Fife Flyers: counting down to being rinkside as a buzz returns across fan base

What hockey means to people - players, coaches, fans - was captured quite beautifully in three words by one fan who, when asked to describe the best Flyers game he’d seen, would always reply: “The next one.”

“ Nothing’’ he said, “can compare with the anticipation of waiting for hockey night to arrive.’’

The rink is steeped in history. The banners which hang from the rafters honour the greatest teams and finest servants, but only tell part of the story. Sit in the stands and you’ll hear anecdotes of match nights from the past, of the characters who filled the rink, on and off the ice, and of road trips that make you smile decades later. Hockey means so much to so many in this town, and has done for 80 years. Chatting to a long-standing fan, he spoke of those long thumb-twiddling, hockey-less summer months: “You count down - six Saturdays to go, five Saturdays to go …”

He’ll almost certainly be here when the puck drops, sitting next to first-time fans, and folk who have come on board during the EIHL era, and they, in turn, will be next to someone who still owns - possibly even still wears - one of those famous old Avco sponsored tops from the mid 1980s.

And that’s what makes this sport unique. The team, and the rink, are imprinted on this town’s DNA. Both have endured because they remain at the heart of the community.

From the war-time years when it was part ice rink, part dance hall, to the live TV games of the Heineken era, to the Grand Slam of 2000 and on the rollercoaster ride which took the team from the amateur SNL to to the fully pro EIHL over the last two decades, it has drawn people to the Gallatown for a night of noise, celebration, moans, triumph and despair; sometimes all in the same evening.

“What’s happening with the Flyers?’’ is probably the most asked question of summer. It is every year. The rumour mill has been part of this sport since the very first imports picked up their trilby hats, boarded their ships and sailed across the Atlantic, bringing a sense of style to the town as they flipped dimes to the kids, rink rats, who spent their days scurrying around the building.

The game has changed since its days of wooden sticks and goalies who took to the ice without face masks, but the desire to know who’s here, to be part of it, to get to the rink and roar yourself hoarse, remains as strong as ever. The players who arrive in town this week not only follow in the skate trails of legends and pioneers, they also have an opportunity to write their own names into the club’s history. Moving forward as well as looking back is the name of the game.

There is talk of a new era under a new coach. It may well be more of a period of transition as the plates shift after the long reign of Todd Dutiaume and Jeff Hutchins, but there is a bit of buzz again at the rink and among the fanbase which augurs well for the autumn and winter months ahead.

The work done across the summer months is about to be revealed. There are new faces to meet, and familiar ones to welcome back - and that special atmosphere of the first games of a brand new season. After all these years rinkside, still nothing compares with the anticipation of waiting for hockey night to arrive. The countdown is almost over...