France v. Wales on BBC2 yesterday. Helps fill the off-season gap.

Talking of ice hockey whatever happend to the London Racers?

They folded part way through the 2004/5 season citing the rink at Lee Valley being too dangerous and the owners not willing to carry out suitable repairs. A player had got bad facial injurys on the boards. Many believe this was a front and the real reason was there wasnt anough bums on seats (lets not go there) due to location and pretty naff rink for pro ice hockey. Putting a pro team in London aint easy. You go from a few hundred seat rinks like Ally Pally and Lee Valley too the too big like O2 Arena. The inbetween would be the Handball arena at Stratford holding a couple thousand but thats been given to a friggin basketball team. Still a glimmer of hope at the Excell Centre appartently.

Not to mention the Lea Valley Lions.
Was a regular attender a few moons ago.
Though in Essex cant say ive ever seen the teams at Romford or Chelmsford.
I assume they are still going,

I used to watch the Knights fairly regularly for two or three seasons around the turn of the century. A friend, who would now be aged around 80 were he still alive, had watched the game since the early post-war era and reckoned this was the best standard of league hockey ever played in this country, but as you say almost all the players were imports. I'm sure there was at least one team with no British players in a squad of 18-20. I remember counting up all the British players in the entire roster for the league and it averaged less than two per club.

In fact that standard was probably briefly surpassed around 2004 when there was an NHL lock-out and some of the first line NHL players came over to play. I remember seeing London Racers v Coventry at Lea Valley. (Knights had folded by then after the London Arena closed down.) Racers had an enormous goon called Jeremy Cornish (an NHL forward) whose role was essentially to pick a fight with the best opposition player as soon as possible after the face off, get them both sin-binned, then the other bloke would be too scared to play properly for the rest of the match. I've never seen such unashamed thuggery in any sport.

I watched Streatham Redskins regularly during the early 90's until they folded in 1994. Then again when they reformed almost a decade later. I lost interest around five years ago though, and haven't seen a game since. If people think RL is badly run then ice hockey is far more amateurish. Whole leagues disband or amalgamate with new ones forming to take their place, clubs routinely fold then reform, matches often face off up to half an hour late. An increasingly dilapidated rink at Streatham, unpredictable finish times, erratic late Sunday evening bus service and waiting in the freezing cold on Streatham High Road in the middle of winter all took their toll, along with a drop in the standard of the Streatham team. I keep intending to take in a game at their temporary home at Brixton Recreation Centre but haven't managed it yet. At least they're due to move back to a modern rink in Streatham eventually, on the old bus garage site adjacent to the previous rink.

These days it's just football for me during the winter months, principally Dulwich Hamlet in the Isthmian (Ryman) League Division 1 South.

I went to Maidstone vs Dulwich the other week, very enjoyable, your lot were dreadful. That said, from what I've seen, I expect Maidstone to walk the League.

Tidy little ground at Maidstone now, they've got potential to push up the leagues you'd think.

Agreed. Getting decent crowds too, usually in the top 10 of the whole of non league football when we are at home. Should break 2000 soon I hope.

Very good, my team (Dagenham) struggle for that number in L2!

That was our worst performance for almost three years. I felt embarrassed watching it. Seven days earlier we'd convincingly defeated Folkestone who were unbeaten and top of the table, yet for some reason our manager made wholesale team changes for Maidstone and it backfired spectacularly. We've since won three on the spin and I expect us to make the top five (play offs) with something to spare.

The league table is pretty tight after ten games or so, but Maidstone seem to be on a bit of a roll now after losing two of their first three. They ought to win that division with the crowds (and revenue) they're pulling in, as well as corporate facilities for midweek hire and a 3G pitch that can be repeatedly hired out without wear and tear being a problem. I believe they budgeted for average crowds of 800-900 and so far they're exceeding that by around 50%. (Dulwich are the next biggest club in the division with an average of 350.) You don't need Gutterfax to do the sums here!

I enjoyed the day out apart from the result (Rifle Volunteers before the match, Flower Pot afterwards) although I suspect Hamlet won't be visiting many more times as Maidstone inevitably progress up the leagues. I remember us playing them in an FA Trophy match at the old London Road greyhound stadium thirty years ago, which was fairly abysmal for watching football, so the Stones are very fortunate to get a modern purpose built football ground so close to the town centre after two decades in exile, and crowds are already as high as when they last played in the town three divisions higher. Only problem is that the ground already looks a bit too small for them. 1,989 was the attendance for Maidstone v Dulwich, with about 100 away supporters. That's the eighth level of English football, and a larger crowd than some of Broncos' Superleague fixtures this year.

What did you think of the Rifle Volunteer? The landlord always seems offended when a customer dares to enter. Been in twice on Saturday evenings in the last year and there have been no other visitors. Once we got told to stop playing darts as his wife was asleep upstair.

Agree with regards to the size of the stadium though, I'm unsure how much room there is to develop too, especially opposite the main stand.

Can't remember when the return fixture is but you'll have to let me buy you a beer for lavishing such praise on our club

I was at that match too and remember that incident well.Jeremy didn't ever make the NHL, though he did get invited to an NHL teams pre season camp at least once. The bloke he took on straight after face off was well known NHL enforcer Wade Belak. Sadly Wade died on 31st August 2011, the police treated it as suicide though I don't think this has been confirmed. If true, he was one of three ex NHL enforcers to take their own life in a short span causing a real debate about the role of the enforcer in the sport and the price some of them may be paying.

Jeremy Cornish is still in the UK, he is now player coach at Isle of Wight Raiders and I believe is a teacher by day. There is another NHL lock out going on at the moment and again a few NHL'ers are playing in the UK however there are no Elite League teams playing around London these days.

Bracknell Bees v Telford Tigers for me today. A broken down train having put paid to Dagenham & Redbridge v Aldershot Town.

To answer Dave's question, The Rifle Volunteer was an odd place. There were a handful of people in there and they were friendly enough, beer was in good nick but it's not somewhere I'd personally choose to drink all the time.

I miss going to the ice hockey used to watch the Knights then the Racers then the Haringey Greyhounds at Ally Pally now cheer the Invicta Dynamos now. Well Gillingham arent doing too bad

I have to say that doesn't surprise me. When I arrived at the bar and greeted him with a cheery "Hello!" he eyed me warily, in the way small children look at an adult who is attempting to amuse them by playing the fool. At one point three people were simultaneously waiting politely to be served and he seemed bewildered. I think he looks a bit like Jimmy Page. (The addled white haired 65 year old version.)


It had thinned out by the time you popped in for a swift half. It was much busier earlier with Stones fans, and they were all very friendly. There was an academic type bloke sitting quietly in a corner doing some highbrow writing stuff while his other half was shopping, but he ended up chatting to people at the bar when he went for a second pint and got roped into going to the football instead. I like Goacher's beers, and you hardly ever see them outside the heart of Kent, but without the football crowd it would have been pretty dead in there.


I'm sure I read somewhere that they could get the capacity up to 7,000 on that site, which is more than enough for Football League. I think the budget was tight to get it up and running otherwise I'm sure they'd have made it bigger already.