LONDON, UK – The EIHA admin staff continued to earn their corn as player transfers showed no sign of slowing down in the NIHL with another busy week of announcements.
The true spirit of the NIHL as both teams attend to injured Kinkor (Kev Slyfield)
Milton Keynes Thunder appointed a new Head Player Coach with Nicky Chinn announced during the week, and Paul Gore returning to the roster as a player only.
Gore was the Pro Hockey News NIHL South Coach of the year back in 2014/15 and is understood to have wanted to step down from the role for a while.
Hopefully a break from the rigours of NIHL coaching allows Gore to come back stronger in the future, however it is also good to see Chinn stepping up to the plate and coming back into the league after his brief break.
Dibble is a Dynamo (Flyfifer photography)
Invicta Dynamos announced that on loan goalie John Dibble would be extending his stay in Kent due to the ongoing injuries to Damien King and James Richardson. Head Coach Kevin Parrish said:
‘John has come in and done an excellent job for us when we needed it most so I’m delighted he has agreed to carry on helping us out.’
‘He had a very good reputation in Bristol with the Pitbulls in the NIHL South Division 2 and I think in recent weeks he has proved he is also more than capable in this league as well.’
‘We’re grateful to John to moving over but we also owe a thanks to his Coach Richie Hargreaves in Bristol for allowing him to come and play for us.’
Calm down ladies and gents its Darrens thigh
Streatham Coach Jeremy Cornish continued to ring the changes as he brought in Alex Sampford and Vaclav Drabek ahead of the weekend action. The RedHawks said farewell to Slovakian Michal Oravec in the process, who is moving to USA to make use of his bricklaying and barbed wire construction experience.
The last part is of course a topical joke but Mikey is heading to America and everyone at Pro Hockey News wishes him well in his new ventures.
The final piece of transfer news came out of Bracknell as Coach Kenny Redmond signed former Oxford import Ondrej Pekarik to boost his scoring. At the same time he released experienced blue liners Stewart Tait and Luke Reynolds, who have been NIHL1 stalwarts for a number of years. Hopefully both are not out of the game too long.
Bruise of the week came from Oxford as housewives favourite Darren ‘Mr Oxford’ Elliott revealed a haematoma on his thigh. If that wasn’t enough to get everyone in the city of dreaming spires excited the City Stars decided to send Joe Edwards and Joonas Liimatainen around the tourist sites in their equipment.
All that was missing was a shot of them eating a riverside lunch at The Trout Inn in full kit. The fabled hostelry has hosted some Oxford based celebrities in the past including Chelsea Clinton, John Thaw (Inspector Morse), Kevin Whately (Lewis) and of course the 482 days media team – who allegedly have a black card similar to what Nandos offer celebs.
The NIHL midweek podcast went out on Wednesday featuring NIHL North correspondent Michael Black, Oxford Stars new signing Jaroslav Cesky, team mate Josh Florey and Coach Simon Anderson along with your very own Pro Hockey News correspondent of this article.
You can listen to it HERE
Saturday action
Streatham hosted Invicta Dynamos hoping to improve their record of two losses to the Kent club already this season.
The RedHawks edged a close affair 3-1 in front of a decent crowd at the High Road thanks to goals from Callum Best, Liam Rasmussen and debutant Alex Sampford.
Best celebrates (Rick Webb)
Adam Rehak got the goal for the visitors who were frustrated by a man of the match performance by Streatham goalie Matt Colclough who turned away 31 shots.
In Bracknell, the new look Hornets came unstuck against the visiting MK Thunder who skated off with a 6-3 win.
Jakub Klima top scored for the Thunder with a hat trick to add to goals from Boris Ruzicka, Cameron Wynn and Ross Bowers.
Kamil Kinkor, Danny Hughes and Ben Ealey-Newman scored the goals for the Hornets however the game was overshadowed by a horrific injury to Kinkor following his goal.
After scoring, the big Czech lost his footing and went into the boards breaking his femur. For those that don’t watch Casualty or Doogie Howser MD, the femur is the massive bone in your thigh that is very hard to break and is a major injury.
Kink in Kamils leg
In true hockey player style Kamil posed for a selfie and then went to hospital where he was operated on the following morning. Everyone at Pro Hockey News hopes he is healthy again soon. For those brave enough, check out the x-ray pictured.
London Raiders and Oxford City Stars have played out some classic games so far this year and their encounter at Lee Valley was yet another entertaining affair.
The Raiders avenged their defeat in Oxford a couple of weeks ago with a 9-5 win.
James Pentecost returned to haunt his old club with a hat trick, as did Marek Nahlik with three of his own. JJ Pitchley scored a brace with John Connolly getting the other.
For Oxford it was Hallam Wilson, Dom Hopkins, Josh Florey, Brendan Baird and Mike Whillock with the goals.
O’Neill goes top ched (Photo by John Scott)
To add to an entertaining evening linesman Phil O’Neill did his best to roll back the years to his under 19 days with Romford as he hustled hard with a squidgy in front of a pondering Raiders coach Alan Blyth.
Perhaps we will continue to see more transfer action next week as a result.
Sunday action
MK Thunder enjoyed a four point weekend as they cut short Streatham’s recent run of form with a 4-3 win at the Thunderdome.
Ross Bowers, Jamie Line, Harrison Goode and Cameron Wynn sealed the win for the Thunder, with a George Norcliffe brace and lone goal for Dan Rose making up the Streatham tally.
Bowers on target
The result moved MK away from bottom side Bracknell and put them back amongst the pack, whilst for Streatham the result is another setback on their attempts to catch league leaders Chelmsford.
In Oxford the City Stars bounced back by shutting out Invicta Dynamos 4-0 to cement their second place position in the league. Stars’ sponsors Class Act Teaching generously financed a kid’s go free initiative to boost the attendance as a sub narrative to the clubs public battle against the council’s high parking charges.
A brace from Alan Green and lone goals from Jaroslav Cesky and Ben Nethersall did the damage for Oxford, helped by an impressive shutout by goalie Tom Annetts.
To add to the talking points Mo’s defender Harrison Lillis dropped the gloves with Brendan Baird to entertain the big crowd inside Oxpens.
Raiders v Stars (John Scott)
A great night for the home support was topped off by the unveiling of the Scott Gough stand before the game. Scott is a true Oxford legend and still performs his iconic toe drag every week for Swindon Panthers recreational hockey team despite approaching his 50th birthday!
In the final game of the day, hosts Solent Devils held London Raiders most of the game before the visitors pulled away in the latter stages and posted a 4-2 win.
Marek Nahlik continued his excellent form for the Raiders with his second hat trick of the weekend, with Thomas Beesley getting the other.
Alex Trendall and Matt Lawday scored for Solent who are now in 6th position in the league but level on points with MK Thunder.
With Oxford, Streatham and Invicta all dropping points the real winners of the weekend were table toppers Chelmsford, who must have enjoyed their weekend off immensely. However London moved up to third thanks to their four point weekend and are now right back in the mix.
Results
Saturday 12 November 2016
London Raiders 9-5 Oxford City Stars
Streatham IHC 3-1 Invicta Dynamos
Bracknell Hornets 3-6 MK Thunder
Sunday 13 November 2016
MK Thunder 4-3 Streatham IHC
Solent Devils 2-4 London Raiders
Oxford City Stars 4-0 Invicta Dynamos.
Contact the author david.carr@prohockeynews.com
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