NIHL South Round-up week 2

LONDON, UK – The NIHL’s second week of fixtures featured some of the big boys going head to head in the cup, but had some added surprises in the shape of a notorious character returning and some crazy fans in morph suits.
 
Invicta Dynamos Coach Kevin Parrish blamed ‘nerves’ for the slow start in his teams’ opener against MK Thunder last weekend, a game they actually won 7-2.

 
“We have a lot of new guys’ explained Parrish in an interview with the Medway Messenger.
 
“We were nervous at first and this led us to make some silly mistakes and allow them to score two goals”
 
“But I said to the guys that they just need to keep grinding away and by the third we tired them out because we were fitter than they were”
 
A harsh appraisal from the Dynamos supremo and he will be hoping that his team continue winning, slow start or otherwise.
 
After a 10-1 drubbing on home ice in their first game of the season, Solent & Gosport Devils opted to sign former Wightlink Tiger and all round bruiser Adam Rich to boost their squad during the week.
 
By a quirk of fate the Devils upcoming game was at Rom Valley Way against a Romford Raiders side who are not averse to a bit of rough stuff.
 
In fact by way of analogy think of South Korea sending a diplomatic mission to North Korea and at late notice including a modern day John Rambo in the line-up of delegates.
 
Suddenly the North… ahem Romford had a juicy target to distract from the general hockey game.
 
Down in South London, Streatham were already patching up injured players after the first week as Stewart Tait hobbled around on crutches and Russ Stevens nursed a sore shoulder.
 
On a happier note defenseman Luke Reynolds gave birth (well his wife Caroline did) to a bouncing baby Jack Harrison Reynolds so congratulations to them both.
 
Romford Raiders reflected on their narrow win over Streatham in a positive light with Coach Danny Marshall still upbeat in an interview with the Romford Recorder despite picking up an injury himself.
 
“We created a lot more chances than Streatham and didn’t look far off” said Marshall, who scored his first goal of the season in the third period of the game.
 
“We played some good hockey and looked dangerous, but their goalie played really well and we made a few mistakes”
 
“We can rectify them and we’ve got more to offer”
 
Indeed, they certainly did make mistakes not just on but also off the ice as third line forward Tom Davis will testify.
 
The former MK and Peterborough player managed to get burnt after ten minutes on a sun bed and sustain the worst skin condition in the NIHL since pacey Streatham winger Liam Rasmussen waxed his back incorrectly in July and looked like he had lay down on the Chernobyl reactor for half an hour. Who said hockey players don’t care about their image.
 
Whilst Marshall was pleased with the game, Streatham Coach Barry Spours was less impressed accusing the Raiders of ‘playing the game’.
 
“Rupert Quiney and Joe Allen were in legitimate fights, but while the refs were dealing with them, one of the Romford players (Billy Phillips) came off the bench on to the ice and speared our import, Thomas Valko, three times” explained Spours in an interview with the Streatham Guardian.
 
“Thomas complained to the ref but was sent to the penalty box for a 10-minute misconduct penalty. We also lost Quiney and Allen, so we were three players down and they went on to win”
 
“No player should leave the bench during a fight, it is part of the code of the game. They targeted our three best players in fights to get them out of the game”
 
“They played the system, and they played it well, and that’s where the game turned around”
 
Just like many NIHL coaches, Cardiff’s Mark Cuddihy asked for patience ahead of the new season as he beds in a range of new faces to the roster.
 
“It’s going to take time for our team to settle in together and gel as a group,” said Cuddihy in an interview with Wales Online.
 
“We have seen 11 players move on, but we have brought new guys in and our team will be competitive”
 
“The fixtures are starting pretty quickly, but we will be ready for that big test against Chelmsford”
 
There appears to be much excitement around Cardiff with the signing of American Sean Scarborough, so it will be interesting to see how he fares in comparison with some of the other NIHL imports.
 
 
Saturday report
 
In what was always likely to be a mismatch, last year’s champs Romford made easy work of newly promoted Solent and Gosport in Essex with a 10-2 win.
 
Despite the big score line, the visitors put up a valiant fight in the opening stages and only fell to pieces after Player Coach Will Francis had his cheek cut and bled all over the ice. This ended the first period early with the time added on to the second whilst the Zamboni cleaned up the blood.
 
From then on, the Raiders racked up the scoring despite Danny Marshall and Shaun Yardley not icing. Juraj Huska and Matt Turner both hit a brace for Romford with AJ Smith, Jason Buckman, Andrius Kaminskas, Grant Taylor, Tom Davis (sunburn healed) and Billy Phillips scoring the rest.
 
For the Devils Craig Weedon and Mitchell Murray got the goals and the infamous Adam Rich got his moment to shine as he dropped the gloves with none other than JJ McGrath and gave a good account of himself.
 
Cardiff NIHL Devils gave Chelmsford a real scare in the Big Blue Tent as the Essex side had to comeback from 5-3 down in the third, to come back and win 7-5.
 
Chieftains were missing star forward Danny Hammond due to a rib injury however Julius Sinkovic hit a brace as did Player Coach Gary Clarke, with other scorers being Michael Ranby, James Ayling and Tibor Schneider.
 
Cardiff scorers were Jason Stone, Alan Armour, Ricky Deacon, Steven Fisher and Captain Gareth Dixon.
 
Chelmsford defenseman Alex Green had a night to forget as he ended up with 17 stitches to a facial wound.
 
The final game of the evening took place on the Isle of Wight as the resident Wightlink Raiders took on a spirited Invicta Dynamos side in the Cup.
 
A solid 7-4 win for the Raiders will have pleased Wightlink Player Coach Jeremy Cornish as his side.
 
A hat trick from new signing Craig Tribe did most of the damage for the Raiders with import Jiri Hanzal getting a confidence boosting brace. Other scorers were Richard Facey and Cornish himself.
 
For the Dynamos Peter Vaisanen hit two goals with Justin Noble and Andy Smith also on the score sheet.
 
It will be interesting to see how clubs treat the cup competition once it is a few games old. A lot of games ended up being dead rubber last year and it is a shame we cannot organise something more fluid than a round robin style competition.
 
 
Sunday report
 
Streatham hosted Wightlink for the first home league fixture of the new season. For much of the game the two sides were quite evenly matched but we (Streatham) had a crazy ten minute spell in the second where we looked all over the place and Wightlink were clinical hitting four goals in that time period.
 
Streatham’s goals came from Dom Hopkins and Joe Johnston. For Wightlink Jiri Hanzal and Alex Murray got a brace each and their other scorer was Richard Facey.
 
Wightlink looked well organised and took their chances when they got them. We had good spells in the first and third but just need to piece it together over the full sixty minutes.
 
Romford and Chelmsford took part in a feisty cup game at the Riverside with the Chieftains winning 8-6.
 
Romford were missing Danny Marshall and Shaun Yardley however Chelmsford had Danny Hammond out through injury.
 
Chelmsford scorers were Tibor Schneider with a hat trick, Ross Brears and James Ayling with a brace each and a solo effort from Michael Ranby. For Romford Frankie Harvey hit a hat trick and both Billy Phillips and Juraj Huska scored.
 
There was drama throughout the game keeping the officials busy and that was without the bizarre injury to Romford’s JJ McGrath who had to go to hospital after injuring his thumb on the door of the boards, and Danny ‘The Mayor’ Wright, who managed to smash the glass behind the net with a shot. Well done Danny and get well soon JJ.
 
Cardiff continued their good form from the night before with a big 6-3 road win at Milton Keynes Thunder.
 
Mark Cuddihy was delighted with his men, especially Sean Scarborough who hit a hat trick and got man of the match for the Devils. Other Cardiff scorers were Steven Osman, Jamie Newton and Steven Fisher.
 
For Milton Keynes Greg Randall got two goals with Harrison Goode hitting the other.
 
Invicta bounced back from defeat on the island the night before with a win over the Bracknell Hornets.
 
Justin Noble hit a brace for the Mo’s with Andy Smith, Joe Bliss and Peter Vaisanen also getting goals. There was a special moment for defenseman Sam Cheema as he scored his first senior goal.
 
Bracknell scorers were Liam Doyle, Danny Hughes and Carl Thompson.
 
So it is early stages in both the league and cup but already we have had plenty of talking points. A number of players have picked up injuries already so let’s hope all make a swift recovery.
   
 
Results
 
Saturday September 8th 2012
 
Romford Raiders 10-2 Solent & Gosport Devils  
Cardiff Devils 5-7 Chelmsford Chieftains
Wightlink Raiders 7–4 Invicta Dynamos (Cup)
 
Sunday September 9th 2012
 
Invicta Dynamos 6-3 Bracknell Hornets
Milton Keynes Thunder 3-6 Cardiff Devils
Streatham Redskins 2-5 Wightlink Raiders
Chelmsford Chieftains 8–6 Romford Raiders (Cup)
 
As ever all feedback and comments are welcome. Contact the author david.carr@prohockeynews.com