ENL South Round-up week 8

LONDON, UK – Thankfully it was a much quieter week in ENL South compared with the previous one, however there were plenty of talking points, not least whether anyone can stop Chelmsford and Romford making the league a two horse race.
 
After a whirlwind of player transfers and press releases the week prior, it was something of a relief last week that news was rather thin on the ground. So much so in fact, that at one stage the only interesting thing to report was Streatham’s Czech defenseman Lukas Zilak stinging encounter with a jellyfish in Tenerife.

 
“Jellyfish it f**ing hurt” announced the grimacing Zilak as he entered the rink for training on Thursday, prompting bemused looks from all around.
 
Chelmsford Chieftains Player Coach Gary Clarke expressed surprise that his side were winning by such large margins following their demolition of Bracknell Hornets.
 
“When I took on the role on and after the forwards we signed I didn’t think there were any that would go missing. I thought they’d all get goals” said Clarke whilst speaking to the Total Essex website.
 
“But to get double figures in games has surprised me”
 
Indeed Chelmsford, and their friendly neighbours Romford Raiders may have to get used to such one sided games, especially at home, if the season continues the way it has started.
 
Lower teams Streatham, Oxford and the aforementioned Bracknell all lost arguably their best players to Chelmsford this season, so by weakening the opposition, Chelmsford fans can’t be too shocked that games are possibly not very competitive at times (the 1-1 tie with Oxford the obvious exception).
 
The ENL is no different to the Elite league and to a lesser extent the EPL in that there will always be teams who are going through a tough time, either financially or roster wise. It is always worth remembering though, that the league is only as strong as its weakest team and fans don’t tend to enjoy whitewashed games for too long.
 
Thankful to be out of the spotlight for a week at least, Invicta Coach Kevin Parrish told the BBC of his relief that the much publicised accommodation issues that had been blamed for player unrest and departures had now been resolved.
 
“There’s nothing we can do about that now but I am working to try and bolster the squad” explained the Invicta supremo,
 
“Unfortunately they don’t sell hockey players in Tesco anymore”
 
Always thought of more as a Waitrose club than a Tesco, Parrish and Invicta have their work cut out trying to get replacements at this stage of the season, but they could do worse than persist with some of the Invicta Mustangs the Dynamos have called up recently.
 
Saturday
 
An under strength Streatham side travelled to an in-form Romford Raiders who are so far unbeaten this year. A decent crowd turned out for this mismatch and were not disappointed as the Raiders sped into an 8-1 lead scoring some good goals along the way.
 
It looked like we (Streatham) were on for an even heavier defeat but thankfully some of the Raiders began to pre occupy themselves with trying to fight us at any slight excuse, knowing full well and comfortable in the knowledge that our bench had no such players willing or able to take them on.
 
This allowed us to grab a couple more goals before the end of the game, and also denied the rest of the Romford players who actually wanted to play hockey the chance to rack up some more points.
 
11-3 was the final score with Romford coach Danny Marshall hitting a hat trick and both Grant Taylor and Juraj Huska getting a brace each. Romford’s other goals came from Andrius Kaminskas, Matt Turner, JJ Pitchley and Billy Phillips getting the others.
Streatham scorers were Russ Stevens, Peter Molnar and Gennadi Yufit.
 
The transfer of Andrew Shurmer to Oxford City Stars from Bristol Pitbulls a couple of weeks’ prior added spice to the clash between the two sides at Frogmore Street. In a tight game, the Pitbulls came from behind to win 5-3, thanks mainly to a hat trick from Egidijus Bauba.
 
Bristol’s other scorers were Steve Osman and Henrik Sahlin, with Cameron Birrell, Josh Oliver and Wayne Fiddes getting the goals for Oxford.
 
An altercation in the crowd delayed this game even further but Richie Hargreaves and his team were delighted with the win.
 
Wightlink Raiders thumped Bracknell 10-0 in a one sided encounter at the Cube. Most pleasingly for Jeremy Cornish was the fact his goalie Liam McAllister kept a shut out that will do his confidence the world of good.
 
Joe Rand hit a hat trick, with Conor Pollard and Richard Facey both getting a brace. Arran Strawson, Dom Hopkins and Cornish also got a goal each.
 
MK resident Gary Clarke had a short drive to a road game for once as his Chelmsford Chieftains side played Milton Keynes Thunder at the Thunderdome. The Chieftains made easy work of the home side inflicting a rather surprising 10-3 defeat on a Thunder team who are normally solid on home ice.
Two goals each for Clarke, Alan Green and Danny Hammond were added too by Jakub Klima, Ross Brears, James Ayling and Tom Long. MK scorers were the returning Matt Roberts, Simon Howard and Connor Goode.
 
Away from the bright lights of the ENL, Cardiff forward Luke Piggott was called up to play for the Elite league side and managed to get on the score sheet in their 7-3 win over Dundee Stars.
 
That means that Piggott has hit the headlines twice this year after beating breast cancer and now scoring in the Elite league. What odds on him hitting a hat trick of headlines, thanks to a sensational affair with Welsh crooner Charlotte Church before the year is out?
   
Sunday
 
Another big game for Streatham as Bristol Pitbulls came to town. After two periods the score stood at 4-4 but Bristol’s extra cutting edge made the difference and the visitors skated off with an 8-4 win.
 
The impressive Lithuanian international Egidijus Bauba was the difference between the two sides as he got his second hat trick of the weekend, with Steven Fisher getting a brace and Bristol’s other goals coming from Henrik Sahlin, Jamie Newton and Steve Osman. Streatham’s goals came from Stevie Balmer, Chris Fox, Russ Stevens and Peter Molnar.
 
Another tough loss for us in Streatham but Bristol fully deserved to win and took their chances. It was the minor penalties that gave us an uphill task but I may surprise a few people by saying that referee Stephenson did very well along with his young linesman Mr Iantonov.
 
Wightlink Raiders faced a tough game on the road in Cardiff in a game that most pundits would not have surprised with a home win. Credit to Wightlink though, as they came away with an impressive 6-3 win despite having player coach Jeremy Cornish kicked out for charging.
 
Cardiff scorers were James Preece, Richard Sadler and Jamie Hayes. Wightlink forward Joe Rand bagged a brace for the Raiders and their other goals came from Dom Hopkins, Richard Facey, Alex Murray and Arran Strawson.
 
Oxford City Stars faced a tough task at home to Romford Raiders and had back-up goalie Patrick Russell to thank for a string of saves that kept the Stars in a close game that they eventually lost 4-2.
 
Juraj Huska continued his goal scoring weekend with a brace and Romford’s other goals came from Billy Phillips and AJ Smith. Andy Cox and Josh Oliver both made the score sheet for Oxford.
 
Another close game took place at the Gillingham Ice Bowl as Invicta hosted a Chelmsford side who possibly anticipated a convincing win against the resident depleted Dynamos. Invicta had other ideas and very nearly managed a win, before running out of steam and losing a 3-2 lead to suffer a 5-4 defeat.
 
In a game that saw Invicta Coach Kev Parrish suffer more injury woes courtesy of Nicky Lewis dislocating his shoulder, Chelmsford took the victory thanks to goals from Alan Green, Jakub Klima, Michael Ranby and Danny Hammond.
 
Invicta goals came from Justin Noble, Pete Beerling, Grant Baxter and Andy Smith.
 
Slough ENL Jets faced a tough task as MK Thunder visited Absolute Ice for a game that could have gone either way. In the end both sides cancelled each other out as the ENL Jets came back from 5-3 down to tie the game at 5-5.
 
Slough scorers were Andrew Melachrino with two goals and one each for Zoran Kozic, Callum Best and Lewis Tribble. MK scorers were Harrison Goode with a hat trick and a solo effort from Maros Stefanco.
 
The results leave Chelmsford and Romford battling it out for top spot and it would be a brave person to put a bet on anyone else lifting the silverware at the end of the season, even at this early stage.
 
Results
 
Saturday 22 October 2011
 
Romford Raiders 11 Streatham Redskins 3  
Bristol Pitbulls 5 Oxford City Stars 3  
Wightlink Raiders 10 Bracknell Hornets 0  
Milton Keynes Thunder 3 Chelmsford Chieftains 10
 
Sunday 23 October 2011
 
Invicta Dynamos 4 Chelmsford Chieftains 5  
Oxford City Stars 2 Romford Raiders 4  
Streatham Redskins 4 Bristol Pitbulls 8  
Cardiff Devils 3 Wightlink Raiders 6  
Slough Jets 5 Milton Keynes Thunder 5
 
Contact the author david.carr@prohockeynews.com