LONDON, UK – In a week in which British hockey was criticised by IIHF President Rene Fasel. The finger pointing and debate began across all leagues, but in NIHL South there were more important things to worry about… well maybe.
Fight night in Bracknell (Key Slyfield)
News was thin on the ground as the four cup semi-finalists looked ahead to their clashes at the end of the month and in the league, Chelmsford sat just four points away from glory in a competition that has seemingly been sewn up since Christmas.
On to other matters and all fingers were pointing at the Wightlink Raiders after a 25 foot model dinosaur was left in the middle of an island road by pranksters.
Did celebrations after the win over Invicta get out of hand last weekend? The telling fact from the case is that the owner of the dinosaur claimed it would take five men to lift it.
That means the first line of the Raiders could have feasibly lifted the beast no problem.
Other news from the island was the release of a video entitled ‘Battle of the Raiders’ that was circulated by the Raiders media team.
Suspect? (Nicky Craft)
Despite the title, the London Raiders were absent from any footage as highlights of recent games against Streatham and Oxford were accompanied by an eclectic mix of music from a cruise ship advert with some added beats from Tiesto. You can view the highlights HERE
With slightly less jazzy music, but arguably more incident, Invicta Dynamos TV released the footage from their narrow loss to Chelmsford. Mo’s TV always do a great job and it is a shame (yet understandable) other clubs cannot get consistent footage like this every week.
If nothing else it at least shows up the blinkered, often deliberately misleading and rose tinted ‘reports’ all of us have to endure on The Hockey Forum and social media – take a deep breath everyone. Click HERE to watch this weeks offering.
Any hockey player who has played in an overseas tournament will know that pre-game the opposition usually present you with a gift. This could be a pennant, a pin badge or even a jersey, and often us Brits fail to reciprocate as we tend not to think of these things in advance.
So imagine our surprise when a box arrived at Pro Hockey News HQ unmarked. Was it a dried dog turd from a disgruntled fan? A lacey thong from a secret admirer? Or more probable, a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary.
Johnston in form (Rick Webb)
It was none of these and in fact the box contained a ‘482 days’ mug from our fellow NIHL South reporting website based in Oxford. We are still musing on what to send back in return so send your suggestions to the usual address.
Streatham Captain Joe Johnston gave his opinion ahead of the dead rubber South East Cup game against Chelmsford in an interview with the British Ice Hockey website.
‘The Chieftains have been the benchmark in this league for the past few seasons and sadly for us this year is no different’ said the Londoner.
‘They are in formidable form but we are not exactly playing badly ourselves, so Sunday’s clash should be a great advert of hockey even though it’s a meaningless game in truth.’
‘These days we rarely play as underdogs, especially at home, but I think on Sunday most neutrals will have Chelmsford down for the win.’
‘That’s fine and is an incentive for us to upset the apple cart, plus it will be nice for us to play without being expected to win by the outside world.’
Rasmussen and Tarczycki at Legoland
In other news, Streatham pair Jack Tarczycki and Liam Rasmussen visited the Legoland Windsor resort and allegedly left early after getting scared on the teacups.
Oxford City Stars usually have all the publicity stunts in the city sewn up, but despite naked calendars, celebrity cook books and more nakedness in a bathroom showroom, the hockey team were cast into a shadow as Shia LaBeouf spent 24 hours in a lift at Oxford University.
The Hollywood star attracted national news coverage for the stunt and left the Stars management wondering why no one had thought of putting Darren Elliott and mascot Comet in a city centre lift for multiple hours.
Or maybe they could get the Oliver brothers to ride the Oxford Tube backwards and forwards continuously to London Victoria over 24 hours instead?
Saturday’s Hockey
Solent Devils had a tough task to emulate the four point weekend of seven days earlier as they travelled up to the Riverside to take on Chelmsford Chieftains.
The hosts edged closer to the league title with a 6-3 win, but not before the Devils had given them a scare in the first two periods (mainly thanks to penalty trouble for the home side).
Lukas Zatopek, Cameron Bartlett, Olegs Lascenko, Darren Brown, Matt Turner and Andrius Kaminskas scored for the Chieftains, with Shaun Rudkin, Andrew Magee and Richard Brown on target for Solent.
Murray holds off Lascenko (Emily Snoding)
Kaminskas was ejected for a second misconduct call with just under five minutes remaining in the game.
With no arrests forthcoming for the dinosaur prank, the battle of the Raiders took place on the island with Wightlink beating London 6-3.
A hat trick from Jaroslav Cesky sealed the points for Wightlink with a brace from Corey Watkins and a lone effort from Alex Sampford completing the scoring. Tom Davis notched a brace for London with Matt France also on target.
Jeremy Cornish and Michal Oravec dropped the gloves to give the crowd something else to debate. The result moved Wightlink up to third place in the league ahead of Streatham.
Oxford City Stars bounced back from defeat against MK the previous week as they earned a 5-3 win over Bracknell Hornets.
Alan Green scored a hat trick for Oxford with Joe Edwards and Ondrej Pejarik also on target. For Bracknell it was Josh Martin, Will Stead and Luke Reynolds with the goals.
There were two major incidents in the game that showed little love lost between these two sides and you can view them HERE
Phillips does the Cossack dance for Warman (Claire Stanton)
Milton Keynes Thunder welcomed back a number of players to their squad against Streatham and won the game 3-2 in Buckinghamshire.
Ross Bowers, James Clarke and Jamie Line sealed the points for MK, with Dom Hopkins and Joe Johnston on target for Streatham.
Hopkins was ejected on a match penalty for drawing blood in the third period to add to a day of woe for the Londoners, and Stephen Wall was in top form for the Thunder turning away 40 shots over the sixty minutes.
The final game of the evening took place in Cardiff as the Devils tried to upset the firm book in their game against Invicta Dynamos.
The Mo’s showed no mercy with a 6-2 win in the Big Blue Tent thanks to a brace each from Conor Redmond and Steven Osman plus lone goals from Harrison Lillis and Bailey Wootton.
Jamie Hayes got a brace for Cardiff but was then ejected on a game misconduct in the third period.
Sunday Hockey
Solent Devils bounced back from the close defeat in Essex the previous evening, by beating a shortbenched MK Thunder on the South Coast.
A Richard Brown hat trick sent Solent on the way to a 7-3 win with the other goals coming from Oliver Denis, Mason Wild, Ralfs Circenis and Andrew Magee.
For MK it was Nick Poole, Tom Mboya and Jamie Line with the goals. The happiest people in the building must have been the officials though as they called only 6 minutes in penalties all game.
As is usually the case after a crazy game between two sides, the follow up had a few less incidents but only few.
Oxford salute their fans (Paul Foster)
Oxford thrashed Bracknell 15-5 at Oxpens Road with Darren Elliott notching four, Alan Green bagging a hat trick, Josh Florey and Mike Whillock getting two each and Joe Edwards, Boris Ruzicka, Nick Oliver and Ben Ealey-Newman scoring one a piece.
A Ryan Handisides hat trick and brace for JJ Pitchley made up the goals for the Hornets, who later had Brandon Miles kicked out for throwing his stick.
The result will have pleased Oxford fans who enjoyed a four point weekend, however its an uncharacteristic result for Bracknell, who face London Raiders next weekend on what will be a big match for both teams.
Streatham hosted Chelmsford with both teams missing key guys in a dead rubber South East Trophy game.
Chelmsford had won ten consecutive games in a row prior to the game, but lost 4-3 in South London as Callum Best popped up with the winner three minutes from time to score his second of the game.
Joe Johnston and Dom Hopkins got the other goals for Streatham, with Danny Hammond, Oleg Lascenko and Matt Turner on target for Chelmsford.
The result also extends Streatham’s unbeaten run at home in 2016.
The last game of the evening saw Invicta beat London Raiders 7-0 in a game with yet more goalie drama.
Balls of Steel as Davis pads up (Jayne Clifford)
Invicta fans need not look away this time, as it was London who had to kit a player in net after regular goalie Ryan Bainborough was injured.
The lucky man was Captain Tom Davis who bravely donned the pads for the third period and did reasonably well with a 73 per cent save average.
Invicta scorers were Jack Lee, Adam McNicoll, Eriks Ozollapa, Conor Redmond, Jacob Ranson, Callum Fowler and Arran Strawson.
Damien King shared the shut out with back up Glen Rodbourne, who played the final six minutes of the game.
Next weekend sees the top four sides face each other in the Cup semi-finals and it promises to be a great two days of drama.
Results
Saturday 20 February 2016
MK Thunder 3-2 Streatham Redskins
Wightlink Raiders 6-3 London Raiders
Chelmsford Chieftains 6-3 Solent Devils
Bracknell Hornets 3-5 Oxford City Stars
Cardiff Devils NL 2-6 Invicta Dynamos
Sunday 21 February 2016
Solent Devils 7-3 MK Thunder
Oxford City Stars 15-5 Bracknell Hornets
Streatham Redskins 4-3 Chelmsford Chieftains (South East Cup)
Invicta Dynamos 7-0 London Raiders (South East Cup)
Contact the author: david.carr@prohockeynews.com
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