Basingstoke Bison

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Basingstoke Bison
City	Basingstoke, Hampshire, England
League	NIHL National League
Founded	1988
Home arena	Planet Ice Silverdome Capacity: 2,000
Colours	Black, White & Red
Owner(s)	Planet Ice
Head coach	Ashley Tait
Captain	Elliott Dewey
Website	Basingstoke Bison
Franchise history
1988–95	Basingstoke Beavers
1995–	Basingstoke Bison

The Basingstoke Bison are an English Ice Hockey club from Basingstoke. They currently compete in the NIHL National League and have previously been members of the Ice Hockey Superleague and its successor the Elite Ice Hockey League.

History[]

Formed in 1988 as the Basingstoke Beavers, the club became the "Bison" in 1995. Their team logo is very similar to that used by the Buffalo Sabres from 1996–2006. Joining the Superleague in 1996, the Bison dropped out in 1998 and joined the British National League. In 2003 they joined the newly formed Elite Ice Hockey League.

Despite being one of the lower-budget teams in the EIHL, the Bison maintained their fan base and greatly enhanced local sponsorships and doubled their season ticket sales.^{[citation needed]} This success is mainly testament to the hard work of Mark Bernard, who occupied the general manager and head coach role with the club during the 2004/05 and 2005/06 seasons. Bernard also stepped into the netminder's role part way through the latter season after Jayme Platt had left the team.

In May 2006, Bernard left the club to take up the assistant general manager's post with American Hockey League club, the Norfolk Admirals. Prior to his departure, Bernard secured the services of a number of the players that made up the 05/06 roster.

In June 2006, Planet Ice announced that the new player/coach of the club would be former club captain , with former Bison and London Racers defenceman Duncan Dalmao returning as player/assistant coach. Sheppard set about building his roster around the core that he had inherited from Bernard. The Bison embarked upon a successful year under Sheppard, securing their highest ever Elite League finish, and taking many points off the top sides in the League.

In April 2007, David Taylor, owner of the Bracknell Bees, purchased the Bison. He appointed Ryan Aldridge as the head coach of the team, signalling the end of Doug Shepherd's reign. Shepherd went on to join rivals Sheffield Steelers.

Following financial problems, which had resulted in the departure of a number of players (including starting netminder Stevie Lyle), Taylor relinquished ownership of the Bison and the team's new owner was announced as Tomas Enerston by Planet Ice on 8 November 2007. Less than a year later, following further financial difficulty, Planet Ice put together a rescue package to keep Bison on the ice until the end of the 2008/09 season.

On 25 March 2009, the Bison released a statement confirming that they would be joining the EPL for the 2009/10 season.^[1][2] Entry to the EPIHL was confirmed on 15 April 2009,^[3] and Steve Moria took over as head coach the following day.^[4]

After Moria's departure at the end of the 2011–2012 season, it was announced that Doug Sheppard would return as the Bison head coach for the 2012–2013 season. In March 2013, Sheppard signed another deal with the Basingstoke Bison to continue as head coach for the 2013–2014 season.^[5]

The Basingstoke Bison won the 15/16 English Premier League title, under Doug Sheppard as coach. This ended their silverware drought of 23 years.^{[6] [7]}

The 2017/18 season was arguably the Bison's greatest ever season. Remaining under Doug Sheppard, they secured a historic treble by winning the NIHL 1 South league, NIHL 1 South playoffs and finally the NIHL Final Four playoffs.

In 2018/19, the Bison had a major squad rebuild, with just 7 players remaining at the club from the previous season. With Doug Sheppard joining rivals Bracknell Bees, the Bison brought in British ice hockey veteran Ashley Tait as a player-coach. With Coventry Blaze legend Russell Cowley and imports Richard Bordowski and Michal Klejna, the Bison achieved an unlikely 3rd place finish in the league, and made their way to the cup final, which they lost to the Peterborough Phantoms.

Club roster 2021–22[]

Netminders
No.	Nat.	Player	Catches	Date of birth	Place of birth	Acquired	Contract
28		Alex Mettam	L	(1988-02-01) 1 February 1988 (age 33)	Sheffield, England	2018-19 from Bracknell Bees	21/22
28		Dan Weller-Evans	L	(1993-10-05) 5 October 1993 (age 27)	Bridgend, Wales	2014-15 from Wightlink Raiders	21/22

Defencemen
No.	Nat.	Player	Shoots	Date of birth	Place of birth	Acquired	Contract
2		Adam Jones	L	(1996-01-10) 10 January 1996 (age 25)	Birmingham, England	2018-19 from Telford Tigers	21/22
13		Elliott Dewey	R	(1997-03-10) 10 March 1997 (age 24)	Basingstoke, England	2017-18 from Invicta Dynamos	21/22
75		Brendan Baird	R	(1996-01-21) 21 January 1996 (age 25)	Southampton, England	2020-21 from Bees IHC	21/22
77		Jay King	R	(1996-02-01) 1 February 1996 (age 25)	Edinburgh, Scotland	2018-19 from Edinburgh Capitals	21/22
		Oliver Stone	L	(1998-07-28) 28 July 1998 (age 23)	Swindon, England	2019-20 from MK Thunder	CONTRACT

Forwards
No.	Nat.	Player	Shoots	Date of birth	Place of birth	Acquired	Contract
4		Adam Harding	R	(1993-01-03) 3 January 1993 (age 28)	Cardiff, Wales	2018-19 from Swindon Wildcats	21/22
11		Hallam Wilson	L	(1998-04-24) 24 April 1998 (age 23)	Winchester, England	2016-17 from Oxford City Stars	21/22
16		George Norcliffe	R	(1994-03-21) 21 March 1994 (age 27)	Guildford, England	2018-19 from Bees IHC	21/22
19		Paul Petts	R	(1997-01-21) 21 January 1997 (age 24)	Gosport, England	2016-17 from Solent Devils	21/22
21		Ashley Tait	R	(1975-08-09) 9 August 1975 (age 46)	Toronto, ON, Canada	2018-19 from Belfast Giants	21/22
24		Zack Milton	L	(2001-05-10) 10 May 2001 (age 20)	England	2021-22 from Bees IHC	21/22
29		Alex Sampford	R	(1996-10-29) 29 October 1996 (age 24)	Basingstoke, England	2018-19 from Streatham IHC	21/22
61		Ryan Sutton	L	(1995-03-17) 17 March 1995 (age 26)	Basingstoke, England	2019-20 from Bees IHC	21/22
71		Filip Martinec	L	(1993-03-08) 8 March 1993 (age 28)	Neratovice, Czech Republic	2021-22 from Montpellier	21/22
74		Liam Morris	L	(1995-04-07) 7 April 1995 (age 26)	Glenrothes, Scotland	2018-19 from Northern Federals	21/22
91		Aidan Doughty	L	(1995-07-12) 12 July 1995 (age 26)	Isle of Wight, England	2020-21 from Bees IHC	21/22
94		Alex Roberts	R	(1994-07-10) 10 July 1994 (age 27)	Burnaby, BC, Canada	2021-22 from Unattached	21/22

Team Staff
No.	Nat.	Name	Position	Acquired	Place of birth	Joined From
N/A		Ash Tait	Player-Coach/Director of Hockey Operations	2018	Toronto, Ontario, Canada	Coventry Blaze, EIHL
N/A		Tony Redmond	Assistant Coach	2009	Glasgow, Scotland	Slough Jets, EPIHL
N/A		Gary Mitchell	Head Equipment Manager	2017	Basingstoke, England
N/A		Phil Barratt	Physical Therapist	2019	England

^[8]

2021/22 Outgoing[]

Outgoing
No.	Nat.	Player	Shoots	Date of birth	Place of birth	Leaving For
14		Sean Norris	R	(1999-09-14) 14 September 1999 (age 21)	Ascot, England	MK Lightning, NIHL
98		Sam Talbot	R	(2001-04-10) 10 April 2001 (age 20)	England	MK Lightning, NIHL

^[9]

Honoured members[]

Basingstoke have only retired the number of two players, the first being Kevin Conway's number 10 in 2005 following his initial retirement from ice hockey. In the 2005–06 season, Tony Redmond was honoured with a testimonial season. In September 2009, it was announced that Don Yewchin, the original ice hockey coordinator for the Beavers in 1988 would have his number 12 jersey retired before Basingstoke's league game with local rivals Bracknell Bees on Saturday 10 October 2009. In a fantastic twist of fate, Basingstoke won the game 12–0.^[10][11] In 2016, Tony Redmond's number 20 shirt was retired when the club beat Telford Tigers 7-0. In 2018, the club held a testimonial match to celebrate Kurt Reynolds, as he took a time-out from hockey. ^[12]

Team honours[]

1989/90

• Champions – English Div 1 Promotion Play-offs

1991/92

• Winners – Southern Cup

1992/93

• Champions – Heineken Division One
• Champions – Heineken Div 1 Promomtion Play-offs
• Runners-up – Southern Cup

1993/94

• Runners-up – Southern Cup

1994/95

• Runners-up – Southern Cup

1998/99

• Runners-up – British National Ice Hockey League
• Runners-up – Christmas Cup

1999/00

• Winners – B & H Plate
• Runners-up – ntl: Christmas Cup
• Runners-up – BNL Play-off Championships

2000/01

• Winners – B & H Plate
• Runners-up – Findus British National Ice Hockey League
• Runners-up – FBNL Play-off Championships

2003/04

• EIHL First Team All Star – Curtis Cruickshank

2012/13

• Runners-up – English Premier Ice Hockey League

2013/14

• Winners – English Premier Ice Hockey League Cup
• Runners-up – English Premier Ice Hockey League
• Winners – English Premier Ice Hockey League Play-off Championship

2015/16

• Champions – English Premier Ice Hockey League

2017/18

• Champions – NIHL Britton League Division 1
• Champions - NIHL Britton League Play-Offs
• Champions - NIHL National Final Four Play-Offs

Past head coaches[]

• Ashley Tait – 2018 – present – Player / head coach
• Doug Sheppard – 2012 – 2018 – Player / head coach
• Steve Moria – 2009–2012 – Player / head coach
• Ryan Aldridge – 2007–2009 – Player / head coach
• Doug Sheppard – 2006–2007 – Player / head coach
• Mark Bernard – 2004–2006 – Player / head coach / general manager
• Steve Moria – 2002–2004 – Player / head coach
• Charlie Colon – 2000–2002 – Head coach
• Rick Strachan – 1999–2000 – Player / head coach
• Don Depoe – 1998–1999 – Head coach

Notable players[]

• Darcy Anderson
• Derek Campbell
• Brad Cruikshank
• Mark DeSantis
• Jason Goulet
• Jason Hewitt
• Wes Jarvis
• David Kozier
• Dean Melanson
• Dwight Parrish
• Curtiss Patrick
• Jayme Platt
• Brent Pope
• Danny Stewart
• Steve Thornton
• David Vychodil
• Ben Davies

Footnotes[]

External links[]

• Basingstoke Bison web site
• Bolt Action Media – Bison's Media providers web site