Blackburn Hawks - Issue 14

PROGRAMME

£2.50

ISSUE 14 - 31 JANUARY 2016

VS #NOEXCUSES #COYH

CONT

2 PROGRAMME CONTENTS

11

06 COACHES’ HUDDLE

REWIND

SHEFFIELD SPARTANS COME TO THE ARENA TONIGHT AND NEED TO CAPITALISE ON EVERY GAME TO GET INTO THE PLAYOFF POSITIONS

IN THIS ISSUE WE HAVE THE DETAILS OF THE FIRST BLACKHAWKS COMPETITIVE MATCH AT THE NEWLY BUILT ARENA. DESPITE TEETHING PROBLEMS IT WAS FULL STEAM AHEAD AND WE JUST HAVEN’T LOOKED BACK.

04. ROUND UP

26. ICE HOCKEY REVIEW

A ROUND UP OF RECENT NEWS FROM PLANET

ALL THE LATEST NEWS AND RESULTS

HAWKS

FROM OUR LEAGUE AND BEYOND

16. THE FIXER

30. ALAN AMOS

GRAHAM LOMAX GIVES US AN INSIGHT INTO

WE CAN’T BELIEVE IT HAS BEEN A YEAR.

HIS THOUGHTS OVER THE PAST WEEK OR SO

THE HAWKS DEDICATED THEIR SEASON IN

REGARDING THE BLACKBURN HAWKS.

ALAN’S MEMORY AND HERE ARE A FEW

20. BAYLEY HODGKINSON

MESSAGES THAT WERE POSTED.

ONE OF OUR JUNIOR HAWKS COULD DO WITH A

34. MERCH UPDATE

LITTLE HELP TO GET OVER TO THE USA

ESTHER INTRODUCES TO SOME NEW

20. TEAMSHEETS TEAM SHEETS FOR THE HAWKS & BILLINGHAM.

ITEMS AVAILABLE ON THE SC TABLE TONIGHT

YOU CAN FILL IN ALL OF THE RESULTS HERE AS

33. YOUTH ZONE

THEY HAPPEN

SEE WHAT CHRIS RILEY AND HIS TEAM HAVE BEEN UP TO .

ENTS

3 PROGRAMME CONTENTS

VS

CAPS COLUMN EVERY WEEK CHRIS ARNONE POSTS HIS ANALYSIS AND THOUGHTS ON OUR MOST RECENT MATCHES IN THE LANCASHIRE TELEGRAPH. THE PAGE IS UPDATED EVERY TUESDAY SO HEAD ON OVER THERE TO READ UP ON THE MATCH REPORT FROM OUR RECENT LEAGUE MATCH AT SOLIHULL. CHRIS’ ARTICLE IS USUALLY POSTED QUITE QUICKLY ON OUR OFFICIAL WEBSITE, FACEBOOK, SUPPORTERS PAGE AND ON OUR TEAM APP. YOU CAN ALSO BUY THE LANCASHIRE TELEGRAPH ON TUESDAY AND READ IT THERE.

Programme design & content by John Milton Cover photo Stuey by John Milton (www.eventog.uk) Articles provided by Paul Breeze, Graham Lomax, Esther Gradwell and John Milton.

All items are copyright to their respective owners and all rights reserved © 2016

4 ROUNDUP

I

t’s been a week of ups and downs as a healthy gate of 950 supporters saw us completely dominate our match versus the Billingham Stars on Saturday without any reply at all as we went on to win a massive 10-0. In contrast we visited Solihull on Sunday and it was a completely different story. The Barons took an early lead and just didn’t look back. They were sharp and determined as they won 8-4 and despite the Hawks rallying to try to win it back the Barons kept hold their composure and capitalised on their lead. We are very close to earning a play off place and we could have done it tonight if last Sunday’s result was different. It is still very important that we cross that threshold so please cheer the Hawks on tonight and we shall soon be able to book our place at Ice Sheffield for the playoffs MVP Saturday was Matt Viney and for Sunday Richard Bentham. Also of note is Stuart Ashton’s excellent shut-out!

Graham Lomax is our Media and Public Relations Manager and has kindly offered to produce an insider’s view of the Blackburn Hawks with news, and his own personal views and analysis on the team’s performance in every issue from now on. Graham has written articles previously and for the past couple of issues but it is great to have confirmation this will now be a regular piece for the Hawks’ matchday programme.

Tonights mascots are Bayley Hodkinson and Dan Horton. Bayley is off to the USA this year to represent the UK in a roller hockey competition and it’s the first time ever that an outside country has been invited to compete. Please help him out if you can, full details are on page 20. #hockeyfamily

John Milton

6 BUDZIE’SVIEWS

COACH’S

MIXED EMOTIONS THIS WEEK WITH A MASSIVE WIN AGAINST BILLINGHAM FOLLOWED BY A LOSS TO THE BARONS ON SUNDAY. HAWKS WILL BE LOOKING FOR A CONFIDENCE BOOSTING WIN TONIGHT WITH YOUR HELP. #LOUDANDPROUD #ONETEAM #COYH #90

Good evening everyone, and a very warm Blackburn welcome (I know that’s difficult in here) to tonight’s visitors from across the Pennines…The Sheffield Spartans.

Where do I begin to try and describe last week? Saturday once again showed how clinical we can be at home in a 10-0 win against our old rivals, the Billingham Stars - once again in front of a bumper crowd of a confirmed 950 supporters, which is previously unheard of on a Saturday night!

I thought our performance was bang on, right the way from Stuey between the pipes to the Old Veteran Fella up top (I forget his name now). In contrast Sunday has to probably go down as our worst performance of the season so far, and for that I can only apologise to the travelling fans. The reason? I wish I knew!

We travelled with more or less a full squad but for some reason it just didn’t happen. I’ve never known a game where things just

didn’t happen. In any game you usually get a bounce or two, but you know what, it speaks volumes for the league and the fact that the opposition want to raise their game and give us a massive scalp.

I’ll take that as a compliment, but that’s about all, best advice I can give, is that it’s now in the past and we concentrate on the future, we are still in the box seats, and any other team would love to be where we are.

I’m going to sit down with Dangy this week as the transfer deadline approaches and see if we need to strengthen in any particular area and possibly add to the squad going down the final straight, we’ll just see how that pans out for now.

Keep the faith and enjoy the match tonight.

BUDZIE

HUDDLE

7 BUDZIESVIEWS

Blackburn Hawks League Position 1

Sheffield Spartans League Position 6

Played 21 | Won 17 | Drawn 2 | Lost 2 | Points 36

Played 26 | Won 10 | Drawn 1 | Lost 15 | Points 21

Local Scouts Visit (Photo John Milton (eventog.uk)

Lee Pollitt (Photo John Milton (eventog.uk)

Chris Arnone (Photo John Milton (eventog.uk)

the complete package in one community

01254 300000 i n f o @ M E D i A -V i L L A G E . c o . u k

www.MEDIA-VILLAGE.co.uk

11 REWIND OLDSCHOOL

REWIND CONTINUES WITH THE BLACKHAWKS FIRST SEASON REVIEW Once the Blackburn Arena had finally opened, albeit almost three months later than scheduled, the Blackburn Blackhawks had a fixture backlog of home games to fit in.

Over the course of February and March 1991, they played 12 league games of which 8 were at home.

The 8 remaining home games produced 5 victories - with the biggest margins coming in the 15 – 6 win over Sunderland Indians on 10th February (Perlini 5+4, Holden 3+6) and 11-3 against Haringey on 24th February (Perlini 4+7, Holden 3+6).

Despite having already beaten Oxford City Stars twice in the league, the team that would eventually go on to win the ED1 title picked up somewhat in the latter half of the season and beat the Blackhawks both home and away during March.

In fact, despite having good results against teams in the lower half of the table, the only point that Blackburn were able to take in the second half of the season off any of the teams that would finish above them was from an 8-8 draw away at Chelmsford on 16th March. That was the only point that they would take off the Chieftains all season.

The end of a momentous first season for the Blackburn Blackhawks in ED1 saw them lose away at eventual champions Oxford 11-5 on 17th March and then 5-12 at home to Milton Keynes on 24th March.

12 REWIND OLDSCHOOL

Not surprisingly, Fred Perlini ended up as the Blackhawks’ top scorer of the season by some distance, ahead of fellow Canadian Dan Holden. Impressive thoug his scoring rate was, Perlini only came 6th in the overall scoring charts for the league as a whole, although,as he had not arrived until mid-December, he had played 7 games fewer then the players who finished above him.

Paul Fleury and Ged Smith were the Blackhawks’ top British scorers and they finished 2nd and 3rd in the overall British scorers’ standings.

In view of all the problems that they had encountered at the start of the season, the Blackhawks’ 4th place must be viewed as a great success. They missed the two promotion play off places by a massive 19 points but managed to hold their own against the rest of the field and beat many long-established and experienced teams in the process.

At the end of the league season there was a short break before the promotion playoffs while the Great Britain national team took part in the World Championships in Copenhagen and, eager for opportunities to make use of the Arena now that it was finally open, the Blackhawks management arranged some end-of-season challenge matches against attractive opposition.

They started off with a midweek game on 27th March with a home match against Trafford Metros of HBL1. Because of the gap in playing standards, the Blackhawks borrowed imports Don Jamieson from

Stats taken from Ice Hockey News Review April & August 1991

Oxford and Andre Malo from Teesside Bombers for the game.

Apart from the fact that many of the Blackhawks had played for Altrincham / Trafford in recent years, the encounter had extra spice as Fred Perlini was in the middle of a legal case with the Metros claiming a breach of his playing

13 REWIND OLDSCHOOL

contract from the previous season.

How the legal claim finished up is not recorded in the Hockey press of the time but the result of the game was a 7-10 win for the Metros.

Then over the Easter Weekend, the Blackhawks took on their hardest challenge to date as they played home and away against the newly crowned champions of HBL1 – Humberside Seahawks.

Stephen M Kershaw, who used to help video the early Blackhawks matches – and has provided some of the fascinating early photos we have been using here - recalls: “Dan Holden had returned to Canada so the Trafford Metros import trio, Greg Biskup, Dan Richards and Ari Pekka Mikkola guested for the Blackhawks for

both Humberside games to help make up the numbers. They had 3 imports plus Jim Lynch playing as a reclassified import so there was certainly a big step up in playing standards.”

The Blackhawks played the Seahawks at home on the Saturday night losing 8-12 and then lost 12-9 on the road in Hull on Easter Sunday.

A final home game on 6th April 1991 – once more against Trafford Metros, although this time with neither side icing any imports – finished in an 8-3 victory for the Blackhawks with Ged Smith scoring a hat trick against his former club.

The Blackburn Blackhawks had finished the season as they had started it – with a win!

Action from the Blackhawks v Trafford Metros end of season challenge match.

(Photo by Stephen M Kershaw)

16 CALLMERAY

Graham Lomax is...

R E X I F E TH

G

raham Lomax is the Media and PR manager for the Hawks. If you broke him in half he would read Blackburn Hawks all the way through the middle. Here are some of his thoughts from the last few weeks.

If someone asked you “Who’s been our best signing this season”?

Who would you say? Well without doubt my answer would be…….

Chris Riley!!

He’s turned out to be a real coup, his tireless work in very trying circumstances at times is admirable, and his professionalism and work ethic is so refreshing. His role with the kids is completely voluntary and he gives his time to the project freely as do all the players and helpers also on his team.

To see the kids’ faces on a Monday Night down at YouthZone is amazing, he has also recently arranged for us to sit down with Chorley Borough Council and look at ways to get our product out there but also with the hope of finding the next hidden Ice Hockey Gem, but we need support to make this happen and hopefully we can work closely with the Junior set-up here at Blackburn and help make this project work.

So, on behalf of myself and the rest of the Hawks staff I’d like to say a massive thanks to Chris, and please keep up the good work, it’s great to see and be a part of.

OK, Controversy time: I’m a fan of ‘what happens on the ice stays on the ice’, and more often than not you try to push the boundaries as far as you can and get away with as much as you can, but with that comes the chance you can get caught, and if you do, you and your team will get penalised, that’s the risk you take.

It appears that Billingham Stars don’t see it that way, I’ve shared a video this week on the Supporters Club Facebook page, and yes it quite clearly shows a Solway player slash a Stars player, and no call was made, so, what’s so different about this?

Well, the player receiving the slash, has had a previous injury (car accident) and hockey injury, in the area that he was slashed in, the player ends up in hospital and all hell seems to have broken loose over this with claims that he was targeted in that specific area and it was done with intent to injure, and the Stars feel the need to “pursue it further” (by the way, they have recently introduced a TV Highlights package.)

My question is, would they have pursued this matter prior to the new shiny TV set up? I think we know the answer.

Personally, I’ve seen far worse over the years in and around the rinks, Yes, we feel for the lad that is injured and it’s unfortunate. Was there Malice involved? Probably, but it’s an emotive Sport, it’s not a tickling contest. I don’t believe that there was an intent to injure, most lads that I know that play this great game play fair and honest, and what happens on the ice stays there and it’s handshakes all round at the end of the game. If you’re going to analyse every incident in every game because you have the technology, where will it end?

Last Saturday Night saw us play Billingham, I much preferred it when we had a great rivalry with them and winning that particular game meant something, four players missing and the starting Goalie, Oh, and I believe they had players missing too?

Till next time………..G.

If you would like to join the SC team and help out there are several ways that you can get involved. Please either come over to speak to us at the supporters club table for an informal chat. No experience is required, just enthusiasm and drive.

Alternatively you can fill in the form on the SC website at http://blackburnhawks.club/contact/ It really is very rewarding to be part of such a great team.

19 LIFEBLOOD

SHIRT SPONSORS

TO EVERYONE THAT HAS PURCHASED A MATCH WORN SHIRT YOU ARE ALL HELPING THE HAWKS, AND WE WOULD LIKE TO EXTEND OUR GRATITUDE TO YOU ALL BY ADDING YOUR NAMES EACH WEEK INTO THE PROGRAMME.

03 05 08 28 11 13 15 19 21 22 23 25 26 31 44 47 67 70 91 96

Player Chris Butler Matt Viney Aaron Davies James Riddoch Jordan Bannon Andy Dunn

Dave Meikle Danny MacKriel Ollie Lomax Chris Arnone Tom King Danny Brittle Adam Brittle Stuart Ashton Max Drakeley Kim Miettinen Ben Simister Lee Pollitt Rick Bentham

RJay Berra

Home Shirt Chelsea Carter Steve Mayers Aaron Davies Angela Riddoch Ella Thornton Ella Thornton Joshua Milnes Rita MacKriel Lee Ainsworth John Milton

Nana Preston Carol Sharples Julie Latham Stuart Ashton Craig Bevington Miek Harris Hollie Collinge Steve Pollitt Howard Thornton Brian Harrison

Away Shirt Kayleigh Harris David Edwards Gavin Leadbetter Daniel Russ Ginn Chris Calow Christian Carter Eleanor MacKriel Brian Shuttleworth Lucy Elmer Dean Worrall Sarah Martin Graham Hamilton Stuart Ashton Jessica Bevington Nick Riley Keith Preston Stef Harris Matt Addison Carl Everitt

KIT SPONSORS

TO EVERYONE WHO IS INDIVIDUALLY SPONSORING OR PURCHASING EQUIPMENT FOR THE HAWKS WE WOULD LIKE TO EXTEND OUR GRATITUDE TO YOU ALL BY ADDING YOUR NAMES INTO THE PROGRAMME. IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO BUY SOME MUCH NEEDED KIT FOR THE TEAM, OR HAVE DONE SO THIS SEASON AND WOULD LIKE TO BE ADDED TO THE LIST THEN PLEASE CONTACT US

Player 22 Chris Arnone 96 RJay Berra

Sponsor Matt Coates Graham Smith

96 Kim Miettinen

Graham Smith

Name / Company Just Vehicle Leasing Ltd Riverside Garden Centre

Item Hockey Sticks Full Kit Sponsor

Riverside Garden Centre

Full Kit Sponsor

20 FUTUREPROSPECT

UK M A E T N O S KIN BAYLEY HOD

Bayley Hodkinson started playing for the Junior Hawks only last year and is now first the choice netminder for the team in the under 13s and also trains with the under 14s and under 18s.

This past month has seen Bayley accepted to represent the UK in Indiana USA in ‘State Wars’, an annual event which can only help him in his ice hockey career ahead. This trip can’t happen without some extra funding and we would ask you to dig deep so that Bayley and his dad Lee can make the trip this summer.

Bayley is a great prospect and we would love to see him progress to play for the Hawks in the future. If you can help Bayley through sponsorship or a direct donation then please use the details in this article, or get in touch and we will pass your details on. Jake Holden and Oliver Massey, from the under 13s will also be joining Bayley and they will be regrouping with Rhys Edwards for the trip, who is also looking for some help via donations. Although he is now a Bulldog we hope to bring Rhys

back to play at Blackburn when the time is right. We send our best wishes for success to all of the UK team heading over the pond and god save the USA. To help Bailey and Rhys to realise their dream please give generously. £1000 is required for each player and we will continue to give updates in future Hawks programmes of their progress.

Bayley Hodkinson’s Go Fund Me Page http://bit.ly/1PRIVPB Rhys Edwards Go Fund Me Page http://bit.ly/1nQDbiB Cadbury’s Team Funding Page http://bit.ly/1UpwONy State Wars Hockey http://on.fb.me/1lQOdmg Bayley is one of our mascots tonight so pop over for a chat after the match by the DJ booth if you can directly contribute to the fund. or would like more details.

BLACKBURN HAWKS

Sunday 31st January 2016 - Face Off: 5:45

SCORING Time Type

No. Name

G

A

A

A

Chris Butler

5

Matt Viney

8

Aaron Davies

9

Rjay Berra

11

Jordan Bannon

13

Andy Dunn

15

David Meikle

18

Kim Miettinen

19

Daniel MacKriel

21

Oliver Lomax

22

Chris Arnone

23

Tom King

NM

25

Daniel Brittle

A

26

Adam Brittle

28

James Riddoch

31

Stuart Ashton

44

Max Drakeley

67

Ben Simister

70

Lee Pollitt

91

Richard Bentham

65

Alan Amos

90

Hawks Fans

C

NM

TOTAL

AA

A

PIM

TOTAL

PENALTIES No.

G

3

Mins

Offense

Given

Start

End

TONIGHT’S Bayley Hodkinson FINAL PERIOD SCORES

HAWKS SPARTANS

1

2

3

OT

HAWKS

VS SHEFFIELD SPARTANS League Game - Blackburn Ice Arena

No. Name A C

A

NM

NM

G

3

Andrew Turner

5

David Pyatt

6

Will Barron

7

Oliver Barron

8

Thomas Parkinson

A

PIM

SCORING Time Type

9

Nicholas Manning

10

Stephen Weeks

13

Thomas Barry

14

Scott Morris

15

Martin Finkes

16

Elliot Knell

19

Shaun Wild

20

Brandon James Stones

22

Douglas Jordan

24

Stuart Brittle

28

Chris Wilcox

29

Michael Robert Mawer

30

Andrew Bagshaw

81

Ross Jordan

90

Martin White

A

A

TOTAL

Marshal

MVP Team

Player No#

Hawks

TOTAL

PENALTIES

MASCOT’S

G

No.

& Dan Horton SCORE

SPARTANS

Mins

Spartans Offense

Given

Start

End

26 ICEHOCKEYREVIEW

A 4-point weekend for second place Whitley Warriors saw them gain ground on leaders Blackburn Hawks. The Warriors won 1-2 away at Solway Sharks on Saturday night and then beat Sheffield Senators 3-1 in the North East on Sunday.

The Hawks had made a good start to weekend by hammering Billingham Stars 10-0 in front of a bumper 950 home crowd.

They outshot the visitors 55 to 24 and the goals and assists were shared among 14 different players.

It was a different story on Sunday night away at Solihull Barons who inflicted an 8-4 defeat on the league leaders.

The Barons led throughout and, at one point, were 7-2 ahead.

Widnes Wild’s player coach and former EPL forward Scott McKenzie guested for the Barons and top scored with 1+3.

The Barons also won 1-2 away at Sheffield Spartans on Saturday to notch their own second 4 point weekend of the season.

Those results mean that the Barons are now clear in 3rd place – 4 points ahead of Telford Tigers who didn’t play at the weekend.

At the top of the table, the Hawks lead by 5 points but second place Whitley have one game in hand. In the other Moralee games of the weekend, Sutton Sting picked up back to back wins over iceSheffield rivals Sheffield Spartans, winning the “home” game 7-3 and the away game 2-7 and Solway Sharks won 4-7 away at Billingham on Sunday.

In the Laidler Conference, second place Widnes Wild closed up slightly on leaders Deeside Dragons – who didn’t play at the weekend with a 5-8 win away at Bradford Bulldogs. Widnes were 1-5 up by the first break and never really looked like losing this game, in which they outshot their hosts New Widnes signing - Telford under 18 player Joe Gilbert picked up an assist on his first outing for the Wild and was named MVP for his new team.

It was a weekend of two halves for former league leaders Nottingham Lions. They beat bottom team Coventry Blaze 2-4 in Saturday night in a lively game that saw 162 PIM being handed out (Blaze 85 – Lions 77)

27 ICEHOCKEYREVIEW

Photo: ‘Altrincham Aces’ Mikey Gilbert Blaze were actually 2-0 up at one point and all Lions 4 goals came in the last period. The 4th came in the very last minute as Coventry pulled their netminder in the hope of snatching a GTG. On Sunday night, the Lions were beaten in their own den 1-2 by ever the improving Altrincham Aces. In a strangely lopsided game, all three goals came in the first period and what would turn out to be the winner was actually scored by Mikey Gilbert at 4.26.

The Lions remain in 3rd place – three points behind Widnes Wild but having played a game more.

Blackburn Eagles are in 4th and are 6 points clear of Aces in the battle for the final play-off position. Both teams have ten games left to play and will meet each other once more home and away before the end of the season.

FOR YOUR OWN SAFETY PLEASE KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE PUCK AT ALL TIMES

THE PUCK CAN AND WILL LEAVE THE ICE AND FLYING PUCKS CAN BE VERY DANGEROUS

30 OFFICIALSSIGNALS

HAWKS

MERCHANDISE UPDATE

Well what can I say? Last Saturday we had a phenomenal response to the new scarves which were introduced to our merchandise collection - there is very limited supply left so make sure to come to the Supporters table to avoid missing out! This year we have opted for the deluxe quality and even on the night we received lots of great feedback. This weekend will see the arrival of new car stickers which are back by popular demand, in a brand new design.

We have lots of new items in the pipeline, and are currently working with new local suppliers, who are bringing some great ideas to us which I am sure you will all love - including, should I say it, limited edition merchandise for the Play Offs!

Last week I sent out an appeal on the Supporters Club Facebook page to ask if anyone had any unwanted Christmas gifts which we could use on our tombola - thank you to everyone who has been so kind to bring these in to us - we have some great prizes so come along to the supporters table and try your luck!

Last but most certainly not least, I would like to say a massive thank you to everyone this season who has contributed to our fundraising in memory of Jonathan Adams. From sales of the #10JA pin badges, and the raffle which took place before Christmas, we raised £380 which will be split between Mind UK and CAMH in Canada, which is the charity chosen by Jon’s family.

Esther Gradwell

IF YOU VISIT BLACKBURN YOUTH ZONE ON A MONDAY EVENING, DON’T EXPECT PEACE AND QUIET AS THIS IS THE EVENING RESERVED FOR THE STREET HAWKS WITH YOUR HOST CHRIS RILEY AND FRIENDS #LETSPLAY The ‘Street Hawks’ initiative has been running now for several weeks and is gaining in popularity. Chris Riley and his team of volunteers made up of hockey players and coaches have been training the kids to play hockey and are hoping to find themselves a future Hawks star. Enthusiasm from the kids is overwhelming and there are many ideas going forward to nurture the ‘Street Hawks’ to move ahead together in their new found sport of Hockey. Players come over and give their time freely to help out at fun sessions and as well as Chris Riley we often have Ollie Lomax and Aaron Davies (representing the Hawks) Nicole Whittle (representing Blackburn Thunder) & Graham Lomax (PR for the Hawks) who are there week in week out helping to coach the kids in a fun environment.

Add to this other players that turn up when they have some free time such as Chris Arnone, RJay Berra, Kim Miettinen, you have before you a winning formula. So come down and see what all the fuss is about and lets get our kids playing the fastest sport there is.

See you there session is between 6pm - 7pm info here http://www.blackburnyz.org/

CHRIS RILEY

Our sessions at Blackburn YouthZone take place every Monday evening at 6pm. For one hour Myself, along with Hawks players Aaron Davies, Ollie Lomax and Blackburn Thunder’s ladies player Nicole Whittle run a coaching session, coaching skills such as stick handling, passing and shooting.

The young people are loving the sessions and the improvements have been dramatic. We have called the session STREETHAWKS. Our aim is to find the hockey stars of the future for our town.

WATCH THIS SPACE!!

GRAHAM LOMAX

There is nothing more rewarding than seeing kids with smiling faces no matter how bad of a day we’ve all had. One lad in particular at the Youthzone (Yawa), has fingers missing and no lower legs, he loves going in the goals in his Wheelchair and makes my day whenever I see him and just puts life into perspective. I know the rest of the Hawks Staff feel the same as me as they always feedback to me afterwards, it’s a fantastic partnership with YouthZone and long may that continue.

AARON DAVIES #8

It’s great seeing someone else get the opportunities to get involved in hockey and also hopefully one day they will move over to ice and be the next, Ollie or Richard and we may even have a next Stu Ashton in our mists too there! To see them enjoying it is the icing on the cake

NICOLE WHITTLE

Helping out on a Monday at the YouthZone is incredibly rewarding, seeing the children improving and understanding the game more and more each week - I also love seeing the children enjoying themselves.

OLLIE LOMAX #21

Since breaking my wrist in early December I’ve found myself frustrated in not being able to help the club on the ice, so I was glad that Chris Riley gave me the opportunity to come on board with the YouthZone scheme on a Monday night.

There are some great kids that come down so especially as a Blackburn lad it’s rewarding to put something back as I was once in their shoes trying all different sports.

After seeing the project go from strength to strength I really can’t praise Chris & Aaron enough for what they are doing and spreading the Hawks brand to the wider community. This is just the beginning so who knows, hopefully we can find the next wave of talent and get them in our famous Hawks jersey in years to come.

You all know me, I’ll do anything for this place, and can’t wait to be back out there with the guys who I may add are doing a stellar job again this year.

We don’t follow, we lead.

FIXTURES Home

Billingham Blackburn Blackburn Senators Blackburn Spartans Blackburn Solway Solway Blackburn Blackburn Blackburn Sutton Whitley Telford Blackburn Blackburn Whitley Solihull Blackburn Spartans Blackburn Solway Blackburn Solihull Telford Blackburn Senators Blackburn Sutton Blackburn Blackburn Widnes Billingham Blackburn Blackburn Billingham Blackburn

Away

Blackburn Telford Sutton Blackburn Spartans Blackburn Solway Blackburn Blackburn Senators Solway Solihull Blackburn Blackburn Blackburn Whitley Billingham Blackburn Blackburn Sutton Blackburn Whitley Blackburn Billingham Blackburn Blackburn Spartans Blackburn Senators Blackburn Solway Widnes Blackburn Blackburn Telford Solihull Blackburn Billingham

Date

06-Sep

13-Spt

20-Sep

03-Oct

04-Oct

10-Oct 11-Oct 17-Oct 31-Oct 01-Nov

08-Nov 22-Nov 29-Nov

06-Dec 12-Dec 13-Dec 19-Dec

20-Dec 27-Dec 03-Jan 09-Jan 10-Jan 16-Jan 23-Jan 24-Jan 30-Jan 31-Jan 06-Feb 07-Feb 14-Feb 21-Feb 27-Feb 06-Mar 12-Mar 13-Mar 26-Mar 27-Mar 02-Apr

Face Off Score 18:30 17:45 17:45 16:30 17:45 13:30 17:45 19:00 17-45 17:45 17:45 17:45 16:15 17:00 17:30 17:45 17:45 17:00 18:00 17:45 15:45 17:45 19:00 17:45 18:00 17:30 17:45 18:30 17:45 16:15 17:45 17:45 17:30 18:30 17:45 17:45 18:30 17:45

0 5 5 2 9 4 5 2 3 12 4 8 2 4 1 5 5 4 2 13 2 4 5 10 8

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4 3 0 8 0 12 1 7 8 3 2 2 2 2 8 4 2 4 5 1 15 3 3 0 4

BLUE: Denotes a cup match WHITE: Denotes a League Match