New Book: The Rise And Fall Of The Manchester Phoenix by Stuart Latham
ISBN No: 978-1-838116-56-9
214 pages B5 Size - Published 21/10/2020
Selling Price: £15.99
Featuring Stats, photos and articles by the players
They say that good things come in threes and, unlike the Porky’s Trilogy, which I have previously alluded to and of which - in my opinion - number 2 isn’t as good as 1 and 3 …, I am pleased to report that this is definitely NOT the case with Stuart Latham’s new book about the Manchester Phoenix ice hockey team.
It is called “The Rise and Fall of the Manchester Phoenix” so I guess you can imagine that it doesn’t have an overly happy ending – but there are lots of good bits to remember and celebrate in between the actual “Rise” and “Fall” parts.
I never, in fact, saw the Phoenix team play - although I did watch them warm up once, prior to the first game they played at Widnes – and, having never really followed the English Premier League per se as a dedicated fan, I can safely say that much of what Stuart has collected together in this book is new ground for me.
There are huge rafts of player stats, league tables and other bits and pieces - which all ice hockey fans love – and lots of fascinating photos as well.
There are articles and reminiscences from Margaret Pullen, Tony Hand, Carl Graham Steve Fone, Richard Amor Allan, Terry & Julia Sobutta, Peter Hagan, James Hadfield, Dave Clancy, Mark Lovell, Thomas Revesz, Aran Fox, Gary Lee, Paule Mayoh and Lisa Howard who all had involvement of some sort or other with the club over the 12 seasons of its existence. This is always nice to see as you get different points of view rather than just a mere list of what happened when – of which there is also plenty.
There are also sections about the ENL teams from that period, ie Phoenix ENL, Trafford Metros and Manchester Minotaurs.
You’ll probably know that there was a bit of falling out surrounding the Phoenix team which eventually led to their demise prior to the end of the 2016/17 season - but what went on behind the scenes is a matter for another occasion. As Stuart says in his introduction: “this book will focus on what happened on the ice!”
If you are keen a fan of the Manchester Phoenix, you’ll probably already have a copy of this – and if not, you’ll probably be getting one for Christmas.
As a stand-alone club history, it will be of interest to general ice hockey fans from the UK and abroad - and it fits very nicely between the other volumes of Stuart’s “Manchester Trilogy” between “60 Years of the Altrincham Aces” and “Manchester Storm - The Complete History”. (don’t ask me about this Manchester / Altrincham business, it’ll take too long to explain…)
Stuart has also recently produced similar books about the Deeside Dragons and Bristol Pitbulls teams and previous projects have included Bracknell, Peterborough and Swindon ice hockey clubs.
All of these are available by mail order but, because of production lead-times etc, I am told they HAVE to be ordered by 7th December at the latest if you want them delivered in time for Christmas.
To find out more about Stuart’s books on a wide range of topics – not just ice hockey, check out his sales website at: https://www.sandtsales.co.uk/online-shop
