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.