Friday 11 October 2024

Nostalgia : Peterborough Pirates Top Of The League! (1989)


(Source: Ice Hockey News Review, 14th October 1989)

  • 7th October 1989: Nottingham Panthers 6 – Peterborough Pirates 7
  • 8th October 1989: Whitley Warriors 7 – Peterborough Pirates 9

Yes – this really did happen. Just the once, and it lasted for just one week or so. But for this brief period in their 20 year history, the Peterborough Pirates were officially the top ice hockey team in the whole country.

True – it was a bit of a fluke, mainly down to a combination of two, rather unexpected, wins over a single weekend and other teams not having played as many games – but it was certainly fun to be a supporter of the Heineken League Premier Division leaders for a short while. 

The Peterborough Herald and Post newspaper – which had just been introduced to replace the long running weekly Peterborough Standard – dated 12th October 1989 “heralded” (pardon the pun...) the achievement as follows: 

“Pirates made a sensational start to their Heineken League campaign after just three wins in 12 challenge and cup matches as Heineken Champions Nottingham were dispatched 7-6 and tough North East outfit Whitley 9-7.”

“In 24 hours Pirates scored more away wins than in their three previous Premier Division years (one apiece in 1985-86 1987-88 1988-89) It was the first time Pirates scored consecutive top-flight away victories and in one weekend matched their away points haul of 1987-88 and 1988-89.”

“Saturday’s success was Pirates’ first in Nottingham and Sunday’s win was the first at Whitley for Peter Smith since leaving his native North East.”

Interestingly enough, the win away at Nottingham was the first Pirates appearance for new import Gary Stewart  

He had been brought in by head coach John Griffith to replace Wayne Crawford who had been controversially released the week before, as the coach had decided to play with two import defencemen to bring more stability to the team and offer more attacking options for home-grown players. 

With summer signing - and former NHLer - Michael Dark and returning long term favourite Todd Bidner filling the other import berths, this strategy appeared to be paying off – at least in the first few games of the league season.    

They actually won their next game as well – 9-7 at home to Ayr Raiders (a game that I was at) – on Sunday 15th October - but were caught up in the league standings as other teams played more games that weekend. 

The Pirates’ amazing start to the HBLP season came to an abrupt end the following weekend when they lost 10-6 away to Ayr and 9-3 away to Murrayfield on consecutive nights and they only won 4 more league games all season after that.

But it was good while it lasted!