I went to every Blackburn Hawks games for years and saw some great players play for us,but when they dropped down the leagues and stopped paying for imports the standard of hockey got so low I gave up watching them.If they ever did put some effort into having a good team and joined the league the Phoenix are in i'd start going back to watch them.When you've seen players the likes of Moria and Chartrand play for you,paying to watch a team nowhere near that kind of standard doesn't do it for me.

Remember as an avid Humberside Seahawks fan going to Blackburn and all us travelling fans wore bermuda shorts, hawaiian shirts and marigolds not the warmest of arenas.

Over the years the Blackhawks/Hawks have had some other quality players Perlini, Damphousse, Trent Kaese, Doc Durdle, Bobby & John Haig, Stokes.

Shame British hockey took such a nose dive when Heineken pulled out.

The Blackburn Arena has always been freezing You expect an ice arena to be cold but not that cold.Over the years there were some great atmospheres at games.A couple I remember are the Sheffield Steelers 1st season when they needed to beat us to get promotion and they brought over 2,500 fans to see them win,another was a playoff game against our hated rivals the Trafford Metros when there was over 3,000 in the arena.They're lucky to get a few hundred fans these days.

Been twice to watch Sheffield Steelers about 20 years ago as a kid. Shame really I didnt go again as thought it was fun stood up dancing every break. Which was literally every minute.

Sorry if I'm resurrecting a dead thread but I've only just found and thought I may as well share my love of the EIHL! I have been a Stingrays fan since roughly age 9, and try to attend games regularly, in fact I'm off tonight to watch the mighty Stingrays take on Coventry Blaze!

Any other Hull fans lurking on this forum?

I go fairly often to watch Basingstoke in the EPL, same division as Manchester. I keep an eye out for Manchester.

The standard of the EPL is not exactly the NHL, but it's a lot of fun, especially if like me you think the fighting is a bit stagey- it's discouraged in the EPL but does break out every few games when they actually mean it.

Shame the import level is so high in the Elite League- that's what pushed Manchester, Basingstoke, Bracknell and Guildford out, and sent Newcastle under.

Thats why I stopped going after Sheffield ruined it all and a certain player who threatened the then BIHL with court action for restriction of trade for dual nationals. That and the fact at one point the GB team had a total of 2 genuine British players in it and they chose Bill Morrison as the GB no.1 for me totally destroyed the sport in this country and it has since struggled with the top flight league itself going t!ts up twice.

Basingstoke seem to be our (Phoenix) bogey team this year.

They're having a good year- and it's nice to see that it's quite tight at the top, especially compared to the level above.

Ah, my Father and my Uncle used to go to almost all the Seahawks home games and some of the closer (Sheffield, Nottingham) away games. It was them who got me into hockey during one of Stingrays early seasons (Think it was 2006-7) back when we had Slava Koulikov and Tom Chamberlain.

Got myself a puck at the last game though

Clean sweep for Nottingham. Very impressive.

Hate the Panthers with a passion. Almost as much as I hate the Steelers, probably hate them both the same.

Hmmm quite.

The finals will always be a joke until played at a neutral venue back at Wembley arena would be good but will never happen.

Thats the problem with the EIHL when you have people like Neil Black & Dave Simms involved as the sport will never truly progress as they tend to only look after their own clubs interest instead of the sport as a whole.

Spot on. As far as I am concerned, there's a desperate need to reduce the import numbers. That way we can have a league that actually means something and has a decent geographical spread- the idea that Coventry is the southernmost team is a joke. I did once read that Neil Black said he had no interest in Guildford joining- Guildford are probably the biggest team outside the EIHL but can't afford that level as it stands.

Reduce the import levels, bring back Guildford, Basingstoke and Manchester and you've got a far more credible league and sport.