Charlie Spridgeon was the Ducks’ top
points scorer with 4+13=17 (Photo by Keith & Jenny Davies)
Despite finishing in 10th place in the final league table, the Deeside Ducks team can look back with an air of satisfaction over their debut season in the NIHL Laidler Division.
The
Ducks team was formed last summer with the specific aim of providing a stepping
stone between the Deeside junior programme and the senior Dragons team - and
they have achieved just that by giving over 20 promising young local players
the chance to play regular competitive league hockey.
In
addition, Cody Ogden, Henry Phillips, Daniels Fadejevs, Dalton Thompson, Oli
Booth and Jace Gledhill have all made appearances for the Dragons senior team
this season as well as playing for the Ducks, showing that the Deeside
development pathway from juniors to seniors is working well.
The
Ducks team won four of their 26 league games – four more than Head Coach Gary
Shaw admitted that he had expected for their first season of league competition
– and lost 4 more matches by a single goal margin, any of which – on another
day with the rub of the green - could easily have been a win instead.
Cody
Ogden finished as the Ducks’ top goal scorer for the season with 7 goals in 16
games. Dragons veteran Chris Jones was second with 6 strikes, while Stewart
Cutting and Kieran Clarkson each contributed 5.
Charlie
Spridgeon was the leading playmaker with 13 assists in 22 games and was also
the Ducks’ overall top points scorer with 4+13=17. Chris Jones finished second
overall in the Ducks’ point standings with 6+8=14.
