Burn FM Sport Meet: University of Birmingham Ice Hockey

March 15, 2022

On Monday 14th March Burn FM sat down with Meg and Alex from Birmingham Lions Ice Hockey Club to discuss Ice Bull, their upcoming varsity event this Thursday. Meg, the varsity secretary for the society, explained that Ice Bull is an event held in Solihull which showcases the sport. Birmingham A Team will be taking on Manchester University A Team in a head to head on the ice, but the entertainment doesn’t stop there. Spectators can join in with a game called ‘Chuck a Puck’ during the first break in the match, where you can throw a bean bag on the ice to attempt to win prizes. During the second break, a performer from Coventry Figure Skating Club will be taking to the rink to show off her skills. Ice Bull has been a long time in the making, with Meg wrapping up filming for the promotional videos back in November. There are four different ticket options available, with the simplest being £7, which will get you a ticket for the match. You can buy this online in advance or on the door on the day of the event. For £10 you can get yourself a match ticket as well as transport to the venue, and the other £10 option is a match ticket and a wristband for club entry to Rosie’s that night. The full package is £16 which will get you transport to the venue, a match ticket, and club entry to Rosie’s. The link to tickets is on the Birmingham Lions Instagram page and on the Ice Bull Facebook event page. The money raised from Ice Bull will be going towards the costs of running the society including rink hire and buying new, safer club kit. While this is the biggest intake the club has had in years, they still face a few issues. Specifically when it comes to practices which often take place off campus and late at night, which Meg dubbed ‘off putting,’ to some people. The ice rink is not near the train station, which means members have to rely on cars and taxis to get to training and back each week. When asked how the Lions are doing this season, Meg said that ‘it’s been rough because of Covid a lot of the teams lost their funding and lost players, so a lot of teams have had to fold.’ Although it has been ‘a struggle’ for the A Team to get matches, they seem to be up to the competition. Having lost to Manchester before, the Lions are keen to walk away with a win at Ice Bull. Sports clubs faced huge effects from the pandemic, and Alex told Burn FM that Covid ‘had quite a heavy impact on the socials.’ He said ‘a lot of people were isolating and there were no opportunities to go out and meet new people of the club,’ which meant that there were not as many new members in that year. ‘The affect its had for this year, I have noticed a lot more beginners getting involved, socials have been a lot more intense than I expected them to be based on last year because people are a lot more eager and enthusiastic to be able to meet people and get that sports club experience because they’ve been deprived of it for a year already,’ Alex explained. Meg detailed the effect the pandemic had on training and said that she only got ‘three training sessions for the entire of last year.’ While this has resulted in a skill gap which can be ‘quite annoying,’ the team are working with it. The Lions have a reputation for being ‘the nicest team’ in the league, Meg told Burn FM which was met with agreement from Alex. ‘We’re very open, if you’ve never skated before that is fine, we have lots of people who have never skated before. We’re very open to helping and building skill and we’re all very enthusiastic,’ Meg finished.