LONDON, UK – After a glut of festive fixtures the Britton Conference had somewhat of a serene feel about it, as some players enjoyed a rare break from puck whacking action.
Wildcats v Raiders (Kat Medcroft)
During the week, the GB under 18 team unveiled some Britton Conference representation as Coach Jeff Hutchins named his squad for the upcoming World Championship in Tallinn, Estonia.
Repping the league are Cardiff goalie Lewis Davies who has faced 315 shots in just 12 games so far this season, London Raiders blue liner Callum Burnett and Swindon d-man Joe Hazeldine. Tallinn is of course a jewel of the Baltic and the u18’s will likely play at the excellent 27 million Euro Tondiraba Ice Hall complex, a venue that has an excellent café with reasonably priced fayre.
The tournament takes place in the first week of April meaning that those involved will miss both the Play-Off final weekend and the Coventry Nationals weekend.
There was controversy in Peterborough as they were effectively knocked out of the Cup after failing to agree a date with Hull Pirates for their outstanding group fixture. Both teams were apportioned blame equally by the EIHA statement (below) and the game declared with zero points awarded.
“The League Management Committee (LMC) have reviewed this at regular intervals during the season, to attempt to resolve this matter over the previous five months. In that time, no proposals considered to be realistic and credible to resolve this issue have been presented from the clubs to the LMC. Attempts from the LMC to facilitate this game have regrettably failed.”
The Phantoms announced that they would appeal the decision and we all wait to see what the governing body decides to do, but as Hull have already played their quarter final match and time is ticking, the odds on the Phantoms getting a reprieve appear to be slim.
Post 2 Post rinse the NIHL logos in style
Milton Keynes Thunder Coach Lewis Clifford addressed a five game losing streak as he picked up Cardiff Fire forward Michael Stratford. The transfer was an obvious blow to the bottom placed Welsh club of whom Stratford was the top goal scorer with eight so far. Prior to the weekend no other Fire player had scored more than two goals which shows the impact of his loss.
“I’ve never ruled out making additions to the squad,” Clifford said in the official Thunder press release. “However, for me it had to tick all the boxes to make it worthwhile; and when I found out Michael was available it certainly did tick them.”
You Tube channel ‘Post 2 Post’ ranked the logos of NIHL teams in hilarious style. The presenters amusingly struggled to pronounce either Invicta or Streatham, interpreted the centre of the Peterborough Phantoms logo as looking like a chicken burger and identified the MK Thunder logo as a lampshade. In a bizarre twist one of the presenters sported a Paisley Pirates jersey who along with Scottish neighbours Dumfries Border Vikings were responsible for some of the most eye bleeding shirt designs of the 1990’s.
The whole show was brilliant but reminiscent of lost American tourists in London raising eyebrows asking for directions to ‘Glokester’ Road and ‘Liesester’ Square. For those curious, the Deeside Dragons won the number 1 logo award and somehow Hull Pirates abomination featuring what looks like a drug riddled alien with a bandana on, made it into the top five – we remain baffled by these rankings here at Pro Hockey News London HQ and never want these guys to choose our office carpet.
Thursday action review
Fans of Bracknell Bees and Telford Tigers went through an emotional rollercoaster similar to what Hawaiians would encounter a couple of days later as they were informed by the rink that the café would be closed for the midweek cup clash due to technical issues. Horror soon turned to joy with the news that a pop up café serving ‘Bad Boy Hot Dogs’ would be set up in its place. For the Hawaiians their realisation of not being under immediate threat from a ballistic missile brought equal relief. Do they put pineapple on pizza over there? No one seems to know for sure.
A happy Swindon fan
The Group D Cup clash ended in a 6-2 win for the Tigers with Jason Silverthorn scoring a brace to add to goals from Rick Plant, Jack Watkins, Scott McKenzie and Corey Goodison. For the Bees it was Danny Ingoldsby with both goals on a night to forget that also saw Josh Martin ejected with four minutes left in the game.
In Swindon, the Peterborough Phantoms aimed to draw first blood in the 1st leg of the Autumn Cup semi-final (yes it’s still going on).
The game ended in a 3-3 tie with Chris Jones, Aaron Nell and Floyd Taylor on target for the Wildcats and Nathan Salem, Owen Griffiths and Darius Pliskauskas scoring for the Phantoms.
Saturday action review
With Bracknell, Peterborough and Basingstoke players enjoying a rare weekend off (skiing holiday anyone?), the reduced fixture list saw Swindon play yet another game, this time hosting London Raiders in the Quarter Final of the Cup. On paper this looked like it would be a close game, however a surprising 8-0 blow-out in favour of the Wildcats made the second leg almost irrelevant.
Thunder win in Cardiff (Lucy McGill)
Chris Jones bagged a hat trick for Swindon to add to goals from Edgars Bebris, Max Birbraer, Toms Rutkis, Aaron Nell and Sam Bullas. Goalie Renny Marr secured a 22 shot shut out between the Swindon pipes.
MK Thunder goalie Tom Annetts also enjoyed a shut out as his side overcame a slow start to beat Cardiff Fire 3-0 in Wales. Grant McPherson, Harrison Goode and Gareth O’Flaherty were on target for the Thunder who survived a late 5 on 3 shorthanded play at 1-0 up before extending their lead in the closing stages.
Sunday action review
Swindon finished off London Raiders at Lee Valley with a 6-2 road win. Aaron Nell and Jan Kostal both scored a brace for the Wildcats with Max Birbraer and Sam Bullas also on target. For London it was Tom Davis and JJ Pitchley with the goals, whilst defenseman Julian Smith celebrated his 200th appearance in gold and blue.
Plant on target for Tigers (Kat Medcroft)
Streatham and Telford faced each other for the first time since 1989 in the 1st leg of the Cup Quarter Final in South London. The Tigers came away with a handy three goal advantage in a game they were clinical in. The 5-2 win came thanks to goals from Filip Supa, Rick Plant, Jason Silverthorn, Brodie Jesson and Jonathan Weaver. For Streatham Aidan Doughty and Ryan Webb scored the goals. The second leg takes place next Saturday in Telford.
Regular readers will now wonder why we have not given an update on the 482 days media team. The truth is that at the time of writing they’ve tweeted only twice in the past 11 hours which may be a record for them on a weekend. Has the electricity bill not been paid? Have they spilled red wine on their laptop or were they (as sources suggest) on the run after messing around with an alert system linked to software the EIHA and a mystery third party use?
Results
Thursday 11 January 2018
Telford Tigers 6 Bracknell Bees 2 (Cup)
Swindon Wildcats 3 Peterborough Phantoms 3 (Autumn Cup)
Saturday 13 January 2018
Cardiff Fire 0 MK Thunder 3
Swindon Wildcats 8 London Raiders 0 (Cup Qtr Final leg 1)
Sunday 14 January 2018
London Raiders 2 Swindon Wildcats 6 (Cup Qtr Final leg 2) Swindon qualify for semis
Streatham IHC 2 Telford Tigers 5 (Cup Qtr Final leg 1)
Contact the author: david.carr@prohockeynews.com
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