Wild hope to get on a roll with new signing Tarpey

THE YKK sponsored Widnes Wild have announced the signing of a player who is completely new to competitive ice hockey in former GB international inline roller hockey player Matthew Tarpey.

Thirty-four-year-old Tarpey has played inline hockey for 22 years, using a ball and a puck, and has been a national league title winner with the Hallamshire Hornets and also played for the Great Britain international team on many occasions.

Talking about his decision to switch to playing ice hockey, Matthew said: “I love hockey but haven’t played competitively for five years.

“I have won national championships with both ball and puck and played for Great Britain in both versions.”

“I’ve only been playing on ice for two months but have caught the hockey bug again and am hungrier than ever to play.

“The two games – ice and roller – are two different sports with a lot of transferable skills. Skating has been the biggest challenge for me, and teaching myself how to skate again to get the most out of this next season.”

“I’d like to thank the team for being a good bunch of lads and welcoming me and also head coach Mike Clancy for giving an inline player with no ice experience the opportunity to trial and play for the Wild.”

While clearly being two separate sports, there has always been a lot of cross-over with ice hockey players playing roller hockey and vice versa. Another GB international roller hockey player, Karl Niamatali, played ice hockey for the Wild during the 2015/16 Season and current Wild Women’s Team player Katie Fairclough took up ice hockey, having already become a GB junior international in inline hockey.

Katie explained the similarities and differences between the two sports: “After two competitive years of inline hockey, I decided to try ice hockey.

“The first thing that struck me was the difference in protective gear.

“At inline we wear significantly less and the body protection is soft padding.

“The ice hockey protective gear is much harder and can be quite restrictive when playing.”

“The second, and probably biggest difference, is stopping! It took me several weeks to get to a reasonable standard when learning to stop on ice. Most of the other techniques for inline and ice are quite similar if not the same.

“I think the main difference in inline and ice hockey players is that inline is about stick handling, whereas ice is more about the skating.

“Personally, I think doing both sports helps me develop better as a player.”

The Wild have also announced Stick ‘n’ Step as their charity partner for the forthcoming 2019/20 season.

Stick ‘n’ Step provide free conductive education sessions to children and young people with cerebral palsy. The sessions are designed to help each child to reach their personal potential in terms of their confidence, mobility and independence. Stick ‘n’ Step support 100 children and their families from their sites in Runcorn and Wallasey.

Stick ‘n’ Step don’t receive any statutory funding and rely on the generous support of the local community to provide this vital service. There will be plenty of events through the coming months for Wild fans to get involved with and help the charity.

The Stick ‘n’ Step logo will be displayed on the Wild’s playing shirts for the 2019/20 season.

The design for this season’s shirt has just been announced: the home shirts will be yellow with black trim, the away shirts will be black with yellow trim and the warmup/alternative shirts will be pale blue.

Last season’s chosen charity was Halton Haven Hospice and players and fans from the club took part in the Santa Dash and a sponsored firewalk to help raise funds for the charity. The Planet Ice rink also donated the takings from the

Christmas Day Family Skate to the Hospice. The Wild’s chosen charities for previous seasons have included the UK Sepsis Trust and the Cathie Stankievitch Foundation. The club is always keen to get involved with local schools, charities and other community projects.

For further information, contact community co-ordinator Mike Gilbert at the Planet Ice rink on 0151 420 7930.