EHM The Blue Line

Manimal wrote:Paul Thompson is moving to Sweden for next season. Gonna be an assistant coach for Troja-Ljungby in Swedish Allsvenskan (2nd tier)
He is bringing Shea Guthrie with him

Troja had Robert Dowd on the team this season. He did ok

archibalduk wrote:

Mighty Knight wrote:The London Racers have reformed, and plan to play in the ENIHL2 next season! Don't have an official website yet, but for those of you on Twitter; https://twitter.com/racers_london

Brilliant news!!

I had heard rumours that the Harringay Greyhounds might be reforming following the refurbishment of the Ally Pally. I wonder if this is the alternative (because they Greyhounds would be starting in the NIHL-2) or whether both teams will be resurrected (surely fairly unlikely).

archibalduk wrote:Urgh seems a bit unnecessary if you ask me. Seems like they're trying to keep hold of the history (i.e. Harringay Racers) on the one hand and attract former London Racers on the other...

MWE wrote:Robert Dowd has also signed for the Steelers from Troja Lungby

archibalduk wrote:

MWE wrote:Robert Dowd has also signed for the Steelers from Troja Lungby

That's a big signing; particularly as he has an import level of talent but is British. I'm surprised he wasn't retained by Troja. He seemed to have a decent season with them.

Manimal wrote:I heard his gf/wife/partner was homesick

http://www.romfordraiders.co.uk/new/site/news.php?id=116 wrote:With profound regret we must confirm that, short of a miracle, Romford Raiders will not be able to take their place in the NIHL this coming season.

Ollie will be making a personal statement in the next few days but to put some meat on the bones of the stark news, we have been left very disappointed by a change of stance from our prospective landlords. I will not personalise the story at this stage, so….we first met the Lee Valley rink management in November 2012 and were given a very positive welcome, a price for ice time Ollie could live with and a firm intention from them to try to find a way to accommodate us. I will stress now that at no point did Lee Valley commit or promise or otherwise guarantee that we would be able to play out of Lee Valley but they certainly led us to believe, clearly and without any form of contradiction, that we would. Ollie attended other meetings with the Lee Valley management over the ensuing months and made a formal request to them to provide us with the dates we needed for home fixtures in 2013/14.

On April 10th, Ollie received a letter from Lee Valley. Six months down the line from our inaugural meeting and raised by them for the very first time, we saw that the goalposts had moved.

Some of the dates we were given fell outside of the regular NIHL season and worse still, the face off times offered contravened the Rules of Competition of the NIHL. As Lee Valley Lions were and are a NIHL S2 team, we were surprised to see impossible face-off times offered for S1 fixtures.

The ice time fee, the only number we had ever discussed and by convention the price we were expecting, had now increased by 50% for game ice.

Finally, a 20% rake-off of gate receipts was required by Lee Valley.

None of this had ever been mentioned before.

On April 11th, we asked for a meeting to discuss our concerns and, not for the first time, found it incredibly difficult to arrange a face-to-face discussion with our prospective landlords. A meeting date was finally fixed for May 22nd (the first date Lee Valley could be properly represented) but yesterday, May 21st, Lee Valley attempted to cancel the meeting citing personnel sickness. With the Raiders players, sponsors and supporters in limbo, we reckoned that any further delay would be impossible to bear so Ollie pressed for a meeting. I have to report that the meeting didn’t happen and instead the business was conducted by email where Lee Valley stated that their previous offer was ‘not up for debate’.

The price was an issue but not insurmountable. What has finally stuffed us is Lee Valley’s refusal to even talk about moving other users back by 30 minutes. Literally, half an hour. Because of that we are faced with insufficient dates to complete a league programme and therefore cannot take our place.

I’ve been in touch with Danny today and he will be informing the players. There are lots of emotions floating around but the most overriding one for Dan, Ollie and me is heartbreak. Even today, I have been liaising with Havering Council who are still trying to help us find a home - but the chances are remote.

Ollie will have more to say in due course. We’re really, really sorry we couldn’t keep the Raiders on the ice. It wasn’t for the want of trying.

MWE wrote:Is there any link to that documentary online I would like to have a look?

Garethw87 wrote:Yeah great little documentary about Tony Hand. I think it'll be a while till we see another one of him again! Had the pleasure to meet him too what a great guy!

Hand as said it too we need more Brits playing abroad to help us out. Adam Walker should try his chances in Europe next I think. Either that or return to the Man. Phoenix!

archibalduk wrote:

Garethw87 wrote:Yeah great little documentary about Tony Hand. I think it'll be a while till we see another one of him again! Had the pleasure to meet him too what a great guy!

Hand as said it too we need more Brits playing abroad to help us out. Adam Walker should try his chances in Europe next I think. Either that or return to the Man. Phoenix!

Why the new user profile?!...

I've been a fan of Adam Walker since he played for the Phoenix, but I'm not convinced he's good enough to cut it abroad (at least not outside of UK/Italy/France/Denmark/Norway/etc). Robert Farmer, on the other hand, I could imagine him doing well in a bigger league. That said, I don't see any Brit anywhere near Tony Hand's level of skill right now. We do have some decent players, but none of them tear the league apart like Hand did (i.e. 3 - 4 pts per game). Sure the EIHL is arguably more competitive now than back then, but even Biznasty, an NHL depth player, averaged 2 pts per game during his brief stint in the EIHL - this is the sort of level I think British players need to attain before they'll stand some sort of chance of being considered by an NHL scout. Hence I don't see another Brit getting drafted any time soon.