ENL week 18 Round-up

LONDON, UK – The new decade started with a bang, thanks in part, to the exciting fixtures scheduled over the weekend.

 
On Saturday league leaders Invicta travelled to Cardiff, to face a Devils side that are formidable on their own ice. Santa Claus clearly had an off day when delivering to the Parrish household, as the Invicta coach sported a personalised Dynamos’ body warmer for the trip to Wales.  
 
The fashion faux pas was not the only downer for Mr Parrish, as his side threw away a two goal lead, to lose only their second game of the season 6-3.
 
A man of the match performance from Alan Armour saw him notch two on the score sheet along with Fisher, Hart, Burrows and Captain James for the home side. Lewis, Boike and Vaisenan were the scorers for the Dynamos. Armour capped his goals with two unique celebrations to delight the home crowd. The first was an Irish jig (in his own words), and he then followed it up with the classic down on one knee fist pump, which sounds rather rude now I look at it.
 
I have to confess I have been toying with a personal campaign to bring back flamboyant celebrations but thought better of it. I guess as a defenseman it’s not a good idea to encourage opposition forwards to glam up their celebrations, but from a fans point of view it really brightens up the game. British hockey used to be full of unique celebrations at one time and is worse for the lack of them now.
 
The master of these was Kel Land who played for Swindon Wildcats amongst other teams. Two of his most memorable were the ‘Bow and Arrow’ and the ‘Whale’. The ‘Bow and Arrow’ was the classic down on one knee, throw your glove in the air and then mimic a bow with the stick. The ‘Whale’ took rather more effort and involved taking a mouthful of water before sliding on his back spitting the water in the air whilst doing backstroke movement. Some of the other pretenders to Land’s throne were Dan Prachar and his forward roll, Chris Brant’s Indian war dance, Rick Brebant’s mid ice rifle shooting and the less inspiring, and rather random jump that Jason Coles would do after scoring.
 
Celebrations were also afoot in Bracknell as the Hornets edged a 5-3 victory over the Oxford City Stars. Both sides went in to this one in good form, with the Hornets looking to bounce back after struggling against the Stars earlier in the season.
 
Two goals from Alan Green and one for Joe Boot was not enough to save the Stars, as a brace from Barker, and one each for Lack, Duggan and big Dom Hopkins won it for the Hornets.
 
Wightlink faced MK Thunder without John Sarno who was suspended following his antics in Invicta the previous week. More notably for the Thunder they were without first choice goalie Mark Woolf, so back up Kevin McGurk got his shot between the pipes. Kevin is a good guy and I feel a bit sorry for him, getting a rare start in the shooters paradise that is the small pad on the island.
 
The game was tied 2-2 going into the third, but then an early goal from James Udell put the home side ahead and they never looked back, winning 6-2 with Hughes, Murray, Tait, Robinson and Cornish the other scorers for the Raiders.
 
Two vital points for the Raiders who now will be looking to put a run of form together in preparation for the Play Offs – assuming those pesky Redskins don’t catch them.
 
Talking of my team, things are changing down at the High Road and definitely for the better. The lack of numbers that was so evident at the start of the season, is no longer an issue as Coach Barry Spours builds his squad. We faced Cardiff on Sunday in South London, and I am sure that even the most die hard fan was expecting a convincing win for the Welsh side.
 
With nearly four lines, the Redskins are now a different proposition for sides that comfortably beat us early in the year. Spoursy handed debuts to no less than three new players in Joe Weir, Chris Wittenberg and Jakob Siegerus, and welcomed back yours truly to the line up after a four month absence.
 
I did crack a smile at the pre match ceremonies, which I assume were coordinated in response to Cardiff’s own unique rituals, which include not announcing the away side whilst on the ice, and then playing the Welsh anthem instead of God Save the Queen.    
 
The sudden appearance of five St George’s crosses (England flags) at one end of the rink, and then our team all facing away from the Cardiff team, whilst the sound system boomed out the British anthem, was a rare moment of English nationalism that added to the occasion.
 
When the game finally got under way, I personally thought it was a decent spectacle. Cardiff edged the game 4-2 but we missed a penalty shot and then wasted a five minute power play that would have earned us a tie at least. Louis Lockwood and Peter Molnar predictably grabbed our goals and the visitors scored through Burrows, Watkins, Jones and Bowers. The previous nights’ hero Alan Armour failed to break the resolute Redskins defence but managed to claim an assist from somewhere – answers on a postcard. Rich Hardy and Phil Manny dropped the gloves somewhere along the way to give the crowd something extra to shout about, and poor Manny incurred the full wrath of the friendly Redskins support from the balcony above. I would say he has heard worse, but on this occasion I am not so sure!
 
One minus of the night was the pernickety performance of one linesman who ensured that most people missed the last train home, with every face off seemingly replayed. Referee Belanger had a good game I thought but his assistant seemed to want to involve himself in every single decision. Unfortunately his eagle eye was not trained on the net off its moorings for Cardiff’s third goal.   Am I moaning again about officials? Another new year’s resolution broken, along with the two pints of Stella Artois I had after the game!
 
After a fantastic weekend, an exhausted but happy Cardiff Coach Mark Cuddihy, summed his team’s performance’s up:
 
“Saturday was a big day for us. We had a huge crowd of 603 for the game which is certainly above average, and we repaid them with a great 6-3 win. We showed great character to come back from 2-0 down to reply with six un-answered goals. Over the last few weeks we have grown up as a team, adding Cowie (Lee Cowmeadow) and Manse (James Manson) has allowed us to grow as a unit,
 
“Sunday was tough, very tough. Sanderson had a great game in goal, and the Redskins as a whole looked very organised. I was disappointed with the officiating, the linesman called a ‘Kicking’ call on one of my defenseman. He was stood on the blue line after a hit, and I think it was a harsh call”

Oxford had their chance on Sunday to get revenge on Bracknell in their own barn. It turned out to be the shock score line of the weekend, as the Hornets walloped the Stars 9-3 in front of a stunned home crowd.
 
Straight from face off Brad Watchorn and Mike Lucas dropped the gloves to get things rolling, but the Oxford man found his Bracknell counterpart a much tougher proposition than the previous week’s demolition of Haringey ‘entertainer’ Dave Richards.
 
Bracknell’s power play unit did the early damage as they raced into a 3-0 first period lead with two goals from Barker and one from Hopkins. The Stars never recovered from this and further goals from Galazzi, Lack, Hopkins (again), Barker (completing his hat trick), along with two for Blair Dubyk did the business for the Hornets. The Stars managed to get three goals back through Green, Forshee and Elliott, but the 9-3 final score line will be bitterly disappointing for Stars Coach Simon Anderson who will also be without Juraj Rusic for while after he dislocated his shoulder.
 
Interestingly, Bracknell’s Ben Johnson was given a 5 plus Game for resisting a linesman and James Galazzi got ten minutes for incitement. Two calls you don’t see everyday!
 
The Hornets were delighted with the way the weekend panned out, as defenseman Blair Dubyk confirmed:
 
“Given where we are in the league with Oxford, we really looked at this as an eight point weekend. After Saturday’s close fought victory we knew we had to go up to Oxford and put on a show and that’s exactly what we did. It is a tough place to go and we are pleased to have won so convincingly. There was no point winning on Saturday and losing the following day”
 
Milton Keynes Thunder managed to win in style at home to rivals Peterborough Islanders. Steve Maile fired four goals for the visitors but the shot shy Thunder finally clicked and hit the Islanders for ten. A great confidence boost for the Thunder to win by so many goals, especially given their lack of firepower so far this season. Martyn Snape was amongst the goals and earned the man of the match award for his troubles.
 
The match finished with Matt Roberts facing death and swinging away like a mad man. Actually for a small guy Kieran D’eath gave a good account of himself against the solid Roberts as the pair dropped the gloves.
 
For MK’s Darryl Morvan and Lewis Clifford it was a satisfying weekend, however for their Peterborough Coaching counterparts Ross Mackintosh and Simon Wren, things are looking bleak at the moment.
 
After a war of words via Prohockeynews.com, Dean Birrell and Kevin Parrish led their teams into battle at the Gillingham Ice Bowl. I cannot confirm whether the body warmer made a consecutive appearance, however it did not matter as the Dynamos inflicted a convincing defeat on their Essex rivals. Aside from an altercation between the two teams outside the locker rooms at the end of the second, the game was lacking the spirit of the last two encounters.
 
Nolan Boike hit another hat trick for the Dynamos as his good form in front of net continued and this point was not lost on the Chelmsford Coach Birrell:
 
“We had a bad second period and that’s what cost us. We competed at times, in the third particularly, but that’s not taking anything from Invicta. There were some good individual performances tonight, particularly from Nolan Boike who scored three and set up at least four others. Games like that from imports will always make it tough for any side to compete. From our side there were some poor performances from individuals tonight”
 
Was this another dig at the big spending Mo’s or is that just a cynical view. Either way, Kevin Parrish was clearly rattled earlier in the week following another quote from Birrell suggesting Invicta relied on their ‘flown in imports’. Parrish was quoted as saying:
 
“All four of our goals at the Riverside were notched up by British trained players and Dean (Birrell) should perhaps remember that two of his scorers that day, Aaron Connelly and Adam Copland, came to him from our club – they have still got Invicta stamped right through them”
 
So with 2010 starting with such an incident packed weekend, let’s hope it can continue all the way up to and throughout the Play Offs. More questions that need to be answered though:
 
–        What are the words to the second verse of God Save the Queen?
–        Does Kevin Parrish use Daz to keep his hat so white? And if so is he sponsored?
–          Just how far can you go with a linesman before resisting ?
  –        Will Norm Pinnington be making his Greyhounds debut against Streatham next Saturday?
–        Where do the Greyhounds get their post game pizza from and do the away team get a slice of the action?
–        Why didn’t our linesman want to go home at a reasonable hour on Sunday night?
As you may have guessed I am back on the ice now and trying to get fit. So if you’re reading this Mr Rothwell, please no Dominos’ to the visitors changing room on Saturday. I am a sucker for that Garlic and Herb dip.
 
Thanks for reading and stay safe.
Carrsy
 
Contact the author david.carr@prohockeynews.com