Durham Wasps

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The Durham Wasps was an ice hockey team in Durham, England and was one of the UK's most well-known names in ice hockey. The team was bought by Sir John Hall and moved to the neighbouring city of Newcastle Upon Tyne in August 1996. The Newcastle team, after several changes, is now known as the Newcastle Vipers.

[edit] The History of the Wasps

John Frederick James Smith known as "Icy", was a successful ice seller who decided to build an ice rink in Durham.

The rink opened in around 1940, and Icy relied on skaters to help out with the maintenance and protection of the rink. During wartime, men around Durham City were scarce but, there was an airbase near, Middleton St. George, and Canadian Airmen often came to the rink as ice hockey was popular over in Canada, as it still is, and competition was allowed to boost morale.

The hockey at the rink became an attraction and there were other shows such as figure skating.

A mix of contemporary NHL superstars came to the rink, then in service with the Canadian Air force, these included players such as Bobby Bauer, Woody Dumart and Milt Schmidt.

The rink had a number of wooden beams supporting the roof running across the middle of it. This caused a number of problems for the players, though they were eventually able to adapt. Many people crowded in or around the rink, but Icy was not able to advertise the hockey due to laws by the War Office, which stated that no movement of military personnel was allowed to be advertised.

When the World War II finished, many of the Canadians went home but some remained and Durham's enthusiam for ice hockey continued. A new rink had to be built for Durham's skaters.

The rink, when it was completed with a permanent roof, on the site of the old one cost just over £64,000. Money was saved by buying in a surplus of war coffins and bought many for the rinks seating and stands.

The nails going into the coffins would suggest the beginning and not the end, for the future to come.

The Durham Wasps began their prosperous start to hockey just after the war, and was started by Michael Davey of Ottawa, Canada, along with a few other Canadians, who after the war made their homes in Durham.

In the 1950s, Icy, inspired by the Wasps and the Riverside, started another Ice rink at Whitley Bay, their hockey team called the Bees to start with, then the Braves then the Warriors, the name which still survives to this day.

The opening at Whitley Bay, started a long lasting rivelry between the two places, and Icy arranged to have games across the border with Scotland, at weekends.

Ice hockey remained popular in the sixties and seventies, but between the eighties and ninties boomed, the period from around 1982 to 1992 was one to remember for the Wasps. In this Period alone won the Heineken Championship 4 times, the British Hockey League 6 times, the Norwich Cup 3 times and many other trophies like the Autumn and Castle Eden Cups' on many other occasions. The Durham Wasps dominated the British League for over 10 years.

In a few years of their greatest era, the Wasps fell into financial difficulties, and the Rink as well as the Wasps were bought by John Hall, the owner of Newcastle United Football Club, in a plan to have a sporting excellency, and moved the Wasps to Sunderland, while the new Rink was being built in Newcastle. A replacement team were established in Durham called the Durham City Wasps who played in the English League and attracted crowds of between 600 and 1200 to the new cheap and cheerful brand of Durham hockey. After a season of playing out of the Crowtree Leisure Centre the Newcastle United owned Wasps were taken to Newcastle to the New Telewest Arena. The Wasps were then re-named the Newcastle Cobras, and in the next few years changed hands from the Cobras, to the Riverkings, to the Jesters and now the Vipers.

The Riverside Rink closed on the 8th of July 1996, and re-opened as a bowling alley around a year later.

The Wasps' era had finally ended...

The building is now earmarked for demolition following the closure of the bowling alley and health club situated in the former rink in early 2006. There is currently a campaign for the construction of a new ice rink in County Durham being run by the County Durham Ice Foundation, a pressure group made up of ice skaters, ice hockey fans and players.

[edit] External links

• Campaign to reinstate ice rink and ice hockey in Durham