Jared Knowles scored 2 goals and 2 assists on his Wild senior debut.
Sunday 1st September 2024 – Challenge Match: Widnes Wild 12 – Bradford Bulldogs 2
The Widnes Wild NIHL team got the new season off to a winning start with a comprehensive 12-2 victory over Bradford Bulldogs on Sunday at Planet Ice Widnes.
The Bulldogs are a Laidler Division side - and play one division below the Wild – so one can’t really read too much into the result of this pre-season friendly match but it was certainly a good first outing for Player Coach Tom Jackson’s new look Widnes team and it gave fans the chance to see all the new signings together on the ice.
The game saw an unprecedented number of Wild debuts handed out, following a busy summer of player movements, with 9 brand new names featuring on the roster. Forwards Kai Hathaway, Robbie Thomson & Andrew Craik, defencemen Ross Chalmers, William Daley, Joe Howie & Scott Kirkpatrick and netminders Charlie Henry & Harry Campbell all made first appearances in Wild colours.
Widnes Academy junior player Jared Knowles made his first senior appearance for the club while former Wild players Tristan Grimshaw and Matt Tarpey both returned to the team after a number of seasons away. The Bradford team also looked quite familiar as former Wild players Jake Lowndes, Tom Mardell, Keiron Furlong and Joel Bark were all on the Bulldogs line up.
Despite so many new faces playing together for the first time, the new look Widnes team seemed to gel very well. Damarni James scored the first goal of the new season in the second minute and the Wild raced into a 6-0 lead by the end of the first period with further goals from James (again), Knowles, Grimshaw, Tarpey and Craik.
The second period saw goals from Mikey Gilbert, Andrew Hopkins and Chalmers and the third, Chalmers Knowles and Tarpey for a 12-2 win.
The Wild will probably face a tougher test this coming weekend when they have a home and away double header against last season’s Laidler Division champions Telford Tigers. The home game is on Saturday 7th September, 7pm face off, and the away game is the next day in Telford, with the puck dropping at 6pm.
The NIHL season proper starts the weekend after with a road trip to Hull and back on Saturday 14th when the Wild play Hull Jets in their first league fixture of the season. They are home the next day when they take on last season’s league champions Billingham Stars at Planet Ice Widnes, 5.30pm face off.
