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From Braehead to Billingham
by Craig Simpson
This past weekend I made my first ever visit to the Braehead Arena, home of the Clan, to see the home side take on Dundee Stars.
There were about a dozen Newcastle Vipers fans in the crowd, with the possibility of a couple more ex Vipers on the ice – Braehead’s Sam Zajac and Dundee’s player coach Brent Hughes.
Walking into the Braehead Arena is quite surreal – you’re in a shopping centre going past Primark and Next and the like. Then you come to the Food Court, up the escalators at the Handmade Burger Company and there next to KFC is the Arena!
We collected our pre-booked tickets from the BraeHearts on the desk – well marshalled by Clan GM Kirsty Longmuir, sister of ex Vipers chief Jaimie. We can see where the looks went in that family!
Seating around 4,000 the Braehead Arena is an ideal size for top flight hockey in this country. On the Saturday night we were there, the second night of a home double header, most of the lower bowl was full with a sizeable travelling contingent of Stars fans across from the east coast.
The match night presentation – as a sister club of Nottingham Panthers – is very good, and the crowd joins in enthusiastically… but then during the play seem to sit in almost silence.
In the match itself the teams traded goals in the first period, with Clan leading 3-2 after 20 minutes. This was extended in the middle session to 5-2, with Mike Bayrack the standout player for the home side. Dundee chipped away in the final frame, pulling back to 5-3 early on then netting a fourth with their goalie on the bench 4.9 seconds from time.
Braehead hung on those 4.9 seconds to record a 5-4 win and send the Clan fans home happy.
For me this was my first Elite League game since the Vipers’ final act in Dundee some ten months earlier. While I appreciate as a neutral you are a little removed from the passion and excitement felt by the Braehead and Dundee fans, a sport such as ours should be able to excite, enthral and entertain the most fervent of neutral with its mix of speed, skill and aggression.
What I saw on the ice on Saturday night was stale and sterile. There were no hits to speak of – a couple of bumps but the only “proper” hit came at 59:33. The middle period saw neither side want to take control of the game – a couple of passes in their own defensive zone then dump the puck in. Opposition collect the puck, make a couple of passes then dump the puck back… and so it went.
Now as I said earlier, this is my first EIHL game of the season, so my sample size is quite small, but frankly it did not make me want to go and see some more! And EIHL hockey isn’t cheap these days either – adult tickets are £18 at Braehead on centre ice.
Now put that up against my Sunday night hockey fix – Billingham Stars v Solihull Barons in the English National League. For just a couple of quid more than the adult ticket at Braehead, two adults and two kids can watch senior hockey at the TFM Radio Ice Arena.
Billingham are back on the scene after a two-year hiatus while their rink – part of the Billingham Forum complex – was refurbished. Currently they are top of the standings, five points clear of local rivals Whitley Warriors.
Solihull were at the bottom of the League, battling hard against relegation back to Division Two.
The match saw eleven goals, four fights, numerous hits and very little if any “coasting” through the game by players.
Billingham won 8-3, but the 500+ in attendance were entertained from start to finish.
It’s the age-old argument of standard versus entertainment – there’s no doubting that the EIHL game had the better standard of players and technically ‘better’ hockey but it was not in the least bit entertaining.
Sunday’s match had 40 committed players, playing for *their* home town club and giving it their all for sixty minutes.
And at the end of the day I know where I felt that I had the more enjoyable evening.
Follow me on Twitter @craigsimpson42.
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-3 |
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
4-5 |
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
1-4 |
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| 12th March 2006 19:00 | ||
4-4 |
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| 11th March 2006 19:00 | ||
2-4 |
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| 11th March 2006 19:00 | ||
| Club | GP | W | L | OL | GF | GA | Pts |
|---|
5-8 |
||
| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-1 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
4-1 |
||
| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-2 |
||
| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
3-7 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
1-1 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
| Club | GP | W | L | OL | GF | GA | Pts |
|---|
- Adam Walker
- Alex Birch
- Andy Pierce
- Chris Gent
- Christopher Beal
- Craig Simpson
- Dave Simms
- Elliott Stanley
- Gareth Chalmers
- James Broughton
- James Gordon
- Katy Madgwick
- Luke Catterson
- Mark Briggs
- Mark Duell
- Mat Young
- Patrick Smyth
- Promotion
- Russ Morrell
- Seanna Murdock
- Stephen Dowson
- Stewart Roberts
- Tom Forster
- Vicki Smart
- William Lyon
