Tuesday Musings...

"there's a happy ending
Every single day."
Amy Macdonald: "Mr. Rock n'Roll"

After our Transatlantic trip yesterday, we return back home...and given that the news in the off-season is somewhat sparse at the moment, we shall get the tidbits we have in the EIHL out of the way nice and quickly...

Vipers local lads return: After David Longstaff and Mark Gouett became the first two to commit to Newcastle last week, two more Vipers, both native North-Easterners, have confirmed they'll be wearing Vipers colours for another year, as Ben Campbell and Dean Holland prepare for another season in black-and-yellow. These two are slowly becoming very good players indeed after making the jump from the Newcastle/Whitley development system two seasons ago, with Holland making his mark at the Skydome by demolishing Joe Henry in a lightweight scrap this season. It's fair to say that Campbell is more skill-oriented in his play, while Holland is your prototypical local-lad, flying around the ice with seemingly no fear-the two of them were highly impressive on the Vipers' third line last season and will only strengthen the Vipers roster this season...

However, another Vipers product is off to pastures new, with Jez Lundin taking up a role in the EPL, reportedly for Guildford-this is a slightly strange move in my eyes as he appeared to be developing into a key part of the defence at the MRA...however, with Stephen Lee using a season in the EPL to good effect in turning undoubted potential into ability and a contract in Nottingham, maybe Lundin feels he can go the same way...

Phillips returns to Sheffield: Meanwhile, the Steelers have started their off-season with the excellent step of re-signing one of the best British players in the game, as well as their captain, as Jonathan Phillips returns to the Hallam Arena for a fourth season. The Cardiff product is, in my eyes, possibly the best Brit forward out there along with Colin Shields-the Steelers faithful should be extremely pleased that they've ensured the return of a quality player straight out of the box...

Shields and the other Phillips return to Belfast: Meanwhile, across the Irish Sea, two more premier Brits have returned to their club of last season, as Colin Shields and Dave Phillips become the second and third Giants signings of the off-season...

I accept that news of returnees is never as exciting as new players, but with the signings above all three clubs have ensured that the crucial "Brit-pack" areas of their rosters are being well taken care of...which can only be a good thing...

And now, in the first of an occasional series...which will mostly follow the Coventry Phoenix women's team as they play their last two games of the season, but begins elsewhere, and is intended to place a bit of focus on the grass-roots/often neglected aspect of the sport now that the big boys have taken their sticks home for the summer...

Summer Hockey Watch:

On Saturday evening, I was once again to be found at the Skydome, watching hockey...as the Blackburn Buccaneers and Coventry Chargers met in the Sub-Zero Summer Cup for recreational teams.... You can follow the trials and tribulations of the Bucks over at Five Minute Major throughout the summer, as both Becky and Matt play for them (think of it as adopting a team for the summer)...and for this game, they, for some reason, wanted me to write a report...so here we go...

Coventry Chargers 11, Bucks 4:

This was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a game for the purists-but then what rec hockey game is? The Chargers started in calm and organised fashion, while the Bucks, quite frankly, appeared to have their minds still on the bus-a state of affairs which saw the home side score three goals in four minutes early on in the game.

After the initial lethargy had worn off, however, the Bucks began to give as good as they got, with Pete O'Connell, Darren Shaw and Joe Young being instrumental in driving the team forward, supported ably by the rest of the bench, as they countered the Chargers' superior skating ability with good, old-fashioned Northern grit-exemplified by O'Connell being hurled headfirst into the boards, while twisting through the air, after leaving a shot to the last possible second on a breakaway and being caught by the goalie's stick. The Bucks defence were also holding as firm as possible against the well-drilled forwards coming at them, aided in no small part by Gary Buckman in net...however, the superior skating of the Chargers allowed them to far outshoot their opponents, and inevitably, some of these crept past...

Into the second period, and the goals kept going in at the Bucks end. However, it wasn't all one-way traffic by a long shot, with Richard Allan and Tyler Moe-Slepika testing the Chargers goalie on several occasions before the Chargers got themselves on the board through a close-range Shaw effort and seconds later, a Young shot that somehow sneaked into the bottom corner, to end the second period withe the score 7-2 in the Chargers favour...

The game had by now settled down into a steady rhythm of thrust-and-counter-thrust as we went on through the third period, with both sides creating chances but the Chargers by far the more clinical-a state of affairs which led to four quick goals going in at the start of the third, including two very nice slapshots from the blue.... It should have been five as the home-side's Matt Spring chased down a long clearance, got to it before Buckman could clear, left the goalie out of position, went past a desperate diving block with ease, and then somehow managed to place the puck wide of an open goal from a distance of roughly a foot, much to his embarassment and the amusement of all present...

This unbelievable let-off put the wind back in the Bucks' sails, and Shaw's second goal, taken calmly in a scramble round the net, ensured that despite the unequal scoreline, the visitors could travel home with some pride. The last significant action of the game, however, would be one of the most memorable, at least for one person present. In another scramble around the Chargers net, the Bucks fired in several shots in succession, before the puck broke loose to Matt Reynolds...the Bucks forward, who may be more familiar to you, dear reader, as the same Mattski of Five Minute Major fame, duly ended a goal-drought of over two years with a classic poacher's finish low into the bottom corner...

Despite the scoreline, this was by no means a whitewash...both teams played the game in good spirit, with the disparity in experience (the Chargers are a team full of ex-Coventry juniors, while the Bucks have been in existence for eighteen months only) noticeable only in the skating and finishing abilities of the respective teams...the home side may well congratulate themselves on the win but there is much to build on for the visitors also as the competition continues...

There you go...that's your Tuesday musings...