Basingstoke Bison

Basingstoke Bison

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Basingstoke Bison

Basingstoke Bison

League	Elite Ice Hockey League
Founded	1988
History	Basingstoke Beavers 1988-95Basingstoke Bison 1995-Present
Arena	Planet Ice Silverdome
Capacity	1,800
City	Basingstoke, Hampshire, England
Team Colours	Black, White, Red & Green
Head coach	Eric Braff
Owners	Planet Ice
Team Captain

The Basingstoke Bison are an English Ice Hockey club from Basingstoke. David Rowlands plays for thye junior team and is very good at Ice Hockey :D.

Formed in 1988 as the Basingstoke Beavers, the club soon became the butt of jokes when it was realised that Canadian players would not sign for a club whose name is Canadian slang for a part of the female anatomy.

The "Beavers" became the "Bison" in 1995. Their team logo (see right) is very similar to that used by the Buffalo Sabres from 1996-2006.

Joining the Superleague in 1996, the Bison dropped out in 1998 and joined the British National League. In 2003 they joined the newly formed Elite Ice Hockey League.

Despite being one of the lower budget teams in the EIHL, the Bison have maintained their fan base and greatly enhanced local sponsorships and doubled their season ticket sales.

This success is mainly testament to the hard work of Mark Bernard, who occupied the General Manager and Head Coach role with the club during the 2004/05 and 2005/06 seasons. Bernard also stepped into the Netminder's role part way through the latter season after Jayme Platt had left the team!

In May 2006, Bernard left the club to take up the Assistant General Managers post at American Hockey League side the Norfolk Admirals. Prior to his departure, Bernard secured the services of a number of the players that made up the 05/06 roster.

In June 2006, Planet Ice announced that the new player / coach of the club would be former club captain Doug Sheppard, with former Bison and London Racers defenceman Duncan Dalmao returning as player / assistant coach. Shepherd set about building his roster around the core that he had inherited from Bernard.

Bison embarked upon a successful year under Shepherd, securing their highest ever Elite League finish, and taking many points off the top sides in the League.

In April 2007, David Taylor, owner of Bracknell Bees, purchased the Bison. He appointed Ryan Aldridge as the Head Coach of the team, signalling the end of Doug Shepherd's reign. Shepherd went on to join rivals Sheffield Steelers.

Following financial problems, which had resulted in the departure of a number of players (including starting netminder Stevie Lyle), Taylor relinquished ownership of the Bison and the team's new owner was announced as Tomas Enerston by Planet Ice on November 8th, 2007.

Less than a year later, following further financial difficulty, Planet Ice put together a rescue package to keep Bison on the ice until the end of the 2008/09 season.

Club Roster 08/09
Honoured members
Team Honours
Past Head Coaches
Footnotes
External links

Club Roster 08/09

Goaltenders
Number	Player	Catches	Acquired	Place of Birth
30	Joe White	L	2008	Swindon, England
35	Kevin Reiter	R	2008	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA

Defencemen
Number	Player	Shoots	Acquired	Place of Birth
7	Kurt Reynolds	L	2008	Basingstoke, England
8	Curtiss Patrick	L	2008	Hampton, Virginia, USA
22	Trevor Read	L	2008	Calgary, Alberta, Canada
43	Eric Braff	R	2006	Orleans, Ontario, Canada

Forwards
Number	Player	Shoots	Acquired	Place of Birth
6	Ross Bowers	R	2008	Luton, England
9	Brent Hughes	L	2008	New Westminster, B.C., Canada
11	Jeremy Cornish	R	2008	London, Ontario, Canada
13	Shaun Thompson	R	2008	Slough, England
14	Matt Miller	L	2008	Sioux Lookout, Ontario, Canada
24	Greg Chambers	R	2004	Toronto, Ontario, Canada
79	Danny Stewart	L	2007	Prince Edward Island, Canada

Honoured members

Basingstoke have only retired the number of one player, that being Kevin Conway's number 10 in 2005 following his initial retirement from ice hockey. In the 2005–06 season, Tony Redmond was honoured with a testimonial season.^[1]