Invicta 14 Blackburn hawks 2

Blackburn Hawks 6 Swindon Chill 4

ICE hockey stars Andrew Dickson and Lamonte Polet ran the gauntlet of a night of hate as Blackburn Hawks crashed to defeat in a highly controversial clash with Invicta on Saturday.

The intimidation tactics of the home side actually led to Hawks withdrawing their dynamic duo just eight minutes into the English Premier League clash with the scoreline blank.

Polet, who had a tooth pushed through his gum in a crosschecking incident officially noted as "accidental high sticks," needed hospital treatment and was unable to feature in last night's victory over Swindon.

The aggression of the Invicta players - most of it clearly aimed at the Canadian pair - resulted in no fewer than seven players being "sin-binned" in an amazing burst up on eight minutes 27 seconds.

"It set the tone for the game," said Hawks official John Neville. "The Invicta players went out to get the imports right from the face-off."

Without their key forward performers in what was always going to be a tough and physical contest, Hawks were right up against it.

And so it proved, as Invicta whitewashed the shell-shocked Hawks, player-coach Bobby Haig and captain Gordon Whyte's solo goals making no real difference to the final result. Ironically, the only player not to get on the scoresheet for Gillingham was Paul Slaughter.

Hawks redeemed themselves with a heroic scrap against Swindon Chill at the Arena on Sunday in a classic ill-tempered battle. With a skeleton squad on the bench - Hawks numbered just nine skaters and two goalies - the Swindon boss must have thought it was his birthday, but Hawks weren't for rolling over.

And in an all-action affair it was slippery Brian Smith who made it safe with a superb solo effort with just seconds left on the clock.

At 5-4 in the third period, Chill threw on another forward - at the expense of their goalie - in a desperate attempt to steal a point before Smith broke and almost walked the puck into the unguarded net with just 26 seconds left on the clock.

Once Hawks' Canadian contingent seemed to be a target for the visitors - Andrew Dickson a target of rage from Chill's Gareth Endicott AFTER the final buzzer!

Saturday period scores: 4-1, 5-1, 5-0.

Scorers: Whyte 1+0, Haig 1+0.

Sunday period scores: 3-3, 2-1, 1-0.

Scorers: Whyte 1+0, Burridge 0+1, Mackriel 0+1, Haig 1+0, Beale 0+1, Smith 1+0, Dickson 3+1.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.