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National Skater Hockey league PeeWee National Cup

We came second.

This one day Puck tournament Organised by the Demon Monsters skater Hockey club (from Harlow in Essex) and held at the Derby 'storm' extreme sports centre. 16th of June 2002.

The Demon monsters,

The Luton Knights,

The West Coast wasps,

The Welsh Cobras

and The Oxford blues Storm.

The venue was a converted industrial unit is a run down area of Derby. The Rink was originally built for Basketball, but was always intended for 'Dual use'. It has rounded corners and interlocking light blue plastic floor tiles - similar to the surface in the UK-Inline arena in Sheffield. Some of the tiles where lifting dangerously, and skaters complained of the floor not being level. The tournament was a Puck tournament, but the puck seemed to move quite well over the plastic surface and so was not as much of a disadvantage to our team as it could have been. (Joe seemed to be particularly at home on the ice-rink like conditions).

The boards where fibreglass moulded construction, but not very well fixed to the floor. Some heavy checking caused sections of the boarding to move dramatically. The rink was light and airy and gave the impression of an ice rink rather than a sports hall.

A major problem was that there was only one door onto the rink, and that was not available for the players to get access to their bench. The floor level at the bench allowed players to jump onto the rink quite easily, but it was a lot more difficult to get off again! The players were manhandled off the rink during change ups.

The reffing was odd to say the least. One ref (the Luton Knights coach ) seemed to be particularly intent on looking like he couldn't really be bothered and had something else he would much rather be doing. He chewed gum the whole time, stood with his arms crossed, gave face offs by throwing down the puck and skating off without even looking at what he was doing and generally NOT following what was going on. If he did have something better to be doing, he should have gone off and done it!!

The difficulty in changing up caused by the lack of doors at the benches, caused a lot of problems. The peewees had their set lines, but after a power kill, who should and who shouldn't be on, got very confusing. With a door, the manager can control the flow of players onto the rink, here the players jumped on, jumped off and generally over crowded the rink. We were down to two out field players at one point due to penalties caused by too many players on the rink.

This got even more panicy toward the end of the tournament when the refs got it in to their heads that 5 seconds was ample time for all players to get to the face offs. Many times, the puck was thrown down with neither team ready and half the team still getting on/off. They may think this was producing a more flowing game, but without a door at the bench, and the difficulty of the peewees in getting over the boards, this was not a sensible rule to be following to the letter.

The trip to Derby took about two hours from Derby. Some parents used the Local travelodge, but didn’t get any more sleep for it. The first game was at 9:30. The games where 12 minutes each half. Oxfords first game was against the Hosts, the Demon Monsters. Why the Demon Monsters (from Essex) where hosting a puck tournament in Derby, I don’t know)

Anyhow, The Monsters where not up to the onslaught of the Oxford Blues. We had three full lines to play against their two. Oxford had difficulty adapting to the slippery floor, with many coming a cropper and complaining about lack of grip, but the Storm played really well. They played an excellent passing game, keeping the puck in the opponents half for long periods of the game. The Demon monsters looked dazed under the onslaught. With the final score 6:0 to Oxford, and worries about our ability to play with a puck blown away!

The next game was against the Luton knights. This was a tougher game, but the good passing again wore down the opposition. However, the defence got neglected on occasions with the score 6:3 to Oxford. Luton where pleased to pop in their last goal within 2 seconds of the final hooter. At least tiger had some action this game!

Team Wales Cobras where next. This game got even tougher. We were jubilant from the previous two wins, and got 3:1 up pretty soon. Bruce put on the scary line (the younger players), and the score dropped back to 3:3. Woops! The storm started to panic. This was the game where the change-ups went to pot, and the score line couldn’t be shifted for what seemed like an age. The storm regained their composure and finally managed to put two more goals in in the final minutes, to make the score reflect the standard of play 5:3 to the Oxford Blues.

Ok. 3 out of 3 so far. Some minor hiccups, but, hey, this puck game is not so bad. We had all noticed the West coast wasps in their black and yellow stripped shirts and their matching yellow helmets. We also noticed that their score line against the other teams was similar to ours. But we could beat them… couldn’t we? We would find out in the next game.

Oxford Blues vs The West coast wasps. The west coast wasps dominated the game. Our passing game had got progressively worse over the previous matches as our glory boys decided that the best way to inflict maximum damage was to go coast-to-coast. Our passing game that had looked so good in the earlier matches, had vanished completely. The wasps are the sort of team that cannot be beaten by anything other than good solid team play, and this was missing in this match. It was down to the wasps to show us what team play is about, and this they did. Our defences fell apart and they ripped through us. 8:1 to the Wasps, their highest scoring game of the tournament – against us! Hide your heads in shame storm!

Battle damaged, but now with an open ear to Bruce’s advice, The Storm had to mentally re-group. They had come down with a bump from their arrogant high. Now we had to battle it out in the ‘round-robin’ deciding matches. We could be knocked back to third place if things didn’t go well.

The Team Wales Cobras who we previously beat 5:3 where our next match. We ought to be able to beat them. It just needs composure and solid team play. The game started, but the Welsh team where fighting back as the under-dogs. We didn’t seem to be able to match them, and the first half left us 3:1 down! Horror! Was this a different team we were playing? The shock must have finally knocked some sense into the Storm, and they visibly settled back into the team-game style of play. The passing flowed once more and we managed to pull back 3 goals in the second half. The play was summed up in the final winning goal. Joe stick handled to within shooting distance of the goal. In previous matches he would have had a shot, and probably been saved. Now Joe passed across the goal to Andrew, who took great pleasure in popping the puck into the open half of the goal. Andrew was pilled on top of by the rest of the jubilant team. That was the winning goal, but well done Joe. That’s what assists are all about. The parents in the stand had to go and have a lie down, and nurse their bitten away finger tips. The final score 4:3 to Oxford. This gave us our place in the Final against the wasps.

How could we do anything against the wasps? Well, we were the underdogs, and so had all to play for. The Storm’s performance was better than the previous match against the Wasps. They put in a new energy and went for every opportunity. However, the wasps were the better team, and shook our defences. We had some moments of great individual play, and some good team work, but the final score 8:3 reflected the state of play.

Joe deservedly got a nomination for Dream team, and the Storm can rightly be proud of coming second. After all, if the wasps weren’t there, the storm would have annihilated all the other teams.