As Promised (part 2).............Attached is an email that was sent to Ken Taggart (Chairman of the English Ice Hockey Association) shortly after our first game against Billingham Stars earlier this season. Dear Mr Taggart I have been given your contact details as possibly the best person to try and handle a complaint I have. On Sunday 5th october I, along with 14 others, travelled on a minibus to Blackburn Hawks ice rink to watch their game against our team, Billingham Stars. Myself, my son and 3 female friends sat on the front row of the block directly behind the visiting team bench. We always try to sit here as it gives us a good view of the game and also we are able to applaud our boys as they enter/leave the bench. Sitting behind us were an elderly couple, a couple of other ladies and a family group of mum, dad and 2 c hildren - all of whom had travelled from Billingham in cars. During the first period of the game there was a Blackburn player shouting from their bench into the Stars bench trying to provoke the lads. I shouted at him to behave himself, and he made a dismissive wave of the hand and told me to shut up. I looked along to where the Blackburn coach was standing on their bench and shouted to him that he should maybe get his team in order. He looked straight at me and shouted, loudly, F*** OFF. Now Im no shrinking violet but do not expect this level of abuse from anyone, let alone at an ice hockey game, which is supposed to be a family sport. This was advertised in the match program and all readers reminded to be mindful of everyone and treat all with respect. If the team bench cannot conduct themselves then what chance do the players or fans have. I was extremely upset by this and more so when the gentleman behind me, having witnessed this along with his wife, asked what on earth had happened. Their 2 young children, thankfully, had not noticed. In total I believe we had about 30 people in the rink that day from Billingham, all in separate small groups. Every group was the target of verbal abuse from Blackburn fans and one man closely connected to the Blackburn management I believe, Graham Lomax, even offered to take one of our 16 year old male fans outside in the pub car park. Since then Mr Lomax has now sent a message on social media announcing that he and several others will be happy to meet all from Billingham in the pub car park on our next visit on October 26th. I am aware of many people from Billingham now who refuse to visit that rink in Blackburn because of earlier abuse suffered, and now I and many from our bus will not be repeating our journey. I would love to see Ice Hockey become more and more popular in the UK but if we have one team, who incidentally do not seem able to conduct themselves on the ice (PIMs tell their own story) then their fans obviously now also believe that the yob mentality is acceptable. This surely can not do the game any favours and although I know you are a very busy man and should not have to be bothered with this sort of stuff, i believe it has now gone rather too far and I hope something can indeed be done so that people no longer feel threatened in trying to follow their beloved sport. I attended the EIHL North playoffs earlier this year in Solway and sadly the Blackburn team then were so downright dirty, resorting to a full-scale brawl during one match. During the same match there were quite a few of us fans (from Solway, Whitley and Billingham) all sitting together in the stands and chatting quite happily and a number of Blackburn fans came marching along and sat in seats along from us and began banging drums and attempting to intimidate us all with shouting and hand gestures. This is totally unacceptable behaviour and if it is allowed to continue can no longer be advertised as a family sport. I will never again travel to Blackburn, although I do feel quite comfortable travelling to any other rink in the country, and even worry now about what may arise when their team now visit Billingham. Why would people want to take their children to a game like that? Last time they visited Billingham our team manager Allen Flavell even had to go up into the crowd and ask some of their fans not to swear as there were young children sitting nearby. I apologise for taking up your valuable time with this Mr Taggart but I do not believe that my complaint would be handled correctly were I to merely complain to the Blackburn Hawks club. Kind regards Julie Clayton
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 10:00:45 +0000
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