SASH Juniors claim 2^nd place at 2007 BISHA national Regional Championship

 

Twenty-four hours after the BISHA 2007 Regional Peewee Championships at Rotherham; Skate Central in Sheffield hosted this year’s British Inline Skater Hockey Association’s national Regional Junior (U-18s) Championships and Swindon Skater Hockey Club were again well represented with the selection of three of their Junior team players, Will Crowder and, brothers, Shaun and Craig Davies.

Defender and Junior Flames Team Captain, Shaun Davies and forwards Craig Davies and Will Crowder were picked for the Southern Area Skater Hockey (SASH) Junior team. Shaun, who earlier this month won a bronze medal while representing Great Britain at the 2007 IISHF European Junior Championship in Switzerland, was also chosen to captain the side who, after finishing as runners-up in both 2005 and 2006, were hoping that it would be a case of third time lucky as they attempted to emulate the SASH Youth team by winning the 2007 Regional Championships.

The SASH Juniors, who were selected from the Swindon Flames, Oxford Hurricanes, Ash Avalanche, Shene Youngbloods, Wheatley Wildcats, Heathrow Reapers and Reading Rhinos league teams, opened their tournament with a face-off against opponents from the London and Eastern association (LESHA). Determined to get their Championship campaign of to a good start the SASH team hit the ground running and powered their way to the period break with three unanswered goals. The second period saw the LESHA team regroup and mount a concerted effort to claw themselves back into the game. With only 5 minutes left on the clock, a lapse in the concentration of the SASH team allowed the Londoners to pull back two late goals and ensure a nail-biting end to the match. The SASH defence, stung by conceding so late in the game, managed to regain their composure and bravely held out until the final whistle and SASH deservedly secured a 3-2 victory and claimed their first tournament points.

SASH next faced co-hosts BISHA North II, and buoyed by their earlier win, the team comfortably earned another two Championship points with a confidant 4 – 0 win over the Northerners.

Game 3 of their campaign saw the SASH team unceremoniously brought crashing back to earth when they met co-hosts, and last year’s national Regional Champions, BISHA North I. The team from the North brushed aside the SASH challenge and recorded a convincing 4- 0 victory, their third win of the competition, which took them to the top of the round-robin table and guaranteed them a finals place.

The SASH sides own hopes now rested on the result of their last match against South Eastern (SESHA). The game was effectively a semi-final as both teams were still in contention for the remaining finals spot. SASH, however, enjoyed the luxury of knowing that to progress SESHA would have to win by at least a three-goal margin.

The SASH team hit the rink with avengeance, determined not to allow their slight advantage to lead to any complacency and quickly overwhelmed their opposition in a blistering first period which saw both Shaun and Craig Davies of The Swindon Flames getting on the score card and SASH reaching halftime 5-1 up. With one eye on finals the SASH team paced themselves throughout an energy-saving second half adding a solitary goal to finish the game 6-1 victors and securing a place in the 2007 national Regional final.

In the final, the SASH team faced-off against BISHA North I, the only team to have beaten SASH in the round-robin stages and the reigning Regional Champions. The Northern side started the match in the best way possible, making the most of their opportunities in front of goal and within the first 2 minutes SASH found themselves two goals down. After a disastrous start the SASH side began to settle and stubbornly

resisted the Northern onslaught with enough success to reach the period break without conceding another goal. The second half period saw much of the same with a strong Northern side piling the pressure on the SASH side. As the game progressed the unrelenting strain began to tell and SASH eventually succumbed losing the final 4 –1, leaving BISHA North I to pick up the trophy as the 2007 national Regional Champions

Swindon Flames Junior manager, Sandra Lewis, said, “The inclusion of Will. Shaun and Craig in a very strong Regional squad was well deserved, all three have played well throughout the season for the Swindon Flames and their efforts over the weekend undoubtedly made a difference to the team and the results and ultimately helped the SASH team’s strong showing at the Championships.”

Following the impressive performance of the Juniors; hot on the heels of their successes in the Youth and Peewee tournaments, SASH are undoubtedly one of the county’s leading Skater Hockey associations and Swindon Skater Hockey’s Flames players have been instrumental in SASH’s quest for National honours.

Les Satchell, Swindon Skater Hockey Club’s Chairman said, “ As a club we are very proud to have had eight of our players selected for the various SASH Regional sides this year and congratulations must go to Jack Townsend, Megan Salisbury, Hannah Archer, Matt Baxter, Adam Rose, Will Crowder and Shaun and Craig Davies, not only for their initial selections but also on their valuable contributions in the regional Championship teams. It is a great testament to the success of the excellent, ongoing development programme being run at all levels throughout the club that Swindon Flames have been so well represented at Regional level.”

                    Swindon Trio - Craig Davies, Shaun Davies and  Will Crowder