27th Mar
Extract from tonight's Reading Evening Post:
Jim Fuyarchuk has been named runner up in the Superleague Coach of the Year competition, but the Bees' coach is no nearer to sorting out his future at the club. A poll of coaches and captains at all eight Superleague clubs was taken and not surprisingly more than half the votes went to Jim Lynch........but Fuyarchuk's achievement of guiding unfancied minnows Bracknell to their highest ever finish of fifth place in the Superleague and an Express Cup Final appearance last month has been recognised by his contemporaries - a quarter of whom made him their choice.
Whether Fuyarchuk returns to Bracknell for a fourth season remains unclear. He has indicated he would like to stay but is awaiting the offer of a new contract. The club though are unwilling to comply and have asked him to come up with a deal. Neither side had made the first move yesterday and with Fuyarchuk's current contract expiring at the end of the month, the chances of him returning are receding with every day.
Meanwhile Basingstoke Bison and GB coach Peter Woods is seeking a new job following the decision of his club to withdraw from the Superleague next season. Woods is unwilling to drop out of top-flight hockey with Bison whose owners Basingstoke and Deane Council plan to run the club in a lower league rather than subsidise them for another �300,000 per year. But while Fuyarchuk remains at Bracknell Woods will not be applying for the Bees' job.
"That is not something I would consider at this stage," he said. "I am sure Jim has done a very good job with Bees, and as an outsider I see no reason why they will not renew his contract." Woods declined to say whether he would apply if the Bees' job became available, saying, "I do not have an opinion on that. I am just trying to wind things up at Basingstoke. And there are other things I am looking at both abroad and in this country."
The item ends by speculating that now he is again available for selection, Matt Cote might get a call up to the GB squad now that Reggie has withdrawn.
26th Mar
In the ISL Awards, announced today, there was recognition for Mark Bernard and Shayne McCosh, who were both voted into the 2nd All-Star Team. The full Awards are below:
Coach of the year: Jim Lynch (Ayr) Player of the year: Rob Dopson (Ayr) All Stars 1st: Rob Dopson (Ayr) Scott Young (Ayr) Kris Miller (Manchester) Ed Courtenay (Sheffield) Mark Montanari (Ayr) Craig Woodcroft (Manchester) All Stars 2nd: Mark Bernard (Bracknell) Kip Noble (Cardiff) Shayne McCosh (Bracknell) Tony Hand (Sheffield) Steve Thornton (Cardiff) Sam Groleau (Ayr)24th Mar
Bracknell Bees coach Jim Fuyarchuk today revealed he faces an uncertain future despite enjoying his best season with the club since taking over three years ago.
Fuyarchuk, whose contract expires at the end June, has laid to rest wild rumours circulating throughout Superleague that he had been sacked, but whether he returns to Amen Corner remains unclear.
Bracknell surpassed many people's expectations this season with Fuyarchuk guiding them to fifth in the league and the first final in the club's history - losing 3-2 to the all-conquering Ayr Scottish Eagles in the Express Cup at the Newcastle Arena.
Fuyarchuk would perhaps expect a new deal after his efforts, but when asked if he would still be at the club next season, he said: "That's a million pound question I don't have the answer to.
"I have expressed my interest in management and returning to the Bees, but they haven't come forward with an offer yet. You don't know what the owners have in mind. It's their choice.
"But I feel I have had three very good seasons here, with the last one especially good. I would hope that would help me in terms of getting a new contract. I've just got to be patient."
Bees chief executive Martin Weddell revealed Fuyarchuk will be "considered on his merits and what he has achieved over the last three years with the club".
He added: "I met with Jim and asked him to put forward his proposals and aspirations for next year. He came back to me and only mentioned he is interested in returning.
"I am waiting to set up a board meeting once the chairman John Nike gets back into the country and a decision will be made from there."
21st March
This is from the 20th's Reading Evening Post
FUYARCHUK TOLD TO NAME HIS PRICE
Bracknell Bees have asked coach Jim Fuyarchuk to come up with a deal that would keep him at the club for a fourth season. Chief executive Martin Weddell said Bees would not be making Fuyarchuk a formal offer to stay. "We did that last season and ran into problems that went on for a while," said Weddell. "I had a brief meeting with Jim and I've asked him to put forward a package and we will consider it from there. Jim has responded immediately saying that he wishes to come back but we have not got down to talking numbers yet. It should not take very long and from our point of view the sooner it is sorted out the better. Without appointing a coach we cannot select the players we want to keep. There are obviously players we want to bring back but I do not want to get into the realms of coaching so I want to sort out the coach first. None of the current Bees are contracted for next season. Joe Ferraccioli, Greg Burke, Shayne McCosh, Jeff Johnstone, Tom Gomes and Mark Bernard have already left the country, while Brian Pellerin and Colin Ward fly out today"..........
........A decision on Fuyarchuk's future at the club must be taken before he returns home to Canada when his current contract expires at the end of the month. No new deal will be signed however before Bees' owner John Nike returns to the country next Tuesday. Bees have been required by law to advertise the coach's post because Fuyarchuk requires a work permit and there have been a dozen or so applications already - including two internal inquiries.
Player assistant coach, Dave Whistle is understood to be interested in the job should Fuyarchuk fail to agree terms.........Weddell said, "Dave has expressed an interest if Jim doesn't come back. The other internal candidate is not a player, but someone known to the organisation." Weddell also revealed that the club have had a couple of enquiries from the highest levels in Europe.
21st Mar
Two of Bracknell's players, Joe Ferraccioli and Greg Burke, have signed for Italian teams. However, the deal is only until the end of the season, and both stress that they want to return to Bracknell next season. An Italian Superleague is to be created next year, made from the highest finishing teams this season. With their deadline at the end of next week, they are bsily signing as many players as they can, in an attempt to improve their fortunes. Also known to have signed for an Italian team is ex-Bracknell hero (well, to me, anyway!), Andy Rymsha.
15th Mar
A big congratulations and thank you to all the players and staff at the Bees for an absolutely excellent season. Let's just hope that they're all back again next year, and that maybe we can go one better on this year.
15th Mar
In their final game of the season, Bracknell beat semi-final bound Manchester 7-4 at the Hive. Bracknell had a 2-1 lead at the end of the first period, thanks to early goals by Junks and Matty. Manchester pulled back to 2-2, before Dennis scored his first of the evening to restore the Bees' lead. Goals by Morrison and Flinton gave Manchester the lead, but from then it was all Bracknell. Colin Ward equalised and Dennis Burke scored again to return the lead to Bracknell. Late in the third period, Joe Ferras scored on a break-away, and then the Chief got the last of the night with just 9 seconds left.
Overall, a good performance, but just too little too late. Maybe if we could have pulled this out before now, we might have made the semis ourselves. To be fair, Storm weren't really trying after last night's defeat by Cardiff meant they wouldn't win the group. More details from tonight's game will appear on the Fixtures Page later.
14th Mar
Bracknell played their long-time rivals the Bison in Basingstoke tonight, and came out 4-3 winners. This was particulrly sweet as, with Basingstoke very possibly about to go out of existence, it would mean that the last derby match was won by the Bees and the last goal ever scored at the Playground was scored by the Bees too.
The game started badly when Greg Gatto put the Bison one up, but Bracknell hit back through Colin Ward and Brian Pellerin. The Bison scored the only goal of the second period, and took the lead in the third after Brian Greer got in a mix up and knocked the puck in the net. However, goals from Joe Ferras and then Pelly again secured both points for Bracknell, who also hit the post and had several cleared in the final minute with Racicot pulled. More details will appear here later.
12th Mar
Apparently, in a scathing attack on the management, Jim has put done the Cardiff performance to the club arranging the Presentation Dinner the night before the game. I'll try and get hold of the transcript. I've been told it didn't sound like the words of someone hoping to be re-employed next season....
11th Mar
A few areas of controversy surround last night's match. firstly, whilst trailing 2-0, BRacknell had a goal disallowed in the 38th minute. Someone dumped the puck in high, a Cardiff player played the puck, it spun off his stick and into the net. Cardiff complained that one of their players (who wasn't near another player and didn't touch the puck) had raised his sticks above waist height, Kirkham agreed and eventually washed the goal. Scotty was so enraged he eventually earned himself a game misconduct. Then, Cardiff having scored a third goal, more controversy spilled out at the end of the period. A shot was saved by Bernie but carried on towards the line. The buzzer went seemingly just before the puck crossed the line, but with no goal light cut offs no-one was certain. After much debate, Kirkham allowed the goal at 40:00. However, the BIHA casebook says that no goal may be scored if the clock is reading 20:00 or 0:00, so surely this was wrong? Once again, Kirham has shown his utter incompetance!
10th Mar
Bracknell's season ended early tonight, after a 5-0 drubbing by Cardiff on home ice. The result leaves Bracknell 5 points behind Manchester and Cardiff with just two games left, and so unable to catch up. With Jim seemingly likely to leave at the end of the season, it leaves a slightly flat end to our most sucessful season ever. However, let's not forget our successes this season - highest ever league finish (equaled previous best, but in a much higher standard of league), first ever senior final, first ever play-off win in the top league, and arguably the best squad to ever play out of the Hive. Last year Cardiff celebrated their 10th anniversary by winning the ISL title, and I rather optomistically commented that I hoped Bracknell could emulate them in our own 10th anniversary. Little did I realise how close to the truth I was! :-)
10th Mar
The Presentation Evening was held last night, and the following awards were given out:
Supporter's Player of the Year: Chirs Brant
Supporter's Defender of the Year: Shayne McCosh
Supporter's Forward of the Year: Colin Ward
Player's Player of the Year: Brian Greer and Joe Ferraccioli (held jointly)
Coach's Award: Dennis Burke
Bracknell Pest Control Award for Effort: Brian Pellerin
Congratulations to the entire team, however, for making Bracknell's tenth season their most successful ever. Cheers, lads!
9th Mar
Bracknell lost at the Nynex, last night, being beaten 6-2 by the Stor. Bracknell were trailing 6-0 before Colin and Ferras added two late goals to give the scoreline some respectability. The result leaves Bracknell still in third place, but now three points behind Manchester and Cardiff. Brian Greer started in nets, but was replaced by the injured Bernie after half an hour.
Also, the rumour is that Jim definitely wants to leave the club, and that Martin Weddell has three or four other interested parties. Bad news indeed.
7th Mar
Bracknell played and beat local whipping boys the Basingstoke Bison tonight 7-5, tonight, in a close game. Bracknell opened the scoring with goals from Dennis Burke and Tom Gomes scoring within the first ten minutes. Bison pulled it back to 2-2, though, with gaols from Shewan and Blair Scott, the last on the poweplay. Then, with 8 seconds of the period left, Bison took the lead through a Shewen goal. Bernie was replaced by Greer in nets at the start of the second period, and it seemed to do the trick, as the next team to score were Bracknell, in the 34th minute through Junks. Into the third period, and a four goal fest in just four minutes. The Bison were the first to score, at 43.07, through Brown. Goals from the Chief and Stewy equalised and then gave BRacknell the lead, to make it 5-4, but Gatto equalised almost immediately. With only a few minutes left Scotty Campbell was on hand to blast home the game winner and then Todd Kelman got the insurance marker, with Racicot pulled off the ice.
The result means that Bracknell move above the Bison into third place in the group. With Cardiff and Manchester sharing the points last night, the BEes are now just a point behind them both. More details will appear here later.
4th Mar
This article was taken from yesterday's Reading Evening Post....
FUYARCHUK FUTURE IN THE BALANCE
The future of Jim Fuyarchuk as Bracknell Bees' coach is in the balance. Fuyarchuk is due to have talks with the club this week about the possibility of renewing his contract which expires at the end of the month. During Fuyarchuk's three years in charge, Bees have showed steady progress and are currently enjoying the best season in their 10 year history.
Fifth place in the Superleague equalled their best-ever finish in the country's top league - and last Thursday the club competed in its first major final, a 3-2 Express Cup defeat by Ayr Scottish Eagles. But it is by no means certain that Fuyarchuk will be at the helm next season.
Chief executive Martin Weddell will today be asking Fuyarchuk about his intentions, and Bees' owner John Nike said, "We are waiting for Jim to come to us because as yet we do not know his plans. Many things have to be taken into consideration."
Fuyarchuk's wife Elaine remains in Canada where she has a business and Nike said, "Jim's had to leave his wife over in Canada and if he decides it is time to move on it will come as no surprise to me. But at the moment I am not sure of his intentions because we have not sat down and discussed this. There is a lot of talking that has to be done. Jim has done a good job with the team while he has been here, and if all the conditions are right we would not want Jim to go, but until we know what he is seeking there are too many intangibles. It is one thing to wish that someone comes back and another to be able to meet that person's demands."
Nike is aware that Fuyarchuk has been linked with other clubs, but he points to a general agreement by Superleague clubs to prevent an increase in budget. The operational cost of the Bees last season was UKP700,000 and half of that was met by Nike's other companies. Nike said, "For that I accept that the group gets a higher profile in return and it is also my way of putting something back into the community but these things can't increase year on year."
Bees are legally required By the DoE to advertise for a coach and players in the ice hockey press under the terms of obtaining work permits. Weddell said, "Jim and several of our imports are permit holders and before we give them jobs we have to prove that we have given every opportunity to home-grown talent and an ad has gone out in the hockey journals. We have also canvassed players about returning, and all have expressed an interest."
Fuyarchuk, whilst keeping his options open, has not ruled out a fourth season at Bracknell.
1st Mar
Well, Cardiff celebrated St David's Day in style, beating Bracknell 7-2 at the Furnace. It had started well for the BEes, with goals from Dave Whistle and Shayne McCsoh giving them a 2-1 lead by the end of the first. However, Cardiff rallied and eventually overpowered BRacknell to take the top spot (after one match) in the play-off group. More details will appear here when I have them.
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