January 28th – Slough Jets Programme

Welcome back to the Hangar after a weekend away. Bad news last weekend for the game to be postponed but having been in contact with Steve and Anil and Brodie all through last week I know that everything that could be tried to save the ice was done before the decision to turn off the plant was taken. As it turned off the leak could only be fixed by turning off the plant and that meant that the ice had to be melted and started from scratch. Fantastic job from the rink crew to get the whole thing sorted and turned around so quickly.

Ironically before the weekend somebody asked me if I minded working every weekend. I explained that I didn’t mind, that I had worked weekends since I was 16 and that I didn’t mind it. Last weekend re-affirmed my belief that I really do enjoying working the weekends, as it’s a long long time with nothing to do. Given the fact that I didn’t work on Sunday meant I could comfortably make the away game on Sunday at Bracknell and it was nice to see the boys grab a road win.

The missed game is now rescheduled for February 22nd and we’re back in business for tonight’s match against the Phantoms. Welcome to Tom Carlon and the Phantoms tonight to the Hangar and their travelling supporters and welcome back to all the Jets supporters too.

Last weekend at Bracknell mention was made of Lukas Smital and his 500 EPL points split between the Flames and Bees. Personally I’m not a massive fan of Lukas Smital but that’s no mean achievement and congratulations to him. My question immediately as the feat was announced was where do these stats come from? Given that the “official” league stats have games missing due to the statistician suspending them for tiny errors on the submitted sheets which figures have been taken to calculate Smital’s official stats or for that matter any other player.

More importantly what’s the point to having official stats if they are not complete. What’s the point to completing gamesheets and shots on goal sheets if perfectly recordable statistics are not recorded. I understand if no gamesheet is submitted then no stats can be recorded but is one number being transposed wrong really a reason to not record the statistics from the game. It’s annoying, I’m pretty sure the majority if not all of gamesheets and shots on goal sheets are completed by volunteers but their work is then cancelled out if the figures are not actually recorded. It also devalues the official stats if they are incomplete so surely this is something that needs to be addressed.

There’s a lot of action coming up over the next few weeks. There’s our double home weekend against the Flames and Bison and February is in fact a tough schedule with 2 midweek games in successive weeks as well. Despite only playing one game last weekend the Jets have kept themselves right in the hunt and the stretch looks to be exciting.

Enjoy the game tonight

My team, your team, OUR TEAM

Mark