Manchester Phoenix (ENL) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Trafford Metros

League	English National Ice Hockey League North, Division 1 English National Ice Hockey League The English National Ice Hockey League is an amateur ice hockey league below the English Premier Ice Hockey League which is administered by the English Ice Hockey Association. It is split into two conferences, north and south...
Founded	2007
History	Manchester Phoenix ENL 2007-2009 Trafford Metros 2009–present
Arena	Altrincham Ice Dome Altrincham Ice Dome Altrincham Ice Dome is an ice rink in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, England. It has 2,000 seats according to the rink website, and up to 500 standing places. despite this, the building has a capacity capped at 2,000 for ice hockey as standing around the plexi glass is not allowed in the...
Capacity	2,150
City	Altrincham Altrincham Altrincham is a market town within the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on flat ground south of the River Mersey about southwest of Manchester city centre, south-southwest of Sale and east of Warrington... , England England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
Team Colours	White, Red, Black & Purple
Head Coach	Paul "Nipper" Bayliss
Owner	Unknown
Manager	Ian Rogerson
Team Captain	Robyn Crebbin

The Trafford Metros are an ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

team playing in the English National Ice Hockey League North, Division 1

English National Ice Hockey League

The English National Ice Hockey League is an amateur ice hockey league below the English Premier Ice Hockey League which is administered by the English Ice Hockey Association. It is split into two conferences, north and south...

. The team falls under the auspices of the Manchester Phoenix Junior Ice Hockey Club, and it is hoped they will provide a bridge between the junior teams and the senior EPL Phoenix squad.

The Beginning

When the construction of the Altrincham Ice Dome

Altrincham Ice Dome

Altrincham Ice Dome is an ice rink in Altrincham, Greater Manchester, England. It has 2,000 seats according to the rink website, and up to 500 standing places. despite this, the building has a capacity capped at 2,000 for ice hockey as standing around the plexi glass is not allowed in the...

was first announced, a small, but vocal number of fans expressed a desire to see the Altrincham Aces

Altrincham Aces

The Altrincham Aces were a semi-professional and amateur ice hockey team based out of the old Altrincham Ice Rink, situated on Devonshire Road in Altrincham, a large town located just south of Manchester and Salford...

team be restarted at the rink. Manchester Phoenix

Manchester Phoenix

Manchester Phoenix are a professional ice hockey team from Altrincham, Greater Manchester, England. The club was formed in 2003 as a result of the efforts of supporters group Friends of Manchester Ice Hockey to bring top-level ice hockey back to Manchester after Manchester Storm folded in...

were initially unable (or unwilling) to do so, as they wished to focus their energies on starting the senior EIHL side, and the hastily announced juniors. They did, however express the idea that if a third party wished to come forward and run an English National Ice Hockey League

English National Ice Hockey League

(ENL) side from the rink, then they would be only too happy to assist in any way they could (citation to follow). Rumours of an ENL team increased upon the conclusion of the 2006/2007 season when the English Ice Hockey Association

English Ice Hockey Association

The English Ice Hockey Association is the governing body responsible for the administration of all ice hockey in England and Wales and was formed in 1982...

made moves to the junior age boundaries at the top level from under 19 to under 18; leaving a number of promising players without a team to play for.

The dream became reality in the summer of 2007 when it was announced by the Phoenix

Manchester Phoenix

that they had formed an ENL

English National Ice Hockey League

affiliate to begin play in time for the 2007/2008 season under the name "Manchester Phoenix ENL". The creation of the ENL team was seen as being the final step for an integrated development system, taking players from under 10 level right through the junior system, onwards to the ENL and finally to the professional side.

2007-2008

Manchester Phoenix ENL began their first season of play in the ENL North

English National Ice Hockey League

in September 2007. Several members on the roster had signed from nearby Flintshire Freeze

Flintshire Freeze

Flintshire Freeze are a Welsh ice hockey team that play in the English National Ice Hockey League, north division. They play their games at Deeside Leisure Centre, Flintshire. They won the North League championship in the 2003/2004 season...

, with the squad consisting of many former Altrincham Aces players who could now resume playing for a team more local to the Manchester

Manchester

Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

area. The season concluded with the team going 6-15-1, claiming 9th place in the 12 team league.

2008-2009

Due to several new teams being formed, the league was split into 2 divisions for the beginning of the 2008/09 season. With Phoenix ENL failing to finish their inaugural season in the top half of the table, they joined the likes of Grimsby, Telford & Bradford in the newly formed ENL North Division 2

English National Ice Hockey League

. The team had great success in their second season of existence, finishing the season with a 20-4-0 record, missing out on the league title by just three points. However, after finishing the regular season in 2nd place, success was to come in the post-season with victory in the promotion playoffs, granting the team promotion to the ENL

English National Ice Hockey League

's top tier for the 2009/10 season.

Return of the Metros

On 12 August 2009, the team was renamed the Trafford Metros, to help differentiate between the EPL Phoenix, and their ENL affiliate.http://www.manchesterphoenix.co.uk/news/s/1547_the_metros_are_back This has mean't that the club now have their own jerseys, as opposed to sharing a design with the parent team which has been the case since their conception.

Single game tickets are priced at £5 Adults, £4 Concessions & £3 Under 16's with season tickets also now sold by the club. Fixtures for the 2009-2010 Traffford Metros season can be found on their website. http://www.manchesterphoenix/enl

2010-2011 Metros Roster

Head Coach

Paul 'Nipper' Bayliss

Goaltenders

Tom McDonald
Paul Maudsley

Defencemen

Robyn Crebbin
Marc Etherington
Simon Mills
Max Drakeley
Dan Etherington
Dan Berry

Forwards

John Murray
Jake Nurse
Ollie Bayne
Ben Brown
Jamie Rogerson
Alex Pugh
Joe Greaves
Tom Revesz
Shaun Dipnall
Nick Alley
Richard Dunn
Jordan Owen
Tom Gilbert

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