NG - UK Sporting milestone...

L

LancsGordoRoad

Vital Champions League
Congratulations to 18 year old Liam Kirk from South Yorkshire who, in Dallas yesterday, became the first ever British born and trained National Hockey League (ice hockey) draft pick, when selected by the Arizona Coyotes. This is a marvelous achievement by the Sheffield Steeler player and hopefully a sign that the game in the UK is growing. It follows the promotion, a few weeks back, of the Great Britain ice hockey team to the elite Pool A in World hockey.

If you`ve never been to an ice hockey game why not give it a try (season starts in late Aug) I`d definitely recommend it.
 
Twenty years ago the Medway Bears used to draw decent crowds to the ice bowl at Gillingham Business park. I enjoyed it. Not sure whether the current team up there pull in crowds or not to be honest.
 
The Bears were a good team playing at a good standard and at their peak were drawing around 2K crowds. The current outfit (Invicta) don`t get such high crowd numbers and play a league below the one the Bears played. Over the years, however, the Ice Bowl has produced some very good local talent, many of whom have gone on to play elsewhere for higher calibre teams.
 
Seen the Invicta Dynamos a few times, and is always good entertainment. Don't wear shorts though, even if it's summer!
 
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Congrats to Liam but a couple of Scots have him beat. Tony Hand was drafted by Edmonton in 1986 and Colin Shields by Philadelphia in 1990. Played with Tony a few times in Dundee nearly 20 years ago.
 
Prosecutor said:
Congrats to Liam but a couple of Scots have him beat. Tony Hand was drafted by Edmonton in 1986 and Colin Shields by Philadelphia in 1990. Played with Tony a few times in Dundee nearly 20 years ago.
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You`re right Prosecutor, I should have said first English player. Tony Hand was a great player and many thought that had he stuck it out in Canada he could have made the big league. Hand wasn`t that big and back then size was more of an issue than it is in today`s NHL. With regard to Shields, yes, he was British trained, but he was drafted from a team in north America, unlike Hand and Kirk who were drafted directly from UK teams.
 
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