Cardiff Redhawks

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Cardiff Redhawks
RedhawksLogo.png
Founded2004
LeagueBritish Universities Ice Hockey Association
DivisionDivision 2 Checking - South
Division 1 Non-Checking - South
Based inCardiff, Wales
ArenaViola Arena
ColoursDark Red, Black and White      
Uniforms
Jersey-red.png

The Cardiff Redhawks are a Welsh ice hockey team that play in the First and Third Divisions of the British Universities Ice Hockey Association, formed in 2004. They play their home games at Viola Arena,[1] Cardiff, Wales.

Introduction[]

The Cardiff Redhawks were formed in 2004 by a handful of students from Cardiff University, many of whom had never played before. Their first game was against a local team, the , on 7 May 2005 following an NHL exhibition game. The squad began to grow by bringing in players from neighbouring universities such as UWIC, Glamorgan, Swansea and Newport. The Redhawks 1st team has traditionally played in BUIHA Division 1 but after a tough season in 2013/14, were relegated to Division 2 in order to partake in more competitive games.[2]

Uniform[]

The Redhawks have used 3 different jerseys in their time in the BUIHA. The first incarnation was a simple black jersey with red stripes on the sleeves and the original team logo.

Since then a dark red strip has replaced it as the club's main jersey. The introduction of this jersey also saw the first use of the current hawks head logo. Due to BUIHA regulations the team also added a white version of the jersey in 2008.

A third jersey has since been designed, which will hopefully be used in an Alumni match in the near future.

BUIHA Record[]

2005–06[]

The Redhawks team in their first ever match

In September 2005 the Redhawks joined the BUIHA, entering teams in the Second (Southern) and Third Divisions. The year proved to be very successful; with the A Team securing second place in their division as well as the Second Tier National Tournament title, and the B Team were runners up in the Third Tier Nationals.

2006–07[]

The following year began with the closure of the Wales National Ice Rink and the construction of the Cardiff Bay Ice Rink. Delays in construction left the Redhawks without a home for much of the 2006–07 season, forcing the A Team to withdraw from the league.

The A Team represented themselves in Tier One of the 2007 BUIHA Nationals, but fared poorly, losing all their matches and placing bottom. The Redhawks found solace in the success of the B Team who managed to improve on their previous season, winning the Third Tier Nationals.

2007–08[]

The 2007–08 season saw the Redhawks regain their stability; the A Team returned to Tier Two South, with the B Team entering their third season in Tier Three. The Redhawks also gained membership to the Cardiff University Athletic Union.

Once again the A Team clinched second place with a post Christmas undefeated streak. They fell short though in the Nationals, managing only 5th place. The B Team overachieved once again, settling for 3rd place in a much more competitive Tier Three tournament.

2008–09[]

The 2008–09 season saw the A team win Tier Two 2 South, before losing in the Tier Two Playoffs. The B team competed a clean sweep of trophies, winning Tier Three South, the Tier Three Playoffs and the Celtic Plate. They went on to win the Tier Three Nationals, dramatically winning both their semi-final and final on penalty shots, with netminder Tom Martin stopping 6 out of 6 shots, the game-winning goal in the final came courtesy of Jon Griffiths.

2009–10[]

The A team made the jump to Tier 1 South and despite getting off to a good start by beating Warwick at home 5–3 the Redhawks soon found themselves struggling with a short bench and they were on the receiving end of some heavy defeats all season long and they finished in last place.

The B team, having lost a lot of the previous year's team including their top 4 points scorers (Matt Wood, Jiri Podval, Jim "Frodo" Towers and Jon Griffiths), struggled to find the form from last season finishing second in Tier 3 South and being knocked out in the group stages of Nationals.

2010–11[]

Despite the heavy losses the previous season the A-Team remained in Tier 1 South where they looked to improve their record. Before the season had started the team lost some key names in Adam Landriault, Brian Winstanley, Jon Griifiths and Matt Wood. Things didn't get much better once the season began when the team received a 17–3 defeat away at Oxford (although this was an improvement on the 23–5 loss that took place the year before). The next game saw things go from bad to worse when London Dragons made their visit to the Welsh capital in a game that saw 3 Redhawks ejected in what had been a promising first period where they were trailing by just one goal almost up until the buzzer. The second and third periods saw the flood gates open as player coach Evan Juurakko was also ejected taking Cardiff down to 8 skaters who were helpless to stop the final score reaching 14–0 in the home opener. Despite this Cardiff picked up 4 points on the year and reduced their goals against average by nearly 3 goals a game on last year.

The B team finished as runners up of Tier 3 South for the second year running to the Warwick Panthers in the cup competition having lost both match ups during the season. Looking to improve on the previous year's record at Nationals they went undefeated and capped the tournament's group stage with a 1–0 shutout for Dan Jenkins over the Nottingham Mavericks C Team. However this wouldn't be enough as two costly draws with the and the Sheffield Bears as well as a penalty point would be enough to prevent them advancing to the semi-finals.

2011–12[]

The A team enjoyed a successful year having dropped back to Division 2 South in an effort to play more competitive games and develop players capable of playing checking hockey. Winning the Division 2 South title entered them for the Division 2 National play-off.

The B team retained the Celtic Plate on a trip to Kirkcaldy, Scotland with a narrow victory over the Edinburgh Beagles. They finished as runners-up in Division 3 South to a strong Southampton Spitfires B team and met the same opposition in the Division 3 Nationals final.

This season saw the introduction of a third team, a further developmental squad allowing more players to participate in competitive hockey. The C-hawks found their feet at the National Championships holding reigning champions Warwick Panthers B to a draw before winning their final game with a 1–0 victory over Bradford Sabres C. The winning goal (and the first in C-hawks history) was credited to Matt 'Mine's a tight one' Lawson.

The Celtic Cup[]

The Redhawks also participate in the Celtic Cup Varsity; an annual one off challenge game against the Edinburgh Eagles who are the only other non-English team in the BUIHA.

The competition has run since 2006, the location alternating between Cardiff Bay and Murrayfield, Edinburgh. The 2009 match was held in Cardiff, on 14 March. The game ended as a 4–1 defeat for Cardiff, the closest they've come to the cup yet. 2012 saw the re-emergence of the Celtic Cup with the Edinburgh Eagles running out 11–1 winners.

The Celtic Plate[]

Cardiff Redhawks B 2009 Celtic Plate Winners

2009 also saw the introduction of the Celtic Plate; a secondary competition between the Cardiff and Edinburgh B Teams. This was held on 15 March, seeing the Redhawks B win the plate with a 5–3 victory.

The Celtic Plate re-appeared in February 2012 when the Cardiff Redhawks B team beat the Beagles 4–3 in a hard-fought contest at Fife Ice Arena, Kirkcaldy, perhaps the longest journey undertaken by a BUIHA team for a domestic fixture.

Club honours[]

2005–06

  • BUIHA Tier Two Nationals Champions (The Hopkins Plate)

2006–07

  • BUIHA Tier Three Nationals Champions

2008–09

  • BUIHA Tier Two Southern Conference Champions
  • BUIHA Tier Three Nationals Champions
  • BUIHA Tier Three Southern Conference Champions
  • BUIHA Tier Three Playoff Champions
  • Celtic Plate Winners

2011–12

  • BUIHA Tier Two Southern Conference Champions
  • Celtic Plate Winners
  • BUIHA Tier Three Nationals Runners-up

Current A Team Roster[]

2015-16

Goaltenders
Number Player Catches Joined Hometown University
39 England Mark Lovett L (And is the best) 2012 Nottingham, England Cardiff Metropolitan University
32 Wales Jamie McGirr L 2014 Newport, Wales University of South Wales
Defencemen
Number Player Shoots Joined Hometown University
  Finland Timo Mcintyre R 2014 Finland Swansea University
74 United States Erith Davies (A) R 2014 Washington, United States Swansea University
4 England Bryn Griffiths (C) R 2012 Ashtead, England Cardiff University
  England Thomas Poles R 2015 Surrey, England Swansea University
87 Canada Justin Racine (A) L 2010 Quebec, Canada University of South Wales
Forwards
Number Player Shoots Joined Hometown University
49 England Sam Johnson (A) R 2013 Nottingham, England Cardiff Metropolitan University
  England William Poles R 2015 Surrey, England Swansea University
  Wales Ellis Price L 2015 Cardiff, Wales University of South Wales
  England Sam Seymour R 2015 Fareham, England Cardiff University
14 Wales Nathan Munkley (2-way contract with LA Kings) R 2013 Cardiff, Wales Swansea Metropolitan University
57 England Tom Kelly R 2013 Poole, England Cardiff University
2 England David Rogers R 2005 Bristol, England Cardiff University
19 England Elliot Marshall R 2015 Telford England Cardiff University
24 England Nathan Tyson L 2012 Manchester, England Swansea University
27 England Craig Adams R 2015 Milton Keynes, England
  L ,
  R 2012 ,
  L 2012 ,

Current B Team Roster[]

2017-2018

Goaltenders
Number Player Catches Joined Hometown University
1 Wales Aaron John L 2014 Cardiff, Wales Cardiff Metropolitan University
33 Wales Rob King R 2016 Abergavenny, Wales Cardiff University
Defencemen
Number Player Shoots Joined Hometown University
3 England Daniel Miller (C) R 2016 Milton Keynes, England University of South Wales
65 Wales Ben Lovell R 2014 Bristol, England Cardiff University
80 England Theo Blakey R 2015 Sheffield, England Cardiff University
32 Wales Joe Rego R 2016 Cardiff, Wales Cardiff Metropolitan University
43 England Sam Evans R 2010 Margate, England Cardiff University
Forwards
Number Player Shoots Joined Hometown University
14 Northern Ireland Kris Pentland R 2016 Donaghcloney, Northern Ireland Cardiff Metropolitan University
37 Wales Jeffrey Ross (A) R 2016 Wales University of South Wales
39 Wales Alexander Franklin R 2014 Bridgend, Wales University of South Wales
20 Sweden Alex Strange R 2016 Oskarström, Sweden Cardiff University
42 Poland Kasper Augustynek R 2016 Crediton, England Cardiff University
68 Wales Fraser Lewis (A) R 2006 Cardiff, Wales Cardiff University
9 England Rowan Berry R 2017 England Cardiff University
Wales Gareth Hubback R 2015 Wales Cardiff University
Norway Stian Sæbø R 2016 Norway University of South Wales
97 Russia Oleg Falkov R 2015 Moscow, Russia Cardiff University

Past Players[]

Number Player Catches/Shoots Joined Hometown University
0 Canada Kris Evans R 2008 Canada Cardiff University
1 England Calum Nicholson L 2011 England Swansea University
4 Canada Simon Trotter L 2011 Canada Cardiff Metropolitan University
7 England Charlie Lemay R 2010 London, England Cardiff Metropolitan University
10 England Mike Gross R 2010 Poole, England University of Glamorgan
19 Hong Kong Sam Sui R 2009 Hong Kong Cardiff University
25 England Amy Brown R 2011 England Cardiff University
21 England Jay Ingoldsby R 2011 Camberley, England USW
26 England John Wynn R 2011 England Cardiff and Vale College
31 Wales Dan Jenkins L 2009 Swansea, Wales University of Glamorgan
51 France Dominique Payen R 2011 Troyes, France Cardiff University
69 England Emily Cheesecake Russell L 2011 Isle of Wight, England Cardiff Metropolitan University
70 England Thomas Hughes R 2007 Tamworth, England Cardiff University
83 Wales Alec Tinsley R 2010 Wales University of Glamorgan
87 Wales Dom Browne R 2003-2007 Swansea, Wales
96 Canada Evan Jurakko R 2011 Canada Cardiff University

Great Britain Universities Squad Members[]

2006

2009

2011

References[]

  1. ^ "Arena Confirm New 5-year Naming Rights Partnership with Viola".
  2. ^ "BUIHA". www.buiha.org.uk. Retrieved 16 April 2018.

External links[]

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