BOLLINGER TREADMILL

ALL OUR TROUBLES SEEM SO FAR AWAY
September 19 1993

Well it only seems like yesterday when the boys clinched promotion yet here we are deep into a new season, the glamour of success well and truly behind us and the reality of a higher level of hockey starting to hit home.

Last season saw many players arrive and then depart Riverside and for two ex-Chieftain netminders the opening weeks have been a rather painful experience.

Marc Dowd, now icing for Premier side Bracknell, was carried from the ice last Sunday after being hit in the opening period of their game with Nottingham Panthers.

We wish Marc a swift recovery, as I'm sure do Bees after Marc's brilliant start to the season.

Also in the wars was Dumfries new netminder Simon Burns who needed extensive treatment after a clash with Marc's younger brother Garry who plays with Teeside Bombers.

Probably the most interesting player trade of the close season was the signing of Gary Stefan by Cardiff.

Stefan was signed by the Welsh club from Slough and then immediately loaned back out to Jets.

The reason behind this being that Devils will be able to ice Stefan in their forthcoming European Cup campaign.

Devils face a tough time after an unfavourable draw has grouped them with the champions of Lithuania Ukraine and Latvia.

HERE COMES THE CHOPPER, ALREADY
September 26 1993

After less than a month of the new season the axe has fallen on a couple of imports.

The first to pack his bags was Nottingham's Tyler Larter who has been replaced by Ross Lambert, a man apparently heading for Streatham before the Premier side intervened.

Larter, meanwhile, is currently icing for Durham in place of the injured Gary Yaremchuk.

Teesside Bombers have also released imports after two heavy defeats - Todd Humphrey and Dan Fowler are now without clubs.

New boys Dumfries Vikings will also be looking for a new import after Ukrainian Sergei Lubnin was handed a life ban from British hockey after striking a linesman with his stick during his first game in this country.

Murrayfield Racers recently paid Fife Flyers in the region of Ł12,000 for the services of Dean Edmiston, who went on to make a scoring debut in Racers 15-7 victory over Durham Wasps.

It was announced this week that British ice hockey's best players will take part in an All Star Game prior to the B & H (GOVERNMENT WARNING: SMOKING DESTROYS LUNGS) cup final at Sheffield an December 4th.

The All Star format has been a showpiece for the NHL for decades now and the B.I.H.A. will be hoping the British equivalent can be just as successful.


STEELING THEMSELVES FOR CHANGES
October 3 1993

Most British hockey fans have been justifiably impressed by the meteoric rise of the Sheffield Steelers organisation.

One reason for their tremendous success is the fact that they are able to train twice a day every non-match day.

Steelers are certainty trying to change the face of British hockey with their undoubted professionalism but even they have found problems this season.

Two of their key defencemen are facing the axe over the fact that they are unable to attend this strict and demanding regime.

Phil Lee and Paul Thompson highlight the problem facing any British team attempting this level of professionalism - work commitments will always come first.

Steelers meanwhile are still awaiting the arrival of star import Selmar Odelein - currently working on his family's farm in Canada!

We are still in the first month of the season and already a couple of teams have replacement imports settling in.

Teesside Bombers have found two new players in former Trafford and Fife import Justin Butorac and newcomer Edward Oulds.

Rumour has it that Teeside released pairing of Todd Humphreys and Dan Fowler are currently being looked at by Telford Tigers.

Dumfries Vikings have been forced into changes due to disciplinary problems and have found two more imports from the East.
Danuse Bauba, a 21 year old Lithuanian who chose Dumfries above the Red Army and Moscow Dynamo and he is joined by Nykolai Ladigyn, a 37 year old defenceman.


ABANDON HOPE ALL YE WHO SKATE
October 10 1993

Rink problems were experienced by Streatham recently when their game with Lee Valley was abandoned due to adverse weather conditions creating a dense fog in the Streatham rink.

According to the Redskin's coach Adam Goldstone: "If you stood at centre ice, you could see neither goal."

Trafford Metros have been stunned by the sudden decision of stark import Dan Dorian to quit not only the Metros, but the game.

Dorian is said to be returning to New York for personal reasons and this will certainty upset Trafford's plans for the season.

Metros were consequently defeated by Guildford last Saturday but it was the Flames who discovered problems of their own when they returned to the Spectrum for Sunday's game with Medway.

Management in Guildford were forced to push face-off time of the game forward to the unusual time of 2.00pm

Welsh-born Brian Trubshaw described that maiden 22-minute flight from Filton near Bristol to RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire on 9 April 1969 as "the highlight of my aviation career".

That career began as an RAF pilot in World War II and he likened being at the controls of the supersonic aircraft to "travelling faster than a rifle bullet".


His enthusiasm for Concorde continued even after last summer's fateful crash near Paris, which killed 113 people.

He insisted that the plane was still safe to fly.

Born in Llanelli, west Wales, Mr Trubshaw died at his home near Tetbury, Gloucestershire, on Saturday.

His wife, Yvonne, said: "It was very peaceful, he hadn't been ill."

The couple have a stepdaughter, Sally.

Mr Trubshaw very nearly followed his father and grandfather into the family tinplate business, but he entered the RAF as World War II started.

As it turned out, the Western Tinplate Works was swallowed up in a series of mergers.

Howard Berry, a spokesman for BAE Systems, who worked for Mr Trubshaw before his retirement in 1986, said: "He'll be greatly missed in the world of aerospace."


Mr Trubshaw's autobiography was launched the day after the Paris crash and his book opened with the sentence: "It is not unreasonable to look upon Concorde as a miracle".

Interviewed by BBC Television after the crash, he said: "It would be wrong for me to say I was astonished. It was an incident I hoped never would happen, but at the same time one has to be realistic."

"Being mixed up with aviation for as long as I have, one knew that one day we could be faced with this situation."

In his book, "Concorde: The Inside Story", he said he remembered the aircraft's test day as if it were yesterday.

Crew members were issued with air-ventilated suits and parachutes and the pre-flight checklist took one hour.


Mr Trubshaw said: "We were off down the runway with extremely rapid acceleration."

He flew Concorde 002, the British prototype, again on 14 June 1969 in honour of the Queen's official birthday, passing over Buckingham Palace at 1,500ft.

He was first inspired to become a pilot when at the age of 10 he saw the Prince of Wales's aircraft land on the beach at Pembrey, Carmarthenshire, near where his family lived.

Prestigious career

He joined the RAF at Lord's cricket ground in 1942 and trained in the US, learning to fly Stearman biplanes.

Qualification as a bomber pilot followed and he joined the prestigious King's Flight in 1946, flying members of the Royal Family and attending private parties with Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret.

He joined Vickers-Armstrong as a test pilot on V-bombers and tested the dropping of Britain's first atom bomb.

The British and French governments signed an agreement in 1962 to develop Concorde and he was selected as test pilot.

The supersonic aircraft went into commercial service seven years after the maiden flight and Mr Trubshaw later said he had doubted whether it ever would because of political opposition.

2001 Brian Trubshaw died at the age of 77.

My Family Link with Concorde by Paul Townsend

I do have a family link with Concorde my grandfather's brother (Great Uncle) was Sir George Edwards Aviation Pioneer and ex-chairman of BAC.

Guiding light in the postwar British aircraft industry whose achievements are an indelible part of world aviation history

When, in mid-career, Sir George Edwards was awarded the Guggenheim Gold Medal for Aeronautics in New York in 1959, he was described by the leaders of American aviation, never men to bestow praise lightly, as “one of the world’s foremost aircraft designers and administrators - an architect of the age of flight”. Such an expression of esteem showed well the regard in which he was held over the years, even by his competitors in world markets.

George Edwards was one of British aviation’s most accomplished and respected practitioners and one of its most stalwart and articulate advocates. Perhaps supreme among his achievements was the bringing to fruition and successive development of the world’s first turbo.prop airliner, the Vickers Viscount after 1948. But his career was studded with the names of famous aircraft, both civil and military - first at Vickers and then at the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) - in whose design he had a hand, or whose development he oversaw. Among these were the Valiant jet bomber of the early 1950s; the elegant VC10 military and civil jet transport of the 1960s; the revolutionary TSR2 strike aircraft which fell victim to politics in 1965; the Anglo-French Jaguar strike fighter of 1972, which is still in service; and the Anglo-French Concorde supersonic airliner project, whose success owed so much to his tact and diplomacy.

Nor were his attainments confined to the aeronautical field. His interests and skills embraced a wide spectrum - from painting and cricket to small b