NIHL South Round-up week 3

LONDON, UK – The NIHL’s Cup competition took centre stage this weekend with the majority of fixtures away from the league. With some intriguing match ups it gave some teams a chance to see where they are at this early stage.
 
After a mixed weekend, Invicta Dynamos Coach Kevin Parrish was in defiant mood ahead of his sides clash with arch rivals Romford Raiders. Invicta didn’t enjoy the best of times against Romford last season but the Dynamos have recruited personnel to deal with the Raiders previous physical advantage.

 
“We need a spark to kick our season off and maybe playing at Romford will provide it” explained the Mo’s Coach in an interview with the Medway Messenger.
 
“They have turned their rink into a little bit of a fortress over the past few years and teams get intimidated about going there, so perhaps it’s the sort of challenge we need.”
 
“I don’t think it’s worth entering a competition unless you are going to try to win it” he continued, when asked about the merits of the cup competition.
 
“The only proviso would be that, if we had a couple of the boys carrying knocks, I might leave them out of a South East Trophy game on a Saturday if we had a league game the next day, but other than that I will always play our strongest team”
 
Things were not rosy in the garden of the Romford Raiders during the week as Twitter-gate engulfed the club. The storm in a tea cup (or possibly a thimble) came after Captain AJ Smith posted a criticism of referee Adams following the Raiders defeat in Chelmsford the previous Sunday.
 
His comments were cut and pasted then posted on The Hockey Forum, much to his displeasure and he spent the rest of the week being labelled the Joey Barton of the NIHL by his team mates, after the Marseille footballer who causes controversy on the Twittersphere with his posts.
 
Romford suffered a big blow when they announced that forward JJ McGrath would be out for 6-8 weeks as a result of a thumb injury he picked up trying to open the gate onto the ice at Chelmsford last weekend.
 
It wasn’t only JJ that suffered a bad injury as yours truly was diagnosed with whiplash after a hit in the game against Wightlink last weekend and in Milton Keynes, Thunder goalie Mark Woolf became the first winner of bruise of the week 2012/13 thanks to a shot from one of his own team mates in warm up.
 
Determined not to be outdone by Woolf, Thunder forward Martyn Snape ended up having to seek medical attention after a puss filled cyst threatened to take over his foot thanks to his new skates.
 
Wightlink Coach Jeremy Cornish was in upbeat mood following this team’s four point weekend, and praised goalie Matt Colclough and import Jiri Hanzal.
 
“It’s safe to say we are fully back in the swing of things and I think the team is looking fairly decent so far” explained Cornish in his Coaches Corner segment on the Raiders official website.
 
“Saturday we beat Invicta on home ice and Sunday we travelled to Streatham and beat a hard working Redskins side”
 
“The team is coming together pretty well, our first line of Brown, Hanzal and Tribe looks to be as good as any in the league.   Hanzal has impressed me the most, his overall skill level is fantastic and I think he is easily going to lead out team offensively”
 
“The other teams have seemed to stay the same in the goalie department and it looks as though we have upgraded just as we set out to do in the summer. Matty faced 40 shots on Sunday night and looked sharp. Overall, he had a very good weekend and I’m sure when he gets used to our rink again he will be among the best in the league”
 
Whilst a number of players around the league spent Friday night relaxing ahead of the weekend, Chelmsford forward Michael Ranby was busy delighting onlookers at the Red Dog Saloon in trendy Shoreditch East London.
 
The former Streatham and Lee Valley man took on a Man versus Food challenge named rather worryingly as the Devastator. Ranby stepped up to the plate literally by knocking back a stacked burger, coleslaw and jumbo portion of fries and a pint of thick milkshake with one second to go in the ten minute time frame.
 
Another exclusive brought to you by this column, what else is there to say.
 
 
Saturday report
 
Streatham managed to post our biggest win in a number of years as we thrashed a disappointing Slough side 19-4 in the cup at Brixton Ice Rink. It was literally point city as the Redskins handed senior debuts to youngsters Daniel Clayton and Will Poles as well as big summer signing Tyrone Miller.
 
Sam Bolwell also got the third period in goal for Streatham and we almost saw the first all-female goalie line up at this level of senior hockey, however exhausted Slough stopper Laura Saunders made way for back up Simon Johnston at the end of the second to deny the unique stat.
 
It ended an eventful week for the Guildford ladies goalie Bolwell as she had successfully fought off an attack from some aggressive male youths in the street in Brighton a few days earlier.
 
Streatham scorers were Jakub Klima with five goals, Jamie McIlroy and Evander Grinnell with a brace each and lone goals for Adam Mahoney, Joe Allen, Chris Rasmussen, Casimir Britton, Perry Richardson, Dan Botting, Rupe Quiney, Liam Rasmussen, Dom Hopkins and Eddie Temple.
 
Slough goals came from Jamie Milton, Danny Rose, Tom Henley and Nathan Darmanin.
 
Despite the one sided score line, Streatham’s Adam Mahoney and Slough’s Scott Cooper dropped the gloves and started swinging to the bemusement of most people on the ice.
 
It wasn’t smiles for everyone of a Streatham persuasion as face-off specialist Phil Manny, was hit with a parking ticket by Lambeth Council. Welcome to London Phil.
 
Wightlink had their first test against Chelmsford on the island in the first of two back to back cup games.
 
The visitors raced into an early 3-0 lead in the first eight minutes and it was always going to be a tough ask for Wightlink to pull it back. Chelmsford won the game 4-2 with their goals coming from burger powered Michael Ranby and Alex Green with one each and a brace from Julius Sinkovic.
 
Wightlink scorers were Alex Murray and Nick Compton.
 
Bracknell Hornets grabbed a precious two points with an impressive win over the visiting Cardiff team. The Hornets won 8-6 in an entertaining game thanks to goals from Danny Hughes and Peter Jasik with two each and solo goals for Nick Minhinnick, Ryan Webb, Grant Rounding and Matt Jordan.
 
Cardiff scorers were Steven Osman and Steven Fisher with a brace each and goals from Rob Sedlak and Louis Lockwood.
 
 
Sunday report
 
All eyes were on Romford for the cup clash between the resident Raiders and the visiting Invicta Dynamos.
 
Any Dynamos fans hoping to see their side take the win over a Raiders side missing both McGrath and Kaminskis were left disappointed as the home side skated out a 4-2 win to take the spoils.
 
Juraj Huska, Billy Phillips, Matt Turner and former Invicta man Ryan Giles hit the goals for Romford.   Grant Baxter and Callum Best got the goals for the Dynamos.
 
Down on the South Coast, Bracknell finished an impressive four point weekend with a hard fought 6-4 win over the Solent & Gosport Devils.
 
Former Streatham and Oxford star Kent Johnson hit a hat trick for the Devils with Craig Weedon scoring the other.
 
Bracknell’s Danny Hughes hit a hat trick and Gareth Wheeler, Ryan Webb and Grant Rounding all added one goal each.
 
Hornets defenseman Richard Wojciack dropped the gloves with Devils utility man Kev Tanner to give the crowd something extra to shout about.
 
The final game of the evening took place at the Riverside as Wightlink and Chelmsford locked horns for the second time in 48 hours in the cup.
 
A hat trick from Gary Clarke helped his side register a 6-2 win with James Ayling, Michael Ranby and Julius Sinkovic also scoring. Damon Larter and Jiri Hanzal with the goals for the visiting Raiders.
 
Danny Cox and Jeremy Cornish dropped the gloves and then later Cox was ejected for illegal equipment.
 
Streatham players and fans had the day off and set up a ‘Beat the Goalie’ stand at the Lambeth Country Show, a big event in South London. Perry Richardson was one of those who donned the pads to help raise money for the club.
 
So the league table has not taken much more shape after this weekend but Bracknell in particular will be delighted with their four point haul.
 
 
Results
 
Saturday September 15th 2012
 
Streatham Redskins 19-4 Slough NIHL Jets (Cup)
Wightlink Raiders 2-4 Chelmsford Chieftains (Cup)
Bracknell Hornets 8-6 Cardiff NIHL Devils
 
Sunday September 16th 2012
 
Romford Raiders 4-2 Invicta Dynamos (Cup)
Chelmsford Chieftains 6-2 Wightlink Raiders (Cup)
Solent & Gosport Devils 4-6 Bracknell Hornets
 
As ever all feedback and comments are welcome. Contact the author david.carr@prohockeynews.com