Oxford demise a sign of the times

OXFORD, UK – Oxford City Stars stunned their supporters yesterday with the news that the team would be withdrawing from the English National League South Division 1 with immediate effect. Former Stars defenseman and Pro Hockey News columnist Dave Carr gives his thoughts on the decision.
 
As a hockey player masquerading as a journalist, or is it a journalist masquerading as a hockey player, there are some things that are easy to write about and others that aren’t.
 
For example a witty story about a hockey team forgetting their equipment or a club banning supporters with drums are tales I write up with gusto and in a short space of time. They are amusing, quirky, almost endearing and personal and bring colour to the league in their own way without being of great negative impact.

 
Other hockey stories are harder to deal with, just like brussel sprouts looming on the plate. I will happily trough the beef, the gravy and the Yorkshire puddings, even the carrots but when it comes to sprouts (and cauliflower for that matter) then it’s a slow process. My mother never tires of pointing out that I ‘clank’ my teeth when chewing vegetables I don’t really like, and it does go some way to explaining my shelf-esque rear.
 
Reporting on matters that bring personal sadness is like wading through mud, studying for an exam, cleaning the bathroom, all things you have to do at some point but put them off in the hope that they will go away or circumstances will change.
 
Now with this particular story I have a little problem, and let’s face it, I cannot ignore it. Do I blandly reproduce a carefully prepared press release that the Oxford directors; John Harrison and Elaine Sutcliffe circulated on New Years Day, explaining that as a result of a decision to replace Player Coach Ken Forshee with Simon Anderson, eight players had refused to complete the rest of the season in a Stars jersey, and as a result it was felt that the team would be uncompetitive and would therefore be folding.
 
Do I speak to all involved, get quotes from the possibly aggrieved Forshee, the brief replacement Anderson or perhaps one of the players refusing to play and start an internet slanging match whilst onlookers post on internet forums about who is right and who is wrong.
 
Maybe I could interview someone like Darren Elliott or Andy Cox, long serving Oxford players who have never wavered in their commitment or desire to the Stars cause over the years, and publish an emotional article on how they will now have to find alternative teams midway through a season that has already put them through emotional turmoil due to struggling on ice performances.
 
Plenty of options certainly but none particularly appealing because the closing paragraph will always be the same – no more Oxford City Stars in ENL 1.
 
Since starting this column in 2009 many of you may have noticed that I tend to steer away from ‘comment’ articles despite my role on Pro Hockey News as a columnist. I figure that my main job is to promote the ENL and those that give up their time and effort to try and ensure we all compete in a solid hockey league.
 
As a player competing for Streatham I also do not feel that it is entirely appropriate for me to be brandishing negative opinions across the internet on other players and teams. That is not to say I never have, but just to say that I prefer not to.
 
So where am I going with this? Well firstly I don’t think pointing the fingers at individuals is helpful and I also don’t believe the blame game can be placed in any one corner although it has to lie somewhere.
 
Why am I even writing this in a style different to what I would normally do? Well it’s because I have to confess I love Oxford City Stars. There it is, out in the open, I love the club, I love the jerseys, I love the people there, I loved my time playing there and I even like the logo (it was me that brought it back) and I love the name. Not many people care about Oxford but I do and now everyone knows.
 
I can hear what you are thinking, this is all a bit ‘emotional’ Mr Carr, professing your love for a hockey team you don’t even play for anymore when you would be much cooler describing some anecdote about you having sex on a Zamboni whilst wearing a Gretzky Jofa helmet and smoking a fat Cuban (cigar before rumours circulate).
 
That would be cool Mr Carr, or a story about a vodka binge in Oxford High Street, where you stole a pink girls bike and cycle three sheets to the wind ringing a little bell in front of revellers before running out of energy and waking up covered in kebab sauce on a random doorstep.
 
That would be better than this Mr Carr, a hockey player admitting he loves a club that he only played five seasons for, before leaving in a flood of tears after transferring to Haringey in 2008. You should have used the pink bike to cycle back to London you big pansy, after making a show of yourself in front of everyone in the bar when you announced you were leaving.
 
Alas though it is true, I used to sit on my toilet as a teenager and read about Oxford City Stars in my Ice Hockey Annuals as they lurched from trophy winning campaigns to financial crisis in the space of a couple of seasons. I read those books while sitting on the pan in the North East of England thinking, wow they are a cool club with their various sagas and their strange looking players and mascots, and sure enough, I eventually pulled on the jersey myself in 2003.
 
The people in Oxford were brilliant to me. Everyone from the fans, my team mates and the management all made me feel welcome with a warmth that exists in hockey but is not always found. We had some good players over the seasons I was there, veterans like Dan Prachar, Scott Gough, Derek Flint and Paul Donohoe mixed with locals like the aforementioned Elliott and Cox, not to mention the Swindon boys Nick Eden, Gary Slevin and Adam Andrews amongst many others.
 
The ENL was a different beast with no more than twenty odd games a year and a selection of teams playing with a small budget and it proved a good place to play hockey without the commitment of two games every weekend.
 
Recently this has changed and the ENL no longer has the air of a league played mainly on Sunday’s with players able to balance a limited social life with the game they love.
 
The ENL is now a full time commitment with the pressures and responsibilities that brings.
 
In many ways it is not far off the commitment of the English Premier League, a stage where players are compensated for their time and effort with a wage packet that in some cases delivers a decent salary.
 
Only a handful of players in the ENL can say the same, however the addition of ex EPL sides Chelmsford, Romford and Wightlink has given the league clubs that have the structure and nature to maintain a side across a 40 game season that can compete and challenge.
 
The remaining clubs battle below just as their equivalents do to a lesser extent in the EPL and more similarly the Elite league.
 
‘Second team’ clubs such as Cardiff, MK and Bracknell benefit from strong junior development schemes that allow them to progress a stream of youngsters added to quality players dropping from their respective first teams.
 
Sadly clubs like Oxford and of course my own team Streatham, who for so long have been strong contenders at this level, are now faced with a choice. Spend the money to compete or fall down the ladder, but even then it is not as simple as that.
 
Both clubs have an inherent lack of depth in local talent and both clubs are full of players and coaching staff, giving up their time and effort to try and somehow compete, whilst working with little or no budget. The sob story is of course one few really want to hear and no one likes to admit it really but the Oxford scenario and conclusion is directly linked to this imbalance.
 
Looking at Oxford’s performances this season makes grim reading. Before being expunged and wiped from the record books, Oxford had won only three games out of twenty five fixtures, yet they still sat in 9^th place in the league, three points and two places ahead of relegation. Not the guaranteed road to the abyss by any stretch of the imagination.
 
Within their roster they have personnel that in seasons gone by at this level, would have made them title contenders or at the very least a top half team. The likes of Gareth Endicott, Richard Wojciack and Andrew Shurmer gave the squad a solid look about it, but long stretches of losing streaks can dishearten any player, and both this season and last season the Stars have had to stomach some morale sapping losses followed by more losses.
 
I can empathise with the Stars from a Streatham viewpoint, another team that have welcomed me with warmth and that I hold considerable affection for. The Redskins sit rock bottom of the league with a squad that has been hampered by injury and commitment issues from the very start of this campaign.
 
In many cases we are in worse position than Oxford were before they withdrew, we have less points, six tough fixtures against teams in the top four coming up consecutively and a squad of players who have struggled to cope with the rigours of a heavy schedule and long morale destroying losing streaks.
 
Now comes the next ‘sickly’ piece of this article. Not content with sharing my love of Oxford City Stars I am now going to comment on my Coach, Mr Barry Spours. Now I can hear the voices again…
 
Here he goes now kissing his coach’s ass online, looking for a spot on the power play unit are you Mr Carr?
 
Well funnily enough now you mention it, I wouldn’t mind a bit of power play time but I will probably need to buy a new stick because the one I am using now doesn’t have much in it and I don’t really fancy shelling out over a hundred pounds (yes I do buy my own sticks) to replace a stick battered by one time slap shots from the blue line. Anyway I digress.
 
Mr Barry Spours, maybe I should have left this piece till the day I leave the club but I do think it has relevance to this article, namely the fact he isn’t just a coach. In fact this man eats, sleeps and breathes Streatham Redskins. I know a lot of coaches in the league are the same, and this is not to discredit them or indeed any of the management and volunteers of Streatham but with Barry I think he is a case worth highlighting.
 
This intense individual spends nigh on every evening down the ice rink, he has to deal with everything from the printing of jerseys, distribution of tickets, the website, the dealings with the rink, the equipment, the finances and of course the recruitment, tactics, training sessions and game plans.
 
He has spent countless hours on the phone trying to get players to come to Streatham, listening to problems and issues from existing squad members, breaking bad news to players no longer required and of course negotiating a move to a new rink in the background. Add this to some sniping from detractors and any issues in his personal life and he certainly has a lot on his plate, and probably more brussel sprouts than Yorkshire puddings if truth be told.
 
Would Streatham still be going without Barry? I don’t think so, definitely not at this level anyway. Could I imagine him pulling out of the league midway through? No. The guy would sign a team of rec players and play himself (and his shattered knee) rather than give up.
 
He is so focused on hockey and Streatham you can see it tears him up inside when others do not have the same single minded passion as he does, and when the team are getting beat week after week, as has happened this season at times, he refuses to give up even though some of his team are probably thinking their weekends would be better served going to the Toby Carvery rather than getting spanked on the road again and paying £1.37 a litre in petrol for the privilege.
 
Before moving on, I would counter my glowing assessment of the Redskins Coach by pointing out that I haven’t always agreed with his lines or selections, I don’t like that menacing almost psychotic glint in his eye when he is angry and I think he should invest in a new jacket. That should stop me being labelled an ass kisser if nothing else.
 
It is not really healthy for a hockey club to have someone with so much on his shoulders but running a hockey team is not cheap, and few want or need the financial responsibility for operating a league outfit.
 
This is why I wouldn’t point the finger at the Oxford directors completely. They have probably shelled out a lot of money already to keep the team going and if they feel like they cannot do it anymore who am I to tell them what to do with their cash even if I think they should have iced a weak side to see out the season. It would have been tough, and the team would have likely been thrashed every week but having played for teams in that situation I can say that whilst not fun, it keeps the league intact.
 
I actually also believe Forshee did what he could with the resources available to him. The campaign was always going to be tough and possibly if they had managed to keep Alan Green (who left for Chelmsford) and had got hold of Lithuanian international Eggy Bauba instead of Bristol, they may have won a few more games and this situation would not have arisen. As an outsider looking in, it is easy for me to say, but Oxford fans may have their own differing opinions.
 
The players that refused to play are also within their rights if they feel strongly about the decision to remove Forshee or the circumstances surrounding it. No one knows the circumstances in full or at least they haven’t been published so casting stones in their direction is simply guesswork.
 
People may not like that opinion, but if losing eight players means you fold mid-season then perhaps it is better to build a stronger foundation and look ahead to the future. Oxford have been advised that they cannot enter a team into ENL1 South until 2013, and that gives everyone the perfect opportunity to focus on the ENL2 side and get them prepared.
 
I have no doubt that club stalwarts such as Gary Dent are already setting the wheels in motion and I personally hope that the Stars come back stronger as a result of this dark period in the club’s history.
 
So after all that, it appears we came to the same conclusion as promised at the start of the article, Oxford City Stars have withdrawn from ENL 1 South. Perhaps you are now wishing I had interviewed the people concerned and had a big debate about it, so I can only apologise for my self-indulgence on this topic.
 
What I will point out, to further dent my reputation with my fellow hockey players but perhaps enhance it with Mrs Carr is that I have never had sex on a Zamboni wearing a helmet or otherwise, but I know a few players who have and maybe I should leave that for another time.
 
This possibly should have been posted at the top of the article to save you reading this opinion piece, but here is the official press release from Oxford and the EIHA.
 
http://www.eiha.co.uk/tabid/225/ctl/Detail/mid/772/itemid/973/Default.aspx
 
One implication already is that with Oxford being erased from the history books, it leaves Streatham with a harder task to avoid finishing bottom of the league and one less team we can realistically catch. It appears that the bottom side will still be relegated regardless of Oxford’s demise, in line with the rules of the competition.
 
The ENL South Division 1 could in all possibility lose not only Oxford but also Streatham this season and I for one think that will be a crying shame.
 
Contact the author david.carr@prohockeynews.com