The remarkable life and times of one of Fife Flyers’ original players is set to be told in a new book.

Jimmy Chappell was part of the first ever team to hit the ice in Kirkcaldy in 1938-39, and lay the foundations for a club which endures to this day.

He was part of GB’s 1936 gold medal winning Winter Olympics team, and his career took in Earls Court Rangers, Dunfermline Vikings, and Fife Flyers.

But it was his Yorkshire roots which inspired Ashley Ball to start work on ’Champagne on Ice’ which tells not only Chappell’s story, but that of fellow Yorkshireman and Olympian, Archie Stinchcombe, who iced with Nottingham Panthers.

Fife Flyers 1938. Back row: Jack Stove, Alec Fullerton, Norman McQuade, Jimmy Chappell. Front: Len McCartney, Tommy McInroy, Billy Fullerton, Tommy Durling, Chic Kerr

placeholder image — Fife Flyers 1938. Back row: Jack Stove, Alec Fullerton, Norman McQuade, Jimmy Chappell. Front: Len McCartney, Tommy McInroy, Billy Fullerton, Tommy Durling, Chic Kerr

Chappell was born in Huddersfield and, in 1925, aged 11, boarded the SS Montcalm with his family to start a new life in Ontario. Ten years later he was returned - on the very same boat - with his skates.

He signed with Earl's Court Rangers, won gold at the Olympics, where he scored against Hungary and Czechoslovakia, and ended up in Kirkcaldy as part of the very first Flyers’ line-up. He joined Dunfermline Vikings after one season in the Lang Toun and also went on to ice with Brighton Tigers - Flyers remain the only one of his clubs still active.

Ashley said: “He was without doubt a marquee signing for the club, and is an important figure in Fife’s history. He was their big signing at the time - there was a huge buzz about the sport in the region. I am sure Flyers’ fans will enjoy hearing about his life and the times he spent in Kirkcaldy.”

During his time as a Flyer, Chappell had his own column in the Fifeshire Advertiser, and he also proved more than a dab hand with a bat in his hand, turning out for Nairns’ Cricket Club.

Fife Flyers 1938 - one of the earliest photos of the new icee hockey team in Kirkcaldy

He returned to the Lang Toun in 1945 for a series of games, and even introduced ice badminton to the locals!

When war broke out, Chappell served with the Canadian Army, and also played in the 1948 Winter Olympics. He also took cricket across to North America, even playing against the legendary Don Bradman. He died aged just 59 while on holiday in Florida in 1973.

Ashley said: “In that short life he achieved so much - he crammed quite a lot in, and the most well documented chapter of his life was when he played with Fyers.”

Ashley hopes his new book will bring Chappell’s story to a new generation of hockey fans.

His Yorkshire contemporary, Archie Stinchcombe, has his own blue plaque in his home town of Cudworth, near Huddersfield, in honour of his success on the ice being blind in one eye.

Ashley has a Facebook page where he welcomes any input from fans with any memorabilia or cuttings from Jimmy’s time with Flyers. Search for Yorkshire's Olympic ice hockey heroes Archie Stinchcombe and Jimmy Chappell