Durha m, UK – The opening half of the 2012/13 NIHL North 1 campaign has been one of the best starts to a ENL/NIHL season for many a year. Billingham Stars and Solway Sharks are fighting it out for title while Blackburn Hawks, Sutton Sting and Whitley Warriors are all hoping secure play off places at the end of the season.
Reigning champions the Billingham Stars are not having everything go this way this year as the Solway Sharks are currently 3 points ahead of Stars at the top of the table. Sharks have only lost one game this season a 5-0 home reverse against Stars while Billingham have lost on 2 occasions home defeats against Solway and the Blackburn Hawks.
Adam Reynolds of the Solway Sharks
The remaining 2 fixtures between Sharks and Stars will go a long way to deciding the title, Billingham know they cannot afford to lose both of these fixtures if they want to have realistic hopes of retaining their crown. Stars travel up to Scotland shortly into the new year to take on Sharks in what is sure to be one of the games of the NIHL 12/13 season.
Blackburn sit 3rd in league 5 points behind Billingham but crucially 8 points clear of the other sides chasing a play off place. Hawks started the season indifferently as the Lancashire based side struggled against some of the divisions weaker sides however as the season has progressed Hawks form as picked up and they have won their last 6 league games.
Hawks capture of 2 import forwards has no doubt helped their cause as Blackburn have been able to sign up Latvian Ivo Dimitrijevs and Petr Jagr. Dimitrijevs showed his quality by netting 5 goals in 1 game against Whitley earlier this term however on the whole the Latvian sniper’s form has been a little disappointing as he averages less than a point per game at this stage of the season.
Just behind Blackburn in the league standings are the NIHL North 1 newcomers the Sutton Sting. Sutton have surprised a number of sides already this year as the Sting’s owner/coach Ian Johnson has assembled a solid roster packed full of talent and experience. Sting are clearly an ambitious organisation and they have recently added to their squad by signing former Hull Stingrays forward Chris Sykes and ex Sheffield Steeldogs goalie Dmitri Zimozdra.
Sutton currently occupy the final play off berth and given their impressive recent additions it is hard to see Sting slipping down the league unless the side based at Ice Sheffield run into injury/suspension trouble.
Last season’s league runners up the Whitley Warriors currently sit 5th in the league with 12 points from their opening 16 games of the season. Warriors have lost a number of key players over the last couple of seasons and they are now feeling the effects of having to introduce a number of young players into the senior team at the same time.
Whitley in action against Billingham
Warriors will no doubt be hoping that their form will improve over the 2nd half of the campaign as Whitley’s young squad gain more experience and if Warriors can turn their results around they could make a challenge for the play off spot.
Towards the bottom of the standings Trafford Metros, Sheffield Spartans, Telford Titans and Coventry Blaze could all be involved in relegation matters given how the remainder of the campaign plays out.
Trafford are currently bottom of the table and it is hard to see the Altrincham based side being able to claw their way out of trouble as Metros lost their top forward Jamie Rogerson in the close season and then the impressive blue liner Max Drakeley a few weeks into the campaign which significantly weakened their roster.
Sheffield Spartans also look to be in trouble as Chris Wilcox’s side have only picked up 7 points from 16 games this season. Spartans had play off ambitions at the start of the term however Sheffield will now surely just be looking to secure survival over the remainder of the campaign – even if they have to endure the relegation play offs to do so.
Coventry Blaze sit a couple of points ahead of Spartans but given that Blaze have improved their squad of late and that they’ve played 2 games less than Spartans Coventry should be able to keep themselves out of trouble and ahead of both the Metros and the Spartans in the league standings.
The final NIHL North 1 team to consider are the Telford Titans who are currently 2nd bottom in the league table however given that Telford’s have played significantly less games than the rest of the league Titans could easily move away from the danger zone once the Shropshire based side catch up on their fixtures. It is also worth remembering that Titans have last season’s top point’s scorer for the entire division Karol Jets in their ranks and on his day Jets can tear apart any defence at this level.
Contact the author – chris.mackenzie@prohockeynews.com
Images courtesy of Colin Edwards – www.cjephotos.co.uk
