The Invicta Dynamos season plans for 2017/18 looks more certain after chaos in the past few weeks.

It looked like there were going to be two conferences of six teams for next season, but the withdrawal of Solent Devils, Oxford City Stars and Chelmsford Chieftains left some doubt as to whether the new second tier of ice hockey would be sustainable.

However, The League Management Committee (LMC) of NIHL South have today confirmed that Division 1 South will run in season 17/18 with the the nine remaining clubs:

• Bracknell Bees
• Basingstoke Bison
• Cardiff Fire
• Invicta Dynamos
• London Raiders
• Milton Keynes Thunder
• Peterborough Phantoms
• Streatham IHC
• Swindon Wildcats

The teams will play each other twice at home and twice away for a 32 game League season. The top eight sides will qualify for the post season under the format previously announced.

An NIHL S1 Cup competition will also be operating and details will be confirmed very soon.

Work is continuing with clubs to resolve the structure for NIHL 2 South and details will be announced as soon as the discussions have been concluded.

A spokesperson for the NIHL South LMC said: “It’s been a long five days since we were informed of the withdrawal of three member teams from NIHL1.

“We’re naturally disappointed, as are our member teams, that the Conference system as agreed in the meeting on the 7th May is not going to be possible to run now.

“Since this happened, we’ve been consulting with our member teams in both NIHL1 and NIHL2 to resolve the way forward, and it is clear that from discussions that we have nine teams that are committed to the NIHL1 standard and therefore we’re pleased to get this information out today.

“It has always been our intention to attempt to return NIHL1 South to ten teams at the earliest possibly opportunity. Therefore we can confirm that with nine teams in the league there will be no relegation at the end of the 17/18 season.

“For NIHL 2 South we are talking with all clubs involved and working as quickly as possible while ensuring that whatever is put in place is workable and sustainable for all clubs involved this year and going forward.”