Ice hockey

Not such a bad finish as it was a strong competition with teams from Russia Czech Republic, Latvia, Canada, two French teams as well as South Ayrshire Flames from Scotland.

Canadian side Antoine Girouard were Commanches' first opponents and they brushed aside Sunderland 17-0. A few hours later Commanches opened their account with a narrow 4-3 victory over French side Boulogne, a Grant Sharp hat-trick plus a Jack Watkins strike seeing Sunderland home.

On the second day Commanches suffered two defeats at the hands of Billancourt 11-0 and Russian side Tver 5-1. Joshua Lalande netted Commanches' consolation goal.

A very close encounter against South Ayr ended with Flames edging out Commanches 4-3. Lalande, Graham Robson and Daniel Pye scored for the Wearsiders.

Up against the Czech Republic side HC Letci Letnani, Commanches went down 0-10.

Their final round robin match was against Latvian side EVHS and they lost 6-1. Callum Davies scored the consolation goal.

With just one victory from seven games and a seventh place in the round robin table Commanches were to meet Boulogne for the 7th/8th place play-off. Boulogne had lost all of their seven matches which included a 4-3 loss to Sunderland.

A thrilling match ended 4-4 after normal time with Sharp hitting his second hat-trick of the tournament and a Lalande strike being Commanches scorers.

The tie then went into penalty shots which brought Sunderland a 3-1 victory. Sharp, Davies and Watkins each converted their penalty shots to give Commanches seventh place.

Commanches: Grant Sharp 7, Joshua Lalande 3, Jack Watkins 2, Callum Davies 2, Daniel Pye 1, Graham Robson 1.

Commanches results: Antoine Girouard 0-17; Boulogne 4-3; Billancourt 0-11; Tver 1-5; South Ayr 3-4; Letci Litnani 0-10, EVHS 1-6.

Bradford Pirates had a 3-2 win over Whitley Tomahawks at Bradford in the English U16 North Promotion/Relegation play-offs. It was the loss also of Whitley's 100 per cent record in the play-offs.

A close opening period saw Pirates go into the first break 1-0 ahead after taking advantage of a powerplay at 12.12. Whitley's Sam Zajac talked himself into a ten minute misconduct penalty at the interval for comments made to match officials. Just 30 seconds into the middle session Bradford doubled their advantage.

Whitley opened their account on the 21st minute mark when they were short-handed. Andrew Wood got the goal that put Tomahawks back into the match. Another powerplay goal for Bradford restored their lead in the 34th minute.

With less than three minutes to go in the match Whitley cut the deficit again with a second goal. Nathan Taylor found the net as again Tomahawks had a player sitting in the penalty box.

Whitley were unable to find an equalising goal and went down to their only defeat in the play-offs.

Bradford's victory moved them above Sheffield Greyhounds into second place behind Whitley and both teams retained North A League status for next season.

Tomahawks: Andrew Wood, Nathan Taylor 1+0, Daniel Harris, Ben Moore 0+1.

Billingham Falcons completed their English U14 North Promotion/Relegation play-offs losing 6-1 away to Blackburn Kestrels. Falcons with only one victory from five play-off games were already relegated to North B League alongside Solihull prior to the game at Blackburn. Kestrels went ahead in the fourth minute through their leading scorer Wayne Erskine and at 11.06 Blackburn doubled their advantage.

Five minutes later Falcons pulled a goal back with a well taken strike from Ben Patterson.

The final period saw Blackburn restore their two-goal lead three minutes into the period. Erskine hit a fourth Kestrels goal at 30.36.

Thomas Bence came on for Chris Snaith in Falcons' net at 34.59. Falcons had Jonathan Galloway leave the match at 36.26 on a five plus game misconduct penalty for roughing. Kestrels' Alex Wright received a ten-minute misconduct for unsportsmanlike conduct for his part.

With a powerplay for the remainder of the match Blackburn added a fifth when Erskine completed his hat-trick at 38.26. There was still time for Blackburn to grab a sixth also on the powerplay with only 12 seconds to go, this after Patterson had picked up a minor high sticks penalty at 38.28.

Falcons are joined in B League by Solihull Flames after finishing bottom of the play-off group behind Billingham. Blackburn retain an A League place and Falcons place is taken by Bradford Buccaneers who are promoted.

Falcons: Ben Patterson 1+0.

Ice Sheffield will be the venue for the division one World U20 championships from December 13-19. Great Britain U20s won promotion this year and will be hoping to retain the division one place.

Austria, France, Italy, Kazakhstan and Norway join Great Britain in the six-team event.

Ice Hockey UK vice-chairman Neville Moralee was in Prague at the IIHF congress meeting and was pleased with the outcome of the meeting. "It was between Italy and ourselves with Italy gaining 52 points and GB 54. It was close and one factor that swung the vote in our favour was the good experience that many of the other countries had coming to development camps here in Sheffield. We ran a very successful one in Sheffield last year," concluded Moralee.

Newcastle Vipers' team building for the 2004-2005 season is well under way and player/coach Rob Wilson having re-signed fellow Great Britain internationals David Longstaff and Jonathan Weaver, Matt Beveridge, Simon Leach, Paul Ferone and Stephen Wallace.

Vipers also have snapped upon two-way contracts Billingham forward Andrew Thornton and Whitley Bay defenceman Robert Wilson. Both players will ice for Newcastle when not required by both Billingham Bombers and Whitley Warriors in the English National Ice Hockey League respectively.

Both Shaun Johnson and Michael Tasker have signed for Vipers from Elite League side Coventry Blaze. Johnson and Tasker were part of Durham Wasps in the 1990s and played together for Newcastle Riverkings in 1999-2000.

Young Sunderland netminder Mark Lee will be back up. The club still looking for a netminder and Wilson has just began negotiations with an import defenceman but the process is in its early stages.

Also Rob Trumbley and Hilton Ruggles have been in talks with Newcastle. Ruggles, 41, has played for the past four seasons with Coventry plus two seasons at Newcastle Riverkings in 1998-1999 and 1999-2000. This will be his 17th season in British hockey having started at Whitley Warriors in 1988-89.

Trumbley, 29, has been in talks too with Vipers and could return for a third consecutive season.

Billingham Pumas host Flintshire Flyers tomorrow in their final U12 play-off match at the Forum Ice Arena face off 4.30pm. Both teams will be playing A league hockey next season as they currently top the play-off group with four points apiece.

Sunderland Ice Hockey Club are competing at the first ever Aberdeen Linx tournament in the Granite City. Tomorrow and Sunday Sunderland will be competing at all five age groups.

In both U12 and U16 teams meet each other once in round robin stage while at U19, U14 and U19 meet twice. Aberdeen, Kilmarnock, Murrayfield, North Ayr, Perth and Sunderland are the teams participating.

Fixtures

Tomorrow: English U12 North Promotion/Relegation play-offs: Billingham Pumas v Flintshire Flyers (4.30pm)

Aberdeen Linx Tournament, U10: Sunderland v Aberdeen (2.45)

U12: 8.30am Aberdeen v Sunderland; 3.15pm Kilmarnock v Sunderland.

U14: 9am Sunderland v Murrayfield; 10.45am Aberdeen v Sunderland; 1pm Murrayfield v Sunderland.

U16: 9.30am Aberdeen v Sunderland; 3.45pm North Ayr v Sunderland.

U19: 11.45am Aberdeen v Sunderland; 4.15 Sunderland v Kilmarnock; 6.30pm Kilmarnock v Sunderland.

Sunday: Aberdeen Linx Tournament, U10: 8am Aberdeen v Sunderland.

U12: 8.30am Sunderland v Perth

U14: 11.15am Sunderland v Aberdeen

U16: 11.45am Sunderland v Kilmarnock

U19: 12.20pm Sunderland v Aberdeen

l U10 final 2.45; U12 final 3.45pm; U14 final 4.30pm; U16 final 5.30pm; U19 final 6.15pm. Presentations 7.15pm.