Hello everyone, and welcome to what I hope will be an interesting experience for all involved. Let me start by telling you about myself, and ice hockey. My name is Katy, and I'm a southerner, but I've been living here in the north-east for over five years. I am brand new to the sport of ice hockey, and attended my first Vipers match against Braehead Clan a few weeks ago. I fell instantly in love. It’s an all-encompassing and passionate love, quite Victorian in nature, so I immediately started to write about it. On reflection I realised that there must be a great number of people out and about around the north-east, and indeed the country, who would feel exactly the same love, if only someone were to draw back the curtain and show them what is going on right under their very noses. And so an idea was hatched. I contacted Craig Simpson, Vipers Media Coordinator, and pitched him my idea. And he kindly agreed to host my confused ravings on the Vipers website for all to see.
So here it is. A blog of my experiences as a brand new ice hockey fan. From the beginning, hopefully past the difficult teething stages and comfortably through my first full year as a blossoming Vipers fan. Please come with me on my journey. And please encourage others who might still be like I once was, blissfully unaware of this incredible sport, to read this blog too, in the hope that they might be inspired to come along and join us.
I have posted for you below a collection of my hockey writing to date, in chronological order, by way of an introduction to me, my new-found obsession for the sport, and the true extent of how little I really know about it all. Please feel free to start from the beginning to discover the true nature of my ignorance, and point and laugh at me. I fully deserve it!
A plea: the title of this blog is also my disclaimer. I am a complete and total newcomer to the game of ice hockey. I have, to date, seen four live matches, and one of those was over ten years ago. I have looked up the rules on Google and got confused by the Americanisms. I am however a lifelong sports fan so I’m picking things up fairly quickly, but I absolutely bow to the superior wisdom of all those of you who have been watching hockey for years. I feel as though I have been reborn into a slightly altered universe and am an outsider. I hope to learn from you, and in turn influence others who might have never considered attending a hockey match before, or who may not even know that it exists as a top-flight sport here in the North-East or the UK.
So here it is. A blog of my experiences as a brand new ice hockey fan. From the beginning, hopefully past the difficult teething stages and comfortably through my first full year as a blossoming Vipers fan. Please come with me on my journey. And please encourage others who might still be like I once was, blissfully unaware of this incredible sport, to read this blog too, in the hope that they might be inspired to come along and join us.
I have posted for you below a collection of my hockey writing to date, in chronological order, by way of an introduction to me, my new-found obsession for the sport, and the true extent of how little I really know about it all. Please feel free to start from the beginning to discover the true nature of my ignorance, and point and laugh at me. I fully deserve it!
A plea: the title of this blog is also my disclaimer. I am a complete and total newcomer to the game of ice hockey. I have, to date, seen four live matches, and one of those was over ten years ago. I have looked up the rules on Google and got confused by the Americanisms. I am however a lifelong sports fan so I’m picking things up fairly quickly, but I absolutely bow to the superior wisdom of all those of you who have been watching hockey for years. I feel as though I have been reborn into a slightly altered universe and am an outsider. I hope to learn from you, and in turn influence others who might have never considered attending a hockey match before, or who may not even know that it exists as a top-flight sport here in the North-East or the UK.
So please look upon me as a relative infant. Please be gentle with me. If you see me at Hillheads gazing happily but vacantly at the ice, I’m not on drugs, honest. I’m just in an ice hockey-induced state of diminished mental capacity. I am nonetheless enthralled. Please feel free to come up and explain something to me. I may invest in a dunce’s cap to help you recognise me. I might even feature it in a ‘fan’s tip of the week’ type section, if it takes off!
Note: Posts originally published on my personal blog, http://mypetsteedtangent.blogspot.com/, and have been adapted slightly. I would ask you also to forgive my frequent references to Watford Football Club. They were my first love and are my main frame of reference in sport. They help my thought process!
No comments:
Post a Comment