The history of
the Manchester Storm
(Pocket PC version)
1995 season
John
Lawless (Coach Cardiff Devils) was approached at the Premier League
Play Off Finals in March 1995 to lead the then unnamed team. Soon he
would be joined by player/assistant coach Daryl Lipsey and the team
would be named "The Manchester Storm"
Storm's
first competitive game, under the club's first Coach and General Manager
John Lawless, was in the 1995 Benson and Hedges cup. Their opponents
were the Telford Tigers, the game was played in Telford on August 26th
1995, and the Storm lost by 6-4.
It was the return game against Telford that saw the Storm make their home debut at the Nynex Arena. 10, 034 people watched the teams battle it out on September 15th, saw twelve goals and saw the hooter blow with the final scoreline at 6-6. In this first competition Storm had struggled to overcome not only the problems of starting a new team from scratch ... but also the fact that two of their "import" players had not been available.
Storm's regular season started on October 1st with a 6-2 win over the
Dumfries Vikings in British League Division One. The Storm hardly
looked back after that, losing only three more games in the rest of the
season. Crowd numbers grew and grew ... culminating in a massive
crowd of 16, 280 on February 21st 1996 to see the Storm beat the Blackburn
Hawks 11-3. The Storm topped the League with a massive 99 points
from 52 games. Goals for 539 ... goals against just 185.
In the end of season promotion play offs Storm topped their group to win a place in the Premier League. It was an impressive start to a new franchise.
1996
season
British ice hockey's league structure changed over the summer
months of 1996. The old Premier League gave way to the new, all
professional Ice Hockey Superleague. Eight teams took part in the
inaugral competition; Cardiff Devils, Sheffield Steelers, Ayr Scottish
Eagles, Nottingham Panthers, Newcastle Cobras, Bracknell Bees, Basingstoke
Bison and the Manchester Storm. In addition the new European Hockey
League was formed and the Storm were invited to take part. British
fans were to get the chance to see the Storm play teams from Finland,
Sweden and Germany.
This
was the year when crowds for Ice Hockey in Manchester reached their peak
- on the basis that on 23rd February 1997 the Manchester Arena was full.
The Storm vs Steelers game was SOLD OUT.
You couldn't get a ticket if you wanted one. Sadly, this was a unique
event and so many tickets were never sold again.
This, though, was to be a year of frustration and under performance. In the Benson and Hedges Cup the team lost both quarter final legs to the Ayr Scottish Eagles. In the EHL they didn't score a point, faced with the huge firepower of TPS Turku, Lulea and Berlin. In the Superleague itself Storm faired equally badly. They won just 14 games, lost 24 and finished second to the bottom ... ahead only of the Basingstoke Bison. In the play offs Storm came bottom of the group and didn't even make the finals weekend.
The Storm's fans wanted more, the owners agreed, and Coach John Lawless left the Club.