LANCASHIRE, UK – League champions Sheffield Steeldogs progressed to the semi-finals of the Moralee D1 play-offs after recording a 13-6 aggregate success against Billingham Stars.
Sheffield won 4-3 on the road and completed the job with a 9-3 victory on home ice.
Hull Pirates are through to the last four after winning 12-1 at home to Blackburn Hawks. Sunday’s second leg was cancelled as Hull were unable to travel due to adverse weather conditions.
Telford Tigers booked their semi-final place with a 5-2 victory at Whitley Warriors. The second leg of this tie was also cancelled as Whitley could not make the journey to Shropshire.
Solihull Barons complete the semi-final line-up, but they were pushed all the way by Solway Sharks.
The two sides fought out a 4-4 draw in Dumfries, but Solihull secured a 5-3 win in the reverse fixture to complete a 9-7 aggregate victory.
Altrincham Aces kept their faint hopes of qualifying for the Laidler D2 play-offs alive with a 4-3 overtime victory over Widnes Wild – Joe Greaves grabbed the winning goal.
Sheffield Senators beat Sutton Sting 7-5, while Blackburn Hawks 2 lost 9-1 at home to Coventry Blaze NIHL and 5-2 at Deeside Dragons 2.
PHN’s top two talking points
Criticism of postponement decisions unfair
The cancellation of two second leg ties in the D1 play-offs sparked a predictable social media meltdown – the majority of which was wholly unjustified and, in certain cases, pretty unsavoury.
Hull and Whitley were unable to travel to Blackburn and Telford respectively and the decision by the EIHA’s League Management Committee (LMC) to determine the ties on the first leg results only wasn’t met well.
The phrase that many people seemed to miss in the press release announcing the decision was the key to the whole debate:
“Evidence has also been presented regarding the status of players and their ability to get out of their home locations to connect with onward coach travel to the game”.
It’s naïve to think that this ‘evidence’ would have simply been a piece of paper with the words ‘it’s a bit snowy here’ scrawled on it.
Suggestions that clubs should travel when it may be unsafe to do so or face draconian punishments are ridiculous.
Whitley’s decision not to travel obviously cost them the chance of performing an unlikely second leg comeback, but the outcry over the Blackburn versus Hull game was barmy in the extreme.
Hull had racked up an 11 goal advantage in the first leg. Many of their players live in areas where it wasn’t safe to try and travel to meet the coach. Forcing them to do so in order to fuel the need to extract money out of fans for a dead rubber is a ludicrous suggestion.
When you factor in that Hull had also lost revenue from a league game a few weeks ago after Blackburn refused to travel in midweek – as allowed for by the rules and perfectly correct when players work during the day – the situation balances itself out.
The LMC don’t always get things right – on this occasion they did.
Fixtures overload needs a rethink
There were always likely to be teething problems when the EPL clubs joined the NIHL and it’s fair to say that the demand by some organisations for an excessive amount of fixtures has caused issues.
The league, two cup competitions, regional play-offs and a play-off finals weekend is simply too much for a largely amateur set-up.
Whether the ex-EPL clubs and fans like it or not, the NIHL is not a semi-professional league. It may have a handful of players and coaches in it that are semi-pro, but the league is amateur in status.
Dropping the Autumn Cup would leave a maximum 58 game season for clubs to be fit into 34 weekends between April and September.
That amount is plenty enough and would ensure that some clubs aren’t gaining an unfair advantage by increasing their income through unnecessary extra fixtures. It would also ensure there is sufficient breathing space in the schedule should any games need rearranging.
If that reduction doesn’t work for certain clubs due to the way their business model is structured, then cut your cloth accordingly for the level of league you now play in.
Last summer saw a mad rush to get everything organised in a short space of time after it became clear that the EPL was no longer sustainable.
That shouldn’t need to be the case this time around.
WEEKEND RESULTS
Moralee D1
Billingham Stars 3-4 Sheffield Steeldogs
Sheffield Steeldogs 9-3 Billingham Stars (agg 13-6)
Hull Pirates 12-1 Blackburn Hawks
Blackburn Hawks P-P Hull Pirates (agg 1-12)
Solway Sharks 4-4 Solihull Barons
Solihull Barons 5-3 Solway Sharks (agg 9-7)
Whitley Warriors 2-5 Telford Tigers
Telford Tigers P-P Whitley Warriors (agg 5-2)
Laidler D2
Altrincham Aces 4-3 Widnes Wild (OT)
Deeside Dragons 2 5-2 Blackburn Hawks 2
Blackburn Hawks 2 1-9 Coventry Blaze NIHL
Sheffield Senators 7-5 Sutton Sting
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