time for everyone to have a think and focus on what we need to do to win in Cardiff and set up a potential championship final in the last league game of the season against Isle of Wight.”
 
“If we finish half our chances this weekend we’ll come away with the two points. It’s games like this that the experience in the team has to shine through when it matters and leading into the play-offs”
 
“If we play tough disciplined hockey and finish our chances in Cardiff we won’t have a problem. Hopefully we will have some decent away support too”
 
The ‘weekend off’ is always a strange one for ENL teams. It can work positively for the reasons stated by Buckman but it can also have the reverse effect if players lose focus in training and enjoy a heavy weekend as a release.
 
At the other end of the table, Streatham reflected on a disappointing weekend on the road and Head Coach Barry Spours weighed up the rest of the season.
 
“It’s crunch time now and we really need to win all three of our last games and that’s not going to be easy” said the Skins supremo in an interview with the Richmond and Twickenham Times.
 
“The players know there are no excuses now, they know we can’t put in anything less than our best in these games and we’ve really got nowhere to hide”
 
“There’s a strong possibility the league might throw us a lifeline and decide to keep us up, but we don’t want to be there because of other teams folding or restructuring of the league, we want to be there because we deserve to be there”
 
“Other clubs such as Oxford threw the towel in, we’ve kept battling and I think for that reason we deserve to be in ENL1 next season”
 
Indeed there has been no talk of league restructuring at training or during games down at Brixton. On a personal note I believe we would have finished above Oxford and would already be up there with MK and Slough had we played those fixtures against the Stars and kept our points we had already won.
 
Sadly if you are at the bottom of the league it is because that’s where you deserve to be so we cannot really blame anyone but ourselves. The only consolation is that our safety is in our hands with the games against Slough, unless they somehow manage to shock Romford or Chelmsford (not unfeasible) before then.
 
Invicta forward Mike Timms shocked Dynamos fans by announcing the upcoming games at the weekend would be his last for the club before emigrating to the United States of America.
 
Rumours that Dynamos Coach Kevin Parrish had attempted to replicate life in the States for Timms and his fiancé by striking a deal for free pizzas at Papa John’s Gillingham and letting them use his Dynamos branded, gas guzzling 4wd truck in a vain attempt to keep them on the Kent Riviera were unfortunately not true.
 
“I made the decision over a year ago to settle in America with my fiancé, so I have always known that I would be leaving eventually, but, until now, I never had a set date due to the visa process” explained the 27 year old, whilst draped in a stars and stripes flag on the Mo’s Official website.
 
“After being approved at the start of the month though, it has begun to sink in that I will be moving on and I’m both very excited but also sad as I’ll be leaving behind my home, friends, family and, of course, all the Dynamos fans”
 
“I’m sure this weekend is going to be very emotional for me personally but I wouldn’t have been able to take part at all were it not for the help and support of all the staff, players and coach”
 
“I’m a bit disappointed to be leaving the club without collecting a winners’ medal but I wish everyone all the best in the play-offs and I will be keeping an eye on things from the other side of the Atlantic”
 
Timms has had a good career in the UK with spells at Guildford, Slough, Chelmsford and Romford before his move to Medway and we are sure everyone in UK hockey wishes him well in his new venture across the pond.
 
One club celebrating a bit of silverware were Bristol Pitbulls, who lifted the John Nike cup last weekend thanks to an aggregate win over the Bracknell Hornets.
 
“It’s enjoyable to win any piece of silverware and it is a great reward for the guys and everyone else at this club who has put in so much hard work over the last couple of years to make it such a success” admitted Pitbulls Coach Richie Hargreaves in an interview with This is Bristol.
 
“Injuries and suspensions have hit us at various times, but now with everybody back and fighting fit, we’re really showing people what we are about”
 
“We’d like to finish the regular-season on a high by winning our two games this weekend, to give us a real boost of confidence before we take on Isle of Wight in the play-offs next weekend”
 
“It won’t be easy though, because Slough are down at the bottom there scrapping away for every point they can get, and Invicta are always a difficult test for every team in the league”
 
Talking of Slough, the Hanger, or as it is now known ‘Absolute Ice Slough’ appeared in a music video by popular London band Florence and the Machine.
 
In the video for the single ‘Never let me go’, Florence prances about on the ice with some guy before a strange scene involving what appears to be bubble bath. A Slough Jets logo is faintly visible at one point, but no sign of Zoran Kozic and his men skulking around in the background sadly.
 
A number of celebrities use ice rinks in the South East for training and Hollyoaks star Jorgie Porter was rumoured to be training for ITV’s Dancing on Ice in Brixton recently, prompting Redskins lothario Adam Mahoney to set up camp in the car park to give her his number.
 
The former Basingstoke man is also this week’s winner of bruise of the week with another corker on his thigh. Given that his last winner of this award involved ‘a sexual act’ it is probably for the best that no reasons were given for the cause of this one.
 
Thanks to a postponed fixture earlier in the year, Chelmsford and Milton Keynes met in a late night face off on Thursday.
 
Milton Keynes were tipped to prove a tough test for the travelling Chieftains but their buzz from beating Invicta the previous weekend was soon taking away as Chelmsford won 8-0.
 
Chieftains’ goals came from Jakub Klima with a hat trick and lone efforts from Michael Ranby, Danny Hammond, Gary Clarke, Alan Green and Tom Avery.
 
 
Saturday
 
Romford’s big test in Cardiff finally arrived with the Essex side and their travelling fans hoping for a win that would give them a crucial advantage in the title race against Chelmsford.
 
In the end it was a happy journey home for the visitors as they triumphed 4-1 thanks to a hat trick from Juraj Huska and a single effort from Billy Phillips.
 
Romford now look like odds on favourites for the championship with their remaining games against struggling Slough and a potential banana skin at home to Wightlink.
 
Bracknell and Invicta met at the Hive in a dead rubber game that saw the Mo’s win 7-3.
 
Nicky Lewis hit a brace for the visitors with Jack Tarczycki, Andy Smith, Adam Copland and Ryan Ellis all on the score sheet. Bracknell goal scorers were Lewis Turner, Danny Hughes and Alan Lack.
 
Turner also dropped the gloves with Harrison Lillis and then Lack and Tarczycki also stood toe to toe.
 
Bristol uncharacteristically slipped up at home with the Slough ENL Jets grateful recipients of two points winning 3-2.
 
Eggy Bauba and Alan Armour were on target for Bristol with Jonan Lisspers and Nathan Darmanin the heroes for Slough. Ryan Bainborough put in a fantastic display in between the pipes for the visitors as he made save after save to keep his team in contention.
 
The result was especially bad for Streatham as it gave Slough a four point gap ahead of the Redskins.
 
 
Sunday
 
It is a funny thing that when you are at the bottom of the league, everyone’s tolerance levels drop accordingly.
I am pretty sure that the sight of a Rastafarian bus driver showering in his pink scrubbing gloves and singing to himself would ordinarily be a great source of amusement; however in the locker room before our game against MK it was pretty obvious that he was causing some of our team to lose focus and I was desperately hoping we would win so that no one could say that ‘bussies’ soapy balls had put us off our game.
 
Quite why our bus driver had decided to clean himself prior to our game is anyone’s guess but even Norm was speechless, and those of you who know him will know that doesn’t happen very often.
 
Thankfully Streatham did win, and the 5-4 victory over the Thunder was our first win on the road all season.
 
Chris Rasmussen, Gennadi Yufit, Russ Stevens, Norm Pinnington and Tomas Valko were on target for the Redskins. Tom Mboya, Lee Featherstone, Joe Edwards and Connor Goode got the Thunder goals.
 
This result sets up an epic two game clash with Slough in the next fortnight to decide who stays up. Personally I think the rasta is a lucky omen and maybe we can get him and Florence without the machine in our showers prior to our game in Slough (getting a bit weird now Dave – Ed.)
 
Invicta beat Bristol 4-2 in an uneventful game in Gillingham. Steve Osman and Eggy Bauba getting the goals for the Pitbulls, with Ryan Ellis hitting a brace for the home side adding to goals from Callum Best and Justin Noble.
 
Mike Timms took the beers for the Mo’s and gave an emotional farewell to the home fans before leaving the ice and heading to McDonalds Drive Thru (in the Dynamos truck) to get a taste of his future life.
 
Struggling Slough managed a credible (if there is such a thing) 5-0 loss in Chelmsford and seem to be improving at just the right time.
 
Chelmsford goals came from Ross Brears with a brace and one each for Tom Long, Tom Avery and of course Danny Hammond.
 
So the title race looks ever more likely to be heading to Rom Valley Way, whilst the relegation scrap goes down to the wire.
 
 
Results
 
Saturday 24^th March 2012
 
Bristol Pitbulls 2 – 3 Slough Jets  
Bracknell Hornets 3 – 7 Invicta Dynamos  
Cardiff Devils 1 – 4 Romford Raiders
 
Sunday 25^th March 2012
 
Invicta Dynamos 4 – 2 Bristol Pitbulls  
Chelmsford Chieftains 5 – 0    Slough Jets  
Milton Keynes Thunder 4 – 5 Streatham Redskins
  Contact the author david.carr@prohockeynews.com