Final cherry popped

Well there we are – the 2010-11 season is over and done with. Where did the time go? One minute I’m standing at the plexi watching the Ashes games musing over how I’ll probably never get my head around the rules, the next I’m fretting about which ref we’ll get at Coventry.

Whilst last season I went to the home leg of the play-off quarter final against Swindon and knew that the result meant MK wouldn’t play in Coventry, as I’d never been to a Coventry weekend at that point, I don’t think I fully appreciated what it really meant to the team and supporters.

Lightning went into the playoff quarters hot on the heels of a very dodgy period of form; in the run up to the quarters, the lads had won only five in 15 games. Basingstoke came to MK for the first leg and it looked like the phrase “throwing away the form book” really was true when we went 3-0 up in 8 minutes courtesy of Lukas, Clarkey and Smults....it felt like a dream. Unfortunately it was one of those dreams that takes an upredictable turn and you wake up in a cold sweat - Bison scored twice in just over two minutes but fortunately our lads held their nerve and finished the night with a goal advantage to take to Basingstoke.

In the car going down the A34 the following day we were all a bit anxious. To cut a long story short, the Barmy Army packed out the away seating and out-sang the home support all evening, Basingstoke drew level then MKL not only restored their advantage (cue delirium all round, me and Golly in tears shouting at each other “we’re going to Coventry!!!!!”) but Monir had all the time in the world to calmly cue up an empty net goal to send us all to heaven. We delayed the long journey home to meet other supporters in Wolfies bar and cheer in our team as they arrived, and had them wondering after a while why we were all cheering again – simple answer, Peterborough had put Slough out of the playoffs in their quarter final.

Two days before Coventry, I was at our rink, picking up my black and gold polo shirt for the weekend and watching the guys’ final training session. Dave Bunyan asked if I’d drafted a press release in advance – honest answer was no, it’d briefly crossed my mind to draft different versions but decided not to because I thought it might jinx it. The lads looked relaxed and happy on the ice, playoff beards were looking good, the ‘oldies’ were thrashing the ‘youngsters’ 5-0 after one period so we left them to it.

Coventry weekend arrived and Lightning had first game of the day, our semi final against Manchester Phoenix. I was nervous, I think most of us were – but I genuinely believed the Mancs were do-able. We made them look ordinary in January and frightened them a couple of times subsequently, there was no reason why we shouldn’t beat them again.

Walking into the Skydome it feels like walking into a huge ice hockey party: supporters of the top 8 teams all there even though only 4 of those teams will be competing, flags and fancy dress, although it’s got to be said that only MKL fans really did it properly – in the other team’s areas there were ‘pockets’ of fancy dress but nothing properly co-ordinated. Our theme for the Saturday was ‘wild west’ which ranged from the relatively ordinary checked shirts and stetsons (mine being bright pink with white fluffy trim), to the brilliantly ridiculous – inflatable horses and massive stetsons (all of which went out clubbing in Coventry that night). And not forgetting the backdrop to our area to make it look like a saloon bar. The team acquitted themselves VERY well – we went 2-0 up then a few seconds’ lack of focus saw the Mancs claw it back to 2-2. Overtime – cue butterflies, breath held, Leigh Jamieson winning the hearts of every MKL cowboy, cowgirl and horse in the house, Lukas trying to climb over the plexi to reach us, and absolute hysteria. One Manchester supporter had asked some Lightning supporters in a hotel lobby who we were going to support in the final because Nick Poole teams apparently only play one-dimensional hockey and we weren’t going to win – so that was nice to ram it down his throat... I’ll never forget meeting Vito on the way out of the rink, him giving me a big hug and saying “How was THAT for your first Coventry!!”

The second semi final, Guildford v Peterborough, was a much more relaxed affair, our lads had been for a meal after our game then came up into the stands to sit in amongst us all to watch the Guildford game before disappearing just after 9pm for their hotel a few miles away for an early night (Grant McPherson told me the following day that as far as he knows, they were the only team that went and sat with their supporters). Vito and Nick did the drinking with the fans on the players’ behalf, as did the weekend’s two refs, Messrs Cloutman and Thompson (a bone of contention the following day). Guildford demolished Potty – ‘game on’ for Sunday. We went home that evening but as we left you could practically feel the atmosphere gearing up for a good night – next year I’m SO staying over!!

Sunday, and the ‘uniform’ black and gold polo came out. Into the Skydome again and watched the end of the U18’s game, great to see up-coming talent getting a bit of limelight. Then the build-up to our game. Didn’t feel that much more nervous than the day before (but that wasn’t to last). Straight away you could see this was going to take quite some work, but the boys looked up to the task and took the lead only five minutes in, Monir passing to Smults – yaaaaaaaaaaay!! Then......who pressed the pause button? Video evidence – WTF?! Lightning had all the momentum and the stoppage to see if Smults was in the crease or not, took it all away. Apparently we were only told 10 minutes before face off that video evidence was going to be trialled in the final. Nice one, EPL....what a game to choose for the experiment. Flames were 3-1 up at the end of the first period, and at the start of the second, my nerves got the better of me. I don’t know WHAT prompted it but I just couldn’t watch, then I found myself sniffling, and considered my own ‘time out’ just to have a bawl and get it out of my system. It wasn’t that I didn’t think the guys could do it, I think it was just the intensite of the whole weekend landed on me all at once. I lasted til the end of the second period (although my mascara didn’t) and a quick chat with Warthog calmed me down. With 10 minutes left, we were all square at 3-3 and Flames looked like they’d lost the plot – game on, again...we might just nick this!! Then a penalty shot was called, Masa scored, we called a time out, Barry was pulled, Flames got a 5^th.......and that was that. Game over L There were some frayed tempers around the back of the Skydome afterwards, not helped, I guess, by seeing Farny helped into a car and driven to hospital – one of the Guildford players had elbowed him at the end of the game and rearranged his jaw.

But Lightning did us proud – despite how they all must’ve felt, to a man they all refused to leave the ice after accepting their medals, staying til the bitter end to applaud Guildford, despite how much it must’ve hurt.

Driving home and exchanging texts with other supporters, it turned out there were plans for a ‘welcome committee’ for the boys when they arrived back. I almost declined but I’m SO glad I didn’t!! Bud, birthday cake, crisps, Guinness, dolly mixtures..... When the boys walked through the rink from the changing rooms they were spotted and we all banged on the bar windows to get their attention – and their faces were pictures! We all gathered round in a horseshoe shape to sing them into the bar – they’d all given it 110% all weekend in Coventry, we were proud of them and wanted to show them. Luckily they know that we’re all confirmed but harmless lunatics, and seemed more than happy to chew the fat and have a few drinks with us all, and one of the giant stetsons made a reappearance, sported by Muzzy. Even Farny came along, straight from casualty, with the good news that his jaw wasn’t broken and his dashing good looks would be fine in no time at all, LOL – plus the Flames player who inflicted it will miss the first game of next season as a consequence. Grant and Smults were happy to talk to just about anyone, Ross ended up behind the bar, Jamie was several sheets to the wind by the time they even arrived, Muzzy was just.....Muzzy, Monir mischeviously instructed Jacob to put track 5 on the CD to get Smults dancing (it worked), I spent a bit of time talking to Farny and Dave Carmichael, then was walked to the fire escape by Jacob and Lukas. What a surreal but fantastic end to the season!

How long til the league starts again?!

Warning: ice hockey is bad for your sanity

It’s a funny old game, ice hockey. Sometimes funny as in humourous, sometimes funny as in strange, sometimes both at the same time. And tonight it feels like a bit of both.

I’m writing this blog entry an hour after Lightning lost on penalties to Slough Jets – our bogey team for this season. It’s almost like they’ve decided we got Blaz from them so we were having nothing else. We’ve come so close the last twice we’ve played them, but no cigar – and tonight the guys got closer than they have all season.

And tonight – for me anyway – it feels like we just lost the cup final. Which is stupid I know because on the face of it, this was a ‘nothing’ game. Last league game of the season, neither team would change league position regardless of the result. It was pretty much just a game to be got through. Yeah of course if we could beat Sluff in the process that’d be nice, but for me the main objective was not to pick up any injuries or needless suspensions.

The previous night at Basingstoke the guys had put in a much better performance than last week, when the manner of the defeat didn’t do much for anyone’s hopes of seeing the team play in Coventry. We’d gone ahead by two goals but the Bison clawed it back thanks largely to a Kubenko hat-trick – two of which came within 40 seconds – and we lost 4-3. Disappointing but at least our performance had improved. Why can’t we get a lead and keep it?

So off we went to the Thunderdome. It’s strange going to hockey games while it’s still light outside – in this case not just light but bright sunlight! Bought my copy of the fanzine as usual on the way in, with a very clever cover (lets just say I’ve never seen Nick looking like that before), chatted to Golly and Bubbs, all very stress free and ‘lets just get tonight over with so we can deal with the playoffs’.

There was a strange moment just after the first face off when I made eye contact with Grant McPherson as he strolled past with a coffee,..... then it struck me: why wasn’t he dressed and leaning over the edge of the bench waiting to get on the ice?! He got thrown out of last night’s game in Basingstoke...this wasn’t making sense. Spoke to Fiona in the first period break and she thought he might’ve crossed a penalty point ban threshold but neither of us were sure (as it turns out, she’s right).

At the end of the first period Lightning were 1-0 up and within only five minutes of the second period, we were 3-0 up. This was going so well, could we make it last? 40 minutes to go would be a long time in football – in ice hockey it’s a lifetime. I know this from painful experience when we were 3-1 up at an away game in October, and I said something about us taking the two points.....cue conceding two goals in 15 seconds, then losing in overtime.

An honourable mention at this point for “the young ‘uns” – Jacob Heron, Jamie Line and Ross Green, who were all having a fantastic game, getting lots of ice time and using it to prove their worth. Jamie in particular was playing like he was about to get drafted to the NHL, getting stuck in at every turn, body checking the opposition and not giving a damn if they were a couple of feet taller than him. Very funny moment in the second period when he skated down the wing alongside a MUCH taller Jets player, who playfully patted him on the head....and Jamie responded by jabbing him with his stick.

To cut a long and painful story short, we let a three goal lead slip and ended regulation time with three each. Overtime didn’t change anything and it went to penalties. Blaz missed......Monir missed.....they scored.....and Smults missed. Bugger.

And all through this, me and probably a fair few other MKL supporters had been checking the scores for Manchester v Swindon, and Telford v Guildford. The EPL title race had gone down to the wire: if Manchester won, they were champions regardless of what Guildford did. But if Manchester lost and Guildford won, the title went to Surrey. Not any old title.....OUR title. Regardless of what anyone thinks of Tony Hand he’s been key to Manchester’s fortunes this season and he was chucked out of the game very early on, giving Swindon hope of a fightback. Sadly it wasn’t to happen: Guildford stuffed Telford but Manchester kept a grip on their lead and our title finally headed north.

So, strangely, today’s game went from being a ‘nothing’ game to feeling like we’d lost the cup final at the death. I went through a few minutes afterwards when I didn’t even feel like speaking to anyone, I just felt choked, gutted, totally empty.

Of course it hurts when one of my 'other' teams lose: I was gutted that Williams did so badly in the Aussie GP this morning, and not particularly happy when Sunderland lost to Liverpool last week. But through geographical and financial issues, I don’t go to every F1 race (I wish!!) or Sunderland game. You just don’t get that ‘closeness’ with Premiership football teams and F1 teams. And even if you did, the players exist in such a rarified, protected world that the supporters don’t get anywhere even remotely close to them – heaven forbid they should actually have to meet supporters.

We can all identify with the MKL players. You can see they’re on cloud nine when they’ve won - or see their disappointment when a goal’s conceded. You can see how disappointed they are when they’ve lost a game and have to smile for photo’s afterwards. If they’ve won they’ll be happy in the bar afterwards and they won’t panic and look for a security guard if you go and talk to them. If they’ve lost, you can tell that they’re at least as down as you are about it, if not more. (Again it’s probably the mum in me that makes me want to give them a clip round the ear if they’ve played really badly, or give them a hug if I genuinely do feel sorry for them). They don’t go and jump in their Ferrari, zoom off to a swish apartment then lick their wounds about it until the next game; like most of us, these guys have jobs to go to. Infact Muzzy and Grant can empathise with supporters even more since last Wednesday’s away game at Sheffield – they couldn’t get an early finish from work and had to hot-foot it up the M1 as soon as they finished for the day, and arrived at Sheffield literally just before face-off.

So there y’go, I think I’ve got that off my chest now. Tomorrow I have to steel myself to ask Vito and Nick for their quotes for next week’s press releases, put this weekend behind us and hope for the best in next weekend’s play off quarter finals. What else can you do BUT get behind them?

I genuinely think the guys CAN get to Coventry. It’s going to be bloody hard work but I’m sure they’ll give it 100 per cent. This isn’t the time to start blaming individuals or saying so-and-so had a quiet game, or ‘x’ should be rested. It’s time to say “In Nick We Trust” (again) and get behind the team next weekend. Let’s go Lightning!!

Say hello, wave goodbye

Blimey – last league weekend already?! It feels like only five minutes ago that we were all looking forward to The Ashes (the ice hockey ones, not the cricket ones), but here we are sorting our wild west outfits ready for the play-offs. Okay so it hasn’t been a season to remember with relish like last season, but there’s definitely been some memorable events: stuffing the Bison 5-0 then twice beating them on penalties......beating Phoenix 6-3 and running them incredibly close last weekend......signing Blaz Emersic as soon as he became available......beating Flames 5-0 on their own ice...... putting 9 past Swindon......a seven game unbeaten run in the new year......Andre Payette telling us to “give it up” after we baited him all game in Sheffield.....watching Monir go the colour of beetroot when we sang his song at Bracknell as he sat behind us.....!!

Close season is going to be very strange – I’ve gone from weekends where ice hockey didn’t figure at all, to wondering what it’s going to be like without it. F1 started this weekend, so that’ll see me through – but ice hockey has the longest close-season of any of the sports I follow (football 3 months, F1 4 months, ice hockey 5 months).

This season’s been a very steep learning curve and there’s still a way to go, for me. I still think what I really need is someone much more knowledgeable than me, with patience, to point out things I should watch for in a game. But there are a lot of things that I *have* learned so far as a relative newbie...

1. It’s a phenomenally fast game. Keeping your eye on the puck to make sure you don’t get hit by one is the very least of it – just keeping track with which team’s in possession is hard work sometimes. Particularly when I go to games without my contact lenses.

2. Don’t even try to compare it with football as ‘another team sport’. Full contact vs non- contact took bloody ages to get used to, even now I’ll see one skater push another one and wait for the ref to blow for it, then remember in ice hockey it’s sometimes allowed.

3. The Thunderdome isn’t a particularly cold rink. Basingstoke is colder, Peatboghorror is freezing, Whitley Bay is too cold even for polar bears. At the other end of the scale, Slough is cosy and Sheffield is totally tropical.

4. Ice hockey rules, whilst seemingly random and unfathomable, are more flexible than football rules. In football, two yellows (or one red) and your team’s short-handed for the rest of the game – in hockey you have to pretty much murder someone to get a match or game penalty, so your team’s rarely short-handed for long (unless Nigel Boniface is reffing, then you can spend most of the game short-handed).

5. The referees in hockey get just as much grief as they do in football. Particularly if your surname is Szucks, Tottman or Boniface.

6. Same goes for some pundits and players. For Alan Green, read ‘Dave Simms’, and players like Nicky Chinn, Andre Payette, Shaun Yardley and Nicky Watt always get a warm welcome at the Thunderdome.....

7. Why would you WANT to be a nettie? Surely you have to be certifiable to want to get in the way of Lukas Zatopek firing a rock-hard frozen lump of rubber at you, at speeds that even Prof Brian Cox would struggle to grasp?

8. I’ll also never understand why you’d want to be a ref or linesman - less padding than anyone else on the ice, twice the abuse from the crowd, you have to break up fights between players the size of Marcus Kristofferson and Leigh Jamieson, AND watch for penalty instructions from Tony Hand.

9. Muzzy is always last off the line after the national anthem, and first on the scene at a good fight.

10. I hate watching the game from behind netting. At Sheffield you don’t have a choice in the matter so you just get on with it, but at least the netting’s actually white; at MK it could do with a good wash on a hot programme with a scoop of Glo-White.

11. Unlike in football, you can be playing a league AND a cup game at the same time – which I quite like, because you don’t then get boring empty weekends mid-season as you’re “concentrating on the league” again. (Yes, Sunderland, that’s you.)

12. Trying to think up even vaguely witty puns about your or your oppo’s team name for press releases gets harder the longer the season goes on. There’s only so many times I can use “Lightning strike twice” or say we kept the Steeldogs “on a tight leash”.

13. I learnt this season that annoying the coach before a match is not good. Next season in a change of tactics, I’ll annoy him afterwards instead (when he’s put that stick down and had a drink).

14. I also learned that two of our roster live literally around the corner from me, so I’m going round after the EOS doo to lock them in until they sign for next season.

15. There are some wierd and wonderful names in ice hockey. In no particular order: Pavel Gomeniuk, Darius Pliskauskas, Andrejs Maslovskis, Kurtis Dulle, Paul Sample, Dale Mahovsky (actually anyone called 'Dale' or 'Brad' is alright by me), Patrick 'Chewie' Forsbacka (used to play for Newcastle and sounds best pronounced with a broad north-eastern accent!), David Beauregard and Jeremy Van Hoof. And an honourable mention to the combination of Messrs Plant and Potts of Guildford.

16. Road games really are worth giving up a quarter of the weekend for. You get to cheer on Lightning AND spend time with some splendiferous people who are as sold on MKL as you are, sing daft songs at the oppo’s expense, natter about hockey until your heart’s content and generally have a bloody good time - there’s easily as much team spirit in the away end as in the away dressing room, and I can honestly say I’ve thorougly enjoyed every single awayday I’ve been on this season.

It’s been an absolute blast writing this column and if the fanzine will have me, I’m sure I’ll be back at least occasionally next season. For now, I’ll say it once more................LET’S GO, LIGHTNING!!!

Playing away

For me, one of the best things about this season has been discovering the ‘delights’ of various away rinks and the team spirit of awaydays. Living 250 miles away from my hometown, getting to Sunderland home games is enough of a logistical challenge before you even start to think about away trips – I really can’t remember what the hell possessed me to get a season ticket a few years ago, living so far away and being a wife and mother, working full time, and studying for my CIM qualification. Every home game was like an away game and I spent an entire season absolutely knackered....but no, if I could do it all again I wouldn't change a thing.

Home trips to see MK Lightning are obviously much easier, all done in about three hours. Living only a mile from the rink definitely helps. I don’t usually extend that by going to the bar afterwards – I’m not being unsociable, but I don’t drink beer unless it’s Peroni Gran Riserva, I’m picky about wine, I don’t really like cola/lemonade and the only cider I’ve found upstairs at Planet Ice is too sweet for me (sorry, that all makes me sound a bit high-maintenance but I’m not. No, really I'm not...) So if you do see me in the bar it generally means I need to corner Vito or a player about PR, or I have a sudden, inexplicable craving for Kopparberg.

MKL away trips have been an absolute blast this season – I remember saying when I first started this column how much I enjoyed the friendly atmosphere around ice hockey in MK and that feels magnified at away games. I can totally understand if people choose not to go to away games for whatever reason, but if you’ve never been to one and get the chance or the inclination strikes you, you really should give it a go. I’ve met some lovely people and seen some absolutely corking matches at away rinks this season and I’d recommend it to anyone. Humungous thanks to Jan, Dave, Bubbs and obviously my lovely and very understanding hubby, without whose help I wouldn’t have enjoyed those awaydays because I don’t drive!! So with all that in mind, here’s my little summary of just three of the rinks I’ve been to this season:

Venue: iceSheffield

Travelling companions: Jan (driving), Jan’s son Matt, and Golly (you know what? I *still* don't know what Golly's real name is...)

Time from MK to venue: A shade under two hours. Yes really, officer.

Route: M1 north, exit at junction 34, take the 2^nd left (I think), up that road past TGI on the left and Meadowhall on the right, past a budget hotel and it’s on the left.

Travel soundtrack: Matt’s choice of mainly guitar-based tracks from his ipod.

What’s it like there: New and shiny! Well it feels new-ish anyway. Not just one, but two ice pads. And two zambonis! Posh gits ;-o You don’t get a ticket, they stamp the back of your hand with a blue inky paw-print thing that stays put for at least two days afterwards and you’ll get fed up with explaining to people at work what it is. Decent bar with comfy seats, pool tables and tellies. Strangely warm in the seating area, you don’t need to get wrapped up at all really. No pillars obstructing the view but you’re behind netting, which I really hate. Not much atmosphere unless you make it yourself, but the scattered home supporters have a drum AND a trumpet.

What happened last time: Lightning stuffed the puppydogs 5-0. Little Archie Hollyhead got a bit over-excited watching his daddy play, and was ick everywhere, bless. It was Jamie Line’s 21^st and also Monir’s birthday that weekend so Jan made ‘happy birthday’ mini-posters and some of us held them up at the plexi during warm-up...cue strange looks from the players who saw them. Radders is still wearing his MKL shorts, Andre Payette didn’t endear himself to anyone so Jan, Golly and Carole baited him all evening and he eventually bit, so we left him alone after that.

Venue: Basingstoke

Travelling companions: Dave (driving), Emms, Jan and Golly. Jan’s humbugs got another outing (oo-er missus).

Time from MK to venue: 1 hour 35 mins. Bloody miraculous considering it’s in Hampshire.

Route: From MK cross country to Brackley, M40 then A34 past Oxford and Didcot...after that I have no idea at all, Dave’s satnav did the work. Home via the M3, M25 and M1.

Travel soundtrack: Dave’s ipod ice hockey playlist.

What’s it like there: Looks quite nice from the outside but nowhere near as smart inside. Cold...but in its defence, this rink has a cunningly concealed Costa Coffee bar, so it scores extra brownie points with me for that (no, really I'm honestly not high maintenance!) Quite cold, so extra layers definitely needed, unlike Sheffield. You sit quite high upstairs in the stands but you get an unobscured view of the ice pad. Only 5 minutes walk to the regulation McD’s or KFC for scran before the drive home.

What happened last time: DJ Rob's dad decided that hockey was really quite addictive. Lightning really gave the Bison a game, took the lead, then they fought back, it went to overtime and we won on penalties.....nailbiting stuff. We sang the probably predictable “MK Reject“ at Mindy and something much less polite at Chinny. Their DJ needs more records though as we got really hacked off with all that “put your hands up in the air” nonsense, every other sodding time.

Venue: Sluff (‘The Hangar’)

Travelling companions: My other half (driving) and Jan. Andy wasn’t well (aww).

Time from MK to venue: 1 hour 5 mins. Gummy sweetie dinosaurs en route, nom nom nom.

Route: Hubs fancied the idea of MK – Aylesbury and down through the Chalfonts but in the end we did M1, M25 and M4.

Travel soundtrack: Various stuff from my iPod and footy commentary on Five Live.

What’s it like there: Like Basingstoke, looks better from outside than in. It’s just....SMALL. Pokey. And dark. The curved roof that obviously prompted the ‘Hangar’ nickname is enough to give you claustrophobia. And there are stupid curved supporting ‘beams’ that get in the way depending on where you sit. Small cafe-bar that charges £1.50 for a ridiculously small hot drink that they take ages to make and lasts you about 30 seconds. On the plus side, loads of room to hang the big MKL flag, and if you’re so inclined you can sit right behind our bench (not for the easily offended as there’s a fair bit of effing and jeffing. I know, you wouldn’t expect it as our players all look so angelic, but it was “flipping” this, “chuffing” that.....) Mind you, I've heard it wasn't much better in WAGs corner...

What happened last time: Nasty Nigel Boniface was reffing and was late due to being stuck in traffic. Some would say he should've stayed there. The lads got closer to beating Sluff than they have all season, they really battled, took the game to the hosts and got to 3-3............but it wasn’t to be – but it absolutely wasn’t for the lack of trying.

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It’s been fantastic joining the band of good-humoured, dedicated MKL supporters who turn up at away games as well as home, bang the drum and sing the songs – there have been very few groups of away supporters come to the Thunderdome who make as much noise as MKL fans do when we travel, so I just hope the team appreciates how lucky they are!!

"Love and Pride" - King

Back to the song titles for my column titles (hehe, how many of the young ‘uns will remember THAT one?!), as pride is the overwhelming feeling for me in relation to MK Lightning this week, and there was a lot of love for a little lady in the Thunderdome last weekend. You know the old saying, “Some people think football is a matter of life and death, I assure you it’s much more serious than that” - well even if you substitute ‘football’ with ‘ice hockey’ it’s still not true - and events that were the background to last week’s home game against Guildford were proof of that.

Lightning were fund raising for six year old Millie D’Cruz last Saturday. Last summer she was diagnosed with Metachromatic Leukodystrophy, which only a handful of people in the UK have, and probably won’t live beyond her teens. Treatment to slow the illness will cost at least £200,000. Nick, Vito and Smults found out about Millie when they went to her school last month, for the MKL Schools Enterprise Scheme and pretty much within an hour or so of their visit, I had an email from Nick saying Lightning were involved and we needed, in his words, to “sing this from the rooftops”.

We involved Millie’s parents every step of the way, they even saw our press releases before they went out, so that they knew exactly what we were going to say. The Supporters’ Club decided to give the proceeds of “Natty’s Grid” from the Guildford game to the fund, as well as collecting on the night. I got in touch with Guildford Flames’ management who immediately agreed to publicise what we were doing on their official website, so their supporters travelling to MK that night would know what we were doing. And Olivetti very generously donated a netbook computer and case as the “Natty’s grid” prize!

Ice hockey’s treated as a minority sport and most teams struggle to get decent exposure beyond local newspapers and hockey websites (one of the local TV channels recently featured indoor bowls rather than ice hockey). So I could tell it might be a strange day when I was asked on the morning of the game if I’d heard from the German TV channel RTL, as they wanted to come and film at the match....hmmmm?!!

In the second period I caught up with the guys from RTL, Bob Stott the chairman of the trustees of Millie’s fund then with the young lady herself, her parents and some friends, and they all seemed to be thoroughly enjoying their evening. One lady told me that they were really enjoying it...didn't understand the rules at all, but it didn't matter - which, some evenings, is pretty much how I feel about it!!

Millie’s a beautiful little lady and it was great to meet her after hearing and writing so much about her. She looked slightly overawed by the occasion, but I guess when you're six it must be hard to take in that all this fuss is for you. And at the end of the match it was absolutely amazing to hear that nearly £1,700 had been raised for her treatment fund - £500 of that from Natty’s Grid and £300 from the bucket collections!

But for me the best bit was seeing Millie and her family and friends all on the ice for a photograph with the team after the game – it was such a lovely conclusion, fantastic to see that mass of happy faces. I know it’ll sound soppy but it felt like there was such a lot of ‘love and pride’ going on at that point – I felt so proud to be a small part of what we ALL achieved for Millie that evening – team and supporters alike. Scroll to the bottom of this article to see one of the official presentation pics, courtesy of one of our brilliant match photographers, Tony Sargent.

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But there’s no getting away from the fact that Lightning failed to win last weekend. To put things in perspective, just look at the stats. If you ONLY look at recent results you could correctly say the lads have lost 3 of their last 4 games. BUT...look at the bigger picture. They’ve won 10 of the 15 games since Christmas. They won seven on the bounce including beating the Mancs 6-3, and stuffing Guildford 5-0 in their own barn! Yes they COULD have got stuffed 5-0 by the Mancs last weekend..but they didn’t. I wasn’t there but I saw a few posts on the forum saying the guys only ‘turned up’ for 10-15 minutes. But that was the period where they put 4 goals away and by all accounts made life very uncomfortable for the Tony Hand and his merry men. And the previous night it looked like they’d get stuffed by the Flames. But they didn’t...... you could say it was too little, too late - alternatively you could say that any fightback is better than no fightback at all.

It’s a marathon not a sprint, there’s still six weeks to go of the season, and just because the lads’ form has wobbled recently doesn’t mean it’s the beginning of a downward spiral. I bet you that however much losing hurts us the supporters, it hurts the players even more. There’s still so much to play for and some absolute crackers of games still to come – including a rescheduled MKL v Manchester fixture. I know everyone’s entitled to an opinion but in MY opinion, you’ve really got to look at the bigger picture rather than rush to concede defeat. As the saying goes, “Keep calm and carry on”...carry on getting behind the lads. Let’s go, Lightning!!!!!!!!!!!

Fairground attraction

To quote Ronan Keating, life is a rollercoaster and it certainly has been for MKL supporters. After seven wins we were chucked right off our pedal-boat recently and onto the big dipper – candy floss not included.

I suspect most of us were still on a high from beating the Mancs, so it was a long way to fall when Flames got their own back for us for dousing them 5-0 at the Spectrum a few weeks earlier. I really didn’t enjoy the game – not because we lost, I can cope with that – it was just too niggly, too nasty. Muzzy got into one helluva ruck with Liddiard, who continued trying to thump seven kinds of you-know-what out of him even when he was down on the ice, and Mr L duly got chucked out of the game. It must be the motherly side of me that makes me wince when I see any of our players roughing – my first reaction is to want to separate them myself, clip them around the ear and tell them off for fighting with the other kids, but when fights get nasty, I get concerned – and for a few seconds I was genuinely worried about our Muzzy.

The following day and a road trip to Bracknell, driving courtesy of Dave aka Warthog. G-Man and Michal Pinc had an altercation which continued in the sin bin, and it was a close thing for a while whether we should be watching the game or the sin bin for maximum entertainment. Nicky Watt came round to mouth off at the MK faithful but met his match in Lightning’s lovely Jan who called him a flipping twit (or something like that) but the security guard by the box wouldn’t let him through, so he skulked off back to his cage. Pinc swung a left hook round the plexi at G-man so they both ended up leaving the action early, and when Grant tried a low key exit from the changing room to come and watch the game, we blew his cover with a loud chorus of his song. After the second period break he and Monir came and sat just behind us, and we treated Monir to a rendition of his song, too. I swear I’ve never seen anyone go THAT deep a shade of red..... A fantastic evening in the company of Dave, Jan, Golly and Vito's wife Mickie, plus an introduction to Blaz's partner Sylvia, who was excited about 'Red Hot Blaz Night' a couple of days later. All in all, a fab time was had by all. I'm starting to really enjoy road trips!

The following weekend and time for Sluff vs MK - strangely, a Saturday road trip rather than Sunday. Bubbsy, Louisa and Golly allowed me to join them and we hit the M1 just before 4pm on Saturday. On the way down, Bubbs had Five Live's ongoing football coverage on the radio, and we chuckled about how Arsenal were throwing away a 4-1 lead to the Mags....how careless! We parked just as a young blonde lady stepped out of her car nearby and strode off towards the rink. It couldn’t be........could it? Yup – Joy Tottman. Bugger. We guessed she wasn’t there just to spectate. We grabbed viewing spots right behind the away team bench, so it was great to be able to watch the dynamic between the lads, see their reactions when they went on and off the ice, hear them shouting encouragement to each other.

To cut a long story short, the lads found themselves 4-1 down, early in the second. Dubbsie shouted at Sluff, "Arsenal couldn't keep a lead and neither will you" - and he was only blimmin right! :) Nick called time out and within six minutes we were even at 4-4....fantastic!! It wasn’t to be our night though and we lost, going back to MK empty handed. The speed of players like Calder and Sheppard was absolutely gobsmacking; once they broke away, they were pretty much uncatchable. At Slough we were beaten by the better team, as opposed to being bullied out of the game the previous week. And Joy had a half-decent game too.

If nothing else though, we know Lightning have bouncebackability and it was there in buckets on Sunday at the Thunderdome, as the boys quickly recovered from 0-2 down to even the scores. Nick and the lads subsequently threw everything at the Bison goal but nothing went in, but it was satisfying to see the guys so in control of the game. So then....penalties. I hate penalty shoot outs with a passion, a hangover, I reckon, from THAT football play-off final in May 98 at Wembley, Sunderland vs Charlton. Carrsy stepped up first, looking cool as a cucumber that’s been on manoeuvres in the Arctic for six months....job done. Barry saved Bison’s first attempt – woohooooo! Then nerves got the better of me and I literally couldn’t watch. I was standing with Andy at the plexi in front of F block and turned my back on the ice. Daft, I know because it’s not like it was for the cup or the playoffs, it was “just” a league game. But it’s never “just” any old game with Lightning.... Andy said Blaz was skating on for our second, and I turned back just in time to see him collect the puck and slot it away with not a hint of bother. Bison missed their second penalty and that was that....the two points were ours. It was a fantastic feeling....and the lads on the ice were celebrating like they’d won the league all over again. What a night!

It’s been a rollercoaster of a season too, and it’s not over yet by a long chalk. For a start, we’ve still got four games in hand and one of those is against the Mancs at our barn – another epic to look forward to! The addition of Blaz has given the team extra depth and options, and it’s going to be SO good when Monir comes back...I’m PROPER missing him on the ice: when him and Smults are on the ice at the same time it’s sublime - you can almost see them reading each others’ mind.

I know you can say "some you win, some you lose" but for me it's always going to hurt when the guys lose. I suppose we were spoiled a bit with seven wins on the bounce, but even so - I hate to see them lose. The MK Lightning rollercoaster is in full flight – I know some people (me included) don’t like the big dippers, but to paraphrase Michael Schumacher (I know some people don’t like him either), experiencing the lows makes you appreciate the highs even more!

Changing priorities

So then, how good was last weekend's hockey, eh? EH?!! I don’t mind admitting that from getting out of bed on the day of the Manchester game, I was nervous. Nervous in a way that I used to reserve solely for Sunderland vs Newcastle derby games.

I kept looking at my watch to see how long it was until we left for the rink. How long it was until face-off. How long until it’d all be over and we’d know the result. Would I be coming home afterwards on a massive high or low? Even I knew what a big game this was. The Mancs want our title, and we don’t want to give it up without a fight... ‘specially not to them. All that rubbish about G-Man and some ‘code’ after he DARED take on The Untouchable One (aka Tony Hand MBE....Mighty Big ‘Ead)

The Mancs have also signed a fine example of Neanderthal Man, better known as Andrew Sharp. Even TUO has admitted that he didn’t sign Mr Sharp for his playing ability, and I quote: “I’m not bringing him in for his skilful play. He’s tough and he’s willing to drop the gloves at any time. It will help the guys and give them a bit more confidence” Sorry? Can’t they just play a decent, skilful game of hockey and take their confidence from that? If they’re not doing well, they set their pet Rottweiler on the oppo?

As Saturday went on, the butterflies set in. I won a bottle of whisky in a raffle recently but it sat unopened – neither me nor hubby drink it (to be accurate, I can’t even stand the smell of the stuff since I drank rather a lot of it one night in Dalgety Bay a few years back) and crossed my mind to take it to the game and hand it around the rest of the behind-the-scenes team at the Thunderdome, help settle a few nerves!!

My preoccupation with Saturday’s game almost obliterated any concerns I might’ve had about my former love, football – and Sunderland facing Blackpool. I checked the score, wondered how Kieron Richardson suddenly got good, briefly hoped Blackpool wouldn’t equalise and that was that. How priorities change. Don't get me wrong - I'll never stop supporting Sunderland, I'm just out of love with football in general, but the manner of Darren Bent's departure recently didn't help. SAFC have been in my bloodstream too long to give up on them completely and theirs will always be the first result I look for on a Saturday afternoon....but it's not the sport it once was.

Got to the rink on Saturday night and the first reaction was just WOW....it was SO full, and this was with half an hour still before face off! Lots of people from my work were there – I’m always banging on about hockey rather than footy on a Monday morning (another change in priorities), now it was my colleagues' turn to see what a fantastic sport this is. But it was amazing to see the rink SO full...one of those moments when I was incredibly proud to be involved with MK Lightning.

The butterflies were in residence right until the first goal. Phoenix looked like they had every intention of giving our boys a full-on workout. They were confident on the puck, not afraid to pass it around. But as the first period went on, our boys got their teeth into the game and were first to score – and the butterflies disappeared. They must’ve escaped out when the cheer lifted the roof off Planet Ice!!

To summarise: there was no looking back after that. There was only a brief period of any concern when Kristofferson scored twice but there were no signs of panic from Nick and the lads – they kept calm and the win was theirs. Top of the league? You’re ‘aving a larff!! Absolutely magic....lots of happy supporters and lots of happy players in the bar afterwards – a change from the previous week when despite having stuffed Telford, the final whistle shenanigans seemed to leave them a bit flat.

I love Sundays: a proper lie-in, no dashing around, just enjoying being at home. But Sunday gone I found myself in the car with MKL’s ticketing lady Jan, her son, and Golly, all heading for Sheffield...all of us I think still on a high from the Manchester game. Sheffield’s a bloody long way away, Yorkshire for a start, half way back home to Sunderland and that’s a journey I don’t do often. But for the cause of supporting Lightning I gave up an afternoon at home – how times change! It was worth it though – good hockey craic in the car there and back, Jan and Golly helping with my hockey ‘education’, watching a Lightning game is NEVER time wasted, and a really good giggle during warm up: Jan told us it was Monir’s birthday and Jamie Line’s 21^st so she’d done some ‘happy birthday’ posters - and some praising Nick’s coaching. So while the guys were warming up we held them up to the plexi, and the looks on their faces were priceless!! Lukas tried to make out he wasn’t looking then couldn’t help laughing, Carrsy did a rubbish job of making it look like he hadn’t seen us, Farny looked mildly amused, Jamie looked a bit embarrassed at the attention and Nick read them, laughed, skated off, then did a double take and shook his head... They don’t call us 'Nick Poole's barmy army’ for nothing...

Back to work this week and a colleague was talking to me about Formula 1, my other long-term sporting love apart from football. I’ve followed F1 on and off since the mid 70’s and love it. My keyring is a McLaren one with earplugs in, I’m the Williams team’s official stalker and everything stops on Sunday afternoons when there’s a race on. But I had to admit to my colleague that I had no idea when ANY of the teams were launching this year’s cars or even when pre-season testing started - things that are normally tattoed on my mind. I normally get F1 close-season withdrawal symptoms but since the last season ended, the only sport I’ve really paid proper attention to is ice hockey. Blimey, this isn’t me!!

So supporting Lightning now takes priority over football and even F1 when it’s the close season, changing the habits of a lifetime. Not sure I’ll do every single Lightning away game as I need a bit of weekend calm occasionally, but I’ll sure as damn it be at our rink every home game!!