LONDON, UK – The news wasn’t as slow as the previous week in NIHL South but with deadline day done and dusted, things were still settling down for the business end of the season.
The Hovercraft leaves in 40 minutes.. so leave Smith alone
The Isle of Wight County Press picked up on rumours that began on The Hockey Forum last week, regarding the future of Ryde Arena.
The speculation comes from the fact that Mike Petrouis, chief executive of Planet Ice is scheduled to meet all staff at the rink this coming Tuesday.
The building’s freehold is owned by the Isle of Wight Council but leased to a third party, believed to be part of the Planet Ice group.
Planet Ice were also in the news as they announced the opening of the newly refurbished Hemel Hempstead rink on 20th February. The rink previously was shaped like a figure eight with a DJ Booth in the middle alongside a strange igloo type structure and the good news is that these have been removed.
Hemel rink with girders made in Scotland
Sadly for hockey fans and players, they have been replaced by metal poles across the ice. If the health and safety guys can be appeased then the rink would be perfect for ‘heads-up’ hockey training. If anyone needs a job, the rink are hiring now.
Invicta Dynamos Coach Kevin Parrish has made for interesting listening this season with his lengthy and honest interviews for Kent Sports News, but the Mo’s supremo’s mood has soured recently and he kept his press commitments short and not too sweet this week.
“There’s no more time for talking, it’s a time for doing” said Parrish, staying true to his word.
Interestingly, one of his ex-players made a return to the ice albeit in the under 18 league as Charlie Phillips was confirmed as signing with Chelmsford’s junior outfit ahead of their crunch clash with the Okanagan Hockey Academy.
Both teams were unbeaten going into the game along with +100 goal differences despite only playing 12 or so games. Let’s hope none of their forwards have parents that offer cash for every goal scored… an arrangement that has always been rather bizarre and expensive when you have some teams shipping over 30 goals a game.
Bracknell Hornet’s Twitter account joined many across the league in hyping up the fact that Valentine’s Day coincided with fixtures on Saturday.
Pro Hockey News is not shy of throwing in the odd East London stereotype when discussing the London Raiders, and Bracknell followed suit referencing pie and mash and throwing in an image of the Union Jack.
Fifty Shades of Russ Stevens vest
Talking about pie, the Streatham Redskins Twitter highlighted ‘Fifty Shades of Streatham’ publishing 50 iconic pictures of Streatham hockey from the last decade or so. The most popular was of course the image of the semi naked Redskins training in the old rink in 2011.
Most hockey fans have watched the Red Bull Crashed ice competitions on YouTube over recent years with the most famous event held in Quebec City, Canada.
Thankfully it has finally made its way to the UK as Belfast announced it would be staging the downhill extreme outdoor ice skating event outside its parliament buildings next weekend.
No doubt most hockey players would love a chance to skate on the course and NIHL South’s resident Belfast boys Stevie Balmer and Robbie Brown are sadly not involved this time, with a 40,000 strong crowd expected.
If the NIHL were to send some reps to race then there would surely be no better choices than the two rapid forwards Jamie Line and Joe Allen. If anyone knows of two quicker players in the league feel free to email us some suggestions.
Ranson unpopular ? (John Scott)
London Raiders forward Jacob Ranson has been enjoying his time on the top line recently and he reflected on his side’s impressive win in Streatham the weekend prior in his regular blog in the Romford Recorder.
“It was great for me to get on the scoreboard again as I feel I’ve been working hard all season and getting a lack of points which is now turning round with them starting to come in most games” said the youngster who scored in the 4-2 victory.
“I’m kind of glad the series against Streatham is over now as they all seem to hate me, most likely because I’m annoying on the ice I guess”
If Ranson feels a little unloved then he can console himself that former Redskins forward Jamie McIlroy is no longer icing and is now restricted to sending abuse via Twitter rather than on the ice. Only the ‘NIHL News’ handle gets near the levels of offense delivered daily by @Mcilroy81
On to some sad news and we would like to wish Haringey Racers owner Dave Richards a speedy recovery after he was stabbed five times last week in a Hertfordshire street. The chirpy cockney was in hospital at time of writing and we hope he recovers soon.
He joins Streatham’s Louis Lockwood as a victim of knife crime and thankfully these incidents are rare.
One other player who was opened up by a knife was Chelmsford’s Grant Bartlett who underwent surgery on his leg. Bartlett has been out of action for a number of months, making himself useful on the bench alongside Coach Dwayne Newman, so we wish him a speedy recovery also.
Saturday
With the respective partners of NIHL players and coaching staff seething at the lack of a romantic dinner, hockey went ahead as scheduled and there was much rejoicing.
Steve Price announces the first round is on him at the Balcony (Nicky Craft)
Nowhere screams romance more than the Isle of Love/Wight in February, and whilst the Balcony nightclub next door to the rink warmed up for an evening of snogging, dancing and fondling, the local hockey team did their best to put everyone into a loving mood.
The home fans were certainly left with a warm fuzzy feeling in their stomachs as Wightlink beat Chelmsford 4-0 to bounce back after last week’s loss against Streatham.
Craig Tribe scored a hat trick for the Raiders with Richard Facey also lighting the lamp.
Matt Colclough earned an impressive 32 shot shut out to give the officials a tough choice for the man of the match award.
Oxford City Stars were in desperate need of a win to pull away from Cardiff at the bottom, so who better to visit than the recently shaken Invicta Dynamos.
Thankfully for the travelling support the Mo’s bounced back from last weekend’s woes thanks in main to a hat trick from Juraj Huska. The visitors other goals came from Nicky Lewis, Anthony Leone and Andy Smith.
Yie Ar Kung Fu in Oxford (Paul Foster)
Oxford scorers were Evan Mackintosh, Zsolt Mastaleriu and James Pentecost.
To add to the bad news for Oxford, Mackintosh was ejected in the third period after getting his second misconduct of the night from referee Boardman.
MK Thunder did the Stars a favour however as they beat Cardiff 5-1 in the Big Blue Tent.
A 3-0 opening period set the tone for the Thunder as they took both points courtesy of a brace from Jamie Line and lone goals from Alex Whyte, Piotr Poziomkowski and Tom Mboya.
Josh Haslam got the consolation for Cardiff who were frustrated time and time again by Damien King in the Thunder net.
Solent Devils travelled short benched to Streatham and paid the price as they ran out of steam in a 7-3 loss.
Never bring a selfie stick near Lockwood
A hat trick from Callum Best and goals from Steven Fisher, Robbie Brown, Louis Lockwood and Adam Wood sealed the win for Streatham, whilst Ralfs Circenis grabbed a brace for Solent to add to a lone goal from Alex Sampford.
The game must have been one of the quickest on record with very few stoppages and the player’s spouses no doubt happy to see their loved ones return earlier than expected.
London Raiders are on a roll at the minute but Bracknell Hornets managed to dent their good form with a 4-3 win in Lee Valley.
Former Raider JJ Pitchley popped up with two goals for the visitors to add to a brace from Danny Hughes.
Jakub Kostalansky, Alan Lack and Grant Taylor scored for the Raiders, who pulled Chris Douglas in the final 30 seconds to try and salvage a point.
For anyone interested in the OHA v Chelmsford under 18 score, the Swindon based academy won 5-2.
Sunday
Chelmsford avenged their defeats to Streatham a couple of weeks ago with a solid 6-2 win at the Riverside.
The Redskins made a fight of it but a brace each from Martin Piecha and Cameron Bartlett added to goals from Darren Brown and Danny Hammond to seal two points for the Chieftains and end their weekend on a high.
Brace for Piecha
Steven Fisher and Callum Best scored for the Redskins who were missing Czech import Jakub Klima for this game.
Wightlink completed an impressive four point weekend by dispatching Solent Devils 7-3 on the road.
The busiest men on the ice were Solent goalie Chico Cole and his opposite number Matt Colclough who faced 52 and 61 shots respectively over the course of sixty minutes.
Four goals in the last ten minutes did the business for the Raiders, with Richard Facey scoring two goals to add to efforts from Owen Griffiths, Stevie Balmer, Craig Tribe, Jaroslav Cesky and Nick Compton.
Steve Gosset, Andrew Magee and Drew Campbell netted for the Devils.
Four point weekend for Parrish
One piece of bad news for the Raiders was the ejection of Cesky on a spearing call that may call into doubt his appearance in the Raiders upcoming cup semi-final against Invicta.
The final game of the night took place in Milton Keynes as the Thunder hosted Invicta Dynamos.
The Mo’s kept up the pressure on Chelmsford at the top with a 3-2 road win thanks to a brace from Mr Reliable Andy Smith. The other goal came from Juraj Huska and this means they are now level on points with the Chieftains at the top of the table.
Thunder scorers were Piotr Poziomkowski and Harrison Goode.
Next week Invicta host Streatham, Wightlink take on London, MK face Solent and then Oxford get the chance to pick up two points down on the South Coast the following day.
Saturday 14th February 2015
Cardiff Devils 1-5 MK Thunder
Oxford City Stars 3-6 Invicta Dynamos
Streatham Redskins 7-3 Solent Devils
Wightlink Raiders 4-0 Chelmsford Chieftains
London Raiders 3-4 Bracknell Hornets
Sunday 15th February 2015
Solent Devils 3-7 Wightlink Raiders
Chelmsford Chieftains 6-2 Streatham Redskins
MK Thunder 2-3 Invicta Dynamos
Contact the author david.carr@prohockeynews.com
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