Tuesday Thoughts: Rivalry Rumination

Warning-there is a rude word or two later on in this post)
Hear that buzzing? It's a hornet's nest, and it's been stirred up by Andy French in an interview with Sky Sports' Neil Chiplen (see yesterday's post for the link). What one of the top men in British hockey has said in that interview flies in the face of what British ice-hockey fans have been told pretty much every season for the past ten years. Summed up in one sentence it goes thus...

There are more important rivalries in the league than Sheffield v Nottingham.

At last, someone with a bit of influence in British hockey has finally said it. For many years we've had to suffer the preaching and winding-up in either the Nottingham Evening Post or the Sheffield Star at least four times a year, the rhetoric of Dave Simms and Gary Moran, the digs in Powerplay columns every time another rivalry is born. Now, rumoured plans to expand the EIHL into northern and southern conferences, incorporating teams from the EPL, a more sustainable import limit and arguably a much healthier and more competitive league, are being dismissed by many. Not because it's unworkable, not because there are egos that simply cannot be got around, but because a North/South split would likely involve the Panthers and Steelers being placed in different conferences. This means that they're instantly complaining as apparently they are the only two clubs that take sizeable away crowds to each others' rinks.

This is arrogant in the extreme.

Now, having been to a few Nottingham/Sheffield games over the years, you can't deny that there is something of a buzz around the arena, one that you just don't get when, say, Edinburgh come to town (no picking on Edinburgh-I just picked them as they're one of the clubs that don't take a huge away support to many places due to the travel difficulties and, perhaps, having a smaller pool of fans who will travel). However, it's not a game I go to and think "wow, this is far and away bigger than any other in Britain). Personally, that used to be reserved for Coventry v Cardiff...a quiet rivalry which doesn't really get talked about as a big one except by Devils and Blaze fans but has consistently produced storming games played in front of packed-out rinks, including two epic Challenge Cup Finals. Despite this, there's still a healthy respect between the two fanbases...this rivalry is built more on the close games on the ice and the battles the clubs have had in the past more than the "manufactured" hype of Panthers/Steelers...you won't see press releases hyping the fact there is a rivalry from either club beforehand-both sides just know this is a big one. And so does any neutral who turns up, just by the electricity in the air.

Then there's Coventry/Nottingham. Sheffield fans may think there's still dislike between them and those down the road but come to the Skydome or the NIC for a Panthers/Blaze game...there is genuine hate between the two fanbases. Not the kind of hate that is the "negative" kind-that which leads to violence at every game (despite what a few misguided souls on the Cage Forum say when the Panthers come off worse) but the "good" kind that gives a genuine edge to the yells of the supporters and the hits flying in on the ice. Every goal is celebrated just that little but more loudly, the banter is a bit more vicious, and the crowd chants and interactions stay just this side of open warfare. Ask Panthers fans and they'll say the same-both sets of fanbases despise losing to the other. It's what the Panthers/Steelers rivalry wishes it still was, back in the heights of the Boxing Day bench clearance...

For a similar feel, what about Belfast Newcastle? You only have to look at the games this season to see those teams hate each other-this one is in its early days but even so, there is the potential for some serious legs on that one...

People talk about Belfast/Coventry also. Born out of the Theo Fleury year, this one has calmed somewhat, but can still provide the odd firecracker on occasion, just to let people know they're still around...

However, for sheer intensity, in my eyes, there are several in the lower-leagues that are very, very rarely mentioned even by those supposedly in the know but make the Steelers/Panthers look like a love-in. How about Fife and Edinburgh in Scotland, or Fife and Dundee (even though the crowds are dropping, the passion is still there). Kirkcaldy is an intimidating rink when in full-flow-I remember a trip up there back in the BNL days and again during the Blaze's "treble" season...look up the word "hostile" in the dictionary and there's a good chance you'll see a picture of Kirkcaldy Ice Arena in full flow. It's one of only two rinks where I've genuinely been slightly fearful of just how intense the place is-you feel like you've earned your stripes as an away fan when you come out of there...

The other place was at the Skydome, but the Blaze weren't playing. It was the EPL final weekend, and I had the dubious pleasure of being placed between Romford and Chelmsford fans. Now, I'd heard stories about the cross-Essex rivalry, but when you're placed between the two sets of fans, you experience it at first-hand. Apart from anything else, the banter being fired back and forth was red-hot, highlighted by this nugget which has stayed with me to this day.

(Romford are playing-and their opposition score. A "large" Chelmsford lady leaps to her feet and yells)
"F**king have that, Moffat (Romford goalie). You're shit!"
This provokes an instant response from the Raiders fans
"Sit down, and shut up, you f-in ugly fat slag!"
By this point I'm wincing. The arena goes quiet as play restarts, just in time for this banshee-like response in the broadest of Essex accents...
"I may be ugly, I may be fat, I may be a slag, but thank God I'm not from f-in Romford like you otherwise I'd fuckin' hang meself!"
Cheers from the whole Chelmsford section.

So much for hockey being a family sport...:)

I'm not saying the Panthers/Steelers rivalry doesn't exist-I'm saying that, like Andy French, I feel it's just not really that relevant any more, even to the fans of at least one of the teams involved. There are many rivalries equally as big in British hockey-the reason the Panthers/Steelers one stands out is purely due to the fact that we're told, over and over again, by the PR machines of the respective clubs, that it is. They may be the two clubs with the biggest fanbases, which guarantees that their games will likely get the biggest crowds, but the most hotly-contested rivalry? Maybe in 2001, but not any more...

If you don't believe me, nip along to a Blaze/Panthers or Belfast/Newcastle game as a neutral, then see how you feel...