Giving you a clearer picture of roller hockey
Nine members of the England senior team arrived in Vigo, Spain yesterday (Friday) and due to work commitments Brendan Barker our tenth player will follow on Wednesday. After arriving in the northern Spanish town the team had a brief rest then travelled to the nearby rink home of Spanish first division club Vigo Stick for their first training session in Spain.
Bury St Edmunds Roller Hockey club had a day to remember last weekend. Eastern Counties Roller Hockey Association held their annual Cup Finals day at Bushfields Sports centre, Peterborough. Bury entered five teams in a range of age groups from under 15’s to Seniors and Ladies, and won the lot, they also took the trophy for the Eastern Counties League Division one and the EC Under 17’s league.
Other victors on the day were Cambridge for the under 11’s, Cottenham for the under 13’s and Ely for the Seniors 2 Cup. This was a momentous day with over 150 players and spectators, ten hours of Roller Hockey and many memories of what could have happened.
Entries close for the under 17’s European championship logo design competition on Tuesday 30th June. The lucky winner will receive a cheque for £100 and two free admission tickets for the week to the championships.
A quick reminder that discounted registration fees end on Sunday 28th June as it will be six weeks until the Goodwood Roller Marathon 2009!
If you haven’t registered yet then do register *and pay* in the next week for discounted rates.
A big thank you if you have already signed up. We hope you are looking forward to the event and are doing lots of training 
Congratulations to Herne Bay United and Letchworth for winning the 2008/9 Premier and National Div1 leagues respectively. HBU conceded their last match of the season to Middlesbrough last Saturday evening ending in a convincing 5-7 win for the Northern lads.
This weekend will see the UK conference playoffs where all our age groups will be contested, Burwell and Soham are the venues hosting this competition with the finals on the weekend of 4th and 5th July.
The teams that have entered this year reads like a role call of clubs that affiliate to the NRHA. Some of the teams entered this year are, Bury, Cambridge, Cottenham, East Grinstead, Ely, Farnham, HBU, HBU Adders, HBU Cobras, HBU Pythons, HBU Vipers, Herne Bay, Kings Lynn, Manchester, Middlesbrough, Peterborough and Plymouth,. You can see and download the full list of teams and schedule by clicking here.
Playing a conference competition is not a new thing we in the UK played it up until six years ago after which the Inter-Regional competition was introduced. Spain stage their conference competition in Oveido last weekend where the top team from each of the eight regions competed for the National under 17 champions. It was a treat for me to be able to go and photograph some of Spains future national team players. Josep Ordeig, Spains national coach was present for all of the three day tournament, may be looking for his U17 team for Dinan France in September. I managed to get some cracking shots of the young hopefuls and see some excellent Roller Hockey with friends from the Senior European championships of last year.
Ten teams two days of roller hockey and one winner, CP Ribes from Spain. Congratulations to our European cousins from Catalunia who won the final beating Kings Lynn in a carefully planed attacking match. Teams from as far south as Plymouth all came together in the East of England to play for this prestigious trophy. This was a two day event starting on Saturday in two venues, Burwell and Soham and ending on Sunday at Soham with the final matches.
Sometimes something funny happens in our sport of Roller Hockey and when its caught on video camera we can all share in the laughter. This clip was taken yesterday at the warm up match at the start of day three of the 2009 Coupe des Nations in Montreux, Switzerland. No people wear hurt in the making of this video. Ladies match, Juventus v Diessbach.
SCRA St Omer had a convincing win (4-1) over bottom league team Nantes last Saturday at St Omer’s home venue. SCRA St Omer are currently the French National Division one league leaders and with only three matches left in the season St Omer are on target to win Frances top Roller Hockey league.
