Invicta Dynamos fan Lee Allen looks back at the past few weeks and the joys of doing parkruns in his exclusive blog.
Saturday 28th November
It was a rare Saturday away from ice hockey today with Invicta having no game, but Steve Wolfe and I carried on with the Saturday tradition of a 5k parkrun. The venue we picked this weekend was at Maidstone. The course starts from Lock Lane (the Kent Life Museum). The course is run on a mixture of tarmac paths and towpath, I have to say this isn’t my favourite venue due to restrictions with overtaking people – and that gets reflected in the times both Steve and I get, but we both get under 30 minutes.
With no ice hockey to watch, I took the opportunity to watch Sheppey United win 2-1 at home. I do like a bit of local football.
Sunday 29th November
At last, some ice hockey. Today we welcomed the Solent Devils to Gillingham. We have already played Solent once this season, drawing at their rink based in Gosport a few weeks earlier. Ondrej Zosiak, Steve Osman and Conor Redmond were all on target as the Invicta Dynamos battled to a 3-1 win, Richard Facey replied for Solent denting any hopes of a shutout.
I’m sure most Dynamos fans will remember Solent agitator Ralfs Circenis dropping the gloves with Elliott Dewey last season, and I suppose it was no surprise when he pushed Josh Condren’s head to the ice when on the deck which resulted in Condren dropping the gloves. A brief tangle by the plexi ended with both hitting the ice.
Haydn and Taylor Wootton were both playing again today, at 17 years old they look to have a lot of promise to their games and it was no surprise that Taylor picked-up the man of the match award – albeit he wouldn’t be able to drink the alcohol.
After the game I interviewed Josh Condren, Grant Baxter and Brad Gutridge in the bar, all of these interviews will be in the matchday programmes over the coming weeks…..as usual my ex-lodger Arran Strawson gets plenty of stick in them.
Friday 4th December
Tonight we had the annual Kent Sports News (KSN) Xmas meal. This is a great opportunity for all the people who help write match reports etc. for KSN to get together.
We all meet in Rochester and the plan to eat in The Golden Lion soon gets abandoned due to the pub being too busy (literally shoulder to shoulder) and no table available for 11 hungry men.
With one man (who won’t be named) not liking any spice it ruled out some other options but eventually we found an eat all you like Chinese. Thanks to Steve Wolfe for organising this for us…very appreciated…. Although the present this year was a ‘free Chinese calendar’
A few of us went to the Ye Arrow pub afterwards, and just gone 12:30am I’m one of 3 left standing, which was quite easy when I wasn’t drinking. Steve managed to show everyone how to dance penguin style, and although I don’t dance, the excitement must have gone to my head as “Hi Ho Silver Lining” had me and the other 2 lads dancing away.
It was only when Steve and I started walking back to the car, we realised we had a parkrun in a few hours…no rest of the wicked as they say.
Saturday 5th December
8 or 9 pints and a few hours’ sleep was just the preparation Steve needed for the parkrun this morning at Leybourne. I don’t know how, but he still recorded a good time. The conditions were not bad running around the lake (twice), although as we turned one corner the wind did cut straight through us.
I also got to meet Ben Rogers. Ben will be running 365 marathons in 365 days from April 2016, that’s remarkable in itself……but he will also be doing his normal day job during the week. I wish Ben all the luck in the world and I hope to bump into him one day again, people like that inspire me to keep running.
Before I touch on the ice hockey game from tonight, I thought it might be worth mentioning Callum Fowler. Callum has left the Bracknell Bees by mutual consent, which given the financial standing at Bracknell at the moment is no surprise. Callum has put up some impressive numbers since stepping up a league, and if he does return ‘home’ to Invicta I’m sure he will be welcomed back with open arms by our fans…..but let’s see what develops over the coming days or weeks.
So ‘game night’ brings the visit of the Milton Keynes Thunder (MK). It was only a matter of weeks ago when Invicta edged a victory in the dying minutes at home to MK, so once again a tough game was expected.
Steve Osman continued his impressive form since his return to the Dynamos with by scoring two goals, one of which was hit into an open goal after MK pulled their netminder.
Jack Lee was also on the scoresheet, his first in Invicta Dynamos colours and he also had a well hit driven goal from Andy Henderson. The ever impressive Jamie Line scored two goals for MK, I really rate this guy and he looks so similar to Andy Smith in the way he plays and personally, I think he could be playing at a better team, that’s no disrespect to MK, just my own view.
Sunday 6th December
The morning starts with a run around Borstal and Rochester area with my good mate Brendon Davey, however whilst running on the M2 bridge overlooking the cinema I breakdown with a knee injury.
To say I’m gutted is an understatement, having made so much progress and with plans to do competitive running in 2016 the last thing I want is another a second injury lay-off in four months.
I quickly message to sports therapist Erin Rose (who most Invicta players and fans will know from her days on our bench and watching the game) and she gets me booked in to see her this coming Thursday.
I know Erin will get me back on track, personally I hope I can be running sooner rather than later.
Tonight we played Chelmsford Chieftains yet again, in their rink. The drive surprisingly is easy for this time of year and we get there a bit too early.
So with me now walking with the occasional limp we walk up to queue and wait to get in. What was nice to see was even the injured players like Adam McNicoll and Bailey Wootton made the trip to back the guys.
The game itself wasn’t brilliant from an Invicta point of view, although we took a 2-1 lead after 12 minutes through goals from Nicky Lewis and Eriks Ozollapa, we don’t really show-up in the second and third periods, resulting in a 6-2 defeat.
We could have played better and missed a spark tonight. Onwards and upwards, next weekend will be massive for us, 4 points will be required.