New Season
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Happy Shirt Launch, Phoenix fans!
Photograph of the 2011/12 Manchester Phoenix jerseys copyright of Richard Allan.
Welcome, one and all to my brand new blog. I’d like to introduce myself before I begin, my name is Vicki Smart and this coming season will be my third year following the Manchester Phoenix, in the English Premier League. I got into hockey about 3 seasons ago, through a friend, and I haven’t looked back since. I fell in love with the speed, the skill and the complete unpredictability that comes with the sport. I also fell in love with the atmosphere within the rink, and through the sport have met some very good friends, and had some wonderful experiences as a fan.
Now we get to the main point of this particular blog post. Sunday, July 31st 2011 saw Manchester Phoenix unveil their new shirts for the 2011-2012 campaign. The event was held at the Cresta Court Hotel, Altrincham, a place known to many Phoenix fans, as it’s where a lot of club events are held. Neil Morris, the team owner, got the event started with a brief introduction, and by posing a question to the assembled audience: Are we missing the hockey? Of course, this got a resounding “Yes!” from the fans, and Neil went on to introduce Phoenix player coach, Tony Hand.
After gaining some insight into what had been happening over summer from Tony, Neil began to get down to the business that had brought us all to the event: the unveiling of the new shirts, which this season are being produced by a manufacturer called Rhino. First was the new warm up shirt, modelled by Ryan Johnson. This shirt has taken on the black and purple colour scheme of last season’s away shirt, something I’m personally quite happy with, as purple is one of my favourite colours. It’s very different from last season’s shirt, which, although a shock to the system at first, I think is a good thing, they’re so different to the ones we’ve had the past two years, and it’s a refreshed look. I do feel that the use of white to break up the black and purple solves the problem that last year’s away shirt had, which was that the purple, in my opinion, wasn’t quite bright enough to stand out.
Next was the away cup shirt, which was worn by Stephen Fone. This is very similar to last season’s, mostly black with yellow detailing. Although it looks very nice, clean, crisp and visually uncluttered, for me, it looks too similar to last season’s cup shirt, although some changes have occurred. The stripes have made way for bigger blocks of colour, and the sleeves are now predominantly yellow.
The same can be said for the home cup shirt, as worn on the launch night by Ben Wood. This is the same design as the away shirt, but with a white and yellow design, and it just doesn’t scream change as the other shirts do. Again though, that’s my personal view, and this is not to say I think the cup shirts are “bad” per se, I just feel they’re very close to the previous ones, which isn’t my cup of tea. Having said that, of the two cup shirts, the away shirt is the one I prefer, the colours work well together and the design works well in those colours.
The new away shirt was then revealed, James Archer had the job of showing this one off. This is another shirt that has seen a pretty big change over the summer. Gone is the black and purple, replaced by a combination of black, white and a bright turquoise, which I will admit, came as a bit of a shock. It’s not a colour Phoenix has used, at least not in the two seasons I’ve been following. There are also touches of red, and a shiny new logo design for the front of the shirt, so all in all, a very big change has occurred here. This is the design that shocked me the most on the night, but is also the one that is growing on me, and could well be the one I go for, should I decide to buy a shirt this year.
Finally, the launch of the new home shirt, and a bit of a surprise. None other than James Neil, revealing that he had re-signed for the club, modelled this shirt. This got a big round of applause from the audience, who were happy to see him return. The shirt is similar in style to the away shirt, but uses a combination of white, black and red, a colour scheme more familiar to Phoenix fans, as one that has been used before in various combinations. This shirt, I’m not so sure about, I think it’s like any big change, it’ll take a few games before I’m used to it. I do like that it’s so different to last year’s shirt, a new look for the new season as it were, and I do like that it’s a design I don’t think I’ve seen any other teams use, it gives us an individual look, and that can only be a good thing, in my opinion.
Now, shirts are something I don’t think a club will ever get unanimous agreement on, everyone has differing opinions on what looks good and what doesn’t, which is why it’s great we’ve got a selection of shirts for people to choose from. I don’t think we’ll know a firm favourite until the season is underway, and people are wearing them around the rink, but those I spoke to had their favourites.
Well, that’s all for this entry, I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this, and are now looking forward to the start of the season.
See you round the rink!
Vicki
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4-4 |
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2-4 |
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| Club | GP | W | L | OL | GF | GA | Pts |
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5-8 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
5-1 |
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4-1 |
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5-2 |
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3-7 |
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1-1 |
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| 19th March 2006 19:00 | ||
| Club | GP | W | L | OL | GF | GA | Pts |
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- 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
