Pee-Wee & Squirt Teams Impress In Sheffield

Posted on November 7, 2008 at 2:25 pm by James Glover

6am on Saturday 25th October seen the pee-wee and squirt teams assemble at Belfast City Airport in preperation for the junior clubs first away trip to Sheffield where they would play the Norton Cyclones and Team Blackhawks.

Sheffield and the BIPHA Central Division is renowned as one of the most competitive hockey regions in the UK, with some of the best facilities and a vast number of teams in the surrounding areas improving the standard of hockey.

The weekend had been planned with military precision taking in the Team GB try-outs and the Belfast Giants v Sheffield Steelers double header meaning this would be a hockey fueled weekend and a real test for the young players.

After our flight to Nottingham East Midlands we boarded a luxury coach for the remainder of our journey to Sheffield with the new Cyclones flag taking pride of place in the window of the bus and the kids letting every truck driver on the southboud side of the M1 know that the Cyclones had arrived.

Ditching the bags at the hotel we headed out ten in bowling, calling into Frankie and Bennys on the way to fuel up on some pizza and drinks. The bowling could have easily ended up with some of the players being benched for the weekend as there was definately some cheating going on. The kids got the gutter barriers up and the bowling ball was bouncing about like an air hockey puck taking out the pins left, right and centre.  Meanwhile the parents who were too chicken to play, watched on laughing at the poor old coach getting a battering by a bunch of 11 year olds sliding on their knees, bowling backwards and pulling off some superman dives.

A short walk back to the hotel leaving just enought time to pop into the hockey shop and it was time for the Giants game in Ice Sheffield. The Giants came out strong but dropped a 3 goal lead and ended up tieing the game with the Steelers 3-3. For us that finished off a busy Saturday and they guys headed back to the hotel for some much needed sleep in preperation for the next days games.

The wake up call came far too quickly and it was time to get some breakfast. The parents looked like they could have all stayed in bed for another few hours but the kids were up and buzzing ready to get the skates on. Another luxury coach pulled up to the door, the equipment managers loaded the bus up and 10 mins later we were in the dressing room in Virtual Ice giving the team talk.

The squirts were up first against the Blackhawks and to everyones suprise they were giving the Sheffield team the run around and ended up eventual winners with an 8-0 scoreline. Straight afterwards the Norton Cyclones were up and the squirts again impressed playing an awesome 2 periods of hockey again coming out winners with a 1-0 scoreline. The Blackhawks v Norton game ended up with the Cyclones winning  5-1 leaving the final standings as:

Under 10 Standings: 1st: Northern Cyclones, 2nd: Norton Cyclones, 3rd: Team Blackhawks

The pee-wee team having looked on all morning picked up where the squirts left off against the Blackhawks playing end to end hockey. The guys took an early lead and never looked back rolling out 6-0 winners. Next up was Norton but with the guys now booming with confidence nothing could get in they way of the 100% weekend. The Cyclones had some players that could really play and you could see straight away who the danger guys were. Making sure we had our best players matched up against theirs we took the game to them and again took an early lead. Our passing was tape to tape and we got a few end to end rushes converted to pad out or lead. A communication breakdown in our defence let the Cyclones in to pull a goal back but it was all too late as our guys bagged another 2 at the far end of the rink to win the game 5-1. Mirroring the squirts games the Cyclones then beat the Blackhawks 4-3 leving the standings as:

Under 12 Standings: 1st: Northern Cyclones, 2nd: Norton Cyclones, 3rd: Team Blackhawks

Photos
Norton Cyclones
Team Blackhawks