I Need A History Lesson ...

[rickstrang]

Heanor Lair has siad that you're all a load of oldies on here so I wonder if I could use this thread to tap into your collective brains and put together a timeline for the most recent changes and set-ups in hockey?

Here's my skeleton if you lot can flesh it out:

At some point there was the Heineken League - when did that start and who was in it? Was that the only top level league? Was there an import limit and a wage cap?

Then it changed to the BNL - did anything change or was it just the name? Was it because Findus took over from Heineken? When did that happen?

Then we had the ISL and the BNL at the same time. When did the ISL breakaway and who went? Were there any new clubs?

Whilst all this has been going has the EPL, ED1 and ED2 set-up been the same? Are these leagues semi-pro or amateur? Do the players get "boot money" as we call it in footy so like a tenner for petrol and a fiver on top slipped into your skates after the game?

Finally - what was happening in Scotland during all of this?

It's a big topic but if any of you can add little bits then that'd help me get my head around the changes. Don't care why all this happened and who shafted whom - I just want to know when it did and how it was different regarding imports and wage cap.

Cheers!

[texpef]

not quite as i saw it rick
as you rightly said years ago heineken sponsored the league and iirc there were two tiers premier and 1st. After bigger/richer clubs left to form the ISL the remaining clubs formed the BNL.

Need to look up who was in what but iirc again there were six to start with in the ISL (in heineken days -max 4 imports and a dual national- i am pretty sure it got to around 15 at one point)...

[Louisa]

And there was promotion and relegation... oh the good old days.

Now how many of you remember that Sheffield shouldn't have been promoted??

[carolle]

You may find this site useful

homepage.ntlworld.com/peter.walch/

It`s mainly about Panthers but it shows which teams were in which leagues over the years.

Hope its of some help.

[BIG-BAD-TONE]

diamondbabe said:

And there was promotion and relegation... oh the good old days.

Now how many of you remember that Sheffield shouldn't have been promoted??

Shhhhhh! Don't mention the back door to them please

[lukethomas]

rickstrang said:

Whilst all this has been going has the EPL, ED1 and ED2 set-up been the same? Are these leagues semi-pro or amateur? Do the players get "boot money" as we call it in footy so like a tenner for petrol and a fiver on top slipped into your skates after the game?

Cheers!

I wish! For a start, the EPL in now known as the ENPL and ED1 is split up into the ENL North and the ENL South.

The ENPL can be classed as a Semi-pro league, with some full time imports and brits, along with some who just receive 'boot money' as you put it! Others do play in this league for nothing at all. You will be lucky if you get £50 a week as a young brit in this league. When i was at Solihull in the days of the Blaze, i remember getting £20 the one week for the weekend we were in the English Cup final. That is the only time i got paid!

As for the ENL (ED1 in old money) this is an amatuer league. I play for Nottingham and pay everything myself. Petrol to and from training/games (approx £10 per week), training sessions (£5 per week), Coaches to away games (£20 a game), all my kit (approx £500 to £1000 a season), stick and leg tape (approx £4 a week), insurance and registration (£115 this season) and then our shirts if we want to keep them at the end of the year (last year £15).

Some of the ENL teams have their training, insurance and registration and coach fares payed for them, but this is due to them been the only senior team at the rink (e.g. Billingham, Blackburn, Invicta) In the ENL, you can only dress two imports per game, and only 1 can be on the ice at any given time.

[Alf Garnett]

Do you have a day job then Luke?

Also what happens (God forbid) you should pick up a serious injury? Are you adequately insured and do you have to pay that yourself, or does the League offer a standard cover?

[KimThePanther]

diamondbabe said:

Now how many of you remember that Sheffield shouldn't have been promoted??

Iced a suspended player during the playoffs if memory serves?

[texpef]

not forgetting the second coming of the messiah was soon followed by the second going away when it transpires he didnt have a work permit afterall.....

[lukethomas]

andyblath said:

Do you have a day job then Luke?

Also what happens (God forbid) you should pick up a serious injury? Are you adequately insured and do you have to pay that yourself, or does the League offer a standard cover?

I have a full time office job as well!

As for the insurance, its not really worth the paper its written on. When i was 17, i was checked from behind at full speed and hit the boards feet first. i completly wrecked my ankle and couldnt stand for about 3 weeks. At the time i was working in a gym and couldnt work for nearly a month. The leagues insurers told me that as i was a junior player, i wasnt covered for loss of earnings as they expected me to be at school or college!

From stories ive heard in my time, the senior insurance isnt much good either. but i think i read in powerplay that the government have picked up on how bad ice hockey insurance is and are going to hold meetings to try and sort it, along with various other issues.

[Louisa]

Tex... it was something like that, yes!

Oh, and I broke my collar bone playing hockey, took one week off work (it was only work experience at the time) but could only claim £35 per week (I think) starting from the second week off. So didn't get anything. Then had an epileptic seizure a few days later.... and still got nothing. But God forbid, if you have your sleeves rolled up over your elbow pads or your shorts are ripped, you nullify everyones insurance on the ice!!

[Deleted]

Rick - as one of the biggest old farts on this forum I have put a (very long) thread in Amnesia Lane listing the leagues since 1980 and the order of finish in each. This should enable you to follow the changes in Leagues throughout the period. Pleasing to note the only team to have stayed in the top flight throughout that period are Panthers.

As for imports, I'll let others clarify that. The rules on what constitutes an import and how many you can have have changed so much over the years I have lost track. Same with wage caps.

[MP]

stef said:

As for imports, I'll let others clarify that. The rules on what constitutes an import and how many you can have have changed so much over the years I have lost track. Same with wage caps.

Well if you've waved the white flag over those Stef, then there's no hope for the rest of us!

[Deleted]

mountainpanther said:

Well if you've waved the white flag over those Stef, then there's no hope for the rest of us!

I remember the pre-Heineken days when the rules on what constituted an import and how many you could have sometimes changed during the season, mainly at the behest of the Scottish and North-Eastern clubs, which was where the power lay in those days.

[Ian]

stef said:

mountainpanther said:

Well if you've waved the white flag over those Stef, then there's no hope for the rest of us!

I remember the pre-Heineken days when the rules on what constituted an import and how many you could have sometimes changed during the season, mainly at the behest of the Scottish and North-Eastern clubs, which was where the power lay in those days.

The basic rule was if the Panthers were having a good run of results, any of their players who had ever set foot outside this country was liable to be classed as an import. At least things seemed that way at times.

[Deleted]

1982/83 - the first season with a true national league.

As a new team we brought in three Canadians to bolster us up a bit. Richmond and Southampton did the same. Then the BIHA changed the rules so that three of the players we already had (Mark Kasun, Darryl Easson and Tim Peacock) became classed as imports. They also decreed that any player wanting to move from a Scottish club to an English club had to have the permission of the governing body.

There was a lot of toing and froing during which the limit was put back up to six, then the Scots threatened to withdraw from the league, so it went back down to five.

At this time the president of the BIHA was Fred Meredith, but the former president Bunny Ahearne (who was 82) was still in the background pulling the strings. It seems almost laughable now that the sport could have been run thus, but it was. Really.

Eeee you young 'uns, you don't know how good you've got it these days etc etc

[Ian]

Remember the reaction Meredith got from the crowd when he showed his face at a game in Nottingham? One of the most hostile "welcomes" I have known.

Those were the days..........