Published: Thursday, 28th August, 2008 10:00
Bees get set for new season
By Charles Watts
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Adam Bicknell is stepping up his plans for the new EPL campaign which gets underway on September 20th.
BRACKNELL Bees coach Adam Bicknell is starting to build up the club’s preparations for the coming EPL campaign which is now under a month away.
The Bees get things up and running with a mouth-watering clash against their old adversaries Guildford Flames on September 20 and Bicknell wants his side to be in perfect shape for the season opener.
In recent weeks most of the squad has been training on Wednesdays but from next week, once Peter Jasik and Jan Melichar return to the country, two more sessions will be added to that schedule.
Bicknell said: “We’ve been skating on Wednesdays but we’re going to increase that to Tuesdays and Thursdays once Jan and Peter come back.
“Once they’re both here we can really step things up and start making plans for that first game at Guildford.”
Bicknell is still looking to add one more player to his squad and is hopeful that a new face could be on board by the beginning of next week.
When everyone is on board the Bees skipper is looking at holding a week long get-together where he will introduce all the new faces to the rest of the squad and really work on the side’s fitness.
He said: “We will have a week long camp which will be based around the rink. We will be going to the gym every day and will spend a lot of time on the ice getting used to each other.
“It’s very important to get rid of those summer legs but also to get the squad together so they can get used to each other again.
“A lot of the squad have been spending weekends together but it will be good to spend a whole week as a team so we can really start to feel like a team again.”
Meanwhile Bicknell has been speaking about the plight of the Telford Tigers who this week were just hours away from going out of business.
The Tigers were plunged into a financial crisis when their main sponsor Eurologix pulled out of their current deal, leaving the EPL with no choice but to set the Telford club a deadline of Tuesday to find the £20,000 needed to complete their league campaign.
In a situation remarkably similar to what the Bees faced last year, it was down to donations from fans and other contributors to save the club and it was announced on Tuesday that the money had been raised and Telford would compete this season.
Bicknell said: “I know they’ve been working hard to put a package together so hopefully they will be able to come through it.
“The hockey community is very tight. There are not many people involved in the sport so when something like this happens everyone does chip in and try to help which is good to see.
“If they do manage to run a team I think they will have to cut a few players and I know there’s a lot of people interested in Tom Carlon.
“If I had enough money I would love to ask him to come back but I don’t have the money to do that and I’m happy with the squad I’ve got.”
The Bees general manager Stuart Robinson, added: “We were notified by the league that Telford had lost their sponsor and that they were holding various crisis meeting to see if they were going to be able to compete this season.
“I immediately got in touch with the Telford owner to offer my sympathies. Telford were very supportive when we went through our problems so it was only right to offer our support.
“I think in the long term the league needs to sit down to see how best clubs can be supported to maintain the future of the league.
“In the last few years we’ve lost Solihull, Chelmsford and now we’ve nearly lost Telford. Something obviously needs to be done.”
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