Team News:
Swindon Wildcats – Renny Marr (NM), Dean Skinns (NM), Sam Godfrey, Neil Liddiard, Ben Nethersell, Tyler Plews, Sam Smith, Stevie Whitfield, Edgars Bebris, Sam Bullas, Ollie Endicott, Jack Goodchild, Bailey Hind-Pitcher, Chris Jones, Tomasz Malasinski, Aaron Nell, Balint Pakozdi, Reed Sayers, Emil Svec, Floyd Taylor, Declan Balmer
Raiders IHC – Ethan James (NM), Brad Windebank (NM), Michael Gray (NM), Sean Barry, Callum Burnett, Jack Cooper, Sam Cooper, Thomas Relf, Dan Scott, Callum Wells, Brandon Ayliffe, Oliver Baldock, Aaron Connolly, Rio Grinell-Parke, James Hounsome, Tommy Huggett, Erik Piatak, JJ Pitchley, Jacob Ranson, Lukas Sladkovsky, Jake Sylvester
Club History:
The Raiders IHC have long history in British ice hockey, they were formed back in 1987 and branded as the Romford Raiders, they played out of Rom Valley Way and started out life in British Division One under the old league structure.
League success has always been something that has alluded the Raiders, in their entire history they’ve only won two league titles; one in 96-97 when they won the newly formed English Division 1 after the split caused by the formation of the Superleague and Premier League, then in 2011-12 they won the old English National League title. Both these wins have come in the 3rd tier of British ice hockey.
One competition that the Raiders have had success in has been the Cup during the days of the EPL, between 2000 and 2005 they managed to win the EPL Cup 3 times in 5 seasons, this has been the club’s best period of success in their history. One of these cup victories was particularly bitter for Wildcats fans as we were beaten by the Raiders during the first season back under the Wildcats name after a decade’s absence.
Following the closure of Rom Valley Way the Romford Raiders rebranded themselves the London Raiders and moved to play out of Lee Valley, these 4 years were a tough period for the club battling to survive without a rink of their own. Then in February 2018 work was finally completed on their new home, The Sapphire Ice & Leisure Centre, and following this move back home the club rebranded again into the guise we know them as today, Raiders IHC.
Previous Seasons Performance:
NIHL National – 8th – GP50 – W20 – L24 – OTL6 – GF190 – GA237 – PTS46
This Seasons Meetings:
09/10/2021 Swindon Wildcats 7-4 Raiders IHC
14/11/2021 Raiders IHC 2-1 Swindon Wildcats
18/12/2021 Swindon Wildcats 6-1 Raiders IHC
19/12/2021 Raiders IHC 0-5 Swindon Wildcats
Previous Seasons Meetings:
21/09/2019 Swindon Wildcats 9-6 Raiders IHC
06/10/2019 Raiders IHC 5-4 Swindon Wildcats
02/11/2019 Swindon Wildcats 5-2 Raiders IHC
29/12/2019 Raiders IHC 1-4 Swindon Wildcats
04/01/2020 Swindon Wildcats 9-2 Raiders IHC
12/01/2020 Raiders IHC 3-8 Swindon Wildcats
08/02/2020 Swindon Wildcats 5-4 Raiders IHC
The Coach:
Tonight’s opposing head coach is Sean Easton, born in Chelmsford and still only 35 he is one of the youngest non-playing coaches in the league. Easton started out his playing career with the Chelmsford junior system and he made his senior debut at the age of 18 with the Chieftains in the EPL. Easton spent the majority of his playing career with the Chieftains organisation, the exception was two seasons spent in Streatham, this spanned a total of 8 years in Essex with his hometown team.
After retiring at the age of 28 Easton quickly moved into coaching, initially as an assistant coach with the Chieftains for one year and then taking up the head coaching duties. He spent 3 years in total coaching in Chelmsford and during that time he was very successful, winning the league title in both his seasons as head coach with the team.
Following this he made the trip down the A12 to the Chieftains arch-rivals in Romford, Raiders IHC were extremely happy to have secured the services of a talented and well-respected coach. This season will be the 5th that Easton has taken charge of the Raiders and despite never having massive resources at his disposal his teams are always hardworking, well coached and present a very real challenge to any team that dares underestimate their abilities on the ice.
By James Handscombe-Buckley
