LONDON, UK – Things turned a little nasty in the English National League South as gloves were dropped and some old scores were settled. Amongst the fighting though, a few games of hockey broke out.
The Lokomotiv Yaroslavl hockey team were honoured on the South Coast of England during the week as Portsmouth Football club played a benefit match against Russian Premier League outfit FC Rostov for the families of the players lost in the terrible air crash just over a month ago.
Cornish v McGrath (Nicky Craft)
A crowd of 4000 people including the Wightlink Raiders hockey team led by Player Coach Jeremy Cornish turned up at Fratton Park to watch Pompey record a 2-0 win over the visitors. Cornish is a Newcastle Utd fan so clearly knows very little about football, however it is good that UK hockey had some presence at this benefit fixture.
Also busy during the week were a number of players from Chelmsford Chieftains who attended an engagement to meet the town’s Mayor. Forward Tom Long was one of the lucky few to meet the medallion clad man, although defenseman Danny Wright whose nickname is the ‘Mayor’ due to his popularity around the town, was sadly not present.
Also in the Chelmsford press was Chieftains Player Coach Gary Clarke who admitted in an interview with the Essex Chronicle that he can improve in his dual role.
MK gets the bad news
“At the moment my mind is more on coaching than playing, but as the weeks go on I’m able to juggle the two roles better” said the former MK and Guildford sniper.
“I’m happy with my return so far, but I’m also happy with everybody else’s returns. Hopefully I will be able to improve as a player and be able to contribute more”
With ten goals in eight games Clarke isn’t doing too badly but the recent loss to Romford and the shock tie with Oxford will not have pleased the Chieftains coach as he gets to grip with the ENL.
Invicta had a troubled build up to their double header weekend as they revealed that influential defenseman Anthony Lennon has a major injury that could rule him out for six weeks. Meanwhile, forward Mike Timms went under the knife to treat a knee injury, Tim Smith is still absent and Zach Sullivan was confirmed as leaving for Slough in a bad week for the Kent club.
On the plus side, the Mo’s finally announced a permanent back-up goalie in the form of former Lee Valley junior Lee Freeman, who has recently been playing for the Medway Madness recreational side.
Pool king Fisher with Graham Goodman
The city of Milton Keynes was hit by a hammer blow when it was revealed that the “Skate with the ‘Only Way is Essex’ stars” event planned at the Thunderdome had been postponed.
The event involving ‘Arg’ and Mark Wright from the popular TV show along with fellow reality TV star Jeff Brazier was canned with no explanation other than a small sticker over the poster in the rink that helpfully announced ‘postponed’.
Just when the good people of MK thought things could not get any worse, it was revealed that MK Thunder import Pavol Valko had flown back to Slovakia leaving Coach Simon Howard looking for a replacement.
It is times like this that a city or a country looks for a lift, and just as Prince William and Kate Middleton lifted the nations gloom amidst an economic crisis a few months ago, former Thunder enforcer Mike Lucas popped the question to his girlfriend Becca Davies and put everybody’s emotions back on an upwards turn.
Streatham announced on their website that the club had added an extra training session during the week in a bid to improve the team’s form. I think most player’s welcome additional ice and all of the sessions last week were well attended.
Whilst taking part in a shooting drill on Thursday I looked down and to my surprise saw a puck with ‘Say No to Drugs’ printed on one side. On closer inspection it appeared to also have a Sheffield Steelers badge on the side, and it did make me wonder how the puck had travelled 200 miles from South Yorkshire to South London, and whether they were trying to tell us something.
Speaking about much travelled pucks, it was always a pleasure as a junior in Durham to practice with fresh pucks at the start of the season. This always seemed to correlate with anytime one of the club’s junior teams made the Wembley finals weekend the previous season. Only Durham could start a Wembley warm up with thirty pucks and leave only two or three remaining at the end as the majority magically disappeared. Bloody Northerners!
Chin burn Feeney
Bristol Pitbulls Supporters club celebrated their teams four point weekend last time out by hosting a Pool Competition at the local Rileys snooker club on Friday night.
This event gave fans the chance to take on the players at pool and although most enjoyed it, Pitbulls winger Sam Feeney took things a little too seriously and ended up with a friction burn on his chin from his pool cue after trying to impersonate Ronnie O’Sullivan with whirlwind breaks.
Winning the competition with 17 straight victories was forward Steve Fisher who clearly has spent his formative years in one too many pubs.
Saturday
With Wales still in party mode following their rugby team advancing to the semi-finals of the world cup earlier in the day, the short benched visiting Invicta Dynamos were unable to dampen the jubilant spirit in Cardiff.
There is little love lost between these two teams and the ENL Devils showed no mercy on their rivals as they thumped them 8-3 with Jamie Hayes notching an impressive five goals. Adam Harding hit two and Luke Piggott got the other goals for the Devils in a no doubt satisfying night for the home side.
Fists flew midway through the game as former Devil turned Dynamo Corey Watkins dropped them with Phil Manny and then Grant Baxter did the same with Devils defenseman Gareth Dixon. With only three defenseman icing for the visitors, it is fair to say the only Dynamo who would have been able to help the Kent side keep out the Devils potent attack would have been the celebrity magician of the same name.
Romford fans hit island (Nicky Craft)
Slough ENL Jets hosted Chelmsford Chieftains at Absolute Ice but could do little to stop the Essex side walking off with a comfortable 8-2 win. Ross Brears hit a hat trick for the Chieftains with Alan Green, Danny Hammond, Dwayne Newman, Tom Long and Alex Staples also getting a goal each.
This was reportedly Staples’ first ever senior goal so well done that man. Callum Best and Sam Godfrey got the goals for the ENL Jets.
To continue the fighting theme of the evening across the league, Jets forward Jamie McIlroy had a scrap with Chieftains centre Michael Ranby to liven up the crowd.
Bracknell Hornets celebrated their first win of the season as they despatched the visiting Bristol Pitbulls 6-5 in a tight game that could have swung either way. Despite leading 4-2 at one stage, the Pitbulls collapsed and the Hornets took advantage.
Danny Hughes hit a hat trick for Bracknell with Alan Lack scoring two and Tom Carroll getting the other. Steve Fisher got two for Bristol with Sam ‘The Chin’ Feeney, Henrik Sahlin and Yousif Abu-Saada getting a goal each.
Aside from his goals the combative Lack was involved in a scrap as he dropped the gloves with Richie Hargreaves after the Pitbulls’ player coach took exception to a clumsy hit on Daniel Mann.
Cardiff joy (Tim Bowers)
Another two sides who are developing a rather aggressive edge to their encounters are the Wightlink and Romford Raiders. In a South East Cup game it was the Romford version of the Raiders that came out on top with a 6-4 victory in front of their merry band of followers.
Juraj Huska hit four goals for Romford with Danny Marshall and Andrius Kaminskas getting the others. Arran Strawson scored two for Wightlink with Joe Rand and Richard Facey also getting on the scoresheet.
Wightlink Player Coach Jeremy Cornish and Romford’s JJ McGrath resumed relations following last season’s punch up in Romford with another bout and then Steve Gossett and Tom Davis added to the entertainment with a ruck of their own.
With so much fighting going on all over the league on Saturday maybe someone filled the team water bottles with Stella Artois instead of H20.
Sunday
Invicta must have been nervous ahead of their trip to Bristol on Sunday and at 2-0 down after the first period, the Mo’s fans that made the journey must have feared the worst. Spirits were soon lifted in the Invicta camp though as they mounted a comeback to win 8-3 thanks to a fair few power plays as referee Anthony Decaux dished out so many penalty minutes to the home side, an extra game sheet was needed.
Lack v Hargreaves (flyfifer.co.uk)
Richard Bentham had a great game scoring four goals, with Justin Noble, Andy Smith, Ryan Giles and Robbie Brown getting the others. Egidijus Bauba, Henrik Sahlin and Steve Osman got the goals for the Pitbulls, who also saw Alan Armour ejected on a game misconduct and player coach Richie Hargreaves also given a match penalty for abuse of official.
Streatham hosted the Wightlink Raiders hoping to gain revenge for the 14-0 defeat on the island a few weeks ago. Despite a solid start by the Redskins, Wightlink had a great second period and pulled away, helped by some suspect defending and a match penalty to Redskins import Tomas Valko whose high stick cut Raiders defenseman Dominic Hopkins.
Joe Rand and Richard Facey got a brace each for the Raiders with Kieran Annis, Damon Larter and Jeremy Cornish also getting on the score sheet. Redskins’ scorers were Chris Rasmussen, Peter Molnar and Stevie Balmer.
With high flying Chelmsford coming to town the last thing Oxford needed was goalie Chris Douglas unavailable, and the 7-2 victory for the Chieftains was not entirely unexpected.
Danny Hammond hit four for Chelmsford with Gary Clarke, Tom Long and Ross Brears getting the others. Good news for Oxford in the form of Cameron Birrell getting his first goal for the club and Josh Florey also getting a goal. Stand in goalie Patrick Russell had a solid game in place of Douglas and earned the man of the match award for his troubles.
Mayor still smiles
Milton Keynes Thunder despatched Slough ENL Jets at the Thunderdome in a close encounter that ended 6-5 in the Thunder’s favour. Jamie Randall, Joe Edwards and Connor Goode all got two for the Thunder although the game sheet gave one of Connor’s efforts to his brother Harrison which always goes down well between siblings.
Andrew Melachrino continued his good form with two goals for the ENL Jets with Jamie McIlroy, Callum Best and Stuart Mogg getting one each.
In the final game of the day, top played bottom as Romford Raiders hosted Bracknell Hornets at Rom Valley Way.
Despite a good display from Mark Petch in goal for the Hornets, it was the Raiders that took the two points thanks to a convincing 7-2 win. Andrius Kaminskas scored two for the Raiders with Anthony Leone, Danny Marshall, Billy Phillips, Tom Davis and AJ Smith getting the others. Alan Lack continued his form from the previous night with both goals for the Hornets.
The weekend results leaves Chelmsford and Romford flying high at the top of the table and begs the question of whether two of last year’s big four namely Wightlink and Invicta can catch up with them even at this early stage.
There is still a lot of hockey to be played though and you can read all about it here at Prohockeynews.com
Results
Saturday 8 October 2011
Bracknell Hornets 6 Bristol Pitbulls 5
Cardiff Devils 8 Invicta Dynamos 3
Slough Jets 2 Chelmsford Chieftains 8
Wightlink Raiders 4 Romford Raiders 6 (South East Cup)
Sunday 9 October 2011
Romford Raiders 7 Bracknell Hornets 2
Bristol Pitbulls 3 Invicta Dynamos 8
Oxford City Stars 2 Chelmsford Chieftains 8
Milton Keynes Thunder 6 Slough Jets 5
Streatham Redskins 3 Wightlink Raiders 7
Contact the author david.carr@prohockeynews.com
