What does Streatham IHC mean to me?
Jan, one of our longest known supporter, shares her memories of the club.
Why Streatham IHC means such a lot to me.
It started a long time ago, in our old Art Deco Rink as a 18 year old, in the latter ’50's. My future father in law worked at the rink, his job included resurfacing the ice surface by scraping and sweeping, no Zamboni's back then!! And no helmets, the first was on a visiting net minder, we were amazed.
Wooden sticks, and a much slower game, and virtually no Brits, mostly Americans and Canadians. But I was hooked from the very first game I saw, and still am, through good years, bad years and years we had no hockey at all.
So what does Streatham mean to me?
I have friends here of 40 years standing, my other family, memories of people I would never have met, especially the Americans, Canadians and the Slovakians. And back in 80's a Ukrainian Russian, who was a lovely guy, fantastic player, who only ever got cross if you called him a Ukrainian. We couldn't understand why then but we do now! At that time I met Dawn as a 14 year old fan, before Graham came on the scene, and look at her now! Where would we be without them?
The weekend away trips, when all us old Redskins got to know each other. Eat your hearts out, coach and hotel for £25, leave Streatham 7am Saturday morning, back by 7am Monday morning. Those were the days! It's when we all got to know each other.
Then there were the outstanding results, especially the away win in November ’86, when we got our first win in Scotland beating Fife 7-6. Jubilation!!
That's where we ate “Stovies" in period breaks. What was it, haven't a clue, but we all enjoyed it.
Then there was the year we beat cocky Durham to get to the Wembley Weekend Finals. Great two days, sorry Coventry doesn't have the same ring to it. Skins never won at Wembley, but our Juniors did.
Finally, there were the Lambeth Country Show weekends in July. Best memory of that was watching all the guys disagreeing on how to put up the gazebos. Happy Days!!
So that's it, for me Streatham IHC means friends, memories and experiences I treasure. Couldn't have got them anywhere else, so thanks SIHC, who will always be Redskins to me. No disrespect Hawks, you are giving a new generation a lot of great memories too.
