LONDON, UK – There were roster changes, injuries, fights and plenty of goals as the NIHL South defied the cold weather and warmed up hockey fans from Cardiff to London.
Invicta Dynamos were rocked by their second departure in the space of a few days as forward Dan Fudger informed the club he was unable to commit to the schedule due to work commitments.
Chelmsford beat Invicta (David Trevallion)
The former Haringey man joined goalie Andy Moffat on the departures list, with the latter citing personal commitments to his family as motive for leaving the team.
“It was quite a good game to go out on, we played well and it was a good sign off from all the players and supporters,” said Moffat in an interview with yourcanterbury.co.uk
“It was a little bit emotional because it’s something I have been doing for 25 years. I started playing when I was five. It got to the stage where the family have got to come first. I don’t have a lot of time to see the kids.”
“I had been thinking about it for a little while, but wanted to give it a few more weeks to see what happened. But it wasn’t getting any easier. I spoke to Kev (Kevin Parrish) and he said he totally understood”
It is sad to see Moffat go at the age of only 30 and you never know in hockey when retirements will be reversed however on a personal note I have seen him grow up from an under 12 in Fife to one of the best keepers at this level of senior hockey, and it is just another reminder of how quickly time can pass by.
The Dynamos can probably absorb the loss of the hard working and likeable Fudger as they have a surplus of forwards in their squad however Coach Kevin Parrish wasted no time in bringing in a new keeper as Glen Jackson was announced during the week to partner David Wride as the Mo’s goalie line up.
Long-time readers will know that Jackson was popular during his time at Oxford for dancing in the crease during stoppages in play if a particular song he liked was playing. He also won the league with Romford last season so is a decent pick up for the Mo’s at this stage in the season.
%27The worst foot on the ferry%27
It was all happening at Streatham during the week as we finally managed to secure a Sports Therapist. Ice hockey is a physical sport obviously and we have been lacking a ‘physio’ since Kirsty Hopgood left at the end of last season.
Tanya Romans joins us on the bench in Streatham and was in action pretty much as soon as she walked through the door. All of the Sports Therapists in our league do a great job and have to put up with the woes and moans of hockey players so they deserve a medal really.
One of the UK’s top referee’s Joy Tottman gave an insightful interview with the Streatham programme as she revealed her thoughts on the EIHA’s new four man/woman officiating system that we have seen in some NIHL games this season.
“The introduction of the 4 man system to the EIHA has been a major step forward” explained Tottman, who has officiated in the last two Olympics in Turin and Vancouver.
“Pretty much every other country in Europe operates with the 4 man system in some form – whether it be in their top leagues or throughout their whole programmes”
“The real challenge for us has been to get enough officials to be able to consistently cover the games with 4 officials”
“It is a different system for the refs and the players to adjust to and this will certainly take time – for me I have found I had to pay more attention to positioning because whereas under the 3 man system I am used to taking care of the whole ice, under the 4 man system I just skate half of the ice surface but can still call penalties everywhere”
Jackson at the Mo%27s table
“It also means that whereas I am used to seeing penalties from chasing play up the ice, under the 4 man system I am seeing them head on from the front – this different perspective takes some getting used to for everyone – not to mention the refs have to backward skate way more than before”
“It is great for the EIHA to be moving with the trend across other European countries and I think the more we see of this the more it will just be part of the game”
There has been a bit of frustration from fans and players in the NIHL about the lack of officials in some of the games and to be honest the games I have seen with four officials have been quiet affairs so not really good examples of how it works.
Wightlink Raiders announced that on the 26th January for one special game they will be wearing a ‘one off’ limited edition Pink jersey in their game against Romford Raiders.
The Club will be raising funds for the Applegate Breast Care Unit based at St Mary’s Hospital on the Isle of Wight and no sooner was the £100 a jersey deal announced, then all were sold so hats off to the Wightlink fans and the club.
Let’s hope there is a photographer on hand to capture Mr Cornish and his team mates resplendent in pink.
One final note is the release of this year’s Ice Hockey Annual which came out during the week. I have been reading this little book (mainly on the can) since the late eighties and there is no better review of the hockey season in the UK to be found.
It features the NIHL as usual alongside the Elite, EPL and National team stuff and is a cracking Christmas gift so make sure you get a copy for only eight quid at:
http://www.icehockeyannual.co.uk/ordering
Saturday
There are some things you don’t want to know as you board a coach to the Isle of Wight and that is to hear that your star import is sick, one of your best defenseman is injured and your fastest player is also crocked along with three other key guys, but that was the great news that greeted myself and the other Redskins on Saturday morning.
Still at least we had Phil Manny to cheers us up as he went on to moan about the bus being late, hockey fans upsetting him, the latte in Portsmouth Harbours’ Costa Coffee being the ‘worst in the world’, Eddie Temple’s general behaviour, somebody unplugging his phone charger, Russ Stevens changing the settings on his phone, the Wightlink sticker on his helmet not being put on straight, ‘face cages’ and then finally the driver of the number 9 bus in Ryde who nearly ran the gloomy Welshman over.
Osman gets a Movember plaster
In all honesty the rest of us weren’t in much of a better mood as we then proceeded to lose 7-1 in a game where we played the trap for sixty minutes against the clearly pleased Wightlink Raiders.
Jeremy Cornish, Craig Tribe and Jiri Hanzal all scored a brace each with Richard Facey getting the other for the Raiders. For Streatham Dom Hopkins got the only goal.
Wightlink were efficient and well organised as always on the island and I thought our fans were excellent all decked out in French gear (the theme was ‘we got the wrong ferry’) and making lots of noise.
As for Mr Manny well he was smiling by the time the bus rolled back into London and has fitted in well with the team since arriving from Cardiff in the summer.
In the only other game of the day Cardiff ground out a 4-2 win over Bracknell at the Big Blue Tent.
Star goalscorer Sean Scarbrough hit two for the home side with Rob Sedlak and Jordan Powell getting the other goals.
Cardiff score past Hornets (Kevin Slyfield)
One player who wasn’t smiling at the end of the game was Cardiff forward Steven Osman who got hit in the nose by team mate Ross Wilkinson’s stick and ended up going to hospital to be told he had a massive haematoma in his nose so they had to operate on it and was ruled out for the trip to Solent the next day.
Sunday
Chelmsford Chieftains got a much needed two points in the first game of the day as they overcame Invicta Dynamos 6-3 at the Silverblades rink in Gillingham.
Julius Sinkovic was the hero for the Chieftains with four goals on the night with Tibor Schneider and Danny Wright the other scorers.
For Invicta Peter Vaisanen, Adam Copland and Justin Noble were on target.
To add to the spice of the game Chieftain Michael Ranby and Dynamo Ant Lennon both dropped the gloves, as did Danny Cox and Arran Strawson.
Happy Birthday Gadeke
Sinkovic is a quality player and has been one of the most impressive new imports to the league this year along with Cardiff’s Sean Scarbrough, who enjoyed a four point weekend with his team as they narrowly overcame Solent & Gosport Devils on the South Coast.
Given that Cardiff thumped Solent 9-1 in the same fixture not so long ago it shows an improvement from the home side but it just wasn’t enough to see them take anything from the game points wise.
Four goals from the afore-mentioned Scarbrough sealed the points for Cardiff with Jordan Powell getting his second goal of the weekend.
For Solent the goals came from Greg Wyatt, Kev Tanner, George Norcliffe and Richard Nembhard.
Wightlink had to recover from a two goal deficit to come back and take a point on the road against Bracknell Hornets.
The Hornets will be disappointed to let their 3-1 lead slip to 3-3 but probably not as bad as Wightlink who would have probably expected to come away with a win at the start of the game.
Solent battle hard (Paul Shergold)
A Peter Jasik penalty shot and two goals from Carl Thompson were the markers for Bracknell, with Wightlink’s goals coming from Jiri Hanzal with two and Richard Facey with the other.
The final game of the night saw Streatham arrest an eight league game streak without a win, by beating Milton Keynes 8-5 in Brixton.
Both teams were missing key guys but overall I thought we were good value for the win, even if we did make hard work of it.
Russ Stevens and Joe Johnston both hit a brace for Streatham with the other goals coming from Jakub Klima, Dom Hopkins, Stevie Balmer and my good self (no it isn’t a misprint).
For Milton Keynes the influential Jamie Randall scored two with Mike Whillock, Greg Randall and Harrison Goode getting the others.
It was good to get two much needed points on the board and also to see goalie Stefan Nubert starting in his first league win since major heart surgery this summer.
It was an unlucky 18th birthday for Thunder player Ryan Gadeke who timed his celebration with a coach trip to Streatham. Luckily for him he kept his eyebrows on the road trip home – how times have changed.
The results this weekend leave Wightlink top of the league and Solent rooted at the bottom.
Results
Saturday 17th November 2012
Wightlink Raiders 7-1 Streatham Redskins
Cardiff Devils 4 -2 Bracknell Hornets
Sunday 18th November 2012
Invicta Dynamos 3 – 6 Chelmsford Chieftains
Bracknell Hornets 3 – 3 Wightlink Raiders
Solent & Gosport Devils 4 – 5 Cardiff Devils
Streatham Redskins 8 -5 Milton Keynes Thunder S1
Contact the author david.carr@prohockeynews.com
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