Farewell to Fife Flyers stalwart Jimmy Hunter

He had been suffering from cancer.

Born on September 14, 1946, Jimmy started his career skating with the Junior Flyers in the autumn of 1962. He was another local lad who would be nurtured into the game by coach Pep Young.

On February 4, 1963 he stepped out on home ice to take part in a challenge match after the Durham Wasps were unable to travel North for their Spring Cup clash with the Flyers due to the severe weather.

Flyers A played a Flyers B and Jimmy laced up for the A team who went down by six goals to eight.

Jimmy was on the scoresheet and the youngster was in good company as the other scorers were; Flyers A - McDonald 2, Forbes 2, Brown and Flyers B - Baird 4, Lovell 3, Boreham – all names who were the bedrock of the Flyers first team for the rest of the decade.

Jimmy’s debut season for the senior side was 1967/68 when he made five appearances and it was noted in the The Herald Ice Hockey Annual that “Johnny Taylor and Jimmy Hunter had both shown great promise”.

The following season he scored his first goal for the Flyers against Durham Wasps at Kirkcaldy as the home side lost 8-9.

He clearly had a liking for games with the Wasps as he notched a hat trick on December 7 as the Flyers won the Autumn Cup match 10-8.

He finished that season with five goals after netting against Glasgow in the last few weeks of the season, though Flyers unfortunately finished bottom of the two main competitions.

For each of the next four seasons he would increase his goal tally season on season and the Flyers fortunes would similarly improve during that time.

In 1969/70 he notched six goals including a double in a 8-3 Skol Trophy win against the ‘auld enemy’ Murrayfield Racers who won the league and were 24 points better off than the bottom placed Flyers.

1970/71 yielded eight goals as the Flyers started to climb the standings and also added silverware to the trophy cabinet as the Skol Trophy was won with an 8-3 win over the Ayr Bruins with Jimmy scoring once.

Season 1971/72 saw Jimmy record another hat trick in a game against the Ayr Bruins at Kirkcaldy on February 12. The Flyers were leading 5-4 with 60 seconds to go when the lights in the rink went dark but the result stood. With Flyers still climbing the standings Jimmy finished that season with 14 goals and was awarded the Mirror of Merit by the Fife Free Press.

Quite an achievement as the award was dominated for the best part of a decade by the name Lawrie Lovell.

1972/73 saw Jimmy return his most productive goals tally as he bulged the net 21 times.

He netted a hat trick on November 25 – no prizes for guessing – it was against the Durham Wasps in the Autumn Cup as he helped the Flyers win that title for the first time since 1950.

Jimmy hit 11 goals in 1973/74 as the Flyers challenged for most of the season for the League title but eventually ran out of steam.

The following season, his last with the Flyers, saw him net six goals as once again the Flyers battled most of the way at the top of the league only to fall short to both Whitley and Murrayfield in the race for the Autumn Cup and Northern League.

Jimmy is survived by wife Mary, daughters Dawn and Michelle, grandchildren Sarah, Amy, Emma and Lucy, and great-grandchildren Michael, Katie and Hannah.

His funeral will take place at Kirkcaldy Crematorium on Friday (May 22) at 2.15pm.