Book Feature Fife Flyers On This Day (by John Ross)

[rossco]

The Fife Flyers have played ice hockey over ten decades now and are the oldest team currently playing at the highest level of the game in Britain. During that time the sport has witnessed radical change which has resulted in periods of boom and bust, from fully professional status to strictly amateur and combinations in between but for almost 85 years the team from the Gallatown Rink in Kirkcaldy, Fife, has endured.

Such longevity naturally is a rich source of stories and memories for those who have either played for, supported or indeed been in opposition to the Fife Flyers. Or simply hockey fans in general.

The stories within come from the diligent reporting by local journalists without whom much of the detail of the game would have been lost. It is not a sport that enjoys a collected archive of data and as such work on a comprehensive history of the club remains ongoing.

Much of the history of the club has never been documented and this project whilst not intended to be a full history hopefully gives an insight into the different eras of hockey and the fortunes and misfortunes of the Flyers along the way.

John Ross, who is a historian of the club, has followed the Flyers fortunes throughout the last 40 plus years. He has previously provided contributions to the club’s match night programme and more recently historical blogs across various social media platforms. A fan at heart he has a determination and passion to document the history of the Fife Flyers as a legacy for future generations as well as his own idle curiosity.

Supporting the Fife Flyers long standing charity partnership he has nominated Children’s Hospice's Across Scotland (CHAS) to receive all the royalties for this book.

Copies available through the usual online outlets such as Amazon and also available directly from the author through the following contacts.

EMAIL - [email protected]
WEBSITE - FifeFlyersHistorian
FACEBOOK - Fife Flyers Historian
TWITTER - Fife Flyers Historian

With over 660 pages and 300 illustratuions the softcover book retails at £30 - a final cost including postage will be provided as per individuals requirements/currency.

The ISBN 978-1-84921-228-1

Reading extract attached

Click to read more...

 

[Theokritos]

Thank you very much for joining us! This is our third book presentation on a British topic, we've already had works by Stewart Roberts and Martin Harris before.

Could you tell us a bit about the origins of puck hockey in Scotland?

 

[rossco]

Thank you very much for joining us! This is our third book presentation on a British topic, we've already had works by Stewart Roberts and Martin Harris before.

Could you tell us a bit about the origins of puck hockey in Scotland?

Thanks,

I fear I wouldn't do the origins much justice in a post - William S Marshall published an excellent account of this era in a book called Frozen in Time covering the game in Scotland from 1895 to 1940.

In short those early days are somewhat open to interpretation as regards whether it was puck hockey or bandy. The game was centered around Glasgow for many decades and it would appear a couple of Bandy clubs played the first ice hockey match in December 1986 at the Real Ice Skating Palace in the city.

The building of the Crossmyloof Ice rink in Glasgow in 1907 was significant - even with it's pillars in centre ice. The Scottish Ice Hockey Association came into being 1909/10 and the first International match against England followed in 1910.

The First World War of course put a spanner in the spokes of progress and Crossmyloof ice rink closed, never to reopen. That was until a new Crossmyloof rink was opened in1929 and it was a vast sheet of ice. 186ft by 97ft - the SIHA was also reformed and an organised league with 10 teams commenced 1929/30 with the teams all based at the Crossmyloof Rink. It was Amateur in status.

By the late 1930's there were rinks (an teams) in Ayr, Dundee, Falkirk, Fife, Perth, Dunfermline and Edinburgh (almost as they were delayed by WW2) and the game had evolved into a more professional basis with Canadian's shipped over and pooled to form the teams.

WW2 clearly blunted what was becoming a very popular sport in terms of spectating but also local lads playing the game. When the league restarted in Scotland in 1946 the game remained professional at least for the "import" Canadian's with most of the local players holding down day jobs. A move to join up the Scottish and English Ice hockey associations was made in season 1954/55 with a British National league but for most the boom of the sport was now a bust and that collapsed after one season. Mny teams ceased at that point including my own Fife Flyers who woudn't return until 1962 as things were built up again in Scotland from an amateur basis.

There are way too many twists and turns from that point onwards - hockey has always been and remains to this day a volatile sport in this country. It's hard to argue that that's why we are where we are in the World standings but again that's another debate for another day.

As I mentioned at the top try to get a hold of Marshall's book - fascinating.
Cheers

 

[WhiteTiger]

Good write up. I second the Marshall book being fantastic - I’ve had a copy for many years.

I‘ll also add that hockey was played in Aberdeen at the Glaciarium rink in 1913 and 1914, and Edinburgh (by members of the 1st Newfoundland Regiment) at the Haymarket Ice Rink in 1915.

 

[Theokritos]

In short those early days are somewhat open to interpretation as regards whether it was puck hockey or bandy. The game was centered around Glasgow for many decades and it would appear a couple of Bandy clubs played the first ice hockey match in December 1986 at the Real Ice Skating Palace in the city.

Thank you.

Now, Fife is located at the Firth of Forth. Interestingly, the oldest reference to a stick-and-ball game on ice that I am aware of comes from the Firth of Forth: as Houda/Gidén/Martel report in their book On the Origins of Hockey, "chamiare" (shinty) was played "a mile within the sea-mark" in the very cold winter of 1607-1608. So if we're looking at ice hockey in a broader sense of the expression, then its roots in the Fife area go back very very far.

 

[albinaguerette]

The Fife Flyers have played ice hockey over ten decades now and are the oldest team currently playing at the highest level of the game in Britain. During that time the sport has witnessed radical change which has resulted in periods of boom and bust, from fully professional status to strictly amateur and combinations in between but for almost 85 years the team from the Gallatown Rink in Kirkcaldy, Fife, has endured.

Such longevity naturally is a rich source of stories and memories for those who have either played for, supported or indeed been in opposition to the Fife Flyers. Or simply hockey fans in general.

The stories within come from the diligent reporting by local journalists without whom much of the detail of the game would have been lost. It is not a sport that enjoys a collected archive of data and as such work on a comprehensive history of the club remains ongoing.

Much of the history of the club has never been documented and this project whilst not intended to be a full history hopefully gives an insight into the different eras of hockey and the fortunes and misfortunes of the Flyers along the way.

John Ross, who is a historian of the club, has followed the Flyers fortunes throughout the last 40 plus years. He has previously provided contributions to the club’s match night programme and more recently historical blogs across various social media platforms. A fan at heart he has a determination and passion to document the history of the Fife Flyers as a legacy for future generations as well as his own idle curiosity.

Supporting the Fife Flyers long standing charity partnership he has nominated Children’s Hospice's Across Scotland (CHAS) to receive all the royalties for this book.
Such books are very interesting to read. They tell us what we have not noticed or heard in sports. If the words of local journalists are actually written there, then it is even cooler. I immediately see a top book without reading it. This rarely happens to me and I have never been wrong. When I used to read something like this, I asked do my assignment for college at https://ca.edubirdie.com/do-my-assignment so that nothing would distract me. I read such books and put them in my mini library as a collection. I want these books to be passed down as an inheritance because they are really very well written.

Copies available through the usual online outlets such as Amazon and also available directly from the author through the following contacts.

EMAIL - [email protected]
WEBSITE - FifeFlyersHistorian
FACEBOOK - Fife Flyers Historian
TWITTER - Fife Flyers Historian

With over 660 pages and 300 illustratuions the softcover book retails at £30 - a final cost including postage will be provided as per individuals requirements/currency.

The ISBN 978-1-84921-228-1

View attachment 733827

Reading extract attached

Always enjoy reading books like this. Thanks for sharing with us. I'll definitely buy it.