LONDON, UK – After a summer of turmoil the puck finally dropped on the 2017/18 National Ice Hockey League South this weekend.
Kostal flies at Phantoms – Photo by Nicky Pearce
There is no denying the next six months of lower league British hockey will be a testing one for all involved, not least the media outlets covering it. There is little point stating the obvious every week, so here in the glass towers of the Pro Hockey News London office, we have decided to continue as we always have done since 2009 – providing terrible jokes, unique insight and at the very least, some interesting pictures throughout the season for those who find blocks of text too much to handle.
For those of you reading for the first time, welcome. For regular readers, thanks for your continued support. With all of that out of the way, let’s get started…
London Raiders changed the dynamic of the lower half of the league with a last minute announcement of the signing of prolific Slovak Juraj Huska plus former enforcer JJ McGrath at a fan event during the week. The Raiders now have pretty much the cream of last year’s title winning Chelmsford team, plus their already decent core of players from last season, giving their fans confidence of a good season ahead.
‘When we say no donuts in the car park.. we mean it’
The Lee Valley based side have always had a knack of finding the resources to stay competitive in their temporary exile from Romford and now have a roster that should be looking to challenge for a fourth place finish minimum on paper.
Team cars have been a rare sight in the NIHL aside from the famous Bristol Pitbulls Smart Car and the Invicta Dynamos truck (which was actually a 4×4 with a big sticker on the doors rather than a team car). This season however, the big boys are in town and Bracknell Bees import duo Frantisek Bakrlik and Jan Bendik will be cruising the leafy Berkshire suburbs in team Arbarth 595’s from Thames Motor Group in Slough thanks to a nice sponsorship deal.
If either Bendik or Bakrlik fancy a sneaky late night McDonalds or visit to Club 1 in Ascot or Purple Turtle in Reading, they would do well to read a review of the 595 from ‘What Car?’ magazine first:
Despite its small displacement, the turbocharged 1.4-litre sounds menacing. Below 30mph, small throttle inputs have the Arbarth gurgling, popping and crackling; with the Record Monza exhaust fitted, this is certainly not a hot hatch for those who crave anonymity.
Not that anonymity will be a choice anyway give the massive Bees logo plastered on the side!
Phan Tom’s sad eyes in contrast to the new dog in Peterborough
Peterborough Phantoms stunned their fans prior to the challenge game against Swindon by announcing that popular mascot ‘Phan Tom’ had been gassed and would be replaced by an as yet unnamed dog (both pictured).
The Phantoms management took the approach of consoling parents when a kids first hamster dies by claiming “the tiring bear has decided he wants to hang his dancing paws up and head to the Artic for a well-earned rest” which translates to the bear being stuffed in a Bretton wheelie bin due to a massive irremovable stain, stolen head or rip on the costume.
Fans have been invited to email suggested names for the new dog mascot to info@GoPhantoms.co.uk or post on any of the clubs social media channels by midday Friday 15th September. We cant help thinking the club would have saved a lot of cash by getting suspended/injured players to walk round the stands with sheets over their heads, like crafty trick or treaters at Halloween who cant be bothered to get hold of a decent ghost costume.
Swindon Wildcats impressive media output was in full flow during the week with videos of training on BBC Wiltshire, 360 views of the locker room and interestingly an article entitled ‘6 reasons to come to our game’. Reason number 5 entitled ‘Saturday Night TV’ pulled no punches… ‘Strictly Come Dancing, The X Factor or Swindon Wildcats? For us, there is only really one answer.’
Quite why the Swindon media team failed to mention the tiresome Casualty is unknown but given Swindon had over 1000 people attending their Challenge game against Bracknell the previous weekend, it seems plenty of Swindonians are happy to miss the action on the box for a night at the Link Centre.
Streatham IHC celebrated their pre-season victory over Lee Valley Lions with a team picture at training on Thursday. All the team were smiling, no one was blinking and no random triallist was pictured in the background to become a future trivia question ‘Who is the bloke in the back row looking nervous’? Centre stage at the back was new signing Jordan Gregory whose flow could be the biggest in the league now?
The NIHL is blessed with more media presence than ever before this season and our friends at 482 Days and Banners On The Wall have both been busy previewing the season over the last two weeks, allowing the Pro Hockey News NIHL South team to enjoy the remainder of the British summer in various ale houses across the capital plus favoured restaurant, Bodeans BBQ.
482 Days published their excellent series of player interviews with a rep from every club writing about their team mates and aspirations for the season. You can read them all by clicking here.
Gumtastic MK
Basingstoke based Anthony Russell’s informative Banners On The Wall site also gave a rundown of every team in the league plus published an interesting podcast interview with London Raiders Coach Sean Easton. You can visit the site by clicking here.
Last but not least, the Milton Keynes Thunder decided that in the absence of team cars, they would offer their players branded gum shields. We have to say the Official GAETA GUARD™ green guards look very cool indeed.
Saturday action review
All eyes were on the first two league games that pitched league stalwarts Invicta Dynamos and Milton Keynes Thunder against new boys Basingstoke Bison and Bracknell Bees respectively.
In Hampshire the Bison shut out the visiting Mo’s with a 4-0 win in a result that on paper wasn’t too bad for last year’s NIHL Play-Off Champions.
Goals from Aaron Connolly, Tomas Karpov, Ivan Antonov and Stuart Mogg bagged the points for the Bison, while Dean Skinns enjoyed a quiet 15 shot shut-out between the pipes. Skinns opposite number Damien King in contrast was a busy man earning man of the match by turning away 50 shots on his net.
In Milton Keynes the Thunder and the Bees did however provide a little more entertainment for the 400+ crowd, reportedly the Thunder’s biggest in their history.
Norcliffe notches against the Thunder (Kev Slyfield)
Unsurprisingly it was marquee signing Mr Bakrlik who made the difference with a hat trick for Bracknell, as the Bees scored four goals in the final ten minutes to take a 7-5 win. Fellow top sniper Shaun Thompson also scored a hat trick and a lone goal from George Norcliffe helped the Bees take the early points.
For the Thunder, Rio Grinell-Parke scored a brace with Connor Goode, Jamie Line and Gareth O’Flaherty also on target.
The 482 days Media Team were in attendance at the Thunderdome and allegedly caused a large queue in Papa Johns by engaging in a long winded argument with the chef around how deep the deep pan pizza served up was. ‘Not deep enough for my satisfaction’ was the verdict from the top NIHL journalist who has form for this behaviour.*
Swindon hosted Peterborough in a Challenge game at the Link Centre with the visitors taking a 4-3 win thanks to a last minute goal from Ales Padelek. Phantoms other scorers were James Ferrara, Will Weldon and Nathan Salem. Swindon’s goals came from Toms Rutkis, Phil Hill and Chris Jones.
Sunday action review
The only league game took place in Gillingham in an intriguing clash between the Dynamos and the Thunder. Silverblades had warned fans to get to the rink early to allow for extra security checks which does beg the question of who is winning the ‘war on terror’. The inescapable fact an NIHL game on a Kent industrial estate could realistically be a target for terrorism says it all really but we digress.
In the end, face off was delayed by ten minutes to let all of the crowd in and when the game finally began, a close fought contest ended in a 3-2 win for MK. The Thunder’s goalscoring hero of the previous evening Rio Grinell-Parke was ruled out thanks to a hand injury, so it was left to old faithful Ross Bowers and his green gum shield to seal the win with a brace to add to a lone goal from youngster Hallden Barnes-Garner.
Salem hits two for Phantoms (5 Hole Photography)
Callum Fowler got both goals for the Dynamos who travel to Cardiff next week looking to get their first league points on the board.
Who in the NIHL South ever has to travel up to Telford on a Sunday night? That is a question many would have laughed off in seasons gone by but Basingstoke’s Cup group ensured they had a late weekend trip up to Shropshire.
For their efforts, the Bison subsequently ended up losing 2-1 to the resident Tigers in a tight game. Jonathan Weaver and Jason Silverthorn scored for the Tigers, with Bison new boy Ashley Jackson getting his first goal in Basingstoke colours.
Peterborough Phantoms made it back to back Challenge game wins over Swindon as they celebrated a 7-4 win in front of their own fans and new mascot.
Northerner Nathan Salem scored twice for the Phantoms with Ales Padelek, Owen Griffiths, Ed Knaggs, Jack Escott and Tom Norton all scoring one each. For Swindon it was Aaron Nell, Jan Kostal, Toms Rutkis and Chris Jones with their goals. Swindon host MK Thunder next week, with Peterborough hosting Bracknell Bees on the same day.
The first week is over, now roll on the rest of the season!
Results
Saturday 9 September 2017
Basingstoke Bison 4 Invicta Dynamos 0
MK Thunder 5 Bracknell Bees 7
Swindon Wildcats 3 Peterborough Phantoms 4 (Challenge)
Sunday 10 September 2017
Invicta Dynamos 2 MK Thunder 3
Telford Tigers 2 Basingstoke Bison 1 (NIHL Cup)
Peterborough Phantoms 7 Swindon Wildcats 4
If you are a photographer and would like your work showcased in this column along with our great team of NIHL snappers, drop us a line.
*Note that we embellish stories on our rivals for our own comedic amusement. This is just to warn new readers and protect 482 days from aggression at future fixtures.
Contact the author david.carr@prohockeynews.com
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