Launch Of the "Peelers IHC" Northern Police Team

A new ice hockey team will be taking its first steps at the Planet Ice rink in Widnes this July with the first ever training session of the brand new Peelers IHC Northern Police team.

The Peelers are named after the founder of the UK police service Sir Robert Peel and, despite having only been formed a few weeks ago – in the middle of the Covid 19 lockdown - already have some 60 team members from across 12 different police forces and constabularies across the north of England.

The club is aimed at people who have an association with the police including Police Officers, PCSO, Special Constables, Communication Staff, Police Staff and Ex Members or employees and has players with a wide range of experience and ability from former GB internationals down to complete beginners.

The team plan to meet once a month at a different rink around the north of the country so as to balance out the travelling for members who are based further away and to hold training camp style sessions of 4 to 5 hours duration to make the most of the time together. 

The Peelers IHC will initially be playing memorial and charity games but there are also plans to set up  tournaments and a league with other emergency services teams.

To find out more about the Peelers IHC, follow their Facebook page HERE 

North West Lions Set To Roar

Recreational players from across the North West have been invited to join a new ice hockey team, which will see them taking part in overseas tournaments - flying the flag for their region and country.

Rather like the British Lions rugby union representative team, the new North West Lions tournament ice hockey team has been set up especially to play matches abroad and, as its name suggests, will comprise players taken from the north west rinks of Widnes, Deeside, Altrincham and Blackburn.

With the costs and time commitments involved in travelling abroad for this sort of event being a problem for many, it has always been difficult in the past for regular recreational teams to get enough players to be able to take part - and the idea of this new team is to draw together a suitable pool players from across the region to be able to send a strong enough team to compete against foreign opposition.

The Lions have been invited to take part in an 8-team tournament in Vlasim in the Czech Republic next April and, assuming that the restrictions on foreign travel and sporting events have been relaxed by then, that will be their first competitive outing.

Planning is still in its very early stages and any players interested in being involved with the North West Lions are asked to get in touch via the Facebook page HERE