INTO THE STORM - John Lawless Edits Match Programme

You may well remember the mild dig at Sheffield Steelers that appeared on the Stormforce pages of the match programme for the Storm v Steelers game on Sunday 27 October 1996. This editiorial was a severely edited version of what was supposed to be there. The decision to edit out Stormforce's friendly dig at the Steelers was apparantly taken by John Lawless. Talking to Into The Storm, Mick Thompson, Stormforce's Press Officer said,

I personally cannot understand why John Lawless is happy for Storm fans to take stick from opposing fans and their programmes, but we can't do anything.

John Lawless and Jennifer Dobson, the matchnight programme editor, were then asked to attend the next Stormforce Committee meeting to discuss the matter in full!

The reason for the dig at Sheffield Steelers was that it was a response to an article in GAME ON, the Sheffield Steelers matchnight programme from Sat 21 September 1996 written by Dave Simms. This was how the first paragraph appeared in the programme:

MOUTHING OFF - The thoughts of Dave Simms

Make sure you keep all your possessions close to you tonight, don't leave anything lying around - Manchester are in town and word has it that they are trying to Steel things from us. Well they certainly aren't going to get anything out of the trophy cabinet so the only other thing I can think of is our bags.

This provoked the Storm programme for the Steelers match to have a dig. In case you missed it, the Stormforce editorial went as follows:

So, this is what SHOULD have appeared:

Stormforce (the biggest ice hockey supporters club in the U.K.) welcomes tonight's visitors from over the hills "The Sheffield Steelers" and their fans.

It's the Steelers first ever visit to the Storm Shelter, even though over last season we saw quite a few Steelers shirts at different games. Obviously they wanted to see a class team, breaking all the records, in Europe's Number 1 arena.

A few things to point out to our visiting supporters tonight. First don't be too upset that you might experience some ice hockey in between your usual match night advertisement and sponsorship endorsements. We realise this might be a novel experience. Please join in with the singing and dancing with the Storm fans, as ice hockey is meant to be fun (tongue in cheek or what!!!) Also we hope that the world's biggest indoor colour crystal clear video wall, here at the arena, comes up to the standard of 'the house of steel' monochrome gameboy (P.S. it might work better if you plug the aerial in).

Enjoy the game, enjoy the experience and to quote Dave Simms in the Steelers programme v Storm earlier in the season. "Manchester are in town and word has it that they are trying to steel things from us, well they certainly aren't going to get anything out of our trophy cabinet, so the only thing I can think of is our bags".

Well Dave and the rest of you Steelers fans your bags are safe. It's the trophies we want, just look over your shoulder the Storm clouds are gathering and when you least expect it we will blow you away!!!

Joking and a few friendly digs aside, enjoy the game...revenge is in the air. "Lets go Storm"

MICK THOMPSON (Stormforce Press Officer)

Then came this in November....

It is reported that Mr Lawless has not responded in any way to the letter sent to him by Stormforce asking for an explanation or to confirm that he shall be attending the Stormforce committee meeting to discuss the matter. Unconfirmed reports suggest that he is booked on a plane to Canada on that day - with a ticket paid for by Stormforce - and that they may consider stopping the plane ticket if he there is still no response. Until the matter is resolved, Mick Thompson, the Stormforce Press Officer, who usually writes the editiorials for each match programme is refusing to write another - that is why the Newcastle game had only one Stormforce page and the the Ayr game had a passage from Linda Harper (Events Officer) instead.

In December, this happened!...

John Lawless did attend the Stormforce committee meeting as requested but was very unhappy at being asked to do so. He felt that it was totally unnecessary for him to be there. There was only one point on the agenda for the meeting and it was the editorial issue. An agreement was eventually reached between the two sides but Stormforce are very unhappy with the situation and so is John Lawless.

This is the January update!...

I received a statement from Stormforce's press officer, Mick Thompson, which reflects the views of the Stormforce committee. The statement refers to the ongoing issue with regard to the programme editorial from the Storm v Steelers game earlier in the season. To follow is the statement in full:

The conclusion to the episode of the missing editorial was to say the least eye-opening, even though I (Mick Thompson, Stormforce press officer) am not prepared to say exactly what was said, I think everyone will have a fair idea from the following remarks:

Mr Lawless firmly believes what he says goes no matter which part of the Storm it concerns, there is no point in discussing any matter as his point of view is final. The reason, well he didn't like the piece and would do it again.

To sum up Mr Lawless, "The EGO has landed". God help the Storm.

One last point. If any Ogden Entertainment employee used the language that Mr Lawless did at the last Stormforce meeting they would be sacked on the spot. Mr Lawless has lost a LOT of respect over this incident.

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