Post by KimThePanther on Oct 3, 2007 22:11:19 GMT
Or not.
After the 'Battle of Lower Parliament Street' while we were waiting for the game to restart my grandma told us this little story about another bench clearance back in 1956. She told us that it made what we'd just seen 'look like a picnic.'
The bench clearance had created quite a lot of interest at my uni and I was asked to do a write up of it for the sport magazine I wrote for at the time. I asked my grandma to do her own wee write up of the Paisley incident. Enjoy.
After the 'Battle of Lower Parliament Street' while we were waiting for the game to restart my grandma told us this little story about another bench clearance back in 1956. She told us that it made what we'd just seen 'look like a picnic.'
The bench clearance had created quite a lot of interest at my uni and I was asked to do a write up of it for the sport magazine I wrote for at the time. I asked my grandma to do her own wee write up of the Paisley incident. Enjoy.
During the Double winning year of 1955-56 one of the fixtures that created the most interest in Nottingham was the visit of Paisley Pirates. They had finished second behind us in the Autumn Cup (which was played as a league competition in those days) and were one of our main rivals for the British title. Add in the fact that there was English-Scottish pride to play for and that they were group of bullies and it's easy to see why tickets for a game against them were like gold dust.
One evening around January time the Pirates came to our rink for a game that must rank as one of the most memorable nights that the original Nottingham Panthers ever took part in. The recent brawl between the Panthers and Steelers pales in comparison. With not long to go in the game and the Panthers winning one of our players delivered a massive check to a Pirate just inside the neutral zone. In those days you could only check a player inside of your team's defensive zone and this resulted in a penalty being called against Nottingham for the final minute or so.
With the game over and won, all but the penalised Panther departed the ice for the changing rooms. Alone on the penalty bench - this more man suddenly had the sight of the entire Paisley bench heading towards him. Thankfully the remainder of the Panthers team quickly heard of this and they rushed back on to the ice. I can distinctly remember the two teams then lining up facing one another and each man selecting an opponent from the opposition. A charge followed before a monumental brawl broke out. There was no cheap shotting, third man in or men rushing to the aid of team mates here - just 24 men involved in hand to hand combat in centre ice. It was quite a shock to see but an awesome spectacle at the same time. It went on for an eternity but the Stadium officials were eventually able to separate the two teams and take them back to the changing rooms, except one Paisley player who'd be knocked out and was left to lie on the ice!
In those days there was no plexiglas (or even netting) surrounding the ice so there was nothing to separate the crowd from the action yet one of my most enduring memories of that game was that none of the crowd went over the boards to join in. Later on I walked past the Stadium to see Chick Zamick, our coach at the time, happily talking to his counterpart as if nothing had happened.
The second era Panthers have been involved in bust ups with Whitley, Ayr, Murrayfield and Sheffield over the years but it's unlikely we'll ever see anything like that night's brawl again.
One evening around January time the Pirates came to our rink for a game that must rank as one of the most memorable nights that the original Nottingham Panthers ever took part in. The recent brawl between the Panthers and Steelers pales in comparison. With not long to go in the game and the Panthers winning one of our players delivered a massive check to a Pirate just inside the neutral zone. In those days you could only check a player inside of your team's defensive zone and this resulted in a penalty being called against Nottingham for the final minute or so.
With the game over and won, all but the penalised Panther departed the ice for the changing rooms. Alone on the penalty bench - this more man suddenly had the sight of the entire Paisley bench heading towards him. Thankfully the remainder of the Panthers team quickly heard of this and they rushed back on to the ice. I can distinctly remember the two teams then lining up facing one another and each man selecting an opponent from the opposition. A charge followed before a monumental brawl broke out. There was no cheap shotting, third man in or men rushing to the aid of team mates here - just 24 men involved in hand to hand combat in centre ice. It was quite a shock to see but an awesome spectacle at the same time. It went on for an eternity but the Stadium officials were eventually able to separate the two teams and take them back to the changing rooms, except one Paisley player who'd be knocked out and was left to lie on the ice!
In those days there was no plexiglas (or even netting) surrounding the ice so there was nothing to separate the crowd from the action yet one of my most enduring memories of that game was that none of the crowd went over the boards to join in. Later on I walked past the Stadium to see Chick Zamick, our coach at the time, happily talking to his counterpart as if nothing had happened.
The second era Panthers have been involved in bust ups with Whitley, Ayr, Murrayfield and Sheffield over the years but it's unlikely we'll ever see anything like that night's brawl again.