STORM BLITZ ISSUE #61 Thursday 25 September 1997 If you have any comments on Storm Blitz, please feel free to e-mail into.the.storm@poboxes.com any time. There are currently 171 subscribers to Storm Blitz --------------------------------------------------- In this issue : * Storm win in Newcastle for the first time ever * Other Tuesday/Wednesday B&H games * GMR Sport on Manchester Storm coverage * Latest EHL Division F table * Latest B&H Group A table * Forthcoming Storm games * TV and Radio News * Download back issues of Storm Blitz * How to unsubscribe to Storm Blitz --------------------------------------------------- > STORM WIN IN NEWCASTLE FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER Storm's first game in Newcastle this year yielded their first ever win at the Newcastle Arena. Hilton Ruggles opened the scoring after just 90 seconds. Vani equalised with 10 minutes gone and Stefan Ketola restored Storm's lead after two minutes later. Dominic Maltais made it 3-1 just before the end of the first period with a powerplay goal. Kevin Hoffman scored a short-handed goal after 22-11 to make it 4-1 to Storm. Thirty seconds later Johnson pulled one back, but after another thirty seconds Dale Jago made it 5-2 to Storm. Two minutes before the end of the second period, Stewart scored for Newcastle and the final period was goalless meaning that Storm won for the first time ever in Newcastle. > OTHER TUESDAY/WEDNESDAY B&H GAMES In Group A on Tuesday night, Ayr Scottish Eagles travelled to Paisley Pirates and won 11-2. On Wednesday night in Group B, Nottingham Panthers inflicted the first domestic defeat of the season on Cardiff Devils with the Panthers winning 2-1. Kraig Nienhuis scored for Nottingham after just 24 seconds and the score remained the same until Marty Dallman made it 2-0 after 46 minutes. Cardiff scored their goal with Doug McEwen scoring with 8 minutes remaining. Basingstoke Bison travelled to Slough Jets and won 6-3. Peterborough Pirates hosted Bracknell Bees and lost 14-1. > GMR SPORT ON MANCHESTER STORM COVERAGE OK. This is a bit long but never mind! Having given up waiting for Karen Hannah (Programme Editor - all programming, GMR) to phone me back I decided to phone up and try and speak to her again. Finally, I got to speak to her. In summary, I explained that I was interested in knowing about GMR's current and future plans for coverage of Manchester Storm home and away. Karen was very nice about it saying that it was on her instruction that GMR were covering Manchester Storm this season and that the coverage would continue throughout the season. GMR's Sunday sports programme will now end at 6.00 from this coming Sunday leaving no coverage like there has been over the last few weeks. I asked why, and she said that the commitment to rugby and cricket had finished now their seasons were over and they had to revert to other programming to fill their commitment to that as it had lacked over the summer with extensive Sunday sports coverage. Occasional Sunday extentions were not out of the question for big games later in the season (ie. until 8.30 or the end of the game). She said that any time sport went past 8.00 she got loads of letters from Country and Western Music fans complaining that their show was shorter because of it. I pointed out that the Late Night North sports bulletin at 10.30 does not have the ice hockey results in it. She said that she would see if that could be resolved and the result from Storm games could be included. The problem is that the results have to be sent to London where they are broadcasted from. The breakfast show sports bulletins on GMR are broadcast from Blackburn and so they have similar problems with that. It was pointed out to me that Andy Costigan DOES do 30-second phone inserts in the Saturday night programmes when Storm are away, something that I wasn't aware of. I told her about Radio Sheffield's ice hockey coverage and how they could benefit from speaking to them about how they do it - she said that she actually had! When I asked about particular game coverage she said that she'd get Andy Buckley, the Sports Editor, to contact me as he made particular decisions about coverage. So, not expecting him to phone back I went off to do something else. Then at 3.00 he phoned back - and I spoke to him for almost an hour, which was pretty nice of him considering that he had to be at Old Trafford soon afterwards to do Manchester United commentary. Now he DID have a lot to say! He said that live sport is what GMR do best and that he wants the station to become a 7-day a week sports station for live sport - in other words 7-10 sport EVERY day with weekends also getting the afternoon coverage. He said he keeps writing reports to management about it and would appreciate anyone who agrees to write in to the station letting them know. Talking about Manchester Storm in particular, he commented that GMR have regained the rights from Kiss 102 (soon to become Galaxy 102!) for Manchester Giants coverage and so are prepared to cover them and Storm more extensively depending on the footy coverage happening at the same time and (until it goes 7-days if it ever does!) assuming that Storm are playing on Mon, Tues, Wed, Fri, Sat/Sun afternoon when sport is currently scheduled. He also mentioned the poor facilities at the other rinks and arenas and I said that good communications was supposed to be a requirement of Superleague clubs, but it obviously isn't. The facilities must surely improve (I suggested) when Superleague gets sponsorship money from their impending deal and they become tougher with the teams involved. To make the point (this surprised me!), he said that on 12th October, GMR wanted to extend the Sunday show to include Basingstoke v Storm commentary but when he asked Thames Valley Radio (i've forgotten the name now) they told him that the facilities were so poor that GMR would need to install their own ISDN equipment at a cost of about 400 pounds - money they don't have to waste. I said that Radio Sheffield managed to do coverage from the poorer rinks last season like Basingstoke etc and he said that maybe he should talk to them about how they manage it. He did insist that BIG games WILL get coverage and commentary later in the season (I particularly asked about B&H semis and final). He seemed very positive about the future of Storm coverage. I also happened to ask about the game next Tuesday : Storm v Dynamo Moscow and asked if GMR would be doing good coverage of that game. He thought for a second and then said that it was only Bolton Wanderers at home to Leyton Orient and that wasn't exactly a crowd puller so YES, there would be extensive coverage. He then asked me if I'd be interested in doing some coverage from the game for GMR on that night so I said I would. So that sounds pretty positive. They really DO want feedback though - more a case of "I would listen to extensive coverage" and "mention the score more when doing football commentary" - all this will encourage them to cover Storm. Note, we are away at Nottingham Panthers on a Tuesday night in the Superleague soon - the first REAL away commentary match??? Tell them you want it to be!!! Phone 0161 200 2000 and ask to speak to Karen Hannah or Andy Buckey or write in to them at BBC GMR, Broadcasting House, Oxford Road, Manchester. > LATEST EHL DIVISION F TABLE Pl W OW OL L +/- Points Moscow Dynamo 1 1 0 0 0 + 4 3 Bolzano 1 0 1 0 0 + 1 2 Manchester Storm 1 0 0 1 0 - 1 1 Sparta Prague 1 0 0 0 1 - 4 0 Win=3; Overtime Win=2; Overtime Loss=1, Loss=0 > LATEST B&H GROUP A TABLE Pl W D L +/- Points Manchester Storm 9 7 1 1 +44 15 Newcastle Cobras 9 6 1 2 +35 13 Ayr Scottish Eagles 8 5 1 2 +24 11 Sheffield Steelers 7 3 1 3 +12 7 Paisley Pirates 8 1 0 7 -60 2 Telford Tigers 7 0 0 7 -55 0 The top 4 qualify for the quarter finals with the top 4 from Group B. > FORTHCOMING STORM GAMES DATE OPPONENTS F/O VENUE COMPETITION Sun 28 Sep Newcastle Cobras 6.00 Home B&H Cup Group A Tue 30 Sep Moscow Dynamo 7.30 Home EHL Division F Sat 4 Oct Cardiff Devils 7.00 Home Superleague > TV AND RADIO NEWS FRI 26 SEP BBC RADIO LANCASHIRE 95.5/103.9FM - Lancashire Sport - Preview of Lancashire Hawks forthcoming games along with other sports previews and reviews - 1800 - 1900 FRI 26 SEP BBC RADIO SHEFFIELD 104.1FM - Friday Night Sport - Preview of Sheffield Steelers forthcoming games and other sports - 1900 - 2000 FRI 26 SEP BBC GMR 95.1/104.6FM - GMR SPORT - Preview of Storm's weekend games along with other sport - 1900 - 2200 SAT 27 SEP KISS 102FM - Kiss Sports - Interview with Kurt Kleinendorst and music - 1715 - 1730 SAT 27 SEP BBC RADIO 5 LIVE - NIGHT EXTRA - Review of Saturday night's games including results as well as all the other sports results - 2330 - 0000 SUN 28 SEP BBC GMR 95.1/104.6FM - Sunday Sport - Reports (hopefully) on the first part of STORM v NEWCASTLE COBRAS as well as the rugby league Premiership finals - 1430 - 2000 SUN 28 SEP BBC RADIO 5 LIVE - NIGHT EXTRA - Review of Sunday night's games including results as well as all the other sports results - 2320 - 2335 MON 29 SEP BBC GMR 95.1/104.6FM - Drivetime - Interview with Kurt Kleinendorst and a Storm player following the weekend's games - 1755 TUE 30 SEP BBC GMR 95.1/104.6FM - GMR SPORT - Top coverage including commentary of Storm v Dynamo Moscow in the EHL - 1900 - 2200 WED 31 SEP BBC RADIO SHEFFIELD 104.1FM - The Ice Line - Ice Hockey phone-in with Sheffield Steelers players as guests hosted by Gareth Hampshire - 1800 - 1900 > DOWNLOAD BACK ISSUES OF STORM BLITZ All previous issues of Storm Blitz are still available. You can download all of the back issues from the Storm Blitz page on Into The Storm. If you do not have Web access, then if you e-mail me, I'll forward the issues that you require on to you. > HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE TO STORM BLITZ Easy! Send an e-mail to into.the.storm@poboxes.com telling me that you don't want Storm Blitz any more. Also use this address if you wish to change e-mail addresses or if you have any comments. *** END OF STORM BLITZ ISSUE #61 *** INTO THE STORM can be accessed at: http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/3859/storm.html OR http://www.poboxes.com/into.the.storm