LONDON,U.K- With over 70 registered teams in the UK now, recreational Ice hockey seems to be in the midst of a boom period. When you ask a person in the street what their image of ice hockey is the general answer will be “Fights, goals and more fights”. In the rec leagues those three answers would be correct, fights and goals and more fights. There certainly isn’t bright lights and loud music and cheerleaders and mega-bucks in British rec hockey. What there is though is a vast number of players who play for the love of the game and give up lots of money and time just to get themselves onto the ice and live their dream, albeit some distance from where most hockey players dream of being, for a few hours every week. What there is is passion, commitment, fire, determination and sheer hard work. Some may not possess the skills needed to be a ‘star’ player earning thousands of pounds a year, but that does not stop them giving their all on the ice.
This summer saw the John Cleighton-Hills Memorial Cup, named after a popular player and friend to many at the Swindon Panthers who organise and run the competition, contested by nine teams from across Southern England and Wales. Small crowds and empty rinks were the norm in terms of attendance, but those who did turn up to watch were treated to some entertaining hockey and some good efforts. In the past, rec hockey has been criticised for being the poor relation of hockey and for players who are absolutely dire or who were past it, but for anyone watching the games this summer it was a feast of passionate hockey. It certainly changed my perception of what rec hockey was all about. Having attended two games at the Riverside ice rink this summer, I was treated to some great games, with a bit of fighting, some good stick work and at times some great net minding. Ok, so its not NHL or even EIHL, but the commitment and effort were second to none. It brought home to the fans in attendance what ‘real’ hockey is all about. You still have dodgy refereeing decisions, players running goalies, handshakes at the end, man of the match beers, fans abusing away team players and cheering their own side on. The similarities end there. Can you imagine seeing the likes of Rob Niedermeyer getting the nets out at the Pond before the game and putting them away at the end? Can you imagine a full house at the Air Canada Centre not having a Zamboni to stare at between periods as it goes round and round and round the ice? Well, If you go to rinks in the middle of nowhere and when the stands are nigh on empty you will see the players of rec hockey putting up with that. Why? Because they are in the game for one reason. They love it.
One of the folk heroes around the Chelmsford rink is Chelmsford Nighthawks netminder Dave “Ratty” Abbott. With a smile and time to talk to the fans at any occasion, even during games, he was a natural to approach for some comments regarding rec hockey in the UK. “For me personally rec hockey is a great way to be involved in the sport and enjoy simply playing the game, It’s hockey without the outside pressures and just a chance to enjoy playing and competing against others,” Abbott said. “There’s a lot of teams around the country and they’re all competing for ice time, but the fact is there’s a lot of people out there who want to play ice hockey and Rec is a great way of doing that and there’s so many different levels of teams around the country, from beginner to a really decent level, everyone’s catered for.”
This summer the Nighthawks competed in the John Cleighton-Hills Memorial Cup, going all the way to the finals and winning it. The smiles and jubilation shown by the players when the final buzzer went it rivalled that of the Red Wings after the Stanley Cup final this past season.
After coming first in the league stage, the Nighthawks went into the playoffs, culminating in the finals day at Swindon’s Link Centre when they faced the Cardiff Titans, who were runners up in the league and also the overall cup.
Also participating in the Cup were the MK Hurricanes, managed by George Garrett. I spoke with George about how he viewed his team, which won only four games in the Cup and came third from bottom. “Challenging, which is never a bad thing! at times we travelled short which cost us dearly, and dropped points so easily when we could have taken them, lady luck also wasn’t being nice to us either with a few things and injuries,” Garrett said. “This year was a massive improvement compared to last years performance, We welcomed two new sides to the competition this year, one of which actually went all the way and win the finals in Swindon.” Garrett continued. “Congrats to Chelmsford on such a fantastic performance, they were a tough side to beat even more so on their own ice, We have three rec teams here in Milton Keynes, ourselves, Jesters and Rumble and all have decent size squads, Jesters and Rumble more so than us and at times have been known to have waiting lists due to such high demand to play for them,” Garrett said. “We have seen a number of new teams pop up over the past couple of years, also with the addition of new teams starting up from the Services also University teams being classified under the EIHA rec section I would most certainly say hockey is flourishing outside of the pro ranks in the UK.”
Both were full of high praise for those that ran the competition, giving up many spare hours and time organising matches and structuring the league and cup games around rink and club commitments.
“From around April time, it gets very hectic when you start to plan your fixtures with other teams till the last game of the cup in late July, I have to hand it though to those who organise the Cup every year both Tim Pickett and Lee Burden put in an unbelievable amount of time and effort each year running this, without them our summer would be very dull,” Garrett said.
Abbott agreed with Garrett. “I’ve got a lot of respect for Lee and Tim in the way it’s been organised, having seen how much time and effort it takes for our Coach Kevin Betts and Manager Dave Carter to run a rec team alone, Tim and Lee do a really good job of running a whole league,” Abbott said “There was nine teams in the league this year, with four going to the playoffs and 16 games squeezed into April-July. Plenty of travel around the country involved and a lot of competitive games.”
I asked both if they had noticed any major changes in recent seasons with regards to how rec is set up and played. Abbott commented first about the growing interest from the fans. “I’ve only been involved in rec in England for the last two years but I’d say there has been a lot more interest in the rec games from supporters recently, we had great support and good turnouts every week at Riverside this summer and there was always a good number of opposition supporters at away games too,” Abbott said.
One of Abbott’s team mates and long serving servant to ice hockey in Chelmsford is Jason Robery. Robery made appearances for the then British National League side Chelmsford Chieftains during the mid-90s with his proudest moment being that he was able to take a face off in his first game for the Chieftains against the legendary Dave Whistle. Robery has been around rec hockey for a number of years and has seen many changes at the Riverside and in British rec hockey. In particular he mentions the expansion of the John Cleighton-Hills Memorial Cup and how the cost of ice hockey prohibits many teams from joining a properly governed league. “We play in the summer cup which has been getting better over the last couple of years, but rec is rec, It has such a broad span of teams at all levels the cost of away games and cost of ice time has a massive influence on what we can do as a team. I think that for those teams wishing to play in a league can do so, but those who wish to play just challenge games may not wish to play to a structure,” Robery said. I questioned Robery on how he viewed the expanding crowds this summer and whether rec was under rated by hockey fans “I spoke to a lot of Chieftains fans this summer, all of whom were impressed with the level of hockey they watched and with just under 100 per home game this summer I would say is a very good crowd for rec hockey, I think that rec has changed for the better with the blend of ex-league players bringing on the development of rec,” Robery said. “In my opinion the summer cup level of rec hockey is at its highest with some teams blessed with former Division 1 and Div 2 Brits who just play for the love along with some overseas players who could play at a higher level so its moving forward for sure.”
To sum up what rec means to the people involved, I believe Robery summed it up. “As a younger player I was determined to play for the Chieftains and I enjoyed the chance, but rec hockey has been what hockey should be about ..FUN!” Contact the author at Pete.lewis@prohockeynews.com
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