Wild Women Celebrate 10th Anniversary

Widnes Wild Women – September 2015 (Photo by Wild Women IHC)
Back Row: Sophie Sinclair Reeks, Penny Fletcher, Madeleine Gustavsson, Jakki Duncan, Abigail Hayes, Jodie Boyle, Vanessa Crickmore-Clarke, Sammi Boyle. Front Row: Elizabeth Wright, Leen de Decker, Katie Hills, Stephanie Drinkwater, Leanne Curry, Sarah Hutchinson, Charlene Chapman.

The Widnes Wild Women play their first game of the new season this Sunday 14th September at home to Sheffield Shadows, exactly 10 years - almost to the day - from their first ever league game.

The Wild Women were formed in the summer of 2015 when the erstwhile Manchester Phoenix women’s team moved along the M56 from Altrincham following a re-assignment of ice time arrangements there.

Their first ever league game was away to Slough Phantoms in the Women’s Premier League – at the time the second tier in the women’s ice hockey league pyramid – on 12th September 2015 and they came away with a 3-4 win.

The Wild Women’s first ever competitive goal was scored by Leen de Decker on 39 minutes and third period strikes from team captain Charlene Chapman, Rachel Cartwright – who has since gone on to be a 6-time Elite League champion and regular GB international player - and de Decker again handed them the win.

Widnes went on to have a very good season, finishing second in the WPL league table with 8 wins and 3 draws from their 14 games.  They came a fairly distant 7 points behind champions Swindon Top Cats, who went through the season unbeaten, but the Wild Women were one of only two teams to take a point off the “Calendar Girls” that season with a 3-3 home draw on Merseyside.

The Wild Women’s team for that first league game was Stephanie Drinkwater (NM), Charlene Chapman (C), Rachel Cartwright (A), Leen De Decker, Abigail Culshaw, Emma Middleton, Lucy Kirkham, Emma Pearson (A), Megan Bowen Fell, Katie Hills, Catherine Bowen Fell, Katharine Holliday, Elizabeth Wright, Jakki Duncan & Rebecca Wilde - and Drinkwater, de Decker and Catherine Fell are still with the team 10 years later. 

Drinkwater holds the Wild Women’s appearance record with 104 games over 9 seasons (the 2020/21 season was cancelled due to Covid…), de Decker is the top goals and points scorer with 104 goals and 150 points from 91 games while Fell is sandwiched between them in the all-time player standings with 22+33 in 92 games.

The Wild Women won the Division 2 North title last season and will be playing in WNIHL Division 1 North this season. This is the same level of competition as the Women’s Premier League was before it was renamed after a reshuffle and regionalised into North and South divisions.

The Wild Women face off the new season against Sheffield Shadows this Sunday 14th September at Planet Ice Widnes, 4.25pm face off – admission is free for all spectators.

Mayhem Off To Play Offs

Photo by Barcud Photography

The Mayhem sledge team will be looking to finish their season on a winning note as they head down to Lee Valley in East London this weekend to take part in the British Para Ice Hockey Play Offs.

The Widnes–based team rounded off their regular season schedule with a narrow 1-goal defeat to league champions Sheffield Steelkings and then picked up a tremendous 6-9 win away to Peterborough Phantoms in their last game and, therefore, go into this weekend tournament on a bit of a roll. 

The top four teams in the league qualify for the Play Offs with the league winners playing the 4th place finishers in one semi final and 2nd v 3rd in the other one. Both semi finals take place on Saturday and the winners go through to the final on Sunday while the losers meet in a 3rd place play off. This means that the Mayhem will play Sheffield in the first semi final facing off at 2.15 on Saturday and Cardiff will play Peterborough, starting at 5pm.

Sheffield Steelkings are probably the favourites to take the Play Off crown to add to this year’s league title. They went through the league season unbeaten and only conceded 8 goals in their 8 league games.  But league form counts for little in the Play Offs and one –off games on neutral ice can throw up surprises – as happened back in 2017 when the Mayhem only finished 4th in the table but went on to win the Play Off title beating Cardiff 5-0 in the final at Hull. 

The Play Offs are being held at Lee Valley Ice Centre this year which is a new venue for Para Ice Hockey. The event was staged at Nottingham last year – another new venue – as the sport’s governing body British Para Ice Hockey works tirelessly to try and broaden awareness about the game across the country.

Deeside Dragons v Telford Tigers2 Weekend Report

Deeside Dragons celebrate a goal against Telford (photo by Emilia Roberts Photography) 

Saturday 6^th September 2025 – Challenge Match: Deeside Dragons 10 – Telford Tigers2 7

Sunday 7^th September 2025 – Challenge Match: Telford Tigers2 10 - Deeside Dragons 7

The Steel 4 Structures Deeside Dragons got the new season off to a mixed start in a two game challenge series against Telford Tigers, winning 10-7 at home on Saturday and losing 10-7 away on Sunday.

The home game on Saturday – sponsored by the Share homeless charity - saw Dragons debuts for a number of the summer signings including American import Colin Cromie, Matty Barlow, Rhys Edwards, Bailey Thomas and Ethan Mayoh - and Tyler de la Bertouche made his first start in goal.

Noah Percival – who scored two goals in his first 2 games with the D2 Dragons the previous weekend - also made a step up to make his senior Dragons debut.

The game was played at a furious pace throughout, with end to end hockey, and was a great advert for the NIHL Moralee Division.

Deeside took the lead with a goal from new team captain Jared Dickinson on 5 minutes but Telford equalised 4 minutes later. 

A powerplay strike from Jake Witkowski edged the Dragons back in front on 15 minutes only for Telford to reply again almost immediately but two quick fire goals – from Ross Kennedy and Matty Barlow – just 16 seconds apart in the last minute of the period gave the home side a 4-2 lead at the first break.

The second period was just as keenly contested but three goals in a row for Telford saw them overhaul the Dragons and take a 4-5 lead by the mid-point of the game.

However, the Dragons’ heads did not drop and goals from Witkowski and Barlow put them back in front to carry a narrow 6-5 lead into the second interval.

Two more Deeside strikes early in the third period – from Colin Cromie, his first as a Dragon, and Dan Fadejevs - finally put daylight between the two teams but Telford were not done yet and stubbornly pulled a goal back.

Witkowski’s hat-trick goal on 45 minutes restored the 3-goal cushion to bring the score to 9-6 but Telford scored again on 51 minutes to set up a potentially barnstorming finale.

However, as it turned out, a goal from another Deeside debutant - Rhys Edwards - just 20 seconds after that rounded off the scoring for the evening and the Dragons were able to celebrate a 10-7 victory.

Between the pipes, Tyler de la Bertouche impressed in his first outing for the Dragons. The former National Division netminder faced 37 shots and made several key saves, including a string of one-on-one stops.

The MVP awards were presented by Tom Phillips, MD of Dragons’ title sponsors for the season Steel 4 Structures, and his son Sebastian and went to Dan Mitchell for Telford and Matty Barlow for Deeside.

Matty Barlow was the Dragons' MVP in his first game for Deeside (Photo by Dragons IHC)

The return fixture in Telford on Sunday was played in similar vein and there was little to choose between the two teams for much of the game. Colin Cromie gave the Dragons the lead after just 18 seconds but the Tigers fought back to lead 4-2 at the first break, with the other Dragons goal coming from Jake Witkowski.

At the second interval, the score was 7-5 to Telford after a 3-3 period that saw Dragons goals from Witkowski (2) and MJ Clancy.

The Dragons continued to battle hard in the third period with goals coming from Jared Dickinson and Rhys Edwards but it wasn’t enough to stave off a 10-7 defeat. 

The Dragons D1 team open their NIHL Moralee Division campaign this Saturday 13^th September with an away trip to face Sheffield Scimitars at iceSheffield. They then play the same opposition at home the next day at Deeside Leisure Centre, 5.15pm face off.

Match Report: Sheffield Titans 4 – Deeside Dragons D2 2 (Laidler Division)

James Shaw in action for the Dragons away at Sheffield (Photo by Keith & Jenny Davies)

Saturday 6^th September 2025 – Laidler Division: Sheffield Titans 4 – Deeside Dragons D2 2

The Dragons D2 team played their first Laidler Division league game of the season on Saturday, narrowly losing out 4-2 away to Sheffield Titans. 

The team was missing a few players who had been called up to play for the senior Dragons but the bench was boosted by the addition of highly experienced player coach James Parsons - who was a long term player with the Dragons D1 team before retiring in the summer - and Thomas Chong – a former Deeside junior who played last season with Bradford Bulldogs.

Sheffield led 1-0 after the first period and went 3-0 up in the second before Rafferty Smith finally found the back of the net for Deeside.

The Titans edged further ahead again in the third period but a powerplay goal from Cameron Kushnirenko - back in Dragons colours after a few seasons away at Sutton Sting - with just 43 seconds left in the game made the score a little more respectable.

The Dragons D2 team are away to Nottingham Lions this Sunday 14^th September and then play their first home league game of the season against Billingham Buccaneers on Saturday 20^th September at Deeside Leisure Centre, 5.15pm face off.

*****

The Deeside Under 16 girls team picked up their second win of the season with a 3-0 home victory over Leeds on Sunday. They now top the WNIHL U16 Girls (North) league table at this early stage of the season having already beaten the same opposition 1-5 away last weekend.

Also on Sunday, the Deeside Junior Club’s Under 14s played out a 2-2 draw with Telford U14s at Deeside Leisure Centre on Sunday while the Under 19s lost 4-2 away at Widnes.

Deeside Dragons D1 Challenge Games This Weekend

Colin Cromie – Photo by Jean -Paul Srivalson

The Deeside Dragons Moralee Division (D1) team play their first games of the new season this weekend with home and away challenge matches against Telford Tigers.

The Tigers are a bit of an unknown quantity, having been promoted to the Moralee Division in the summer after winning the Laidler Division title for the past two seasons.

However, they have assembled a strong squad with highly experienced Canadian Jason Silverthorn dropping down from the Telford National Division team and the signing of Brodie Jesson, who played for the Dragons for the past two seasons.

The weekend games will give Dragons fans the first opportunity to see the summer signings in action and most eyes will probably be on new American import Colin Cromie, who comes from a background of US college hockey and Canadian junior leagues.

Other additions to the squad include Matty Barlow - who has joined from local rivals Widnes Wild - and Rhys Edwards, another former Widnes player who spent last season at Hull.

Also new for this season are Tyler de la Bertouche, a promising young netminder who has played National Division hockey with Peterborough and Bristol, Ethan Mayoh - an experienced defenceman who has 5 seasons with Blackburn Hawks under his belt and Bailey Thomas who also played for the Hawks last season..

The Dragons take on Telford this Saturday 6th September at Deeside Leisure Centre, 5.15pm face off, and then travel to Shropshire for the return fixture on Sunday, 6pm start.

The NIHL season proper starts the weekend after with a trip to face Sheffield Scimitars on Saturday 13^th September and then a home game against the same opposition the next day at Deeside Leisure Centre, 5.15pm face off.

Wild Women Continue to Build Roster

Wild Women’s Katie Adshead (Photo by David Law Photography)

The Widnes Wild Women continue to assemble their roster for the forthcoming 2025/26 WNIHL season in Division 1 North with the re-signing of four more members of last season’s Division 2 North title-winning team.

Katie Adshead returns for her 7th season with the Wild team, having originally joined for the 2018/19 season. She has notched up 77 matches in that time, scoring 3 goals and 8 assists with 24 penalty minutes and was a key member of the both the 2019/20 and 2024/25 title winning seasons.

Jennifer Hickey
(Wild Womens IHC)

Jennifer Hickey joined the Wild Women for the 2021/22 season and has played in all 58 games overall.   She has contributed 6 goals and 12 assists and picked up just 8 penalty minutes. Hickey also plays University hockey for the Manchester Metros, scoring 16+29 in 79 games over five seasons.

Victoria Connelly is back for her fourth season as a Widnes player. She is a former Guildford Lightning Elite player, previously playing for the Bracknell Fire Bees and has made 22 appearances for the Wild Women over the past 3 seasons, scoring 7 goals and 6 assists.  Victoria will be the Wild Women’s captain for this season, with AC duties rotating between Elizabeth Loss, Laura Moran, Ellen Tyrer and Vanessa Crickmore-Clarke.

Ontario-born Lise Gillen brings a wealth of experience having played 3 seasons for the Guildford Lightning in the Womens’ Elite League, as well as playing in her native Canada. She has played 23 games for Widnes over the past 3 seasons, scoring 12 goals and 8 assists.  

The Wild Women start their league campaign in women’s Division 1 North on Sunday 14th September when they take on Sheffield Shadows at Planet Ice Widnes, 4.25pm face off.

Mayhem Players at Women’s World Championships

Mayhem contingent at the World Championships – Emily McLean, Felicity Gregory, Peter Hagan, Karl Nicholson and Nicola Terrell (Photo by GB Para Ice Hockey)

Mayhem sledge team players Felicity Gregory, Emily McLean and Nicola Terrell – along with Assistant Coach Karl Nicholson and Equipment Manager Peter Hagan – helped the Great Britain women’s para ice hockey team to a 4th place finish at the inaugural Women’s World Championships at Dolny Kubin in Slovakia last week.

Team GB won their opening group game with a narrow 2-1 victory over Team World. Mayhem’s Felicity Gregory scored both of the goals and was also named Player of The Game – but the next day saw a 0-7 defeat at the hands of Peggy Assinck’s Team Canada.  

While a loss is always disappointing, this has to be taken in context because the GB girls put in a battling performance and this score-line was a great improvement over previous meetings between the two teams, which had all finished in double-figure deficits.

Finishing second in Group B meant that Team GB then had to face the winners of Group A, Team USA, in the semi final on the Saturday. 

The Americans had not conceded a goal so far in the competition – nor indeed in the previous 3 years of international tournaments - so this was always likely to be a bit of an uphill struggle.

Both semi finals went very much to form with the USA beating GB 10-0 and Canada beating Norway 7-0 to set up an all North American final.

Great Britain, however, had a realistic chance of a medal with a bronze medal play off against Norway.

Unfortunately they never really got going in their 3rd v 4th game. Norway got an early goal and romped to a 6-0 win to take the bronze. 

The match was refereed by former Widnes Wild Women’s player Philippa Mackinnon, who was a member of the pool of international match officials for the tournament.

The gold medal match saw Team USA beat Canada 7-1, meaning that Mayhem’s Canadian player Peggy Assinck, at least, came home with a silver medal from the inaugural Women’s World Championships.

Deeside Dragons NIHL2 - Opening Weekend Report

Finn Ogden was the Dragons D2 MVP against Bradford (photo by Paul Breeze)

Saturday 30^th August 2025 – Challenge Match: Deeside Dragons D2 4 – Bradford Bulldogs 1

Sunday 31^st August 2025 – Challenge Match: Bradford Bulldogs 8 - Deeside Dragons D2 3

 The new Deeside Dragons Laidler Division team played their first ever games at the weekend – with back to back challenge matches against Bradford Bulldogs, winning 4-1 at home on Saturday and losing 8-3 away on Sunday.

The Dragons D2 team are carrying on the good work that was started by their predecessors - the Deeside Ducks - last season by offering regular senior league experience for promising young players and the game on Saturday saw senior debuts for Deeside juniors Finn Ogden, Ollie Price and Lewis Edward.

Also on view were new signing Noah Percival who joined from Leeds in the summer and will also play for the Dragons D1 team – Cameron Kushnirenko – back at Deeside after a spell with Sutton Sting - and former senior Dragons players Karl Bacon and James Shaw, who have dropped down a division to bring some extra experience to the youthful D2 set up.

The game started well for the Dragons and they took the lead after just 5 minutes with a goal from Liam Yarwood – his first ever senior goal.  Seven minutes later Henry Phillips found the back of the net and the score remained 2-0 at the first period break. 

Noah Percival edged the Dragons further ahead on 28 minutes but Bradford finally managed to convert one of their own chances to score with just 2 minutes left in the second period.

The only goal of the third period came from Ben Roscoe on 42 minutes – his first ever strike in senior hockey – and despite continued pressure from the visiting Bulldogs, the Dragons were able to hold on for a well deserved 4-1 win.

16 year old netminder Finn Ogden – playing in his first ever senior game - put in an impressive performance in the Deeside goal, stopping 29 of the 30 shots that he faced, and was named MVP for the Dragons.

In the away game on Sunday, the Dragons never really got going and found themselves 5-0 down early in the third period before Dan Fadejevs eventually broke their duck for the evening.

Further goals followed – from Liam Yarwood and Noah Percival – but it was not enough to prevent them slumping to an 8- 3 defeat.

The D2 Dragons open their league campaign this Saturday 6^th September with an away trip to face the Sheffield Titans.

*****

The Deeside Under 16 girls team played their first league game of the season on Sunday, winning 1-5 away to Leeds.

Wild Women Add To Roster

Karyn Cooper (Photo by Flyfifer Photography)

The Widnes Wild Women continue to assemble their roster for the forthcoming 2025/26 WNIHL season in Division 1 North.

Karyn Cooper returns for her seventh season in Wild colours, having originally joined the team in the 2018/19 season from a background of University hockey.

In that time she has played 78 games scoring 2 goals and 13 assists and was part of the team that won the league title in both the 2019/20 and 2024/25 seasons.

Grace Teinert
(Photo by Wild Women IHC)

Karyn is also the team’s General Manager and does a huge amount of administrative work behind the scenes.

A new face to the fans this season – although not to the team as she trained with them all last season - is Grace Teinert, who will be making her senior WNIHL debut.  She is the daughter of Riverside Raiders player and former Wild NIHL team manager Mike Teinert and sister to Wild Academy junior player Daniel Teinert.  

The Wild Women start their league campaign in women’s Division 1 North on Sunday 14th September when they take on Sheffield Shadows at Planet Ice Widnes, 4.25pm face off

Mayhem Players Off To Women’s World Championships

Mayhem's Felicity Gregory, Peter Hagan and Emily McLean on GB Duty at Skien in 2024 (Photo by Breanna Wagner)

A number of players and team staff from the Mayhem sledge team are away on international duty this week at the Women’s World Championships that are being held in Dolny Kubin, Slovakia.

Felicity Gregory, Emily McLean and Nicola Terrell are all playing for Great Britain while Canadian Peggy Assinck is icing for her home nation.

The Mayhem’s men’s / mixed GB international Karl Nicholson is travelling as Assistant Coach and Peter Hagan is Equipment Manager.

This year sees the first ever official Women’s World Championship for Para Ice Hockey. There have been three “test” competitions held in previous years – called the World Women’s challenge - in Green Bay, USA, in 2022 and 2023 and Skien, Norway in 2024.

In each of those tournaments, the USA have taken the Gold Medal with Canada coming second and GB finishing 4^th.

This year’s inaugural World Championships sees 6 teams taking part – USA, Canada, Australia, Norway, Great Britain and a “Team World”, which is a composite team made up of players from nine different nations across Europe and Asia, including four from the Czech Republic and two from both Germany and Slovakia.

The teams will be split into two groups of three – with Team GB being paired up with Canada and Team World and, once the group stage is complete, there will be semi finals and a final to decide the final medal positions.

 

The full Team GB squad is:

• Freya Austin - Peterborough Phantoms
• Shannon Couch - Cardiff Huskies
• Dani Czernuszka-Watts - Cardiff Huskies
• Leanne Emmerson - Cardiff Huskies
• Felicity Gregory - Manchester Mayhem
• Davina Hall - Peterborough Phantoms
• Jodie Hill- Cardiff Huskies
• Helen McGivern- Cardiff Huskies
• Emily McClean - Manchester Mayhem
• Stacey Quirk - Peterborough Phantoms
• Nicola Terrell - Manchester Mayhem
• Kirsty Van Der Poll - Sheffield Steelkings

 

The full schedule for the 2025 Women’s World Championships is as follows:

 

Tuesday 26^th August:

Australia v USA – 16.00 CEST / 15.00 BST

Team World v Canada – 19.00 CEST / 18.00 BST

 

Wednesday: 27th August:

Norway v Australia – 16.00 CEST / 15.00 BST

Great Britain v Team World – 19.30 CEST (18.30 BST)

Thursday 28th August:

USA v Norway – 16.00 CEST / 15.00 BST

Canada v Great Britain – 19.30 CEST (18.30 BST)

 

Saturday 30^th August:

5th/6th Place Game – 12.30 CEST / 11.30 BST
Semi Final 1 (Winner A vs Runner Up B) – 16.00 CEST / 15.00 BST
Semi Final 2  (Winner B vs Runner Up A) – 19.30 CEST / 18.30 BST

Sunday 31^st August:

Bronze Medal Game 15.30 CEST / 14.30 BST

Final – 19.00 CEST / 18.00 BST

Dragons NIHL2 Complete Early Season Roster

James Shaw (Photo by Peter Sheffield)

The Deeside Dragons NIHL2 team have completed their early season roster with the signing of a former senior Dragons player and a number of returnees from last season.

Former Sutton Sting junior James Shaw has played 99 competitive games for the senior Dragons team over 2 spells spanning from 2017 to last season - with 2 seasons with Nottingham Lions in between - and has some 170 senior games under his belt in total.

In that time he has scored 75 goals at NIHL level with 47 assists and 120 penalty minutes.

Shaw is also a coach with the Deeside junior sides and was head coach of the Under 16 team last season.

Talking about joining the Dragons Laidler Division team, Shaw said:

“I'm excited to join our Division 2 team this season to help develop our younger players coming up to Seniors over the past 2 years. Having coached or played with many of the younger players on the team, I'm excited to help them develop on and off the ice.”

“I'm looking forward to a different challenge playing in Division 2 after some valuable years with the Dragons Division 1 team and I hope to use that experience to further develop as a player.”

Two brothers who made their NIHL debut with the Ducks team last year are back for another season with the team under its new Dragons name. Mackenzie Wilkes and Deacon Wilkes both played in 19 games for the Ducks last season, with Mackenzie picking up 24 penalty minutes.

Also back are Charlie Nicholson, who played in 9 Ducks games scoring 1 goal, and Rafferty Smith who scored 1+2, also in 9 games.

Nicholson, Smith and Deacon Wilkes will all play for the Deeside Under 19 team as well as the Division 2 Dragons to give them extra ice time and experience to help with their development.

Two new faces to Deeside this season are Bailey Thomas - a former Manchester Storm junior who played 27 games in the Moralee Division for Blackburn Hawks last season – and American born netminder Calvin Taddeo, who has been away from the game for several years.

The Dragons NIHL2 team face off their new season with home and away challenge matches this weekend against Bradford Bulldogs before their NIHL Laidler Division campaign gets under way.

They face the Bulldogs at home at Deeside Leisure Centre on Saturday 30^th August – face off 5.15 pm – and travel away for the return fixture the next day.

The Deeside Dragon senior team play their first games the following weekend with home and away friendlies against Telford Tigers.

Sledge Hockey 2025: Round-Up #14

With the dust now slowly settling on the league phase of the 2025 British Para Ice Hockey season, it is time to have a look at the top player stats for the campaign.

These figures have been painstakingly compiled from a combination of sources – gamesheets (where possible...), various teams’ own data and also Gameday uploads. Unfortunately, the information on Gameday is a bit “hit and miss” and the system doesn’t record PIMs properly - so that information is missing in some cases.

It is also worth pointing out that the Mayhem v Peterborough game was not played, so players from those teams only have stats showing for 7 games instead of the normal 8.

Anyway, Peterborough’s Gary Farmer is once again the league’s top points scorer with 28 goals and 6 assists from 7 games with Cardiff’s Tyler Christopher in second with 19+12 and Mayhem’s Karl Nicholson third with 18+6.

It is interesting to note that 72 players played across the 5 teams during the 2025 season, with 40 of them getting points on the board.

Sheffield Steelkings had the widest distribution of points among the team with all 11 “outfield” players notching up points, while Cardiff Huskies were second with 10 players getting goals or assists.

The full ranking of all 72 players - along with team by team stats breakdowns - will be published in the end of season review book that we are producing for this season, which will be completed after the play offs in September.

We also have the complete (as far as possible...) netminder stats for all teams in this year’s British Para Ice Hockey League.

Here again, Gameday doesn’t record goalie minutes / Time On Ice, which makes things more difficult – and Shots On Goal figures are missing for a number of games as well.

In order to be able to put a proper table of figures together, some of these values have been estimated.

This is not an ideal scenario but, under the circumstances, it is the only way to be able to have reasonable data available for comparison.

The Sheffield Steelkings had an impressive 5 shut outs from their 8 games and only conceded 8 goals in 360 minutes if play so it is not surprising that their two netminders, Jonathan Gill and Andrew Jackson, top the standings for the season.

4 of the 5 shut outs were shared (hence the *) with both netminders icing for part of the game.

Wild Women Prepare For New Season

Steve Furber, Paddy Horner and Leen de Decker (Photo by Wild Women IHC)

The Widnes Wild Women have announced their coaching team in preparation for the new 2025/26 WNIHL season, which starts in September. Steve Furber returns as Head Coach with Thomas (Paddy) Horner back as Assistant Coach supported by Leen De Decker and Suzie Miller as Player / Coaches.

It is the same coaching group that oversaw the Wild Women’s successful Division 2 North title winning campaign last season and this continuity will be all-important as the team now prepare for playing in the higher Division 1 North after being promoted during the summer.

De Decker’s presence as a player on the ice will be crucial in the new season as she is the club’s all-time highest points scorer with 104 goals and 46 assists in 91 games.  She was one of the founder members of the Wild women when the former Manchester Phoenix team moved en-bloc to Widnes from nearby Altrincham in the summer of 2015. 

Stephanie Drinkwater
(Photo by Karyn Cooper)

She had previously played 8 seasons for Kingston Diamonds before arriving at Widnes via Manchester. She was, until recently, the most capped player for her native Belgium with 52 World Championship games under her belt, along with 3 WC bronze medals and 1 silver medal.

Three more of the Wild Women “originals” have also re-signed for this season.

Netminder Stephanie Drinkwater holds the club record for appearances with 104 over the ten years of the Wild Women’s history – but only 9 seasons as there was no competition in the 2020/21 season due to Covid closures.

Vanessa Crickmore-Clarke is a highly experienced attacker turned defender who won 5 league titles with the Sunderland Scorpions in her native north east and then spent 9 seasons playing with the Flintshire Furies at Deeside and Phoenix at Altrincham before the move to Widnes.

Vanessa Crickmore-Clarke
(Photo by Wild Women IHC)

In an impressive career to date, Vanessa has played some 300 competitive games in total, including 72 for Widnes.

Experienced centre Elizabeth Loss was another of the original Manchester Phoenix team that moved to Widnes in 2015 and, in her 8 seasons with the Wild women, has played 66 games.

Like Drinkwater, Crickmore-Clarke and de Decker, Liz was a key member of the Widnes team that won the 2019/20 Division 1 North league title and the Division 2 North title last season.

Elizabeth Loss (photo by Wil Evans)

*****

Following their promotion to Division 1, the Wild Women are keen to attract new players for the 2025/26 season and are offering trial opportunities at their weekly training sessions during August.

The sessions run on Tuesday evenings from 9.30 to 10.30pm at Planet Ice Widnes and players must be aged 14 or over and have their own insurance or be covered by EIHA trial insurance.

Anybody interested in taking part is asked to contact the team via the Widnes Wild Women’s Facebook page.

Players with higher league or international experience are especially welcome.

Dragons NIHL2 Team Add To Roster

Cameron Kushnirenko
(Photo by Keith & Jenny Davies)

The Deeside Dragons NIHL2 team have added to their squad ahead of the forthcoming Laidler Division season with the arrival of a former senior Dragons player, some returning Ducks and a few 2-way juniors.

Cameron Kushnirenko played for the senior Dragons team in the Laidler Division in the 2019/20 season and brings with him a wealth of experience at Division 2 level.

The former Bradford junior has played some 170 senior competitive games with two seasons with the Bulldogs, one at Altrincham and three at Sutton Sting to go with his season with the Dragons.

He has scored 14 goals and 49 assists from his defensive role and notched up an "enthusiastic" 543 penalty minutes over his 7 senior seasons.

Dragons NIHL2 Head Coach Gary Shaw said of Kushnirenko:

“I am pleased to welcome Cameron back under my wing for the coming season. He originally came to Deeside with a bit of a reputation for mouthing off at the officials and got a lot of penalties for this, which I addressed and I had him focus on his work on the ice and this reduced his penalties vastly.”

“The hard work he has now put in has made him a very good defenceman and he is a player that we can rely on to help bring the young players on. So, I'm looking forward to the positive impact that I know he will bring to our future players.”

Liam Yarwood
(Photo by All Sports
Photography)

Two players who played for the team last season when they were known as the Deeside Ducks are back for the new campaign.

Liam Yarwood made his senior debut last season and played in 15 Ducks games, scoring 1 assist, while Callum Garwell made 1 Laidler Division appearance.

The whole point of the Dragons NIHL2 team is to encourage young talent and act as a stepping stone between the Deeside junior teams and the Dragons senior side. 

This worked very well last season with the erstwhile Ducks team giving senior debuts to over 20 young players who might not have had the chance to play at NIHL level so early in their careers and the policy will continue this season.

This season again, the club have identified a number of promising players from the Under 19s team who will be able to play up to gain extra experience and ice time with the Dragons in the Laidler Division.

Finn Ogden
(Photo by Andrea Petrie)

These include defenceman Lewis Edward, who is a former Telford Tigers and Dragons Under 16 player, netminder Finn Ogden who is the younger brother of Dragons player Cody Ogden, and Leo Hyman who is another promising junior netminder.

The Dragons NIHL2 team begin their season with back to back friendly matches against Bradford Bulldogs before their NIHL Laidler Division campaign gets under way.

They will take on the Bulldogs at home at Deeside Leisure Centre on Saturday 30^th August – face off 5.15 pm – and travel away to West Yorkshire for the return fixture the next day.

 

Sledge Hockey 2025: Round-Up #13

The 2025 British Para Ice Hockey League rounded off its regular season schedule with a cracking game at Peterborough that saw the Manchester Mayhem come away with a 6-9 victory at the Phantoms’ expense on Saturday.

The previous game had to be cancelled due to a technical problem at the Mayhem’s home Widnes rink so this was the only meeting between the two teams this season and, as such, it was a bit of an unknown quantity for both sides.

The game was very fiercely contested – with lots of goals - and was highly entertaining When the score stood at a finely balanced 6-6 midway through the third period, the result could easily have gone either way, before the Mayhem pulled away in the latter stages to make sure of the win.

Most of the damage was inflicted by the Mayhem’s GB international player Karl Nicholson, who scored 6 goals in the game to bring his total for the season to an impressive 18 - and the others were scored by Anton Tomlinson, Peggy Assinck and Tom Kimm.

Gary Farmer scored 5 for Peterborough with the other one going to Stacey Quirk

Despite the result, the Phantoms finish the league season as runners up in the table with 10 points from their 8 games – 5 points behind champions Sheffield Steelkings.

Last year’s champions Cardiff Huskies finish in 3^rd place, following a disappointing season by their own high standards. They have the same number of points as the Phantoms but take the lower table position due to an inferior goal difference overall and an inferior playing record in games between the two teams.

The Mayhem finish in 4^th place in the final standings for the second year in a row with 6 points from 8 games - two more than last season – and the Sheffield Steelstings development team prop up the rest of the table.

Attention now turns to the Great Britain Women’s Para team who will be taking part in the first ever official World Championships in Slovakia at the end of this month.

The 2025 BPIHL season will finish off with the Play Offs, which will be held at Lee Valley Ice Centre over the weekend of 13^th and 14^th September. 

Match Report: Peterborough Phantoms 6 – Mayhem 9 (BPIHL)

Tom Kimm was on target for the Mayhem away at Peterborough (Photo by Blindside Trading Cards)

Saturday 9th August 2025 – BPIHL: Peterborough Phantoms 6 – Mayhem 9

The Mayhem sledge team rounded off their regular season schedule with a superb 6-9 win away over Peterborough Phantoms on Saturday.

In their previous games this season, the Mayhem had put in some battling performances but things hadn’t gone their way in front of goal.  However, everything clicked into place for this season finale and, despite travelling with an understrength squad, they saw their efforts rewarded.

They took the lead after just 33 seconds with a goal from Karl Nicholson and didn’t really look back after that.  At the end of the first period, the score was 1-3 to the Mayhem and, at the end of the second, it was 3-6.  

The game was highly entertaining to watch and the Phantoms clawed back to draw 6-6 midway through the third period. The result could easily have gone either way at this point, but Mayhem heads didn’t drop and goals from Nicholson (2) and Peggy Assinck made sure of the win.

Mayhem’s GB international player Karl Nicholson, scored 6 goals overall in the game to bring his total for the season to an impressive 18 - and the others were scored by Anton Tomlinson and Tom Kimm, as well as Assinck. 

Despite the result, the Phantoms finish the league season as runners up in the table with 10 points from their 8 games – 5 points behind champions Sheffield Steelkings.

Last year’s champions Cardiff Huskies finish in 3rd place, following a disappointing season by their own high standards. They have the same number of points as the Phantoms but take the lower table position due to an inferior goal difference overall and an inferior playing record in games between the two teams.

The Mayhem finish in 4th place in the final standings for the second year in a row with 6 points from 8 games - two more than last season – and the Sheffield Steelstings development team prop up the rest of the table.

Attention now turns to the Great Britain Women’s Para team who will be taking part in the first ever official World Championships in Slovakia at the end of this month.

The GB squad is made up of players from across the various BPIHL teams and a number of players and staff from the Mayhem will also be involved.

The 2025 BPIHL season will finish off with the Play Offs, which will be held at Lee Valley Ice Centre over the weekend of 13th and 14th September.  

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There are hopes that there may be a new sledge team in the league for next year after the recently formed Leeds Locomotives club held an introductory taster session at the West Yorkshire rink.

A number of newcomers to the sport went along to see what it was all about and try out the equipment and the Locomotives are now trying to build on this promising start to try and get enough people together to make a team viable.

There are currently only 5 teams in the British Para Ice Hockey League, playing across 4 venues: Cardiff Huskies, Peterborough Phantoms, the Mayhem at Widnes and the Steelkings and Steelstings at Sheffield.

There used to be a team based in Hull called the Kingston Kestrels but, sadly, they did not return to playing after the Covid closures and their place was taken up by the new Steelstings development to keep the numbers up.

The sport’s governing body – British Para Ice Hockey – are making great efforts to try and expand the game to new locations and, to this end, staged the end of season play offs at Nottingham last year and are holding them at Lee Valley in east London this year.

Deeside / Widnes Rivalry Stoked by Summer Signings

Rhys Edwards in action for Widnes (Photo by Steve Cunningham)

The new NIHL season starts in September and, as with every year, the most keenly anticipated dates in the Deeside fixture schedule are the meetings between the Dragons and Widnes Wild, who enjoy a fierce local rivalry going back some 12 years.

Because of the relative proximity between the two teams, these games are always robustly competed and passionate affairs.  There has been a regular interchange of players over the years and this season’s new arrivals are likely to add further spice to the meetings between the two teams  

The Dragons squad for the coming season includes a number of players who have previously turned out for the Wild - Phil Pearson, Matt Wainwright, Will Harper and MJ Clancy, as well as coaches Mike and Dave Clancy - and they have upped the ante this summer with the signings of Matty Barlow and Rhys Edwards.

Barlow has been a long term favourite at Widnes and has scored 54 competitive goals for the Wild in 140 games spread over 3 spells with the club.

Rhys Edwards made his Moralee Division debut with the Wild in the 2022/23 season and made 49 competitive appearances for them over 2 seasons, scoring 25 goals and 27 assists. He spent last season playing in Hull where he split his time between the Jets in the Moralee Division and the Seahawks in the National Division.

Talking about the two signings, Dragons head coach Mike Clancy said: 

”We’re excited to add Matthew Barlow to the S4S Deeside Dragons. He’s a smart, skilled forward with real pace and strong vision. Across Leeds and Widnes last season, he scored 30 goals and 17 assists in 30 games, showing that he can produce consistently and perform in big moments.”

“What really stood out was Matty’s hunger to keep developing and challenging himself — exactly the kind of mindset we value here. We believe he’ll bring a new dynamic to our attack and be a key contributor throughout this season.”

“Rhys is exactly the type of player we want in our lineup. His skillset, attitude, compete and drive are second to none. He will be a huge asset for us both on and off the ice.”

“It’s not just about what he brings in terms of scoring or playmaking, it’s the example he sets in training, his professionalism, and his hunger to improve. Players like Rhys elevate the group around them.”

“It takes a big player to wear a club legend’s number – #5 (previously worn by James Parsons – who has just retired). These are big boots to fill, and I am sure Rhys will excel in doing just that.”

Further intrigue has been added to this Deeside / Widnes dynamic with two Dragons players - Alex Parry and Oliver (Oli) Howells - moving the opposite way up the M56. 

Parry is a long term Deeside junior and senior player and made his ENL debut with the Flintshire Freeze back in the 2009/10 season. Apart from the 2021/22 season when the Deeside rink was closed after Covid, he has played his whole career to date with the Freeze and the Dragons notching up some 280 competitive games at ENL / NIHL level, scoring 91 goals and 130 assists.

Last season he was a Dragons Alternate Captain and scored 12 goals and 20 assists in 30 league games.

Oli Howells has played for the Dragons for the past 2 seasons, scoring 1+6 in 53 games from his defensive role. He is a graduate of the Telford junior development system and, with spells with the Tigers 2, Sheffield Titans and Scimitars and Solihull Barons – as well as his stint at Deeside - has some 137 NIHL appearances to his record since his senior breakout season in 2021/22. 

Since Widnes first joined the Laidler Division in 2013, there have been 41 games between the Wild and the Dragons, of which Widnes have won 20, Deeside 19 - and there have been two draws.

The overall goal tally from those matches is 238 to Widnes and 195 to Deeside - however that does include a season against the “Dragons 2” development side which, obviously produced some rather one-sided games - with some 55 goals being conceded in the 3 games that were played.

In the Moralee Division era (post 2022 when the Deeside rink re-opened after the Covid closure), the two teams have met 15 times in league and cup competitions. The Dragons have won 9 games and Widnes 6 - with the “goals scored” being 85 to 68 in Deeside’s favour.

With all teams playing each other twice at home and twice away during the regular league season, there are 4 league meetings between the Dragons and the Wild for fans to look forward to – spread over two weekends. 

The first meetings will take place over the weekend of 4th and 5th October, with the game in Deeside on the Saturday and the return in Widnes on the Sunday. The second local derby weekend will take place on 10th and 11th January with the game being played in Widnes on the Saturday and the reverse fixture in Deeside on the Sunday.

The Dragons start off the season with home and away friendly matches against Telford Tigers with the home game on Saturday 6th September at Deeside Leisure Centre, 5.15pm face off, and the away game down in Shropshire the next day.