Recap Northern Ireland’s Superleague Trip…

Posted on March 5, 2009 at 5:33 pm by Clark Caughey

Keep up to date with the the Northern Ireland Regional team this weekend as they venture across Irish Sea to compete against the UK’s best players in the BIPHA Superleague for the very first time.

The Northern Ireland squad open their competition at 10.15 am on Saturday morning against Scotland and the Cyclones website will be providing score updates and news from Rotherham as the weekend progresses.
FIXTURES / RESULTS
Sat – 10.15am – Northern Ireland 5-5 Scotland
Sat – 12.30pm – Northern Ireland 1-7 Southern
Sun – 09.00am – Northern Ireland 1-5 North East
Sun – 10.30am – Northern Ireland 1-1 Wales
Sun – 12.00pm – Northern Ireland 3-9 Central
BLOG
Sun 14.32pm – And it’s all over, no fairytale ending for Northern Ireland as a 7-5 win by Scotland puts us out of the competition. A 5th place finish for NI’s first Superleague appearance is a good achievement and has helped to put Northern Ireland on the map with the rest of the BIPHA regions. A big thank you to Graham and Jock for the work they have put in this weekend, from organising hotels and transport to making sure we were well fed and watered, it is much appreciated!

Sun 12.43pm – There’s still hope. Currently NI, Scotland and Wales are tied for fourth spot with NI leading by goal difference. If Wales and Scotland tie this afternoon NI will earn a place in the semis. Fingers crossed

Sun 11.19am – Just off the rink after an agonizing game with Wales. After taking the lead shorthanded in the first we managed to maintain a 1-0 lead until 2 seconds of the final period when a scramble in the crease saw the puck trickle over the line. This all but rules us out of the semis as we need a win against the favorites Central in our next game.

Sat 15.13pm – After day one of BIPHA Superleague action Northern Ireland are sitting in 4th place. Although disappointed about letting the Scots back into the game I think if you would have offered us a draw last night we would have taken it. The scoreline of our second game against Southern England probably isn’t a fair reflection of how we played. The Southern team are very good at moving the puck which meant we spent most of the game chasing them. At half time we managed to hold them to a 2-0 lead however in the second period thier speed and movement exposed us.

Sat 11.20am – We just opened our tournament with a draw against Scotland in a game we probably should have won after going 3-0 up. Credit to the Scots who tied the game in the last minute.

Fri 19.53pm – Just arrived in Leeds without dramas. Well, apart from our pilot announcing we had landed in Belfast or our sticks arriving 10 mins later than our kits. Just found out that the North West England team have pulled out of the tournament. We’re now on the bus to Rotherham. More updates later.
NORTHERN IRELAND ROSTER
Goaltenders
Brian Morrow
James Brodie

Defensemen
Tony Sinton – Richard Grace
Clark Caughey – Nicky Russell
Neil Braid – Daniel Macklin

Forwards
Richard Maxwell – Dave Nicolai
Kevin Kerr – Michael Patrick
Steven Ewen – Simon Laverty
Darren Browne
STATS