Pre Christmas the last game was against local rival Nottingham Panthers and featured a war of words in the build up. Basically Blaze described the Panthers as Team Hollywood and said that they’d do their talking on the ice.



It was always something that would come back to bite the Blaze and it certainly did. Nottingham fully deserved their shut out victory with a 4-0 win. To rub salt in the wounds it was their first league victory in Coventry’s Skydome for 3 years. No wonder their supporters were ecstatic and fair play to Nottingham Coach Corey Neilson for being magnanimous in victory and not rubbing our noses in the defeat.



Given the nature of the defeat the highlights video which has now been released after waiting for Sky TV to air their programme takes a different and fun format.

It seems that although there was a grave danger of the pre match hype coming back to bite the Blaze bums the intention was to put more bums on seats rather than psychological gamesmanship between the teams. So at least that worked with perhaps the best turnout in the Skydome so far this season.



Perhaps sad that the business side of the team dictates the match planning but then again I don’t have my personal income invested in the team.

OK so this may sound rather sad but please indulge me.



The Powerplay Manager Hockey season mentioned in the post on 21 November as just starting season 4 has now completed the league season and play offs.







After the initial couple of wins my team – IceRayz – slumped before an influx of overseas players and full use of available tactics pulled the team back up to a 5th league place finish and 6th overall after the play offs.



Unfortunately the 1.1 million prize isn’t real and goes towards next seasons team and facilities.



Each game has a play by play account and a match summary with detailed game statistics. It is evident from the text of how the games unfold that the developers have a knowledge and love of ice hockey. Just a few of the many different quotes is below.

Julien Maillet skates out of the crease to stop the dumped puck at the back boards. But the puck takes a bounce. Roland Laurent also misses it and the puck bounces into the slot to Michael Alexander who has an open net and scores! This was an easy put-away and he couldn’t miss. Both the goalie and Roland Laurent are just looking sadly at one another, wondering what just happened.



Connor Walsh wins the puck in the corner, he skates in behind the net. Passes it into the slot to Corey Gibside who onetimes it. His shot is deflected by Dominik Korytko onto the stick of Billy Viveash, who has no problem flipping the puck over the sprawling goalie and scores.



Býly Andely start an attack in their defensive zone but they mess up. Prokop Machácek gets to the puck and takes a onetimer. Dominik Korytko makes a kick save with the right pad. The puck gets to the stick of Jay De’Ath who takes a quick shot from point blank range, and Dominik Korytko can’t stop that rebound. The goalie is mad at his teammates and he lets them know, that they shouldn’t be causing him such troubles.



Stanislav Tajovský gathers the loose puck in his zone and passes it. But it is a dreadful pass. He sends it right on the stick of the opponent Corey Gibside, who passes it quickly to Connor Walsh. He is closed down by Štefan Kompas who attacks him heavily. That was a textbook crosschecking penalty. Connor Walsh goes down on the ice while Štefan Kompas argues with the referee that his play was legal. And the referee has the same opinion!!! That is a questionable call and the fans are not happy with the decision.

The game originates in Slovakia so the language may appear unusual at times but it does the business.



As in reality not everything goes according to plan and I had the annoyance of buying a couple of players only for them to be injured within days of joining the club. Then just as the play offs were due my starting net minder – all of 21 years of age – suffered from angina and was pulled from the squad. Mind you he recovered after 2 days to re take his place. Hardy stock these ice hockey players don’t you know!



The really sad bit is that as Powerplay Manager is still at the BETA stage when the formal online game is launched I expect to loose my current players and arena and have to start from scratch again. I’ve nurtured these players and don’t want to loose all of them – a couple I’d be happy to see the back of but mainly we’re in this together so I’d like to take them further.

February sees the 28th running of the SuperStock Teams Championships at the Palmerston North track in New Zealand. And the big BriSCA news is that for the first time Great Britain is sending a team over.



Team racing in New Zealand is massive but has never really caught on over here, this could be the subject of another article.



We are sending a team 5 of drivers – Frankie Wainman 515, Stuart Smith 390, Tom Harris 84, Murray Harrison 97 & 490 Mark Taylor – although only 4 drivers will compete at any one time. There are 12 teams taking part in 4 groups of three and each team will race twice in each group.



The clip below shows some of the type of action the team is letting itself in for – rest assured there is no love lost between the NZ locals and the GB interlopers. Many will find themselves on the receiving end of some pretty evil bumper work. WARNING - this is not for the faint hearted!

I wish them well.



Hopefully I will post more about this over the coming weeks. In the meantime there is a Team GB Racing site here.

After an enforced hospital stay I’m back though under rest and relaxation orders and finding typing a bit of a trial.



Time is now taken up with participation in Powerplay Manager an online sports manager game building round the world of ice hockey.



At the moment truly fascinating and hopefully without a short term novelty factor.



The testing is in season 4 and after joining towards the end of season 3 and despite being relegated[!] my IceRayz team has come out fighting and doing quite well after just 3 games:







I deliberatley have to keep this short but will update on progress of this and my Elite Fantasy league team as the seasons progress. In the meantime check out the link here or the banner for Powerplay Manager to see if you fancy joining in.

Thanks to the team at Edinburgh Capitals I was able to watch a web cast of tonight’s game.



After the disappointment of last week’s game at home to Belfast (Coventry Blaze 2 Belfast Giants 3) cumulating in the suspension of Scott Kelman it was good to pick up 2 points on the road. Even the commentators from Edinburgh recognised that the Blaze performance was a lesson in ice hockey and one worthy of watching.



So what happens on the discussion forum after the match: One expert reckons there’s nothing achieved by such a one sided result, the league is a waste of space and such a result will only demoralise the fans. This after berating the Blaze for a lack lustre performance last week.



Get beat by a team looking at this early stage as potential league champions and the Blaze are rubbish and players should be sacked. Turn in a magical performance and you’re killing the league. Talk about damned if you do and damned if you don’t.



It’s little wonder I’m too scared to contribute opinions to the forum. It seems that if you enjoy what you’re watching and not wanting to pick faults you aren’t a supporter of your team.



Sad thing is it’s not just hockey where this demoralising / negative mentality shines through.

The news today lead with the story of the sad loss to the world of Hollywood Legend Paul Newman. Famous for roles in more than 60 films, including “The Long Hot Summer,” “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “The Hustler,” “Cool Hand Luke,” “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” “The Sting,” “Slap Shot,” “Nobody’s Fool” and “Cars” he was also passionate about motorsport and was co team owner of the Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing Team.



His racing career started in 1972 in a Lotus Elan and he honed his skills as a sports car driver as well as competing in a modified stock car at Daytona. He finished fifth in the 1977 24 Hours of Daytona, and in 1979 was part of the Porsche team that came second place in the Le Mans 24 Hours.



Success has continued through to the present day and he will be sorely missed from the celluloid and asphalt surfaces where he was so committed to being a winner.

You’d hardly credit it but if Manchester and Coventry Blaze were to win their games in hand there’d be a 4 way tie at the top of the table. Before this weekend I’d not have thought that possible after the lack lustre results at Sheffield and home to Cardiff on 13 & 14 September. This weekends encounters were away to Hull Stingrays and home to table toppers unbeaten Nottingham.







Although normally a win against Hull should be a given, nothing could be taken for granted and a 2-0 win is gratefully accepted along with the 2 league points.



The issue with Sunday’s game is Coventry’s ability to pack their bags and go home after the 1st period. Against both Sheffield in the Charity Shield and Cardiff in the Challenge Cup the first 10-15 minutes of the matches have been displays of some of the most skilful and entertaining ice hockey I’ve seen. Against Sheffield we were 2-0 up after the 1st period, against Cardiff it was 3-0 and against Nottingham it was 4-0. Twenty three seconds into the 2nd period and Nottingham pulled one back. For once the rot didn’t completely set in as we held them to 4-2 at the end of the second.



Nottingham then took a full 128 seconds in the third to get to 4-4. The Panthers then had a goal disallowed just to keep the pressure on. Finally some order was restored with the score progressing to 6-4 to the Blaze before Nottingham pulled one back to make for a tense last 12 minutes.



Edge of the seat stuff but not the way I’d like to see the rest of the season go. Can you imagine the team talk in the away dressing room at the end of the first. We’re only 5 behind we’ll get those back in the second and take control in the third just to finish things off.

Congratulations to Andy Smith 391 on taking the gold and his 3rd World Championship last night at Ipswich.







Unfortunately it was probably one of the least exciting World Championship deciders there has been. Not that F1 world finals have a history of being spectacular races but there are plenty that are memorable. This one will be consigned to the “didn’t live up to the name” bin.



The thing is I don’t think there’s any blame attached to anyone for the let down.



You can’t blame Andy Smith that’s for certain. It’s not his fault he lead from start to finish without serious problems. That’s what racers aim for and he achieved that. Nor can fellow racers brother Stuart Smith and Paul Harrison be faulted for being unable to get on terms with the 391 car. Frankie Wainman, the major rival to the Smith dynasty just seemed to go backwards through the field – not one of his better performances but not the reason for a dull race.



My favourite John Lund 53 started 8th on the grid and was running a steady 7th getting ready for a characteristic late charge ( I wish) when he got caught out by some water on the track, ending up facing the wrong way and losing a lap.



The track at Ipswich is a super smooth extremely fast tarmac surface and again has seen some tense racing in the past and even in other races last night.



Despite what some supporters may have to say the failure to excite isn’t the fault of the promoters either. In a not entirely unique break with tradition the World Final was run as the first race of the evening. There is a consensus that the world final should be under lights in the dark. At 6:45 it was still light but the same race under floodlights would still have been a yawn. Yes the promoters are responsible for the build up to the race and the presentation but the 7-8 minutes of the race is out of their hands.



The simple fact is that BriSCA F1 thrives on the fact that most races the top guys start at the back and have to work their way through the field. During the course of the season there are a few races where better performances are rewarded with a start at the front of the grid. These races can be a let down. Occasionally there will be classics (1972 Belle Vue Manchester Stuart Smith v Doug Cronshaw springs to mind) and they stand out all the more because of their rarity. Perhaps we need the dull races to make good ones great and stand out as World Championship deserve to.

The league season for Cassidy Coventry Blaze took off tonight with a relatively straightforward 8-2 victory against a tired Bison team on the back of a 4-2 victory in the Challenge Cup at Basingstoke on Saturday.



Blaze scorers

Scott Kelman 1.16.

Adam Calder 4.06

Adam Calder 8.42

Dan Carlson 10.30

Jonathan Weaver 23.09

Joe Henry 28.06

Adam Calder 40.37

Ben O’Connor 52.05



Bison scorers

Ross Bowers 31.23

Nicky Watt 55.29

Shots On: JF Perras [Blaze] 31 – Kevin Reiter [Bison] 45



Captain Calder takes a hat-trick in goals and increased his points tally with assists. This is good for me as he features in one of my 2 fantasy teams. As the league’s MVP last year with over 1000 points I could hardly have a fantasy team without him.



His partner in crime Dan Carlson took man of the match for Blaze.



But the biggest cheer of the night I think went to young Joe Henry for a cracking shot on the Bison goal to score in the second period.



A cracking start to the new season even if the opposition were suffering a lack of ice time together. Full credit to Bison for getting a time out this weekend as they suffered with the collapse of Zoom, the airline. Most Elite teams relied on that airline to bring in the players from north America.



They will be back at the Skydome before long and it will be interesting to see how they have gelled together.

While visiting family in the north east last week, the local paper ran a story about a boy, Archie Lovett who used his grandfathers eBay user ID to to bid on a Nintendo Wii.



Nothing perhaps too unusual about that as it seems to be a regular occurrence kids bidding on items. However the kid had the successful winning bid – the problem is it was £197,654 (365,881.58 USD) or about the cost of buying 1,000 of these from Amazon.



While this makes for a fun story for the paper what bothered me about reading this is that for this to be the winning auction bid some one else needed to have bid £197,554 to push the maximum bid up to level the item ended at. So the vendor has had 2 people messing around on his sale or the story is made up.



Someone else has also picked up on this in the comments to the story, but while looking around the net a number of other papers including the Daily Telegraph have run the story so it must be true.



Makes the cost of me buying FFXIII seem a bargain.