LONDON, UK – The last weekend of regular season action in the ENL South saw the final two remaining play-off places taken, and for the remaining three teams in the league, the end of the 2010/11 season.
Romford Raiders GM Ollie Oliver spoke to the Romford Recorder during the week stating how his side had exceeded expectations this campaign. In a frank interview with the local paper, Oliver paid particular attention to the team spirit within the camp, saying that the Raiders had ‘one of the best, if not the best dressing room’ he had observed in his many years involved with the sport.
Hughes pain turns to pleasure (Rick Webb)
Whether this was a subtle dig at local rivals Invicta is unclear, however Oliver saved his main swipe in the article for the Raiders other rivals Chelmsford Chieftains, whom he once had an involvement with.
“I feel more at home here than I ever did at Chelmsford” explained Oliver.
“They’re my type of people (at Romford), being born and bred in the East End and I consider them friends, not just supporters”
With quotes like that to work with, it is little wonder that the Recorder prints a lot of ice hockey coverage each season. The local paper not only prints Raiders reports in colour but they also feature junior hockey as well which is pretty impressive.
More zany news from Romford was goalie Glen Jackson’s April Fools Day joke via the internet that he had broken his arm leaving the team with no goalie following Michael Greys knee injury the previous week. Now Glen is a great guy and used to delight the crowd at Oxford with his dancing whilst at the Stars, but he is playing with the gods joking about things like that. Let’s hope it doesnt come back to bite him before the season is out.
League champions Wightlink Raiders attempted to plug a gap in fixtures by arranging a friendly with ENL 2 high flyers Solent & Gosport Devils during the week. Sadly for Jeremy Cornish and his men the Devils were unable to travel in the end, meaning the Raiders could be a little rusty ahead of their first play-off game.
Intriguing news out of Bracknell as website ‘getreading.co.uk’ ran a story on the future of the EPL Bees. The good news was that GM Stuart Robinson has promised that there will be a Bees side competing in 2011/12. The intrigue relates to the fact that Mr Robinson failed to mention which league the side would compete in, leading to speculation from the paper that the Bees could replace the Hornets in ENL 1 next season.
The article also mentioned the fact that both Romford and Wightlink had dropped down in recent seasons, suggesting in part that it would be a wise move to cut the Bees cloth accordingly. For some fans it doesn’t seem that long ago that Bracknell were competing in the Superleague, so quite what they will think of dropping to the third tier remains to be seen.
Ollie amongst friends (John Scott)
It is amazing how British Hockey evolves over the years. Everyone involved in the game knows what the issues are and so does the average fan, assuming they hang around the game long enough and eventually take the blinkers off.
Is an import level of 2, 3 or 4 per team the only sustainable way of operating a hockey club in the UK? That question is probably a bit too much to cover in the confines of the weekly round-up, but it is no surprise that some teams are now looking down this route simply to exist.
I grew up watching 3/4 import hockey and is it a coincidence that the foreign stars of those days not only lasted a long time in the game over here, but also linger long in the memory. I am thinking of the likes of Steve Moria, Doug McEwan, Paddy Scott, Steve Chartrand, Rick Brebant, Rick Fera, Fred Perlini, Mike Blaisdell, Ron Shudra and Mario Belanger playing in front of packed houses in the golden age of British hockey.
Yes the goalies were usually poor and some of the Brits were not up to much, but boy was it entertaining. Rose tinted specs maybe, but all of those players listed were top drawer and I was lucky enough to play against a couple of them when I got older.
Speaking of the old days, I had the fortune (or misfortune) depending on your viewpoint, to attend the England V Ghana game at Wembley Stadium. Walking up the famous Wembley Way I glanced to my right and caught sight of the grand old lady Wembley Arena.
It is a crying shame that the venue is not used for hockey, if only for play-off weekends again, but sadly the only ice action going on at the famous venue these days is ‘Dancing on Ice’ which starts later this month. Dancing On Ice – The Tour is an ice spectacle featuring all the thrills, spills and sensational ice dancing you come to expect from the line-up of celebrity skaters and professionals, or so the poster outside says.
How about a poster with ‘British Ice Hockey Finals – Four teams, one winner, lots of fans, air horns (sorry Romford fans), fancy dress, replica jerseys, lots of beer, carnival atmosphere and more toothless hockey players than you can imagine. Plus 100% guarantee that you will not have to sit through cheesy patter from Torvill and Dean’. We can only dream of a time machine to experience that again I fear.
Er.. where were we? Oh yes, the ENL.
Two clubs who had fans attending those Wembley weekends were Streatham and Cardiff, who spent the week safe in the knowledge that play-off spots were secure, but still awaiting who their respective opponents would be. Oxford, Bracknell and Milton Keynes were the sides sweating on qualification and all spent the week preparing for the weekend of destiny.
Saturday
Bristol thumped (flyfifer.co.uk)
Bristol and Chelmsford met at Frogmore Street with the Pitbulls aiming to cause an upset against a strong Chieftains side. Bristol’s Swedish forward Henrik Sahlin had spoken to Pro Hockey News during the week about how he had enjoyed his season with the Pitbulls, however he won’t have fond memories of this game.
The Chieftains showed no signs of letting up in what was an essentially meaningless game as they steamrolled their hosts 12-1. Danny Hammond hit a hat trick for the Essex side with Tom Long putting in his best goal haul of the year with four. A brace from Ross Brears and one goal each for Matt Turner, Kyle Jones and Danny Wright doing the business for Chelmsford.
Bristol can now enjoy the summer with their ENL 1 status intact, so congratulations to all the players, management and staff for sticking with it, despite the tough times.
Bracknell were desperate for a win against Streatham at the Hive but those pesky Redskins did it again, coming back from 5-2 down to win 6-5 in the dying moments of the game.
Sadly I cannot take any plaudits for the win (‘as usual’ – shout the crowd), as I suffered an injury in training, but all of the lads are really firing at the minute and it shows from front to back. It also means we go into the play-offs unbeaten in our last seven games.
Two goals each from Rupe Quiney and Tomas Valko, combined with efforts from Peter Molnar and Joe Johnston sealed the win for Streatham, with Bracknell’s goals coming from a Danny Hughes brace and one each from Alan Lack, Tom Fisher and Ben Duggan.
Wacko Jackson (Danny Oxley)
The final game of Saturday took place at Rom Valley Way, as Romford Raiders hosted Cardiff ENL Devils. In fact the visitors gave a Danny Marshall-less Romford a real scare and were leading for a large part of the game until the Raiders rallied at the end to take the game 6-5.
Scorers for Cardiff were Luke Piggott with two and Chris Hart, Ricky Deacon and Jordan Powell with one each. Juraj Huska got a hat trick for the Raiders with Frankie Harvey, Anthony Leone and Tom Davis getting the others.
Sunday
The big game of the night was pretty much the winner takes all clash between Oxford City Stars and Bracknell Hornets at Oxpens Road. In an end to end encounter it was the Hornets who dug in for a 6-5 win to shock their hosts in front of their own fans.
Bracknell were leading 5-2 until a remarkable comeback from the Stars gave the match a tense finish that would ultimately end in tears for Ken Forshee and his players.
Ultimately it is disappointing that the City Stars failed to make the play-offs but they have had a difficult season with injuries to key defence men and issues with their new import Damian Matla that subsequently disappeared shortly after signing.
Oxford will have to regroup and come back stronger next season. On the plus side, some of their youngsters look well worth keeping an eye on, so Forshee has the tools to work with ahead of 2011/12. For Bracknell, it just shows that if you dig deep you can bounce back from adversity.
Oxford crash out
It is hard to imagine that the play-off winners from last season would struggle to qualify this season, but now they have, the Hornets will be gunning for Wightlink in the quarter finals.
Milton Keynes needed to win in Cardiff to ensure play-off qualification, which is a tall ask for any side. This Thunder side are no mugs though, and they triumphed 6-2 to ensure a play-off encounter with Chelmsford.
One player who may miss the play-offs is Thunder enforcer Mike Lucas, who received a match penalty for reportedly kneeing Devils Lee Duance in the face during a fight. Whether he did it on purpose depends what version you believe, however the Cardiff bench were incensed and it all kicked off with players, fans and stewards all getting a taste of the rough stuff.
Lucas claims to have lost his balance, Cardiff claim it was a wrestling type of move but thankfully for both teams, only Lucas and the Devils defenseman Bryn Griffiths will sit out next week’s action. Neither team could afford to be missing lots of key guys ahead of the play-offs, so with over 140 penalty minutes dished out perhaps they should be both breathing a sigh of relief.
Milton Keynes scorers were Maros Stefanco and Connor Goode with a brace each and lone goals for Matt Roberts and of course ‘Iron Lung’ Ross Bowers. Cardiff goals came from Luke Piggott.
Invicta looked to get a morale boosting win with a home fixture against Romford but ended up on the wrong end of an 8-4 score line. With both sides unable to improve their league placing this game only had local pride at stake, but it was the Raiders that went home happiest.
Juraj Huska continued his goal trail with a hat trick and AJ Smith got two against his former club. Frankie Harvey, Tom Davis and Anthony Leone got the other goals to make it a bad night for the Dynamos who have only won once in their last seven games.
Invicta scorers were Chris Borges, Tim Smith, Liam Chong and Nicky Lewis. Romford also had Jason Buckman thrown out for spearing and he was followed by Invicta’s Mike Timms who was dismissed for a check to the head. Anthony Leone’s night went from good to bad as the Raiders skipper followed up his goal by getting kicked out later in the game for High Sticks.
The final game of the night was at Swindon where Chelmsford secured a runners-up berth with a routine 9-1 win over basement side Swindon ENL Wildcats.
Cardiff and MK friends (Tim Bowers)
Ross Brears, Kyle Jones and Tom Long all got two each for Chelmsford with Danny Hammond, Rudi Dzurko and Alex Green all getting on the score sheet with lone goals. Swindon’s effort came from Alasdair Barrow.
So there we have it. Another league season over and what a year it has been. Drama, excitement, skill and passion from all eleven clubs, with less EIHA involvement than ever before with regards to missed fixtures and disputes.
Now we say goodbye to Bristol, Swindon and Oxford as they set off on their summer holidays. Meanwhile for the rest of us, let the fun and games begin.
Play-Off Quarter finals (9/10 April 2011):
Wightlink v Bracknell
Romford v Cardiff
Streatham v Invicta
Milton Keynes v Chelmsford
Results
Saturday 2nd April
Bristol 1 Chelmsford 12
Bracknell 5 Streatham 6
Romford 6 Cardiff 5
Sunday 3rd April
Oxford 4 Bracknell 5
Invicta 4 Romford 8
Cardiff 2 Milton Keynes 6
Swindon 1 Chelmsford 9
Contact the author david.carr@prohockeynews.com
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