Wednesday 10 February 2016

Moralee Conference Round Up - Weekend of 6th & 7th February 2016

Setting aside the obviously highly important matter of Blackburn Hawks enjoying another 4 point weekend to bring them ever nearer to retaining their league title, the main story in the Moralee Conference at the weekend would have to be the big fight at the end of the Solihull Barons v Solway Sharks game on Sunday evening.

While being nowhere near as impressive as the now legendary Nottingham / Ayr / Streatham etc bench clearances of the 1980s, this was still quite an unusual occurrence in the “modern” modern game.

It all kicked off with just 10 seconds to go in game that Solihull had already got won at 3-1.   And ended up with 125 penalties minutes being given out (Barons 75 – Sharks 50) shared between 6 Barons and 4 Sharks.

Aside from the fighting, the weekend was rather disappointing for the Sharks overall as they only managed a 3-3 draw away at Telford Tigers on Saturday night, whereas had they won both games they would have dramatically propelled themselves into the play off places.

As it is, Solihull have a 5 point cushion in 3rd place, ahead of Telford and Billingham Stars who are on the same number of points in 4th and 5th, but Telford have the superior playing record and a game in hand.

At the top of the table, Blackburn Hawks did their title chances a lot of good with 4 points from 2 wins.  They beat bottom club Sheffield Senators home and away 3-8 & 9-2 and are currently 7 points clear of second place Whitley Warriors who narrowly beat Sutton Sting 2-1 on Sunday night and who have 2 games in hand.

The other Moralee game of the weekend saw Sutton beat iceSheffield rivals Sheffield Spartans 10-2 on Saturday night. 
  Photo: “action” from the last minute of the game between Solihull Barons and Solway Sharks (photo by Keith & Jenny Davies)