Cardiff Redhawks

Cardiff University Redhawks
Logo
League	British Universities Ice Hockey Association
Divisions	Division 1 - South Division 3 - South
Founded	2004
History	2004–Present
Arena	Cardiff Bay Arena
City	Cardiff, Wales
Team Colours	Dark Red, Black and White
Uniform
Website	http://www.redhawks.co.uk

The Cardiff Redhawks are a British ice hockey team that play in the First and Third Divisions of the British Universities Ice Hockey Association, formed in 2004. They play their home games at the Cardiff Bay Arena, Cardiff, Wales.

Introduction

The Cardiff Redhawks were formed in 2004 by a handful of students from Cardiff University, many of whom had never played before. Their first game was against a local team, the Cardiff Titans, on the 7th of May 2005 following an NHL exhibition game. The squad began to grow by bringing in players from neighbouring universities such as UWIC, Glamorgan, Swansea and Newport.

Uniform

The Redhawks have used 3 different jerseys in their time in the BUIHA. The first incarnation was a simple black jersey with red stripes on the sleeves and the original team logo.

Since then a dark red strip has replaced it as the clubs main jersey. The introduction of this jersey also saw the first use of the current hawks head logo. Due to BUIHA regulations the team also added a white version of the jersey in 2008.

Work is now underway on a third jersey which will hopefully be used in a Alumni match in the near future.

BUIHA Record

2005 - 2006

The Redhawks team in their first ever match

In September 2005 the Redhawks joined the BUIHA, entering teams in the Second (Southern) and Third Divisions. The year proved to be very successful; with the A Team securing second place in their division as well as the Second Tier National Tournament title, and the B Team were runners up in the Third Tier Nationals.

2006 - 2007

The following year began with the closure of the Wales National Ice Rink and the construction of the Cardiff Bay Ice Rink. Delays in construction left the Redhawks without a home for much of the 06-07 season, forcing the A Team to withdraw from the league.

The A Team represented themselves in Tier One of the 2007 BUIHA Nationals, but fared poorly, losing all their matches and placing bottom. The Redhawks found solace in the success of the B Team who managed to improve on their previous season, winning the Third Tier Nationals.

2007 - 2008

The 2007-08 season saw the Redhawks regain their stability; the A Team returned to Tier Two South, with the B Team entering their third season in Tier Three. The Redhawks also gained membership to the Cardiff University Athletic Union.

Once again the A Team clinched second place with a post Christmas undefeated streak. They fell short though in the Nationals, managing only 5th place. The B Team overachieved once again, settling for 3rd place in a much more competitive Tier Three tournament.

2008 - 2009

The 2008-09 season saw the A team win Tier Two 2 South, before losing in the Tier Two Playoffs. The B team competed a clean sweep of trophies, winning Tier Three South, the Tier Three Playoffs and the Celtic Plate. They went on to win the Tier Three Nationals, dramatically winning both their semi-final and final on penalty shots, with netminder Tom Martin stopping 6 out of 6 shots, the game winning goal in the final came courtesy of Jon Griffiths.

2009 - 2010

The A team made the jump to Tier 1 South and despite getting off to a good start by beating Warwick at home 5-3 the Redhawks soon found themselves struggling with a short bench and they were on the receiving end of some heavy defeats all season long and they finished in last place. The B team having lost a lot of last years team including their top 4 points scorers (Matt Wood, Jiri Podval, Jim "Frodo" Towers and Jon Griffiths) struggled to find the form from last season finishing second in Tier 3 South and being knocked out in the group stages of Nationals.

2010 - 2011

Despite the heavy losses the previous season the A-Team remained in Tier 1 South where they looked to improve their record. Before the season had started the team lost some key names in Adam Landriault, Brian Winstanley, Jon Griifiths and Matt Wood. Things didn't get much better once the season began when the team received a 17-3 kicking away at Oxford (although this was an improvement on the 23-5 loss that took place the year before). The next game saw things go from bad to worse when London Dragons made their visit to the Welsh capital in a game that saw 3 Redhawks ejected in what had been a promising first period where they were trailing by just one goal almost up until the buzzer. The second and third periods saw the flood gates open as player coach Evan Juurakko was also ejected taking Cardiff down to 8 skaters who were helpless to stop the final score reaching 14-0 in the home opener. Despite this Cardiff picked up 4 points on the year and reduced their goals against average by nearly 3 goals a game on last year.

The B team finished as runners up of Tier 3 South for the second year running to the Warwick Panthers in the cup competition having lost both match ups during the season. Looking to improve on last years record at Nationals they went undefeated and capped the tournaments group stage with a superb 1-0 shutout for Dan Jenkins over the Nottingham Mavericks C Team. However this wouldn't be enough as two costly draws with the Manchester Metros and the Sheffield Bears as well as a penalty point would be enough to prevent them advancing to the semi-finals.

The Celtic Cup

The Redhawks also participate in the Celtic Cup Varsity; an annual one off challenge game against the Edinburgh Eagles who are the only other non-English team in the BUIHA.

The competition has been running for the past three years, the location alternating between Cardiff Bay and Murrayfield, Edinburgh. The 2009 match was held in Cardiff, on the 14th of March. The game ended as a 4-1 defeat for Cardiff, the closest they've come to the cup yet.

The Celtic Plate

2009 also saw the introduction of the Celtic Plate; a secondary competition between the Cardiff and Edinburgh B Teams. This was held on the 15th of March, seeing the Redhawks B win the plate with a 5-3 victory.

Cardiff Redhawks B 2009 Celtic Plate Winners

Club honours

2005 - 2006

• BUIHA Tier Two Nationals Champions (The Hopkins Plate)

2006 - 2007

• BUIHA Tier Three Nationals Champions

2008 - 2009

• BUIHA Tier Two Southern Conference Champions
• BUIHA Tier Three Nationals Champions
• BUIHA Tier Three Southern Conference Champions
• BUIHA Tier Three Playoff Champions
• Celtic Plate Winners

Current A Team Roster

2010-2011

Goaltenders
Number		Player	Catches	Joined	Hometown	University
17		Rhys Evans	L	2009	Wales	UWIC
33		Tom Martin	L	2008	Nottingham, England	Cardiff University

Defencemen
Number		Player	Shoots	Joined	Hometown	University
5		Tom Wilkinson	R	2007	Wrexham, Wales	Cardiff University
9		Mark Mikulasik	R	2008	Thunder Bay, ON, Canada	Cardiff University
10		Mike Gross	R	2010	Poole, England	University of Glamorgan
24		Matthew Hof	L	2007	Bridgend, Wales	Cardiff University

Forwards
Number		Player	Shoots	Position	Joined	Hometown	University
2		Dave Rogers	R	C	2005	Bristol, England	Cardiff University
16		Rich Penhale	R	C	2009	Oxford, England	Swansea University
50		Sam Hayman	R	C	2006	Penarth, Wales	Swansea University
93		Dave Williams	R	?	2006	Newport, Wales	University of Wales, Newport

Current B Team Roster

2010-2011

Goaltenders
Number		Player	Catches	Joined	Hometown	University
31		Dan Jenkins	L	2009	Swansea, Wales	University of Glamorgan

Defencemen
Number		Player	Shoots	Joined	Hometown	University
3		Barry Meikle	R	2010	Edinburgh, Scotland	UWIC
17		Rhys Evans	R	2009	Wales	UWIC
30		Matt Hurlow	R	2010	Swansea, Wales	University of Glamorgan
33		Tom Martin	R	2008	Nottingham, England	Cardiff University
34		Cesare McArdle	R	2008	Reading, England	Cardiff University
41		Rich Williams	R	2010	Wales	Cardiff University
83		Alec Tinsley	R	2010	Pontypool, Wales	University of Glamorgan

Forwards
Number		Player	Shoots	Joined	Hometown	University
7		Charlie Lemay	R	2010	London, England	UWIC
13		Gareth Hopkins	R	2010	Pontypool, Wales	University of Glamorgan
14		Bill Levene	R	2008	Teshie, Ghana	Cardiff University
16		Lewis Simpson	R	2010	Cardiff, Wales	University of Glamorgan
19		Sam Sui	R	2009	Hong Kong	Cardiff University
22		Sally Greenwell	R	2008	England	RWCMD
32		Dan Hughes	R	2008	Carmarthen, Wales	Cardiff University
39		Peadar McCready	R	2008	?	Cardiff University
42		Mark Dohle	R	2010	St. Louis, USA	Cardiff University
43		Sam Evans	R	2010	Margate, England	Cardiff University
49		Hannah McKimm	R	2010	Belfast, Northern Ireland	University of Wales, Newport
68		Fraser Lewis	R	2006	Cardiff, Wales	Open University
71		Jim Towers	R	2008	Swindon, England	University of Glamorgan
90		Kai Griffiths	R	2010	Wales	Cardiff University
91		Jay Chard	R	2009	Herefordshire, England	Cardiff University

Great Britain Universities Squad Members

2006

• Tom Smith

2009

• Suzi Grieve
• Cath Homolka

External links

• Cardiff Redhawks official web site
• Cardiff University official web site
• Cardiff University Athletic Union official web site
• British University Ice Hockey Association official web site