Guildford Flames

Guildford Flames
2016–17 Guildford Flames season
City Guildford, Surrey
League English Premier Ice Hockey League
Founded 1992
Home arena Guildford Spectrum
Colors Maroon blue
Owner(s) Sportfact Ltd.
Head coach Paul Dixon
Captain Jez Lundin
Championships
Regular season titles 6 (97/98, 00/01, 05/06, 07/08, 11/12 & 12/13)
Challenge Cups 5 (06/07, 09/10, 11/12, 12/13 & 15/16)
Playoff championships 5 (97/98, 00/01, 03/04, 10/11 & 15/16)

The Guildford Flames are an ice hockey team based in Guildford, Surrey and their home ice is the Guildford Spectrum.

Founded in October 1992, from the following season, the Flames have remained in the second tier league of British hockey – this was the British National League until its dissolution in 2004, and subsequently the English Premier Ice Hockey League; clinching their first season there by defeating reigning champions Milton Keynes Lightning away. The team's Head Coach is Paul Dixon who took over after Stan Marple retired at end of the 06/07 Season. Canadian stars David Oliver and Jamie McLennan transferred to Guildford during the 04/05 Canadian NHL lockout.

Formation

Barry Dow, an American who sponsored and owned the basketball team Guildford Kings and Bill Hurley established and owned the team as management – the two were new to the sport of ice hockey, and brought in Mike Urquhart as coach and Darrin Zinger as captain.

Key players signed for the first season included Canadians Sean Murphy and Dave McGahan due to their high scoring at Solent Vikings. In addition a number of British players including goaltender, Mike Kellond; forward, Danny O'Hanlon and defender, Gary Shearer.

The Flames' inaugural season began in October 1992; they began, unseeded, in the English League Division One. With the Guildford Spectrum not yet completed, the team had to train at Slough with kind permission of Gary Stefan. The Flames played their "home" games at Alexandra Palace until their new home ice was ready and played their for the first time on 23 January 1993.

When 23 January 1993 finally arrived and the Guildford Spectrum opened, the event was a big one. The area's paid-for newspaper The Surrey Advertiser described the local council's £28 million arena as "awesome". Guildford's first game at their new home showed a convincing win with Andy Sparks scoring the first goal at the Spectrum. The team went to the top of the Conference due to that game, a position they held onto for the whole season.

Many of the defence men and Kellond suffered injury problems, just before the start of the play-offs; however, despite this, Guildford managed to gain a promotion for their second season.

The team was very popular with crowds, with the average attendance being over 2000 (capacity was 2200) so attracted local insurance company Cornhill as a sponsor along with Pepsi Cola as the shirt sponsor; the latter prompting a temporary name change to the Pepsi Guildford Flames between February and November 1993.

Club honours

Team Logo and Jersey

The team logo is very similar to that of the Calgary Flames of the NHL. The team jerseys mirror those used by a former NHL team, Atlanta Thrashers from 1999 to 2006 (with logos replaced and advertisements added).

Roster

Roster for the 2016/17 EPIHL season.[1]

Goaltenders
# Nat Player Catches Height Weight Date of birth 15/16 Club
31 Finland Joonas Kuusela L 187 cm 85 kg 30 May 1990 Finland Hermes
39 England Dean Skinns L 167 cm 56 kg 3 October 1984 England Milton Keynes Lightning
33 England Michael Will R 193 cm 86 kg 23 August 1987 England Cardiff Devils
Defencemen
# Nat Player Shoots Height Weight Date of birth 15/16 Club
61 England Samuel Godfrey R 183 cm 85 kg 2 February 1994 England Guildford Flames
82 United States/England Jeremy Lundin L 183 cm 91 kg 9 February 1988 England Guildford Flames
18 England Daniel Meyers R 191 cm 91 kg 2 March 1983 England Guildford Flames
7 England Kevin Phillips R 180 cm 82 kg 5 January 1986 England Guildford Flames
44 England Rupert Quiney L 193 cm 101 kg 30 May 1990 England Guildford Flames
4 England David Savage L 181 cm 85 kg 11 October 1988 England Streatham Redskins
37 England Samuel Waller R 183 cm 76 kg 6 February 1992 England Bracknell Bees
Forwards
# Nat Player Shoots Height Weight Date of birth 15/16 Club
48 England Ben Campbell L 178 cm 77 kg 16 May 1987 England Guildford Flames
19 England Tom Duggan R 177 cm 78 kg 17 May 1990 England Guildford Flames
90 Sweden Jens Eriksson R 178 cm 88 kg 22 August 1984 England Guildford Flames
16 England Andrew Hemmings R 179 cm 90 kg 15 August 1988 England Guildford Flames
12 Slovenia Matic Kralj L 186 cm 87 kg 15 January 1983 England Guildford Flames
28 Sweden Marcus Kristoffersson L 189 cm 83 kg 2 January 1979 England Guildford Flames
24 Slovakia Jakub Kubis L 185 cm 87 kg 12 March 1990 Slovakia HK 95 Panthers Považská Bystrica
55 England Jared Lane R 178 cm 68 kg 31 March 1998 England Guildford Flames
8 Slovakia Marek Maslonka R 180 cm 85 kg 17 January 1987 France Ducs de Dijon
91 Canada/England Andrew McKinney R 183 cm 86 kg 13 April 1991 England Guildford Flames
47 England Andrew Melachrino L 182 cm 75 kg 9 June 1993 England Guildford Flames

Coaching staff

Management

Retired numbers

The retired numbers at the Guildford Flames are:

Team Captains

References

  1. ↑ "Guildford Flames Roster". Guildford Flames. Retrieved 2016-10-11.

External links

Preceded by
Bracknell Bees		 EPIHL Champions
2007–08 		Succeeded by
Peterborough Phantoms
Preceded by
Peterborough Phantoms		 EPIHL Premier Cup Champions
2009–10 		Succeeded by
Incumbent
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/21/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.