Flyers legend Kyle Horne back to his roots with Kirkcaldy Kestrels

Horne spent 12 seasons with Flyers, split between two spells in the BNL and EIHL, while he also featured for Slough Jets, Edinburgh Capitals and most recently, Solway Sharks.

He called time on his career back in March when the coronavirus outbreak hit but Kestrels coach Steven Wishart says he managed to persuade him to return to where it all began in his home town – with a lot of arm-twisting!

“Kyle is a really close friend of mine,” he said.

“We grew up together, played juniors together, but we’re good friends away from hockey as well.

“When he left Flyers a few years ago he had a year out and I’ve been at him to come and help us at the Kestrels.

“He decided to go and play with Solway which I totally understood because he was playing in the National League and still had a lot to offer.

When Horne announced that the season past was his last, Wishart says he thought he had “missed the boat” so was surprised when the friends met a couple of weeks ago.

“Kyle said to me ‘I still want to play’.

“He was a bit apprehensive and I had to do a bit of persuading but I said look, you have a lot of friends in the team.

“There’s myself, Andrew Finlay and Steven MacDonald, so it’s him coming back to his roots, playing with his friends and having some fun.

“There’s no pressure on him.

“He’s made the step down from the Elite to the National League and now to SNL, and he’ll be helping to develop some of our youngsters.

“Having him and Tommy Muir in there with the D-men is going to be excellent for us.”

Horne is the latest name Kestrels have added to their roster in the last few weeks, with two netminders, Ben Keddie and Davey Jackson, signing up for next season.

“Young Ben turned 16 in August which means he can now ice for us in games and we’ll be looking for him to develop into an SNL goalie,” Wishart says.

“This will be Davey’s third season with us and he is going to take on a netminder coaching role within the Kestrels as well, which I’m delighted about because it’s actually quite unusual in British ice hockey.

“He’s coming towards the end of his career and willing to take on that extra responsibility of working with our goalies which is really good for the club.

“He did his Level One coaching last summer so he’ll be there to help our two netminders, as well as providing competition because he’ll be wanting to fight his way into that number one slot.”

Also icing will be Jamie Crawford and Jake Grubb, two youngsters who have chosen to re-sign and both of whom according to Wishart have “bags of potential”.

He said: “We expect them to really push on this season.

“Crawford will be a senior player for the first time this year. It’s Grubb’s second year with us but he can still play at U18 level as well.

“They’re really coachable, likeable kids and it’s up to them how far they want to go really, particularly Jake.

“If he has the ambition to go on and make the step up to the Flyers, for example, it’s just seeing if that’s what he wants to do.

“The kid certainly has the ability to do it.”

Wishart also made a plea for sponsors as the club goes through a difficult time through lockdown.

“We’re in the same boat as everyone else,” he said, “but if we could get some assistance from sponsors it would be a massive help.”