STORM BLITZ ISSUE #13 Sunday 12 January 1997 If you have any comments on Storm Blitz, please feel free to e-mail inter.the.storm@poboxes.com any time. In this issue : * Storm win again and move off the bottom * Sheffield close gap & Ayr win in overtime * Eric Calder gets his name on his shirt * Radio 5 set to broadcast live games * The UK Hockey mailing list * Storm Info * New Storm fanzine available * Superleague Play-offs Web page * Stormforce Committe Meeting * Latest Superleague table * Forthcoming Storm fixtures * Next on TV & Radio * Get back issues of Storm Blitz * How to unsubscribe to Storm Blitz ------------------------- > STORM WIN AGAIN AND MOVE OFF THE BOTTOM In front of just under 10,000 at the Nynex Arena, Storm beat Basingstoke Bison 4-1 to move off the bottom of the league. The game began with Storm going all out to get an early goal and they ended up going 3-0 in the first 10 minutes. Shawn Byram scored number one after 6 minutes with Mike Morin adding another in the 9th minute. Hilton Ruggles got a now rare goal a minute later and Storm looked like they were all on for getting their biggest Superleague win of the season. The score remanined the same until six minutes into the second period when Basingstoke pulled a goal back from Merv Priest. Storm increased their lead to 4-1 just 3 minutes later with a goal from Chad Penney. This was followed by the first penalty of the game when Martin Smith got a 2 minute sit-down. After 39 minutes Storm had a goal disallowed and despite calls for a fifth from the crowd, the score remained the same throughout the whole of the last 30 minutes of the game. The Man of the Match for Storm was Brad Latta, while Merv Priest got the Bison award. The 9943 crowd was swelled with about seventy Milton Keynes Kings fans who had made the trip as they travel round the country to games as their own rink and team closed in the summer. > SHEFFIELD CLOSE GAP & AYR WIN IN OVERTIME In other game on Sunday, Sheffield Steelers beat Bracknell Bees at the Beehive 4-3 with the winner coming from Nicky Chinn with 10 minutes remaining. This was after Saturday's game where Steelers won by the same scoreline against Basingstoke with the winner then coming in overtime from Frank Kovacs. Ayr Scottish Eagles beat Newcastle Cobras 5-4 away in overtime. It was 4-0 to Ayr after the first period, but newcastle clawed their way back with the score 4-2 at the end of the second and 4-4 at the end of the third period. The winning goal was scored by Scott Young in overtime. > ERIC CALDER GETS HIS NAME ON HIS SHIRT At last! Eric Calder has finally got his name on his shirt - just in time to avoid the Inter The Storm campaign to buy him some stick on letters that I was planning for next week! > RADIO 5 LIVE SET TO BROADCAST LIVE GAMES Following on from the B&H Cup Final that was broadcasted live on BBC Radio 5 Live in December, the BBC now plans to broadcast live Superleague games in a new Saturday night programme that will also include basketball and will continue with rugby league once the rugby season begins in March. This is good news for Storm fans, as Storm play most of their away games on Saturday night and the only previous way to follow them was to watch pages 183 on Teletext and wait for the score updates! I suspect that they will cover the game that is on SKY when there is a live TV game on the Saturday. More news on this as I get it. > THE UK HOCKEY MAILING LIST The UK Hockey mailing list that disbanded at the end of the year to be replaced with the uk.sport.ice-hockey newsgroup is now with us again. The newsgroup is still available. The new mailing list is split into groups of "fans lists". This means that when you sign up, you choose whose list to be added to. For Manchester Storm fans, you would obviously choose the Storm list. This enables people to write messages to be sent to the team list that they are on (ie. you can send a message just to Storm fans) or to all teams (ie. everyone on the combined list). The Manchester Storm list is managed by Daniel Pollard and you must send an e-mail to pollardd@cs.man.ac.uk to be put on the list. The UK Hockey mailing list is used to discuss ice hockey issues with rival fans, to pass on information to fellow supporters and match reports etc are posted there. > STORM INFO Over the last year, Manchester Storm have become just about the most represented UK ice hockey team in terms of Web pages available. It may be confusing for the occasional Internet user with so much Storm information out there. For this reason, Storm Info was set up. Storm Info contains a single access point for the 6 most useful Storm Web pages on the Internet. Linked from Storm Info is StormWeb (stats page run by Daniel Pollard), Fire On Ice (reports and opinions page run by Mike Landers), Storm Pics (photographs page run by John Thurm), Canadian Storm Pages (pages detailing the history of ice hockey in Manchester run by Brian Waddington), ThunderFlash (Storm's online fanzine run by Mark Jones) and Inter The Storm (Everything you need to follow Manchester Storm throughout the season run by me). You can e-mail all the contributors through Storm Info also. Storm Info can be found at: http://members.aol.com/storminfo/home.htm > NEW STORM FANZINE AVAILABLE There is another Storm fanzine available! It is called The Shower Cap and is available from Skate Attack and Sportspages. This follows on from the quite impressive Thunder & Lightning and the hockey puzzles fanzine Ice Breaker. I bought all three for the first time from Skate Attack after the Basingstoke game and will do a brief review of them soon. > SUPERLEAGUE PLAY-OFFS WEB PAGE With the Superleague Play-offs approaching in March, there are some Web pages available detailing all the news you need know about them. The semi-finals and the final take place at the Nynex Arena on successive weekends and if fans of other teams are thinking of travelling to the games, these pages give you ticket, accomodation and other useful information. The Superleague Finals page can be found at: http://members.aol.com/ISLfinal > STORMFORCE COMMITTEE MEETING The next Stormforce Committe meeting will take place on Tuesday 14 January and I shall report on the outcomes of that by next weekend. Dave Biggar is expected to be in attendance for this one and a number of events are expected to be announced. > LATEST SUPERLEAGUE TABLE Pl W D OL NL +/- Points Cardiff Devils 28 20 2 0 6 +42 42 Sheffield Steelers 27 17 3 2 5 +29 39 Newcastle Cobras 27 13 2 5 7 +11 33 Nottingham Panths 28 13 1 2 12 +9 29 Ayr Scottish E 27 10 6 0 11 -12 26 Basingstoke Bison 29 9 2 2 16 -24 22 Manchester Storm 24 8 2 1 13 -27 19 Bracknell Bees 26 8 2 0 16 -28 18 Up to and including games on 12 January > FORTHCOMING STORM FIXTURES WED 15 JAN - Ayr Scottish Eagles v Manchester Storm, Superleague, 7.30 face off. THU 16 JAN - Manchester Storm v Cardiff Devils, Superleague, 7.40 face off. TUE 21 JAN - Sheffield Steelers v Manchester Storm, Superleague, 7.30 face off. THU 23 JAN - Manchester Storm v Bracknell Bees, Superleague, 7.30 face off. SAT 25 JAN - Newcastle Cobras v Manchester Storm, Superleague, 6.30 face off. SUN 26 JAN - Manchester Storm v Basingstoke Bison, Superleague, 6.00 face off. WED 29 JAN - Manchester Storm v Newcastle Cobras, Superleague, 7.30 face off. FRI 31 JAN - Sheffield Steelers v Manchester Storm, Superleague, 7.30 face off. > NEXT ON TV & RADIO MON 14 JAN - BBC GMR 95.1/104.6FM - Interview feature as part of Drivetime programme at approx 5.45pm WED 15 JAN - BBC RADIO SHEFFIELD 104.1FM - Sheffield Steelers v Nottingham Panthers - LIVE - 7.00 - 10.00pm (*TO BE CONFIRMED*) WED 15 JAN - HTV WALES - Highlights of a recent Cardiff Devils game plus goals from other recent games - 10.40 - 11.40pm THU 16 JAN - SKY SPORTS - Manchester Storm v Cardiff Devils - LIVE - 7.00 - 10.00pm THU 16 JAN - BBC RADIO LANCASHIRE 95.5/103.9FM - Grass Roots - Blackburn Hawks feature at approx 7.45pm FRI 17 JAN - BBC GMR 95.1/104.6FM - Manchester Storm features including interviews. Main feature of the progamme will be live football with Burnley v Bury commentary - 7.00 - 10.00pm SAT 18 JAN - BBC RADIO 5 LIVE - Review of the night's games in the sports section of Night Extra - 11.30 - 12.00AM MON 20 JAN - BBC GMR 95.1/104.6FM - Interview feature as part of Drivetime programme at approx 5.45pm TUE 21 JAN - BBC RADIO SHEFFIELD 104.1FM - Sheffield Steelers v Manchester Storm - LIVE - 7.00 - 10.00pm (*TO BE CONFIRMED*) WED 22 JAN - BBC RADIO SHEFFIELD 104.1FM - The Ice Line - Sheffield Steelers phone-in programme includes Steelers players as guests - 7.00 - 8.00pm WED 22 JAN - HTV WALES - Highlights of a recent Cardiff Devils game plus goals from other recent games - 10.40 - 11.40pm THU 23 JAN - BBC RADIO LANCASHIRE 95.5/103.9FM - Grass Roots - Blackburn Hawks feature at approx 7.45pm FRI 24 JAN - BBC GMR 95.1/104.6FM - Manchester Storm features including interviews at approx 8.00pm as part of general sports programme - 7.00 - 10.00pm SAT 25 JAN - BBC RADIO 5 LIVE - Review of the night's games in the sports section of Night Extra - 11.30 - 12.00AM > GET BACK ISSUES OF STORM BLITZ All previous issues of Storm Blitz are still available. If you didn't get them, or want them again, send an e-mail to inter.the.storm@poboxes.com and let me know which you want and I'll forward them on to you. > HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE TO STORM BLITZ Easy! Send an e-mail to inter.the.storm@poboxes.com telling me that you don't want Storm Blitz any more. Also use this address if you wish to change e-mail addresses or if you have any comments. *** END OF STORM BLITZ ISSUE #13 *** INTER THE STORM can be accessed at: http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/3859/storm.html