ENL South Round-up Week 2

LONDON, UK – The second weekend of ENL hockey gave fans entertainment on the ice but sadly worrying times off the ice.
The days leading up to the weekend’s action were dominated by one subject, the Chelmsford Chieftains. A couple of postings by Romford Raiders owner ‘Ollie’ Oliver on his clubs official message board culminated in an online blast at the EIHA, in which he described the circumstances behind the Raiders cancelled clash with Chelmsford Chieftains this weekend as a ‘fiasco’. Even by ENL message board standards, two weeks into the season is a bit early for the ‘Why is Ken Taggart in charge of the EIHA when he lives in Denver?’ debate by supporters, but this talking point has already arrived following Ollie’s refreshingly direct, if not controversial post.

Let’s face it, nigh on every team has had a beef with the EIHA chairman at some point, in some cases correctly and in others not quite so. One thing is for sure, that in this particular case the main worry for all fans should be of whether or not Chelmsford start the season, not what Ken Taggart is up to. He could be snowboarding naked in Aspen for all I care, as long as the Chieftains get up and running. I do wonder what people expect him to do in this situation. Start docking Chelmsford points because their rink is closed for maintenance? A bit of patience and flexibility will benefit everyone in the end.
In any case there was good news in Romford as they confirmed two new imports for the season. Twenty three year old Lithuanian international forward Algimantas Visockas and Swedish defenseman Pierre Wilhelmsson certainly look to be very good signings for the Raiders and will be thrown straight into action next weekend when Romford finally get their season underway.
Music fans on the Isle of Wight were enjoying Bestival this weekend as Dizzy Rascal and Roxy Music amongst other acts drew huge crowds to the island. By the time the Cardiff ENL Devils parked their executive bus on the Wightlink ferry at Portsmouth, some onlookers must have thought the Manic Street Preachers were making a guest appearance on Saturday night. Sadly for the ENL Devils they don’t get to use the Welsh National sides’ transport every week but it did give them the touch of the high life en- route to the island with leather seats and plasma TV’s the order of the day.
Perhaps the luxury travelling arrangements persuaded Devils defenseman Brent Pope to make a rare appearance outside Cardiff Bay, but any joy he got from the bus was soon negated once he got onto the ice.
 
The veteran got a 2+10 penalty for a checking to the head call, but Chris Jones still managed to give the visitors an early lead before Dom Hopkins, Robbie Brown and Nathan Taylor sent the home fans happy with a 3-1 win. Pope was ejected in the third period for a second check to the head call and will probably have wished he had stayed at home.
Also playing on Saturday were Bracknell Hornets hosting the Bristol Pitbulls. The winless Pitbulls got off to the worst possible start through no fault of their own, as goalie Michael Crisp got a puck in the eye, courtesy of a Dan Hughes slap shot that wedged the puck through the young goalie’s mask. A massive pool of blood was then spread even further by a careless zamboni driver meaning that the stoppage took quite some time, and Crisp was replaced in the Bristol goal by John Dibble.
When play did resume it was the Hornets youthful enthusiasm that won over Bristol’s experience. Despite goals from Rob Jones, Alan Armour and Steve Osman for Bristol, Bracknell took the game 5-3 courtesy of a brace from Alan Lack and one goal each for Greg Martyn, Matt Ovenden and Tony Barclay.
The best news of the night was the fact that Crisp only needed eight stitches and should recover soon.
 
Thursday evening at Streatham ice rink resembled the scene from Mighty Ducks, where District 5 get new kit and all the kids go crazy in the store. There is something comforting about the smell of new equipment, and the aroma given off by the pile of brand new red helmets and matching gloves, was a welcome one from the usual air of stale booze that occasionally drifts around our old barn (not from the players I hasten to add).
Predictably not everything went as smoothly as planned and the sad face of Cas Britton as he realised his helmet was too big for him, was similar to a kid at Christmas who gets a basic Nokia when he was expecting an I-phone. My only personal complaint is that the small looking gloves made me look like the late Jeremy Beadle MBE, not in his current state obviously, but in his pomp with his legendary miniature hand.
So with our new kit all in order, we hosted a Bracknell Hornets side on Sunday, still on a high after two wins in their opening two games. I have to be honest and say that despite a very satisfying 4-3 win for the Redskins, this match wasn’t a classic.
Scrappy is probably the best word I can use to describe the game, which wasn’t helped by some over zealous officiating (to be expected early in the season as the referee’s set their stalls out). Will Sanderson did fantastically well in goal deputising for the injured Shane Kemp, and David Wride in the Bracknell goal was his usual solid self.
Streatham’s goals came courtesy of Joe Johnston, Richard Hardy (yes he is alive), Russell Stevens and Tomas Valko. Hornet’s scorers were Alan Lack, Greg Martyn and Luke Reynolds.
Two very important points for us, and also good to see that the hard work over the summer has paid off in our opening two fixtures.

Our opponents from last week, Invicta Dynamos, hosted the high flying Milton Keynes Thunder who had basked in the glory of being top of the league after the opening weekend.
Sadly for Lewis Clifford and his men, the table topping experience was short lived as the Mo’s clicked into gear and took a convincing 7-1 win. Invicta goals came from hat trick hero Daniel Calitri along with solo efforts for Karl Lennon, Andy Smith, Callum Fowler and Adam Copland. MK’s consolation came courtesy of Ross Bowers. The only other action to note was a fight between MK’s Mike Lucas and Invicta’s Corey Watkins that gave the crowd added value to their game ticket.
The biggest shock of the weekend came at Oxpens Road as the Oxford City Stars stunned the highly fancied Wightlink Raiders by winning 4-2. The City Stars were very disappointed to drop points in Bracknell last weekend so this result will have gone a long way to making up for that.
Oxford’s Swedish goalie Robin Lindva yet again earned great reviews following this man of the match performance. The Stars went three nil up courtesy of goals from Darren Elliott, Grant Bailey and Josh Oliver but Jason Gorrie pulled one back for the visitors. Alex Murray then scored on the power play for the Raiders to send Stars fans into nervous tension, but it was who else but Mr Oxford himself, Darren Elliott to seal the game with a shorthanded goal.
So with two weeks gone in the ENL, the reigning champions have dropped a point, the play-off champions have dropped two and the pre-season favourites have also dropped two. Whisper it quietly but this could be a rollercoaster ride in 2010/11 for all concerned.
Contact the author: david.carr@prohockeynews.com