ENL South Round-up week 9

LONDON, UK – Spooky goings on in the English National League as Invicta sign up a resident Band and the Slovak invasion continues. A top of the table clash and more Halloween fun provided the other talking points of the weekend.
 
After bemoaning a lack of news last time round, the ENL exploded into life during the week as the player merry go round continued as it had done prior.

 
Despite a four point weekend, Bristol Pitbulls supremo Richie Hargreaves had to deal with the loss of former Haringey and Romford defenseman Alastair Band (more on that later) and brought in Swindon ENL Wildcats blue liner Tom Asprey.
 
Another enforced defensive shuffle given that Bristol’s other physical defenseman Andrew Shurmer departed for Oxford a couple of weeks ago and was replaced by the smaller and more agile Peter Korff.
 
It is to Hargreaves credit that he has been able to replace both departures so quickly, and he spoke to the Bristol Evening Post earlier in the week of his delight at the form of Lithuanian International Egidijus Bauba.
 
“I was delighted that Eggie got a hat-trick” enthused Hargreaves in his interview with the paper.
 
“He’s really coming into his own at the moment and has started banging in the goals for us. Eggie is a great player to have around because he’s got that extra bit about him that can sometimes prove the difference in tight games”
 
This interview is exactly what the journalists covering the ENL South have been waiting for. No more double checking the spelling of Bauba’s forename for us – ‘Eggie’ it is, from this point forward.
 
Streatham Head Coach Barry Spours made a bold move as he brought in veteran Slovak Jaroslav Pavlus from Chelmsford Warriors to take the place of fellow countryman Tomas Valko.
 
I say bold because making decisions like this is not easy for anyone and especially in a club as small and tight knit as Streatham. My personal opinion is that a fit Tomas Valko would light up our league as he has exceptional skill, toughness and experience, but he has struggled with injury and just cannot seem to get over it.
 
Like any good player, Valko has been getting more and more frustrated that his body is letting him down and it has been hard to watch as a team mate, a player who has the ability but cannot get it out on the ice. It isn’t all down to Tomas though, and it hasn’t helped that our team is weaker this year and can’t offer him the same support and calibre of line mates that he perhaps got last season but that is unfortunately the way hockey works out sometimes.
 
Pavlus has played at Streatham before and is a good friend of our other Slovak Peter Molnar so he should have no trouble settling in. Valko has not been released and who knows, maybe he will return at some point but it is my understanding that we will be running with Molnar, Pavlus and Czech Lukas Zilak for the upcoming months at least.
 
A quick confession that the debut of Milton Keynes Thunder’s latest Slovak passed this column by last weekend, however we can now confirm that Player Coach Simon Howard has replaced Pavel Valko (no relation to Tomas) with the latest Slovak Vladimir Hubka.
“Sme potešený podpisom zmluvy s ďaľším Slovenským hráčom” explained Howard, after admitting that Thunder’s other Slovak sniper Maros Stefanco had been teaching him the lingo.
 
“Slovákov máme radi, zlepšujú kvalitu nášho mužstva” he added.
 
Roughly translated, it transpires that Howard is pleased to have another Slovak on board and that Slovakians tend to improve the Thunder as a team. This obsession with Slovakians will be a worry to Mrs Howard, especially as her husband is rumoured to have recently put up a poster of Slovak former Wonderbra model Adriana Karembeu in his ‘games’ room.
 
MK also announced that they had signed youngster Jake Florey on a two way with Basingstoke Under 18’s.
 
One man who has shunned the Slovak invasion in the last couple of years is Invicta Dynamos Coach Kevin Parrish, who called up Invicta Mustangs defenseman Pete Beerling to the Mo’s squad on a full time basis as well as signing the aforementioned Band from Bristol.
 
“Given the injuries we’ve had, and the players that have left, we were desperately in need of more numbers at the back and I’m delighted Ali has agreed to join us” said Parrish in the official press release.
 
“He is a strong, tall unit who also brings a physical presence to the ice and I think, given what we currently need at the Dynamos, he fits the bill perfectly”
 
By that we can safely assume that Ali will be expected to drop the gloves for the Mo’s on a regular basis, something which he will not shy away from. I do hope that Mr Band has upgraded his satellite navigation system for his commute to Kent from University in Bath, as when he came to visit me for some ‘Skoal’ chew a couple of years ago, the device in his car pointed him to a caravan in the street parallel to my flat. I can confirm that despite owning a Jack Russell I do not reside in a caravan despite what Garman devices say.
As someone who spent many years driving from London to Oxford on long boring motorways I don’t envy the 332 mile round trip Band will have to undertake to pull on a Mo’s jersey each week but good luck to him. Ali has always been enthusiastic about his hockey so I am sure he will give it his best shot regardless.
 
All of this good news in Kent was soon tempered by the news that winger Nicky Lewis is out for four to six weeks after dislocating his shoulder in a clash with Chelmsford forward Tom Long.
 
Injuries were not exclusive to Invicta as Oxford announced that South African forward Cameron Birrell would be out for 4-6 weeks with a badly sprained ankle. That does seem a long diagnosis unless there is additional ligament damage so hopefully he will be back a bit sooner for the Stars.
 
It is now approaching that time of year again when players and staff across the world begin to prepare for Movember and the ENL South is no different. We will be featuring a number of Movember hockey related pieces over the next few weeks so keep an eye out. There will be a vote and Pro Hockey News award for the best moustache at the end of November so get growing.
 
For more information on Movember and the fight against prostate cancer please visit the link below.
 
http://uk.movember.com/
 
 
Saturday
 
With most bars and clubs jam packed with women in skimpy witch outfits and men with fake blood all over themselves (or was that just London), the hockey clubs of the ENL tried to get in on the Halloween themed action with a number of initiatives.
 
Looking for their 14th consecutive victory, Romford Raiders decided to allow any child under 16 in fancy dress into their game with Cardiff free of charge, with a paying adult. So with numerous kids in Essex calling Child line as their parents forced them to wear ghoulish costumes in a bid to take advantage of the excellent offer, the home side were not to be scared on the ice as they despatched the visiting Devils 6-3.
 
Two goals each from Juraj Huska and Andrius Kaminskas did the majority of damage for Romford with Matt Turner and Danny Marshall getting the others. Luke Piggott replied with a brace of his own for Cardiff with Adam Harding getting the other.
 
Romford’s Billy Phillips was ejected for incitement after an altercation with a Cardiff player.
 
Determined not to be outdone with Halloween promotions, Bristol held their own fancy dress competition at their game against Chelmsford Chieftains with a prize given to the best dressed under 14.
 
The age restriction was put in place after rumours that Chelmsford fan and Pro Hockey News UK editor Pete Lewis was preparing a ‘naughty pumpkin’ outfit to wear at the game complete with fishnet stockings.
 
Bristol also unveiled their new ‘Shoot a Foot long’ competition that gave fans the chance to win a meal for four at Subway. One man who would be ideal to take part in any shooting competition of late is Pitbulls free scoring forward Eggie Bauba, but despite his goal and another by Steve Osman, Bristol couldn’t cope with the speed and tenacity of the visiting Chieftains and lost 8-2.
 
On the score sheet for Chelmsford were Tom Long and Jakub Klima with two each plus lone efforts from Alan Green, Dwayne Newman, Gary Clarke and Danny Hammond.
 
Invicta hosted Wightlink in the imaginatively named South East Cup, which is pretty much out of the hands of both clubs. Despite the game meaning very little in the grand scheme of things, the 8-4 win for Invicta will no doubt have given them a much needed confidence boost following on from the trauma in recent weeks.
Andy Smith hit a hat trick for the Mo’s with Ryan Ellis getting a brace and Adam Copland, Pete Beerling and Dan Fudger getting the other goals.
 
Oxford City Stars and Bracknell Hornets went head to head at Oxpens Road with the home side looking to get two points on the board against their struggling visitors. A thumping 10-4 win was exactly what Stars Coach Ken Forshee would have been hoping for, so it was smiles all round for those of an Oxford persuasion.
 
Five goal hero Darren Elliott led the line for the Stars with Gareth Endicott getting a brace and Lee Featherstone, Andrew Shurmer and Martin Lee scoring one each. Graham Bellamy, Nick Minhinnick, Danny Hughes and Tom Fisher all scored for the Hornets.
 
 
Sunday
 
The big clash of the day took place at the Riverside in front of nigh on 1000 fans as top of the table rivals Chelmsford and Romford faced off against each other. A man of the match performance from goalie David Wride helped the home side bag two important points with a 4-2 win.
 
Player Coach Gary Clarke led by example with a hat trick for Chelmsford with Danny Hammond getting the other. Romford scorers were Danny Marshall and former Chelmsford player Matt Turner.
 
For the second time in the weekend Billy Phillips got ejected from the game with two misconduct penalties as the Raiders went home empty handed.
 
Oxford City Stars must have been reasonably confident in their home game against Invicta but they didn’t have quite enough to deny the Dynamos back to back wins over the 48 hours.
 
An Andy Smith hat trick helped Invicta to a 6-3 victory with their other goals coming from Robbie Brown, Corey Watkins and Justin Noble getting the others. Dale White, Josh Oliver and Richard Wojciack were on target for Oxford who were 2-0 up after only four minutes at the start of the game.
 
It wasn’t all good news for Invicta as Noble was ejected for a high sticking penalty.
 
Local rivals Cardiff ENL Devils and Bristol Pitbulls met at the big blue tent in Cardiff and cancelled each other out in a 3-3 draw. Bristol will be happy with a good point on the road and their goals came from Steven Fisher (against his old team), Jamie Newton and Peter Korff.
 
Cardiff scorers were Chris Jones with a brace and Jamie Hayes with a lone goal.
 
Wightlink eased past Slough at Absolute Ice with a comfortable 8-3 win thanks to a rarity, a hat trick from a defenseman! To be fair Dominic Hopkins does get quite a few goals from the point but I think this is his first hat trick in recent times. Wightlinks other scorers were Nathan Taylor with two goals and one each for Alex Murray, Joe Rand and Richard Facey.
 
Streatham Redskins faced a tough trip to Milton Keynes to take on a Thunder side who had beaten us 6-0 on the opening game of the season in Streatham. In a close game, we were leading 5-3 with six minutes remaining before we gave up two power play goals to end the game with a 5-5 tie.
 
Definitely a game the neutrals would have enjoyed but not much fun if you are on the team that concedes an equaliser with just over 90 seconds remaining.
 
Man of the match Jerry Pavlus scored two goals for the Redskins with Peter Molnar, Liam Rasmussen and Norm Pinnington all getting on the scoresheet as well. Pinnington was kicked out of the game towards the end after receiving two misconduct penalties from referee Tim Pickett.
 
Milton Keynes scorers were Jamie Randall and Maros Stefanco with a brace each and Harrison Goode with the other. A good come back in the end for the MK boys but obviously it felt like a defeat for those of a Redskins persuasion. Would I have been happy with a point if someone had asked me before the game? I probably would have.
 
The league table made nice viewing for Chelmsford fans at the end of the weekend as they now sit top by seven points but Romford do have four games in hand.
 
 
Results
 
Saturday 29 October 2011
 
Oxford City Stars 10 Bracknell Hornets 4  
Romford Raiders 8 Cardiff Devils 3  
Bristol Pitbulls 2 Chelmsford Chieftains 8
Invicta Dynamos 8 Wightlink Raiders 4 (South East Cup)
 
Sunday 30 October 2011
 
Oxford City Stars 3 Invicta Dynamos 6  
Chelmsford Chieftains 4 Romford Raiders 2
Milton Keynes Thunder 5 Streatham Redskins 5  
Cardiff Devils 3 Bristol Pitbulls 3  
Slough Jets 3 Wightlink Raiders 8
 
Contact the author david.carr@prohockeynews.com