URN

The Capital Fm arena was the setting of this years opening fixture of the charity varsity fixture – Ice hockey. Nottingham Uni took on their Trent counterparts in front of an electric atmosphere fuelled by a crowd of over 8,000. URN were there to cover it from start to finish.

The game started at a frantic pace, however it was UNI who looked the most nervous out of the two sides. The UNI players struggled to deal with their nerves in the early stages and were guilty of ill discipline – Simon Bell being set to the bin early for tripping. This man advantage for Trent, known as a powerplay, was exploited perfectly as the men in pink scored just a few moments later.

This should have warned as a warning sign to the UNI players, but it didn’t moments later Bradshaw was sent to the bin for ill discipline and again Trent exploited their man advantage – Rathbone the scorer assisted by the impressive Jose Leon.

Two goals down early, the Uni team had their first early spell of any possession half way through the first period, even managing to create some of their own chances. However it was Trent who scored next O’Flaherty scoring a counter attack.

On February 18th the Capital FM Arena hosted the blue-ribbon event of the Varsity Series: Varsity Ice Hockey. Representative sides for the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University, drawn from the Nottingham Universities Mavericks joint team, faced off in front of a full-capacity crowd for the biggest event of the Varsity calendar.

Varsity Ice Hockey at the Capital FM Arena (18/02/13)
Final score: Uni 4-3 Trent

Varsity events don’t come much bigger than the annual Varsity Ice Hockey clash between Trent and Uni. The clash has become the showpiece event of the Varsity calendar and this year was no exception with all of the 8,000 tickets selling out well in advance.

University of Nottingham v Nottingham Trent

Location: Capital FM Arena. Face-off: 7:45pm, Monday 18 February.

On Monday evening in front of a sell-out crowd of over 7,000, the University of Nottingham are pitted against Nottingham Trent, winners of this event for the last 2 years, in the self-proclaimed “biggest Varsity Ice Hockey game outside North America”.

The history of the Varsity series owes everything to Nottingham Mavericks assistant coach Simon Hopkins. The Mavericks is a joint university Ice Hockey team, with students from Nottingham Trent and the University of Nottingham joining forces on the ice to compete as one team. Hopkins had the idea to split the roster into two, with the players representing their respective university teams in a game in which the proceeds would go to charity. The first event drew a crowd of just under 3,000 and has grown from strength to strength ever since. This year sees the University of Nottingham led onto the ice by their captain Oliver Glover who will be hoping to get one over captain of both the Mavericks and Trent Reece Clarke, who his aiming to win his second and Trent’s third title in a row.

Jack Maclaren, Michael Gaffney and Paul Millington headed down to the Capital FM Arena to speak to the players ahead of the all-important Varsity clash.

Simon Hopkins and Paul Moran ahead of the 20/02/12 Varsity Ice Hockey fixture, in aid of CP Sport