LONDON, UK – When Invicta Dynamos announced that charismatic goalie Chris Douglas had left the club late last year, there was palpable shock amongst their fan base.
Disco session (John Scott)
The 35 year old had proven to be a popular figure at Silverblades, but appeared to be lost to the game with only a ‘heated discussion’ cited as the reason the man nicknamed ‘Disco’ would no longer be standing in the Dynamos crease.
The usual online messages of farewell and thanks followed from fans across the league and the reality dawned that the days of Disco were over, on the ice at least.
“It was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done in my career” said Douglas on his hasty departure.
“The Invicta fans are on another level and the closest to the way Rom Valley Way was back in the day”
“They love the team and will back every player to the bitter end if they work hard. It’s like playing for a football club. Quitting the team like that and not getting to at least say bye to the fans was gutting, but necessary”
Two months later and the Wiltshire based stopper suddenly resurfaced at London Raiders, a club he formerly iced with at both junior and senior level.
The Raiders are currently re-emerging as a quality side in the league after a nightmare first half of the season.
“Alan (Blyth) has done a good job of getting a competitive team together” said the 5’8” stopper.
“He basically contacted me and explained that Michael Gray was done for the season and needed to have an operation and they have some games where they had no goaltending cover and he asked if I could help out”
“I couldn’t say no and look back and think I could have helped out my old club when they needed me”
It is of course not the first time Douglas has iced in the famous gold and blue jerseys of the Raiders with his senior debut for the club coming in 2000. It had been a long and winding road for the Londoner who had already played senior hockey in the BNL with Cardiff Rage and backed up for both Hull and Peterborough as a fresh faced teenager.
“For me it was a chance to train at a high level of hockey and live in different parts of the country in the early stages of my senior career” admitted Douglas.
“Then my dad Erskine asked me to move to Romford and play for him. Over the next few years I played for him at whatever club he was at until I moved to Swindon in 2004”
The collection of clubs may put Douglas in the line of a few ‘Jack Nicklaus’ jokes but he holds most of his affection for three of his former fanbases.
“It’s so hard to say which I would class as home” explained Douglas.
“They are all a part of my journey but my big three are Romford, Swindon and now Invicta”
“I think it’s just the way I connected with the fans in those places I know that no matter who I play for or where I go, or how bad I have got, there are fans at those clubs who would have me back”
“For me hockey is about the fans and the atmosphere from the fans and those three teams at one point or another have given me chills when I’ve been on the ice playing for them”
Happy times at Invicta
Douglas’s longevity in the game makes him the perfect person to ask how the leagues have adapted and changed over the years. Especially intriguing as a man tasked with blocking shots is to gage his thoughts on the standard of NIHL South, compared to that of the EPL in his first spell with the Raiders.
“My two seasons at Rom Valley Way were amazing, playing for my old man and with a load of guys I had played juniors with”
“Winning the EPL in Chelmsford was such great experience. I got to coach some great young goalies while I was there too”
“I think NIHL 1 is very similar to the EPL back then, except they were allowed 4 imports”
“Even the stats for the teams are quite similar, though I think there is more chance of the lower teams beating the higher teams now than back then”
It could have been so different for Douglas however if he hadn’t been such a poor defenseman as a kid. There would have been no pad stacks, glove saves or the various other unorthodox moves Douglas somehow manages to do to keep the puck out of the net if he hadn’t switched positions.
“My first memories were playing for Streatham with the likes of Joe Johnston for the Mini Braves when my dad played for the Redskins”
1982 Streatham team featuring Erskine Douglas front row far left
“My first memories there were stick handling practice and being on ‘Wake up London’ and Blue Peter as a D-man. I was awful and couldn’t skate”
“I always wanted to be a goalie but wasn’t allowed until I moved to play for Romford. My early memories there were doing the circle drills with Lenny Cole as coach and being runners-up in the under 12’s in our first season”
“We nearly won it but we drew at Swindon in the last game after I tried to jump on the puck and it went under me with seconds left”
Douglas has already started well with the current Raiders, turning away 45 shots in Streatham to help them beat his dad’s old team 4-2 in South London a fortnight ago, and in a few weeks he gets the chance to play Invicta in a game with so many side stories, not least the fact that both team’s need the points.
Away from the ice Douglas runs his own online goalie equipment store http://www.grimkeeperhockey.co.uk/ and keeps himself busy in the summer with the Paddledown hockey camps alongside Chelmsford pair Euan King and Ben Clements.
One thing is for sure… the days of Disco are not over quite yet.
Contact the author david.carr@prohockeynews.com
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