Oxford City Stars

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The Oxford City Stars are an ice hockey team based in Oxford, England. They currently play in the English National League, South.

Roster 2007/08

Netminders

James Skaife, David Tyler, Kevin McGurk

Defence

David Carr

Forwards

Dean Francis, Darren Elliott, Alan Green, Joe Oliver,

More signings to be announced...

History

1984-1999

Formed in 1984 with the opening of the Oxford Ice Rink, they are the first team playing at senior level in the city. Oxford University had previously formed a team that had folded.

The Stars were entered into British League Division 2 and won the league championship in their inaugural season. In following season, the Stars progressed to Division 1 but were relegated back to Division 2 at the end of the 1986–87 season. Division 2 was renamed English Division 1 the following year.

The 1990–91 season saw the Stars win the English League Division 1 Title. This was one of Oxford's greatest moments with the team winning 23 of a possible 28 games.

The British Hockey League was replaced by the English National Hockey League in 1996 and Oxford Stars changed their name to the Oxford Chill.

During the 1997–98 season a failure at the rink saw the team playing their home games in Swindon during which the team advanced to the English Premier Ice Hockey League. For the following season the team was once again renamed as the Oxford Blades and lost every single game, 32 in total. These results led to the team collapsing in 1999 due to high running costs and poor attendance.

2001-2003

Oxford City Stars returned for the 2000–01 season and finished third in the league. However they found themselves unable to sign enough players for the 2002–03 season and once again folded.

2003-2004

The Stars returned and shone once again under the stewardship of club legend Dan Prachar who assembled an exciting team mixing players from Swindon and Oxford. With crowds improving and the team winning consistently the team finished second only to the all conquering Invicta Dynamos. They also smashed Oxford University in the annual Town v Gown and reached the national cup final only to lose out to Sheffield.

2004-2005

Despite retaining most of their squad the Stars could not improve on the previous years success however they did sign a sponsorship deal with national restuarant chain Smollenskys.On a sad note high scoring import and team talisman Derek Flint left to go home to Vancouver.

2005-2006

The Stars entered the Premier league cup as well as the English National league and this stretched the squad too far with the fixtures building up and moral fading.Along with the loss of Derek Flint the team struggled in the lower half of the team despite being able to beat any team on their day. Towards the end of the season coach Dan Prachar was replaced by veteran defenceman Paul Donohoe who steadied the ship till the end of the season.

2006-2007

The off-season saw a number of Oxford players sign for the newly formed Swindon Wildcats Development Team. This left the management with work to do finding replacements before the beginning of the 2006–07 season.

The 2006/07 season saw the Stars use more local players than in previous seasons with a number of younger players getting a chance in the team. Under the guidance of coach Darryl Morvan and his assistant Paul Foster the Stars started the season inconsistently but hit form at the right time and shocked everyone by sneaking in to the final play off spot with a last gasp win over local rivals Swindon in front of a partisan crowd in Oxford.

The play offs were a step too far for the young City Stars squad however they still had one last surprise up their sleeve when they beat league champions Invicta Dynamos 4-1 to ruin the Kent clubs play off hopes.

Despite fears over the future of Oxford ice rink the City Star enter the 2007/08 season full of confidence and with virtually the same squad as last season.

External links

• Official website
• Official Supporters Club website