Playing Catch-Up...again.

Believe it or not it's actually been a fairly quiet Friday and first half of Saturday-as noted by the fact that for once I didn't have to make five posts in the space of twenty-four hours just in order to keep up with the speed of information coming out onto the Internet. However, several things of note have happened in both the EIHL and the EPL, so here's a brief summary before I take a few hours off to watch the rugby this evening (come on England!) :)...

Hiking for Hockey is called off: See this post (scroll to the bottom) for the original idea from Rick Strang. He's now called it off, however, saying in a statement on the Hockey Forum that it just wouldn't be right to do now that Basingstoke are safe. Which is his decision...When I find a text of the full statement to link to, I shall place it on here.

Thornton to Sweden?: The rumours around players leaving the Bison just won't die-the latest one going around sees Steve Thornton wanting away from the Bison, with Sweden being quoted as the destination. At the moment, the 34 year-old centre is staying put, but there will no doubt be a queue of EIHL teams looking to go after the skilful ex-Belfast and Cardiff forward should the slightest hint of his becoming available surface.

Changes at Romford: Moving down to the EPL, Norm Pinnington has moved from the Isle of Wight to Romford in one of a raft of player changes this week in Essex. Mark Williams is said to be on his way out due to the well-known personal animosity between the two big bruisers, and there is much discussion as to just exactly where the Raiders will go from here threading through the EPL forums.

Meanwhile, back in Basingstoke...The statement from the Taylors which I analysed in detail here has not gone down well amongst the Bison fans, with more questions than answers (some of which I mention in the analysis) being raised ahead of tonight's game against the Bison. While the immediate survival of the Bison is by all accounts assured, there is a fast-developing rift between the ownership and fans. David Taylor was interviewed last night on BBC Radio Berkshire, available here. It's an interesting listen if you're a Bison fan...

And across the pond...First NHL mention-mainly just to check on how my Pens are doing...especially after their 6-4 come-from-behind win against the Leafs last Saturday, they do Carolina 4-3 again last night...Things are looking good in Steeltown for us long-suffering (well, ever since I've been watching, anyway) Pens fans...:)

And finally, a bit of blatant self-promotion: This site has been up and running properly for a week, after a few months or so of preparation, working out of format, etc. When I set it up I expected maybe 150 hits in the first week. As of today, there've been nearly 600. I'm overjoyed that people are coming to read what, at the moment, is essentially the ramblings of one hockey fan, and I thank every single visitor. If you've got any ideas for features etc that I've missed out or have an idea for something that I can discuss in a blog post which I may not be touching on, then feel free to use the email link at the side of the page...and keep coming back, cause I shall keep trying to improve the coverage of British hockey now that I know there is clearly a fair few people out there who want to read it.

And, as always, keep your eye on the puck...

More Bison news, player rumours and a great idea.

Well, things are moving fast in Basingstoke-and not just for the Bison-I've received several messages from email and on the forums telling me that there could be more than one club affected by this-details below...

The Bison cat is now right out of the bag, with coach Ryan Aldridge officially appealing to the Bison fans to help fundraise via the official website, on this page. This has given rise to almost an atmosphere of relief around the forums, with Bison fans beginning to band together and fans from around the league offering to help out through bucket collections etc, starting at the Odyssey tonight when the Bison play Belfast Giants.

Worryingly for British hockey as a whole, the company that runs the Bison is inextricably tied to the EPL's Bracknell Bees also, as the company nominally running both clubs (Berkshire Sports Management) is that set up by the Taylors in order to run the two teams as separate entities but under the same company umbrella and owners, if that makes sense-thus leading to the one simple point, known to any economics student, that should the company over-commit itself financially in one area, it will inevitably affect the other. In simple terms, if the unthinkable happens and the Bison go down because of the company being insolvent, then the Bees could go with them through no fault of their own. I should stress that there are no rumours of the Bees being in any trouble whatsoever around at the moment, and that this is, at the moment, nothing more than theoretical. However, anyone who is thinking "Bison aren't in my league-I support an EPL team, so this doesn't affect me directly" is wrong. Obviously, as shown by the numerous offers of support by fans of teams in all leagues across the country which have come flooding in on the forums, this is not a widely-held view-however, it's worth considering.

Meanwhile, in player movement, it appears, hearing from locals through email, that the Bison are looking to sign an import nettie in order to replace Stevie Lyle (possibly even Phillipe deRouville), with a British forward stepping up to fill Peter Campbell's spot, possibly from the Bees. Favourites for this role locally are Tom Carlon (EIHL experience with Coventry), Shaun Thompson (ex-Bison) and Ryan Watt (who I believe was a Basingstoke junior, and is travelling with the team to Belfast). As you can imagine, this will likely not make the Bees fans happy, particularly if they are used as nothing more than a farm team for the Taylors' EIHL franchise.

Now onto the good news: things are already happening in order to help the Bison out, as well as promote ice hockey in this country. Earlier today, Rick Strang, who was instrumental in the London Racers organisation before they folded and is well known around the forums and rinks of the UK, posted this on The Hockey Forum:

I think we all need a bit of a lift so, inspired by Simmsy (Dave Simms, Sheffield's PR manager), how's this for an idea ...I'll walk in full hockey kit from centre ice at the House of Steel after
the Sheffield Edinburgh game (24/11) all the way to Basingstoke's centre ice for the game against Sheffield (9/12).I make that about 200 miles in two weeks.Along the way I'll tell every single person I bump into to go to their local rink and go to a hockey game. I'll advertise the sport at every step. I'll do a blog and contact media outlets en route.If 100 people post on this thread pledging their support and sponsorship for this walk then I'll do it.I should stand out in full hockey gear and hopefully with all of our media connections on here we'll get some attention.If anyone can think of a good strap line (walking for hockey?) that'd be cool.Just an idea but I bet I could raise the profile of the sport and
raise a few bob for the Bison on the way. Anyone willing to help would be welcome. I may need some floors to sleep on en route to keep the hotel bills
down!Of course - 100 of you need to show your support first so I may yet get myself off the hook.Hockey community? Hmmm ... let's see.

A truly insane thing to do-but it just might work...as well as being an EXCELLENT way to get some much-needed media coverage...At the moment this looks like happening, but just to make sure-if you haven't already done so get on either the Hockey Forum or your local teams' forum in order to rally support for this-and show how big the hockey community in the UK really is...