Raiders disappointed with EIHA’s decision

ISLE OF WIGHT, UK – The Wightlink Raiders fans welcomed back playoff hockey onto the island after a long absence and the team responded with two of their best displays of the season. The head to head with the Cardiff ENL Devils kicked off on the island when the Raiders outclassed a lethargic Devils teams and were not flattered to come away as 7-5 winners. A hat- trick from player coach Jeremy Cornish was complemented by a double from Andy Robinson and counters from Kevin Tanner and Alex Murray .
The following evening the Raiders travelled to South Wales and ended the Devils unbeaten home record with a 4-1 victory despite being without the services of captain Danny Hughes who was stranded on the M4 after suffering a puncture. Goals from Damon Larter, James Udell, Kevin Tanner and Jeremy Cornish secured the win. Jeremy Cornish was given a 10 minute misconduct for ‘riding the pony’ in front of the Cardiff bench in revenge for a similar stunt performed by the Devils Alan Armour at the Ice Cube earlier in the season.
The Raiders found themselves in pole position in the playoff group with the Devils all but eliminated. Their joy however was to be short lived. The Raiders had called up youngster Richard Nembhard from the island’s second team the Wightlink Tigers. The Raiders management had requested clarification from the EIHA as to whether the player was eligible and had been given clearance in writing that this was the case. The Raiders then sought to verify this and were told again that it was ok to ice the player. However after Cardiff had been beaten at the Ice Cube, they lodged a complaint with the EIHA about the eligibility of the player. This complaint was upheld and the game was awarded initially as a 5-0 win to Cardiff but this was reduced to a 0-0 result with the 2 points going to Cardiff on appeal.
Geoff Underwood of the Raiders management team said. “Needless to say we are all more than just a little upset by this. I want to make this quite clear: This was NOT a Raiders error. The EIHA issued some new rules which included a statement that suggested that under 21s could play. It was not clear what this meant, so we questioned this and were told in writing (twice) that it would be OK to play our new guy, which we did. Following a complaint by Cardiff the EIHA decided to award them the 2 points but after protests by us, reduced the penalty from a 5-0 loss to a 0-0 loss. Unfortunately whilst the EIHA accepted our argument, they were unwilling to see it as an exceptional circumstance and a reasonable cause for infringement.”
He went on “I just want everyone to know that we did everything reasonable to ensure we were clear to play our player, and we did know and understand the rules prior to the EIHA change. If there was any doubt, there is no way we would have risked playing an illegal player at such an important time. We firmly believed that having it in writing from our governing body would be sufficient. This decision gifts 2 points to Cardiff, and is potentially damaging to the other team in our group as well as ourselves. In an amateur sport where fair play is meant to be an overriding principle this is a poor message to be giving our young players.”
This leaves the group wide open and the Raiders fans are rallying behind the management in their quest to get this decision overturned and also to ensure that there should be a bumper crowd in the Ice Cube for the next home game against the Chelmsford Chieftains. It is sad to see the ENL playoffs descend into farce as the outcome seems to be being decided by outside influences and not what everyone wants to see and that’s the games being decided on the ice. 
Contact the author Dave.Logan@Prohockeynews.com