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| Neil Herring puts the Peelers players through their paces. (Photo by Robert Martin). |
A brand new ice hockey team took to the ice for the first time at the Planet Ice rink in Widnes last week with the debut training session of the Peelers IHC Northern Police club.
The Peelers are named after the founder of the UK police service Sir Robert Peel and the club is aimed at people who have an association with the police including Police Officers, PCSOs, Special Constables, civilian staff and ex-members or employees. It has players with a wide range of experience and ability from former GB internationals down to complete beginners.
Despite only having been in existence for a few months, the fledgling club actually has some 60 team members in total from 12 different police forces and constabularies across the north of England. However, due to shift pattern working and travelling distances, the plan is to rotate training sessions around other rinks across the country so that everybody gets an equal chance to be involved.
The team intends to meet once a month at different rinks throughout the north of England, with training sessions lasting a few hours to make the most of the time. The plan for fixtures looking ahead is to play charity games, with the hope of creating a league in the near future with other emergency teams.
You can hear Robert's interview with organiser Scott here:
The Peelers are named after the founder of the UK police service Sir Robert Peel and the club is aimed at people who have an association with the police including Police Officers, PCSOs, Special Constables, civilian staff and ex-members or employees. It has players with a wide range of experience and ability from former GB internationals down to complete beginners.
Despite only having been in existence for a few months, the fledgling club actually has some 60 team members in total from 12 different police forces and constabularies across the north of England. However, due to shift pattern working and travelling distances, the plan is to rotate training sessions around other rinks across the country so that everybody gets an equal chance to be involved.
The training session was run by Peelers club coach Neil Herring, who has a vast experience in the game having previously been involved with the Manchester Storm and Hull Pirates teams and is also a team sponsor via his company Kip's Skate Workshop (click here for details ). Belfast Giants GB international gold medal winning player Paul Swindlehurst was a guest coach for the session at Widnes on Thursday and they put the Peelers players through their paces, starting off with a brief introduction to the rules and a run through of the upcoming
drills.
The group of players in attendance - some of whom were playing
for the first time - were then split into 6 groups, with each group practising different
manoeuvres on the ice at intervals. The coaches, who supervised the session on
the ice, put the players through various skating and passing drills, with an
emphasis on speed of movement and puck control.
The two goalies on the team were also put through their
paces, with a number of shooting drills and scrimmages taking place towards the
end of the session.
A great time was had by all and it will be exciting to see
going forward how this new team gets on.
Sergeant Andy Cooper of Cheshire Police, one of the
organisers behind the new team, said:
“I’m a complete novice and, up
until March, I had never picked a hockey stick up. It’s always been a goal to
play and an opportunity to learn came along with this new team. It’s great to
have the Elite League coaches supporting the session - it also buys interest
for the more advanced players going forward to be coached by pros.”
Vanessa Crickmore-Clarke - who also plays for the
Widnes Wild womens team and won the women’s league title last season - is one
of the more experienced players on the Peelers team. She said:
“I had a really excellent time - it was a positive event
after the impact of the virus. It’s really good that the development of the
team was able to happen despite the pandemic. Any coaching will help; you can
always learn something new. It’s good to be able to sharpen up your abilities
and be able to brush your skills up.”
The team intends to meet once a month at different rinks throughout the north of England, with training sessions lasting a few hours to make the most of the time. The plan for fixtures looking ahead is to play charity games, with the hope of creating a league in the near future with other emergency teams.
Report by Robert Martin
You can hear Robert's interview with organiser Scott here:
