The League Management Committee (LMC) of NIHL South have confirmed that Division 1 South will run in 2017/18 with nine clubs.
The revised set-up follows the recent requests by Solent Devils, Chelmsford Chieftains and Oxford City Stars to drop into D2.
The new line-up is as follows:
Bracknell Bees
Basingstoke Bison
Cardiff Fire
Invicta Dynamos
London Raiders
MK Thunder
Peterborough Phantoms
Streatham IHC
Swindon Wildcats
The teams will play each other twice at home and twice away for a 32 game league season. The top eight sides will qualify for the post-season under the format previously announced.
An NIHL1 South Cup competition will also be operating and details will be confirmed very soon.
Work is continuing with clubs to resolve the structure for NIHL2 South, with details to be announced as soon as the discussions have been concluded.
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A spokesperson for the NIHL South LMC said: “It’s been a long five days since we were informed of the withdrawal of three member teams from NIHL1.
“We’re naturally disappointed, as are our member teams, that the Conference system as agreed in the meeting on the 7th May is not going to be possible to run now.
“Since this happened, we’ve been consulting with our member teams in both NIHL1 and NIHL2 to resolve the way forward, and it is clear that from discussions that we have nine teams that are committed to the NIHL1 standard and therefore we’re pleased to get this information out.
“It has always been our intention to attempt to return NIHL1 South to ten teams at the earliest possibly opportunity. Therefore we can confirm that with nine teams in the league there will be no relegation at the end of the 17/18 season.
“For NIHL2 South we are talking with all clubs involved and working as quickly as possible while ensuring that whatever is put in place is workable and sustainable for all clubs involved this year and going forward.”
(Image permission: John Scott)
Graham
24th May 2017 at 6:05 pm
Glad that the NIHL South LMC has got something sorted and that I can look forward to seeing the Wildcats next season in Division 1 south. Longer tearm I worry a bit though about the futcher of UK Ice Hockey if this sort of thing happens again. Im a relative newcomer to the game and I enjoy it but I struggle to understand how the structures work in UK Ice Hockey, how if any sponsorship is used to help smaller clubs meet costs, how much more do the imports cost the clubs and if that needs to be looked at anyway hope they sort something out for Division 2 now.