LONDON, UK – With fireworks lighting up the sky outside most ice rinks in the UK, all eyes turned inside to see if the NIHL could create some of their own.
MK schedule their team photo too early without the Cup (Claire Stanton)
The clubs and the EIHA spent the week working out ways to minimise the financial damage caused by the reduction in fixtures following the demise of Wightlink Raiders.
In a brilliant example of collaboration the remainder of the season was congested into fewer weeks thanks to some nifty rescheduling. The season will now end seven days earlier than planned which is good news for everyone, especially the spouses of the players, who are no doubt wasting no time browsing Expedia and Secret Escapes for an earlier post-season getaway.
All smiles of course until they notice that the previous mid-season free weekend has been replaced by a double header. Cancel that trip to Winter Wonderland lady, it’s now Solent away on a Saturday night before Christmas.
Streatham managed to get stateside recognition for their RedHawks warm up jersey launch as The Hockey News covered the event.
Colclough models the jerseys
The article was the only non-NHL piece on their homepage and featured a thumbnail of Chris Cooke, Sean Scarbrough, Joe Johnston and Will Sanderson alongside Nashville Predators goalie Pekka Rine, Washington Capitals star Alexander Ovechkin and Dallas Stars forward Ales Hemsky. A gallery unlikely to be repeated on the same webpage.
One other gallery that raised excitement levels was the Invicta Dynamos headshot collage released by the club.
Kent Police were especially delighted as it gave them a great resource if they ever need any innocent parties to form part of a line-up.
Invicta’s impressive media machine also published numerous player interviews with one featuring Ondrej Zosiak and Adam Rehak plus highlights of their win over Chelmsford. Click here to watch it.
Mo photos Mo problems (David Trevallion)
Oxford City Stars finally lost patience with the local council over the ludicrously high car parking charges outside the rink on match days.
Car parking in Oxford is like getting the bill for a meal in a normal looking café in Switzerland. You only ordered a lasagne and a Cola light but the bill is £25! It’s the same chill you experience when putting your money in the meter at Oxford and it just keeps asking for more, while you die slowly inside.
The Stars managed to secure the front page of the Oxford Mail with their complaint which is certainly no mean feat. For the time being the interim measure is parking across the road in a college for a £5 flat fee.
Milton Keynes Thunder boosted their roster as they snapped up Oxford’s ‘spare’ import Boris Ruzicka. The 28 year old Slovakian blue liner should be a good pick up for a Thunder side needing a little support in defence.
Ruzicka joins long haired Czech sniper Jakub Klima and veteran Canadian and Taco expert Nick Poole as the Thunders import quota.
The 2015/2016 NIHL South 1/2 and NIHL North Moralee and Laidler Conference Review book came out recently and features reviews of all the teams plus a few interesting interviews with respected official Dave Cloutman and former player Pete Murray.
Ideal for reading on the Tube, on the toilet or if you like… in bed. Check it out online and order one in time for Christmas.
Saturday action review
In future generations children will ask, just what was the BBO Cup? We still don’t know what the acronym stands for. Will it go the way of the Benson and Hedges Cup, the Autumn Cup and the Findus Cup or will it blossom and become the premier NIHL competition of the future?
Cox celebrates (Paul Foster)
The last weekend of the competition started with Oxford hosting Bracknell in a late face off at Oxpens Road with the rumour mill suggesting recently released Stars import Ondrej Pekarik would come back to haunt his old club in a Hornets jersey.
It didn’t happen, and Oxford won a thrilling contest 5-4 in front of a noisy home crowd.
Alan Green hit a late winner for the Stars to add to two goals from Josh Florey and one each from Jake Florey and Darren Elliott.
Ben Ealey Newman scored against his old club for Bracknell with Kamil Kinkor, Ryan Handisides and Danny Hughes adding one each.
The game was covered by Oxfordshire Sports Online andn you can listen back to the commentary by clicking here.
Sunday action review
There were fireworks at the Thunderdome as the Milton Keynes Thunder lifted the BBO Cup in style with an impressive 7-4 home win over Oxford City Stars.
Jakub Klima and Ross Bowers top scored with a brace each to add to lone goals from Alex Whyte, Jamie Line and Ryan Coffey.
Boris Ruzicka didn’t line up against his old club, whose goals came from Jaroslav Cesky with two and one each for Andy Cox and Mike Whillock.
Bowers snipes again (Claire Stanton)
Cesky also had a penalty shot saved by in-form Thunder goalie David Wride.
Sadly there was no trophy presentation for the Thunder who will hopefully receive it next week once it is removed from its Hatton Garden vault.
The 482 Days ‘Game of the Day’ took place in Chelmsford as the Chieftains took on Streatham IHC in an intriguing match-up.
The 482 days media team then announced there would be no live tweeting from the game which led to a number of rumours, one of which was that they were laying low after setting off industrial fireworks after 11pm the previous night outside their Oxfordshire HQ and had upset the local authorities.
The game turned out to be a great advert for the league with fast paced hockey and a close scoreline that saw Chelmsford edge out the Londoners 2-1.
Darren Brown, fresh from a broken skate appeal earlier in the week, repaid the fans with an excellent goal and then Liam Chong added the other. Sean Scarbrough scored for Streatham with both goalies Matt Colclough and Ben Clements putting in a masterclass of goaltending for their respective sides.
The result leaves Streatham with a big gap to make up on the league leaders after a poor start to the season despite recent improvements.
In the final game of the day Bracknell Hornets pushed Invicta hard in the early stages of their match at Silverblades before once again fading badly in the later stages and losing 7-1.
The impressive Adam Rehak scored a hat trick for the Mo’s with the returning Callum Fowler scoring two and both Mason Webster and Ashley Jackson also scoring.
Blaine sets his hopes high (Phil O’Neill Photography)
Ben Ealey Newman scored Bracknell’s consolation with new signing Sam Cheema ejected on a slashing call earlier in the game.
Invicta also had Mason Webster ejected on a checking to the head penalty.
Haydn Wootton and Harvey Hind-Pitcher dropped the gloves to add a further talking point.
In other news, veteran stripey Blaine Evans bought a 50/50 ticket. Sleep well dear readers.
The results leave Chelmsford ahead in the league with quite a gap opening up, whilst Milton Keynes enjoy their BBO trophy and order themselves a trophy cabinet for the Thunderdome.
Results
Saturday 5 November 2016
Oxford City Stars 5-4 Bracknell Hornets (BBO Cup)
Sunday 6 November 2016
Chelmsford Chieftains 2-1 Streatham IHC
Invicta Dynamos 7-1 Bracknell Hornets
MK Thunder 7-4 Oxford City Stars (BBO Cup)
Contact the author david.carr@prohockeynews.com
You must be logged in to post a comment.