LONDON, UK – The NIHL South recovered from its slow news week to deliver storms, rumours, goals and some DIY action.
Solent celebrate in Bracknell (Kev Slyfield)
Whether it’s an active back passage in an enclosed space such as a lift or a force nine gale blowing across the city, the fact is that nobody likes wind other than a dog with its head out the window of a moving car.
The Isle of Wight gets its fair share of the blustering menace at this time of year, but this week it did more serious damage than usual. After a recent appeal for funds to fix the roof, nature showed no patience to Ryde Arena and promptly blew part of it into the adjacent car park.
The news even made the Isle of Wight County Press, who reported it to be the most read article of the week.
“With the weather as it is, sections of the roof have been torn off and are landing in the car park below” said Mark Haslam, a Ryde Arena Trust director.
“The fire brigade have been out and they are not able to go on the roof and secure it because of the winds, so we have no choice but to let the roof go.”
“For a community project and keeping going, it is a disaster.”
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On a lighter note, the Arena announced that the rink would be open for public skating on Christmas day, which must be one of the few to open in the UK on the special day.
Nobody light a match please.. a lot of man made fibres
Great for kids who want to break a new pair of skates in from Santa, not so great for the parents who fancied staying indoors stuffing their faces and watching Bad Santa, Elf and National Lampoons Christmas Vacation all day.
Sticking with the Christmas theme, Chelmsford City Council held a big Christmas light switch on with a couple of celebrities and the Chieftains mascot Frizzy Bear in attendance.
Obviously defenceman Danny Wright and the rest of the Chieftains were unavailable as were other Chelmsford born celebrities Sarah Cracknell and Greg Halford. Wooing the crowd instead were Heart FM DJs Martin and Su (no it’s not a typo) and Hollie Barre who appeared on The Voice on BBC.
Many hockey players across the UK have questioned why the locker rooms they have to get changed in are as appealing as a trip to the local GUM clinic after a three day bender in Magaluf, but it’s fair to say that very few actually do anything about it.
The Oxford boys get tooled up .. proppa norty
Step forward the Oxford City Stars whose players decided to make use of some time that came available thanks to a cancelled training session, by heading down to Oxpens Roads with some tools and fixing their area up.
Anyone who has played at Oxford will know that the changing areas are very narrow and have no hooks to hang up your clothes so they are far from ideal for anyone who dresses in anything better than a string vest and Lonsdale tracksuit.
The big question remains though… was it a home locker room refurb only, or did the Stars share the love to their opponents?
This wasn’t the only handy work going on around the league however as Invicta Dynamos forward Grant Baxter took a drill to the yellow kick board at Silverblades ice rink as part of a secret new tactical weapon that allows him to pretend to dump the puck , only for the yellow plastic to divert the puck back out into the ice at an angle straight back on to his blade.
Keep an eye out for that move on future episodes of Invicta Dynamos TV.
This is how you assist your own goal lads… Baxters cunning plan takes shape
Cardiff NIHL Devils have enjoyed a recent upsurge in form but that didn’t stop them losing two players to Cardiff Fire in the league below.
Forward Josh Haslam and utility player David Sadler both dropped down to the less strenuous fixture list of NIHL 2 with both giving respectful words to their former team before signing for the Fire coached by Mark Cuddihy.
Finally there was more bad news from Bracknell, after the EPL Bees side released a statement about their revised financial forecast following issues with the ice rink, jersey orders and season ticket sales amongst other things.
This news simply adds fuel to the fire of rumours that one of last season’s NIHL stars Callum Fowler is possibly making a return to Invicta Dynamos. Given he is currently fourth top scorer for the Bees at the time of writing it would be a shame for him to drop back down.
It also begs the question of where other Bees may head if player contracts are being amended. Lets hope the team can turn things round quickly.
Saturday’s Hockey
Wightlink Raiders began their weekend on the road with a hard fought 4-3 win at London Raiders.
A brace from Craig Tribe and lone goals from Jordan Gregory and Corey Watkins sealed the points for Wightlink, with a Michal Oravec double and a goal from Mason Webster the reply from London.
Tribe on target
Prior to this game London had won their previous three home fixtures on the bounce and Coach Alan Blyth even pulled Michael Gray for the final minute to salvage a point but to no avail.
Milton Keynes Thunder took an early lead at home to Chelmsford Chieftains in the bottom versus top clash, but the Essex side bounced back and ended up skating away with a comfortable 7-3 win.
Five goals from Juraj Huska propelled him to the top of the league scoring charts, with Matt Turner and Grant Bartlett scoring the other goals for the Chieftains.
Harrison Goode, Ryan Coffey and Josh Nicklin scored the goals for the Thunder.
Solent Devils had not won in four games prior to their visit to face a Bracknell Hornets side still buoyed by a home win over Streatham Redskins the previous week.
The Devils put all negative thoughts behind them in this encounter though and skated off with two points after a 4-1 win.
Mason Wild, Steve Gosset, Richard Brown and Alex Murray all scored for the Devils with Danny Hughes getting the consolation for the Hornets.
There were a few scraps as Harvey Hind-Pitcher and Alex Cole dropped the gloves and then Mitchell Murray and Brandon Miles followed amongst a backdrop of scuffles that saw both teams gathered together on the ice.
The melee is available online to view, thanks to possibly the first quickly available NIHL scrap not filmed in portrait on a mobile with someone shouting ‘F*ck him up” over and over repeatedly.
Stuart-Dant v Lee in Gillingham ( icyphotography.co.uk )
After a nervy 1-1 tie the previous time Invicta hosted Cardiff, it was a relief to the Dynamo crowd that the final game of the day had a little more action. Boosted by a kids for a quid promotion the Mo’s fans cheered their side to a 6-1 win thanks to a brace from Steven Osman and goals from Eriks Ozollapa, Joshua Condren, Bailey Wootton and Ondrej Zosiak.
Thomas Stuart-Dant scored for Cardiff and was also later involved in a fight with Invicta youngster Jack Lee.
Sunday Hockey
There have been a few exciting days of NIHL South hockey, but Sunday was up there with the best as far as close contests are concerned.
After ten consecutive competitive wins in a row on home ice so far this season, Chelmsford finally cracked against Invicta Dynamos.
Sadly for their rivals it was more a hairline fracture than a full break, but the Chieftains finally dropped a point as they tied 3-3.
Steven Osman was the hero with a late equaliser after the Mo’s had trailed 3-2 going into the final five minutes of the game. Eriks Ozollapa and Josh Condren were also on target with a goal each for the Dynamos.
Goals and birds.. the man with it all, Steven Osman
Matt France, Anthony Leone and Juraj Huska scored the goals for Chelmsford who remain three points clear at the top of the league and still in control at the summit.
Bottom club Milton Keynes Thunder faced Cardiff NIHL Devils in Wales looking to avoid a blank weekend and probably feared the worst at 4-3 down with 20 minutes to go.
A resurgent final period and five unanswered goals gave Paul Gore’s team an unlikely turnaround and 8-5 win and possibly a result that will kickstart their season, but in the short term made their journey home a little more pleasant.
Two each for Harrison Goode and Tom Mboya added to efforts from Ross Bowers, Jamie Line, Nidal Phillips and Josh Nicklin to move the Thunder just one point behind the Devils in the league.
Owen Bradshaw scored two for the Devils with Jon Nash, Tamas Elias and Joe Morris also hitting the net.
It was a low scoring affair at Oxpens Road as Oxford City Stars and Wightlink Raiders battled it out in front of an expectant home crowd boosted by recent wins over Invicta and Chelmsford
Wightlink led for much of the game thanks to a superb solo effort from Ryan Webb, but a late tilt between Jeremy Cornish and Shane Moore livened things up for the last five minutes of the game.
Oxford thought they had salvaged a point when Joe Edwards equalised with less than four minutes remaining, but Wightlink silenced the home crowd just two minutes later as Ryan Webb bagged his second of the game to take the points with a 2-1 win.
Thunder go from pain to pleasure (Claire Stanton)
The result marked an impressive four point road weekend for the Raiders who are now ramping up their form ahead of the Christmas and New Year period.
The topsy turvy nature of the weekend was summed up at Gosport Arena as London beat Solent 3-1 to move above the South Coast club and up to 6th.
Tom Davis was on target for the Raiders with two goals, one of which was an empty netter, whilst Michal Oravec scored the other to cap off a decent weekend for his stats.
Alex Murray scored the goal for Solent.
Results
Saturday 21st November 2015
Bracknell Hornets 1-4 Solent Devils
MK Thunder 3-7 Chelmsford Chieftains
Invicta Dynamos 6-1 Cardiff NIHL Devils
London Raiders 3-4 Wightlink Raiders
Sunday 22nd November 2015
Oxford City Stars 1-2 Wightlink Raiders
Chelmsford Chieftains 3-3 Invicta Dynamos
Solent Devils 1-3 London Raiders
Cardiff Devils 5-8 MK Thunder
Contact the author: david.carr@prohockeynews.com
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