PETERBOROUGH, UK – There are a generation of hockey players who took up the sport inspired by Coach Bombay’s Mighty Ducks, only to find that the ‘Flying V’ is something they’ll only experience from opposition fans’ hand gestures, and not as part of an exciting on-ice tactic.
On the charge against Bracknell this season (Kev Slyfield)
For Peterborough’s James Pentecost however, the combination of league ice hockey and flying is very much a reality. On a weekend he laces up the skates in the NIHL Wilkinson Conference, but throughout the week he is a fully qualified pilot flying thousands of passengers across Europe and beyond for Jet2. The airline have flown over 50 million people to 50 destinations and have a fleet of more than 50 aircraft.
“I went into the training once I finished school” explains the 28 year old on his journey to the skies.
“It wasn’t easy and takes a long time to get everything done. You spend the whole time training hoping one day you’ll get a chance to fly a jet aircraft. No one really just luckily lands into a job, you have to know exactly what you want and work for it, because the training is so intense and then afterwards, competition for that first job is very tough.”
At the same time as he was training to be a pilot, Pentecost continued his passion for hockey and earned a call up to senior hockey for his home town team in 2006/07. The then Peterborough Islanders were the second team in the town but were under the tutorage of the experienced Canadian Jesse Hammill.
“I was 16 at the time and I’d worked hard in training so I finally got the call” admits Pentecost, whose parents took him to Peterborough Pirates games back in the early 1990’s.
“We were at home against Basingstoke and it wasn’t the greatest game. We got beat pretty bad but I scored on my debut so it was weird because I was happy, but at the same time the game went so badly for the team that particular day it was hard to feel that happy about it.”
Pentecost has gone on to make over 200 appearances for his hometown club across twelve seasons, with only a championship winning season and a half with Oxford City Stars plus a brief spell at London Raiders breaking his consecutive Peterborough representation. As his career on the ice progressed, the 5’ 8” forward picked up a number of titles and awards, with the most recent a league, Cup and Play-Off Championship triple in 2016/17.
James in his other uniform
This season Pentecost and his team mates face last year’s NIHL 1 Champions Chelmsford Chieftains in the upcoming Wilkinson Conference Play-Offs. It’s a challenge that will be a big test for the Bretton Way based side, who finished in 5th position in the league standings.
“We have moments when we sit back and realise we actually have a really good squad” admits Pentecost, on a team that boasts a mix of experience and youth in players like Shaun Yardley, Conor Pollard and Brad Moore.
“We know we can do damage in the Play-Offs it’s just a case of turning up on the day. Last season we won everything, and without sounding spoilt, playing in a league now with better teams is hard to adapt to, but I think if we get a good start in the Play-Offs we will have some dangerous momentum.”
Aside from the fact both roles require the wearing of a uniform, similarities between flying planes and skating in the lower leagues of British hockey are limited. Flying through the air at hundreds of miles per hour and being responsible for a hundreds of lives every day, contrasts starkly with whacking pucks in a cold damp ice rink with only a lamp to light as an end goal. But as one of the few who can compare, Pentecost believes firing the puck past a netminder still takes some beating.
“I don’t think anything compares to scoring a goal in hockey. That’s unique” laughs the speedy forward, who has 10 goals and 14 assists in the league so far.
“There is some adrenaline with each landing though. I wouldn’t say that flying is routine. Each landing is different and no matter how many you do there’s always some adrenaline in there somewhere. I guess for me the similarities are the routine. I’m a creature of habit, before a game I follow the same routine and do the same particular things, I do the same before a flight.
Happy times last season
“I don’t think that many people know what I do away from the airport. I quite like it that way. Hockey teaches you so many qualities that you can transfer into other areas. If anything, it’s taught me the importance of proper preparation.”
If Peterborough can advance past Chelmsford they will progress to the Final Four competition in Bracknell at the end of April. Either way, the season is drawing to a close which means there is less of a balance for Pentecost to find in his life for a few months at least.
“It gets easier with time, as with my first company it was hard at first, so I stepped down to NIHL2” he admits.
“After a while I felt I found the right balance and then signed for London, which worked. I moved companies soon after however, and it was like going back to the start again. But it always gets easier when you get more comfortable in a job.”
Before the interview ends its time to ask the question on every reader’s lips. Just what is the best thing the puckwhacker and pilot has ever seen out of a plane as he speeds through the air?
“There’s a lot of things I’ve seen and probably bore my friends with pictures” he explains.
“The one thing that a camera just can’t do justice is the northern lights, back when I used to fly more over Scandinavia I had some incredible views of that, which was pretty special from 40,000ft.”
Contact the author: carrsy2@gmail.com
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