Firstly happy new year, I hope everyone had a good festive period and are now looking forward to the year ahead.
For the Vipers, post Christmas turned out well with unexpected wins in Hull and Belfast. The result at the Odyssey was a huge one for the club considering it was two league points but more importantly a place in the Challenge Cup semi-finals. A major boost to the club on the ice and for the business considering the recent issues with the ownership and cash flow problems. Looking back at the start of December I personally would never have thought that the club would be around right now, never mind in a big semi-final like it is. That’s testament to Jaimie, Danny and all the players who have stuck together and worked hard which is why the club is still here today. The Vipers will be playing Cardiff or Nottingham in the semi with the dates almost confirmed, I don’t think we’ll get past either of those but the additional revenue and effect on confidence for the players are much more important at the present time.
Cardiff are a runaway train at the moment aren’t they? Brent Hughes was telling me the other day that the Devils defence was one of the best D’s he has ever came up against, saying that their gap control was their strong point. Cardiff didn’t start the season well and I wrote them off, but fair play to G and Franny they’ve got their team playing extremely well and other than Sheffield I can’t see anyone matching them for the league championship.
As many of you’ll already know I’ve had a lot of involvement with Ice Hockey in Newcastle over the years and one guy I gained a lot of respect for Rob Wilson. Born in Toronto, Rob doesn’t see himself as Canadian, his father was from Glasgow so he sees himself as British first and Canadian second. Rob is one of the most passionate people in the sport and wants to see it do well in the UK, he personally invested a substantial six figure sum into the Vipers, what I would call crazy but he wanted and still wants hockey in the North East to do well. I got him his job in Italy with Neumarkt Egna in the second league which is a move he should of made two or three years ago. The team he joined have been a bottom end team for sometime now and played in an outdoor rink. However, this season they have moved into a new purpose built rink (in a village with 5,000 people) and are a club going places. Neumarkt are one of the lower budget teams in A2, but despite this he’s taken them into second with the team just above him having a much superior budget. They’ve still got a chance of winning the championship there and I really hope he gets his rewards this season as I think he is someone who deserves it.
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