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| Deeside Ducks' Chris Jones (Photo by All Sports Photography) |
Deeside Ducks senior player Chris Jones has been named the Laidler Division’s “Defenceman of the Month” for January 2025 by the influential NIHL North Updates organisation.
NIHL
North Updates operate a Facebook page where they post - as is suggested in the
title - match updates for games being played in the NIHL North Moralee and
Laidler Divisions each weekend.
In
fact, during the current – and somewhat elongated - “transition” period while
we wait for the EIH(A) to get their new Gameday online scoring and
stats system up and running properly, NIHL North Updates is pretty much the
only place where you can find an up-to-date and centralised summary of what is happening
on match days across the two divisions.
The
Player of the Month Awards were launched by NIHL North Updates this season and
are based on nominations put forward by fans on the Facebook page, with the instruction:
“Players don't need to be flashy goal-scorers ... they can be stay-at-home
defencemen, brick wall goaltenders, the lot!”
Regarding
Chris Jones’ award, NIHL North Updates commented:
“The Deeside Ducks, in their first year, have
been far from good. But, when they do have all their men on the bench, one of
the side's brightest lights is Chris Jones, who can credibly contribute to the
team's offence with (Charlie) Spridgeon but has been defensively instrumental
in bringing some games within touching distance of points, or softening the
blow in others.”
The full list of award winners for January 2025
is as follows:
Moralee Division
- Forward: Daragh Spawforth (Blackburn Hawks)
- Defence: Matt Cross (Blackburn Hawks)
- Netminder: Mark Turnbull (Billingham Stars)
Laidler Division
- Forward: Taylor Stanton (Telford Tigers)
- Defence: Chris Jones (Deeside Ducks)
- Netminder: Chris Outhwaite (Billingham Buccaneers)
You can follow what’s going on in the Moralee and Laidler Divisions every weekend on the NIHL North Updates Facebook page at:
https://www.facebook.com/nihlnupdates
*****
The EIHA ran their own Player Of The Month Awards
for all 4 NIHL Divisions in seasons 2017/18 and 2019/20, although the shortlists
were compiled and the monthly winners picked by a panel of media experts. The current NIHL North Updates awards differ from
this as the shortlists are taken from nominations by the public.
