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!!

Oh come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant

Yeah I know we’re done with Christmas now – is it only me that can’t believe it’s already the middle of flipping January and it feels like months since pulling crackers and watching The Sound of Music on telly? But the ‘joyful and triumphant’ bit pretty much sums up last weekend for Lightning supporters.

It started a few days before with the news we’d signed Blaz Emersic. Even though I’ve been following Lightning for about a year, I still count myself as something of a novice, but even I knew that Blaz was a bit of a hotshot for Slough and a damn fine player – the only surprise was that he was even available in the first place. I bet I wasn’t the only one wondering how our results would go with rumours that Monir could be out of action for weeks, but in one fell swoop that changed with news of Mr Emersic’s arrival. Bit of a shocker to see such a curt, ungracious statement on the Jets’ website about it – not a single word of thanks for the man who was such a major influence for them last season. Pete Russell’s now told one of the local rags there that he “couldn’t thank (Blaz) enough” and “what he’s done has been unbelieveable especially last year”. Rearrange these words into a well known phrase: horse, door, stable, shut, bolted.

Anyway in one weekend, our newest player has already started earning his keep. I got to the Thunderdome on Saturday to the not entirely unexpected news that Monir wasn’t icing pointing to Blaz getting his maiden outing for us. Impressive to see him make that debut in a shirt with his name and number on the back and national colours on the front, so soon after signing him (lets face it how many times have we seen a new signing icing with no name and/or number on their kit (Jonas Hoog for Swindon last month, anyone?) A nice touch, so well done to those responsible J

Having only a couple of days’ preparation you could’ve understood if Blaz looked like he was still getting to know the MK boys.......but come face-off time, it looked pretty much like he’d never played anywhere else, working with Britts to set up Smults for the first of four goals.

Lightning vs Phantoms is always worth seeing; the Phantoms can be inconsistent. Whilst they can be a bit lacklustre, they’re also perfectly capable of giving their oppo a fright. Last Saturday the rubbish version turned up and from the word go, didn’t look like they could be arsed. Not to take a single thing away from our boys though – they were firing on all cylinders and played a nice calm, composed passing game. Refusing to get flustered by anything Potty could be bothered to throw at them, and calmly got on with the job of ramming their last defeat of us right back down their throats. 4-0.......job done.

Actually while I’m rambling about Potty, a mention for the right honourable horrible James Morgan. I’ve been told about his history with MK so I think I’m up to speed with why Lightning supporters hold him in such high regard....or not. And it was funny watching Nick mouthing off at Morgs on the ice while the rest of us mouthed off at him from behind the safety of the plexi...the poor love must hate coming to MK (hopefully). Although apparently he wasn’t that fond of coming here when he played for us..... Anyway I digress. My point being: how come Morgs looks SO consistently dead behind the eyes? Initially I thought he was giving an icy stare to the MKL supporters then I realised that his lights were on but nobody was home. You’d expect to see at least an occasional flicker of consciousness in two hours. Mind you, he DID fall over without any assistance from absolutely anyone last week so maybe not.

I coughed all the way through the Potty game and had a rough night, felt fairly sub-standard on Sunday morning and I admit to pondering not going to Guildford that afternoon. Nah....gotta be done. It was always going to be a match worth seeing - Lightning on a roll and Guildford arguably in a wobbly patch.

By the time we got to the Spectrum I realised why Jez Tibbetts hates the M1 and M25 so much. I’ve lived ‘daaahn saath’ for 24 years and I’m sure there’s been a 50mph limit on our bit of the M1 for most of that time, and there was more on the M25. Thankfully the Spectrum is easy to find though, unlike iceSheffield which was a bit of a magical mystery tour (thank God for Google Maps for iphone).

I’m rubbish at guesstimating attendances so I’ll leave it at saying we had a good number of supporters down there, loud and proud. We outsang the Flames supporters for the whole game and it was a superb, a really cracking atmosphere, brilliant banter and chants as always. Very funny when at 5-0 up we sang “We want six!” and the Flames lot finally woke up and sang “We want one!!” I’ve always wondered if our lads on the ice can make out what we’re singing or are they too busy concentrating on their game? (ha’way lads tell us!)

To summarise: Lightning made Guildford look VERY ordinary. I know I’m biased but if a complete novice (even more than me) wandered in, I don’t think they’d have identified the Flames as being 2^nd in the league. The boys were 2-0 up in 3 minutes and I wondered if I was hallucinating from too much Lucozade and paracetemol. Only 3 minutes into the second period and Blaz popped his MKL scoring cherry and we all went a little bit delirious.....WHAT a signing he’s turned out to be already!! Matty celebrated his goal by turning straight towards us all and cheering with us, and Grant had a fight that I don’t think many of us saw. Despite Guildford looking like they might’ve had a reviving cuppa in the first period break, the effect didn’t last and it was another straightforward win for the boys in black. A four point weekend – beating our local rivals AND one of the league frontrunners in the process – it doesn’t get much better! Thankyou Lightning, you made a lot of people very happy this weekend, and I bet we all hope you had a party on the way home J

So this weekend we face Telford in a double-header and while it’d be tempting fate to take anything for granted, fingers crossed that all will be well (I’m saying nowt else or it’ll all be my fault if it goes pear-shaped).

Let’s go Lightning!!!!!!!

'Frustration' and other Christmas games!

Hello and a belated Happy New Year – hope everyone had a great festive period and the snow didn’t spoil too many plans (but HOW good was it to have a proper white Christmas eh?!) I must’ve been good last year, as Santa brought me a Lightning away shirt!

Such a long break between Lightning games over Christmas was frustrating; quite ironic that a game believed to have originated in Canada was called off just because the weather got a bit Canadian!! I had visions of Nick, Monir, Smults and Lukas, looking out of their respective front windows at what must’ve seemed to them like a mere dusting of snow, and probably wondering what all the fuss was about! Peterborough import Chris Allen said recently if it snows overnight before a game in Canada, the team will go out in the wee small hours and shift what they can of the snow around the rink...hmmm, an idea for next time this happens?!!

I went back to the north east for a few days during the break to catch up with family and enjoy a sporting fix. Firstly, an EIHL game, Newcastle Vipers v Hull Stingrays. We’d seen them in October and it was absolutely dire...neither side particularly impressed, a very scrappy match, little in the way of atmosphere or support. I wore the same layers this time that keep me toasty warm at Lightning games, and even a hat. But I could’ve done with another few layers, another pair each of gloves and socks, a balaclava and probably a water bottle and electric blanket. Not to put too fine a point on it, it was feckin freezing in there...took me literally HOURS to warm up again properly afterwards!

The Vipers’ recent appeal for supporters to turn out in numbers had obviously hit a chord as there was a much bigger, more vocal crowd than when we last went. And the team themselves had much more about them because this certainly wasn’t the bore-fest it was last time. The Stingrays’ bus suffered a puncture en route and they’d arrived late, getting only 10 minutes on the ice to warm up, and I wondered if it would work against them. The home team put up a fight and for the first two periods they stayed in contention – but far from the lack of warm up time being a hindrance, it didn’t seem to bother the Stingrays; in the final period they put their foot on the gas and left with all the points.

But despite the improvement on our previous visit there, as Andy pointed out it was relatively poor for their league. And I admit he had a good point. One of the things I love about watching Lightning is the skill you see from our players – selling oppo players a dummy pass, the lightning-fast turns and flicks to get away from your oppo, etc – and it was fair to say there was nowhere near as much in the Vipers game. So while it was good to get a hockey fix, it was frustrating not to enjoy it anywhere near as much as I enjoy going to Lightning games. And I suppose it’s never as good when it’s not your ‘home’ team.

The following day, I had a catch-up with Sunderland AFC at their home game against Premiership newbies Blackpool. The omens weren’t good, post Christmas shopping traffic giving us a parking nightmare even though we’d set off in good time, and a mix-up when booking the seats meant we were on row 1, so you don’t get a fantastic perspective of the whole pitch. Sunderland came out firing on all cylinders and it looked like it’d be a case of when, not IF, the first goal came. Shot after shot was fired at the Blackpool goal but none went in – I was convinced there was an invisible forcefield around their goal. Blackpool succeeded where Bent, Gyan and Co couldn’t....we couldn’t lose to this lot, surely...??? How could I show my face at work having lost to bloody Blackpool??! Blackpool scored again at the end of normal time....and that was that. Four minutes of extra time was awarded, but we didn’t look like scoring if we’d played for another four days. We left, cold and frustrated for the second day in a row.

While I’d been away I’d kept a ‘weather eye’ on press coverage of Lightning as part of my new role, and it was great to see some profile-boosting stuff for the club. One of the papers in Swindon even picked up on our view that the near three week lay-off between games was a good thing as it gave our guys more time to rest and heal from injuries – and they’d countered it with Swindon coach Ryan Aldridge’s view that Lightning might be a little rusty so they'd take advantage if we were. Fighting talk! We’d see who was right, soon enough.

It was fantastic to get back to the rink after such a long mid-season gap – and what a fantastic, really noisy crowd had turned out for both sides!! It was a real pleasure to be there with such a great atmosphere which kept up all through the game – a real credit to both sets of supporters, and long may it continue. Having read on the MKIH forums that Grant wasn’t expected back until mid-January earliest, it was a lovely surprise to see him on the ice and ready for action again.

Certainly at first, it seemed like Ryan Aldridge just might’ve been right – Swindon looked determined not to be a pushover despite some dodgy recent results, and pushed Lightning every step of the way - punishing missed passes and any hint of hesitation, plus their keeper Disco Douglas was on top form, determined not to let anything past him. And for the first period he succeeded, as did Mettsey – 0-0 after 20 minutes.

The frustration continued in the second period when Swindon scored early - but Lukas evened it up only four minutes later with a powerplay goal, stoking up the atmosphere even more! Lightning came back more and more in the final period and played an increasingly physical game, but at the end of 60 minutes it was still a stalemate and overtime beckoned. Thankfully high-scoring Smults was the hero of the hour, ending the evening’s frustration and sending the home fans away very, very happy!

The following evening at Manchester wasn’t a good result for the boys; Monir was out injured so our strikeforce wasn’t as potent – and to be fair, last season Lightning were the team on form – this season it’s the Mancs, and better teams than us will lose to them before the season’s out. But the only way to deal with nights like that is look firmly forward: this Saturday we face local rivals Peterborough, and the bragging rights are up for grabs. Here’s hoping none of us leave the Thunderdome frustrated after that match!!