Streatham gearing up for opening weekend

LONDON, UK – Pre season training is now nearly finished and the real business starts this weekend, as the English National league starts with a bang.
 

If the Streatham Redskins don’t get off to a flying start this season it won’t be through lack of preparation. Aside from the heavy skating sessions and drills over the past few weeks, we had a little get together on Sunday which seemed a world away from the usual prep I have experienced in other seasons.
 
Bearing in mind it was a bank holiday weekend, my first surprise was that everybody turned up. You can’t take player attendance for granted at this level of hockey and it was heartening to see a room full of people rather than 5 or 6 diehards.
 
Without going into too much detail, the day consisted of a presentation and tactics discussion in a local business centre, followed by some off-ice training, an organised scrimmage and then some special plays on the ice along with a skills competition.
 
Peter Molnar predictably won the shooting accuracy competition and Liam Rasmussen secured the title of fastest Redskin after beating Jack Tarczycki in the final time trial. The main talking point of the nine hour day was the complimentary dinner provided by the club mid way through.
 
Now I am not sure what I was expecting. A selection of haute cuisine delivered by Jamie Oliver was always going to be unlikely, however what transpired was equally less predictable. Following our scrimmage, Barry (Barry Spours – Redskins coach) popped his head round the locker room door and told us all to take our skates off and head down to the rink cafe in the bottom half of our equipment.

As I strode out into the icy air of the rink wearing my Tackla shorts and leg pads, it was like a time machine had transported me back to Durham Hockey School. The days when you spent all day in your hockey kit from morning through to the evening, eating together with the smell of sweat mixing with the unique ice rink cafe aroma.
 
Instead of rustling up a suspect burger and chips (as was the norm in Durham),  we all nearly passed out laughing as we spotted tough guy Barry and assistant coach Terry England, both in aprons cooking big pots of pasta behind the obligatory Slush Puppy machine. Twenty hungry hockey players were soon fed and watered courtesy of the guest chef’s, but I don’t think the irritatingly smug Oliver will be getting nervous on this showing.  If I were to review this section of the day I would probably award the cafe ambience 3 out of 10, the food 4 out of 10 and the beverages (Tesco Still Water = Peckham Spring) 1 out of 10. Joking aside, it was a great effort by the club to get some team spirit going and start the season in an organised fashion.  
 
Around the league, news seems to be rather quiet. I suspect some coaches want to keep things close to their chests and spring a surprise or two this week or on the opening day of the season. Romford have yet to sign an import and I doubt they will run with a Brit only squad this year given the ambitions at the club. Invicta still have an import slot free and it would be the first time in a while that they start the season with only one. Kev Parrish won’t take any chances this season, as he bids to secure an eighth consecutive league championship for the Mo’s. Cardiff have hinted that they will sign a new import at some point but I guess we will have to wait and see.
 
Speaking of imports, I would imagine that the fleet of overseas players due to play in the ENL this season will have arrived either last week or over the past few days.  Swede Robin Lindva will be punting along the river in Oxford, Canadian Jason Gorrie will be on the cable car admiring the Needles on the Isle of Wight, Canadian Daniel Calitri will be buying a ‘Gills’ scarf in Gillingham, Swede’s Adam Klasa and Henrik Sahlin will be reading all about Brunel in Bristol and finally Slovak Radek Simecek will be trying out the toboggan run in Bracknell.
 
Living down South now, I am always amazed at these hockey players and the wealth swimming around the pool of players. Despite witnessing it over five months ago, I have only just recovered from observing team mate Richard “Big Deal” Hardy splashing out 100 pounds on a golf putter, but this was eclipsed recently upon learning that Owen “Skates” Murphy’s new wheels retail at £650. The best thing is that despite the price tag, “Skates” has been hobbling around in agony trying to get used to them for the past fortnight.
You have to wonder why, that in 2010, a player still has to break through a pain barrier before they can be comfortable in skates. This is despite the oven warming techniques, the shape moulding and contoured fit. We can send people to the moon but can’t make ice skates that fit easily. My skates are on their last legs, which is no surprise given the weight that they are supporting and the lack of care I give them (dumped in a wet bag). The pumps are broken and the eyelets are damaged but I will stick with them for as long as possible.
 
We have two training sessions before the game with Invicta and we are going into the game with a quiet confidence. Obviously they are the favourites, but we will be going all out to spring a surprise.
 
Thank you to everyone who has emailed recently, regarding the different stories we have published on various teams. Feedback is always appreciated good or bad and the address is below. Real emails always make a pleasant change from the various offers of Viagra and Thai brides I seem to receive on a regular occurrence.
 
Cheers for reading
Carrsy
  Contact the author: david.carr@prohockeynews.com