LONDON, UK – It was Play-Off time in NIHL South as the season finale began in earnest.
Not an April Fools
The build-up during the week was dominated by Streatham’s decision to drop the Redskins moniker for the start of the 2016/17 season. What followed was an understandable mixture of support, ambivalence or disappointment from the clubs fanbase.
What wasn’t expected was the media coverage the decision would bring as Streatham were suddenly rolling news on Sky Sports News and appeared in the Daily Mirror, Daily Mail and Winnipeg Free Press plus a New Zealand media outlet at the time of writing.
With the Washington Redskins NFL team scheduled to appear at Wembley Stadium later this year, the story will probably roll and roll over the summer.
If Streatham were largely basking in positive publicity, Oxford City Stars found themselves thrust into the limelight for a slightly smaller issue, but nonetheless distracting.
Get your flags, get your flags.. only £1
Bumping up their adult ticket price to £12 for the Play-Off Quarter final went down like a lead balloon on Social Media with Oxford based fanzine 482 days leading the charge. In fairness to the club, they had allowed under 16’s to come in free to the game, but the pricing appeared to upset quite a few fans, as it was pointed out that this would be the most expensive ticket price ever in the NIHL.
On a brighter note, Oxford released a Play-Off flag priced at £1 for their fans, whilst Streatham offered up a 2016 Play-Offs branded pint glass as NIHL merchandise reached new levels of randomness.
The bad thing about Play Off merchandise is that it instantly becomes a bad memory if your team gets eliminated early. Monday morning was set to see an inferno of flags on fire in an Oxford park or broken glass of Annie Lennox proportions in South London.
Invicta Dynamos and Wightlink Raiders revealed promo video build ups ahead of their games to get fans in the mood and you can watch Invicta’s HERE and Wightlink’s HERE.
MK Thunder promised their fans transportation to Invicta in unique fashion by posting a picture of an overloaded bus in India and promising a trip to Kent for only £10. It’s hard to argue with that type of advertising and all it needed was a reminder of the delightful SMART motorway speed restrictions on the M1 and M25 to really make up any wavering fan’s mind on whether to go.
Thunder bus on tour
The 6TH Annual Pro Hockey News NIHL South Awards were announced on Friday night in a glitzy ceremony at the Maple Leaf in Covent Garden hosted by Vernon Kaye. The latter part of that sentence is a complete fabrication however the awards were announced online with Jamie Line winning the Player of the Year award and Simon Anderson confirmed as Coach of the Year.
Both All-Star teams were announced prompting debate from NIHL fans on forums and Social Media. You can view the award winners by clicking HERE
Also making waves on Friday was the annual Pro Hockey News April Fools story that somehow managed to genuinely fool a number of readers.
Heralding the opening of the ‘Ice House’ bar in London’s West End, some people genuinely believed that not only were the urinals made out of the old Streatham zamboni, but also that London legend Stormin Norm Pinnington had used one and lauded the memories the experience brought back!
In a prank that the more cautious amongst us may class as tempting fate, Invicta goalie Damien King continued his mission to give the Mo’s fans (and probably Coach Kev Parrish) heart attacks as he posted an image of a broken ankle x-ray on Twitter.
Wood bruised like a peach
Obviously a lot of people think April fool’s day pranks are pathetic, but we say they still are great fun, well most are.
The Elite League decided to run a spoof story on their latest franchise being opened on the Isle of Wight, which could have been good but ended up as amusing as a cloudy wet sub zero night on an Aurora Borealis tour of Northern Sweden.
Whilst the end of year awards maybe over, our bruise of the week competition isnt, so if you can do better than this effort from Streatham’s Adam Wood then email us.
Play-Offs Quarter Final match ups:
Streatham Redskins v Oxford City Stars
In a match-up between a team in red hot form and a team looking ragged, this match up turned out to be the closest of them all.
In the first leg Oxford had taken a 2-0 advantage thanks to a brace from Ondrej Pekarik in a game where neither side managed 30 shots on target.
The game in Streatham turned out to be the most dramatic of the weekend as the home side got themselves into a 3-0 lead on the night before a late Oxford equaliser sent the game to sudden death overtime.
Cometh the hour, cometh the old man and it was Nick Chinn who popped up unmarked in the slot and shelfed the puck into the top corner to spark wild scenes. Joe Johnston, Adam Wood and David Savage got Streatham’s other goals with Ben Ealey-Newman scoring for Oxford.
Milton Keynes Thunder v Invicta Dynamos
MK and Invicta have been involved in some eventful encounters this season and this was another intriguing clash.
Mo’s march on (David Trevallion)
Fresh from winning league player of the year, MK captain Jamie Line led his team to a 4-3 first leg victory with goals coming from Ross Bowers with two, and lone efforts from Tom Mboya and Alex Whyte.
Nicky Lewis, Adam McNicoll and Callum Fowler were on target for the Mo’s and King iced in net thus confirming the x-ray was not his!
The second leg was somewhat less of a close affair as the Mo’s secured a 4-0 win with Damien King getting a 23 shot shut-out. MK Thunder legend Mark Woolf rolled back the years and padded up for this one after starting goalie Stephen Walls skate blade broke in warm up.
Callum Fowler scored a hat trick for the Mo’s to fire them into the semifinals with Josh Condren getting the other.
MK’s night went from bad to worse as the tyre blew on their bus on the way home. Hopefully it wasn’t due to overcrowding.
Chelmsford Chieftains v London Raiders
It was top versus bottom seed as the two old Essex rivals went head to head for the second season running in the Play-Offs.
The first leg in Lee Valley was crucial for the Raiders however despite an even opening period the Chieftains wore them down and skated off with a commanding 4-1 lead going into the second leg.
James Ayling, Grant Bartlett, Anthony Leone and Danny Hammond scored for the Chieftains, with Marek Nahlik on target for the Raiders.
London head to the beach (Emily Snoding)
Mason Webster and Billy Phillips dropped the gloves to add to the talking points.
The second leg started badly for the Raiders as they conceded within the first two minutes thanks to another Danny Hammond goal and it was downhill from there for the home side.
Grant Bartlett, Matt Turner, Lukas Zatopek and Ross Brears got the rest of the goals in a 5-1 win on the night, with Matt France getting the other.
Webster and Phillips dropped the gloves twice over the sixty minutes to make it three bouts in two days.
Wightlink Raiders v Solent Devils
The South Coast rivals share a similar sized ice pad and plenty of former players so the Play-Off match up was sure to be an interesting affair.
Despite tying the first period of the first leg on the Island, Solent could not hold on and ended up on the wrong side of a 7-3 loss to make the second leg extremely difficult.
Alex Sampford, Ryan Webb, Danny Ingoldsby, Damon Larter, Nick Compton, Corey Watkins and Craig Tribe scored for the Raiders. Richard Facey, Alex Trendall and George Norcliffe scored for the Devils.
The second leg was always going to be tough, and with player Coach Alex Murray out injured the Devils lost 3-1 on the night and 10-4 on aggregate.
Damon Larter, Ben Paynter and Nick Compton scored for Wightlink with Alex Trendall breaking Matt Colclough’s shut out bagging Solent’s lone goal.
The results mean we say good bye to Solent for another year and also London, Oxford and Milton Keynes.
The semi-finals pit Cup finalists Chelmsford and Streatham back against each other, and also Wightlink against Invicta.
Only two weeks of NIHL South hockey remains!
Contact the author: david.carr@prohockeynews.com
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