A successful ice hockey team need good players, but it also needs loyal fans – and Durham had many of those. We spoke to one of them in 2005 about his memories of supporting the Wasps from the mid 1980s up until the closure of the rink. Nick Quail got bitten by the hockey bug as a student at Durham University, and became a dedicated Wasps fan from that moment on. Nick currently lives with his family in Oxfordshire, but follows the CDIF’s campaign for ice with interest and we look forward to welcoming the Quail family back to County Durham in the not too distant future…

Nick, how did you get interested in hockey and when did you start following the Wasps?
I’d seen the occasional highlights on TV and had heard of Durham being one of the top English teams, so I thought I would take the opportunity to experience ice hockey first hand whilst I was studying in the city. My first game was 14th October 1984 when I witnessed a 9-6 win against Fife Flyers – the game was so close and so well contested that I knew then that this would be the start of a love affair with the sport. About 6 weeks later I was one of the many fans that travelled down to Streatham to see (hanging off a stairwell ‘cos all the seats had been taken) the Wasps take on Fife Flyers in the Bluecol Cup Final – another close game resulting in a deserved win for the Wasps and the first piece of silverware in the modern era, if my memory serves me correctly.

What was the old Durham Rink like when you started watching hockey and did it improve much over the years?
Full of character! It appeared that very little had changed since the immediate post-war years and it was a very spartan place to go. Cold, hard, and very noisy. – not the fans, the building. There were some seats but I preferred the wooden boards behind the team benches. Over the years, little changed. An upstairs bar was added, I seem to remember, and there was a makeover when Cadbury’s sponsored the Wasps but that was about it.

I can still remember the overhead heaters being lit with a burning rag attached to a hockey-stick, the mist that came in from the river through the broken windows, a roof that leaked so that when you skated on a morning, you often had to avoid the pools of water on the ice, and the less said about the toilets the better! But in spite of its faults, it was an imposing arena, particularly when full, and there was nowhere I would rather have been on a Sunday night in the season.

What was your most unusual experience of the Durham Rink?
I remember my mate Paul and I learning to skate/play hockey and blasting a puck around half of the rink while a young lady pirouetted around the other half looking cheesed off. It turned out later that she was GB Olympic hopeful Joanne Conway!

Who were the outstanding players you remember from your time as a Wasps fan?
Off the top of my head, I think that Rick Brebant, Mike Blaisdell, Mario Belanger, and Kevin Conway must have been among the best imports to have pulled on a Wasps shirt. Mike O’Connor, Paul Tilley and Jamie Crapper were the imports when I first started watching, so I have particularly fond memories of them, too.

Of the British players, there were so many good homegrown young players who turned out for the Wasps – that was part of why we were so proud of the team. The Cooper brothers and the Johnson brothers stood out particularly, but there were so many others. I used to watch the Mosquitoes and Midges as well when I had the chance because you knew that the Wasps stars of tomorrow would probably come from these youngsters. Ivor Bennett was always a crowd pleaser, Paul Smith of course, Hutley, Tasker, Knights, Salem, Killen, the list goes on…

For the opposition, the Hand brothers from Murrayfield were always formidable (as was their mother), Dave Stoyanovich from Fife, Streatham’s Craig Melancon, former NHL-er and Dundee Rocket Garry Unger.

ABOVE: Kevin Conway at Wembley in 1897

We understand you made one epic journey in particular to see the Wasps in action…Tell us about that…
That was during my time year abroad (I was a languages student) which I spent in North Germany. Durham had won the league the season before and so had qualified for the European Cup, and they had been drawn against Yugoslavian side HC Jesenice. I thought that, seeing as I was in Europe anyhow, I would make the trip down to Jesenice (once I found out where it was!). I took the train down, stopped overnight in Munich where I took in a European Cup game between Bayern Munich and Austria Vienna in the OlympiaStadion, and then travelled on the next day into Yugoslavia via Austria and Switzerland. Looking back, perhaps I should have thought about purchasing a ticket beforehand but those thoughts hadn’t entered into my thinking. Anyway, I turned up at the rink a couple of hours before the game was due to start and sat outside enjoying the Autumnal sunshine. Shortly after, the Wasps coach drew up and the players appeared to be delighted to see me there welcoming them with my outstretched Wasps’ scarf. After a few handshakes, I was told to forget about getting a ticket, and that I should pick up a kitbag and just follow the players in. From that moment, I was treated as a member of the squad – all the team were so friendly, but I couldn’t help thinking whilst I sat there in the dressing room, ‘how am I going to find a good seat after this?’ I needn’t have worried – the Wasps invited me to sit on the team bench for the game, a never-to-be-forgotten experience and honour. We lost the match but afterwards the beer was flowing in the dressing room anyway.

The fun was still not over. The players wouldn’t hear of me going straight back to the station – not whilst there was still beer in the town. Instead, we all headed back to the hotel where there was a civic reception hosted by the Mayor (I think – this is where the alcohol starts to affect my memory). After that, it was all a bit of a blur – I think that a couple of players and myself found ourselves in a private bar at the top of the hotel, a couple of (mostly harmless) pranks got out of hand and we were advised to leave as the police had been called!

A few beers in the main bar followed at which point I had to leave, as I needed to catch the last overnight train out. That journey back was one of the worst of my life – sobering up in a second-class European train with no buffet car and just a packet of crisps or so to keep me going! But it had all been worth it.

During that year abroad, I followed German ice hockey (ECD Iserlohn - who are also now defunct) and became German correspondent for the Ice Hockey News Review.

What were your experiences of Wembley as a Durham supporter?
I remember the excitement starting the moment we booked the tickets. Then it was onto the coach on the Friday (the Finals initially were held on Saturday and Sunday, so it was a leisurely trip down to London). The fans and the Wasps stayed at the Post House Hotel near Heathrow, as did the Flyers fans, and there was a great rapport between the two sets of supporters, usually ending in a singsong around the piano in the bar.

Then it was off to Wembley and it is impossible to describe the buzz as we reached the stadium and saw all the other teams’ fans there, including supporters of teams who hadn’t even made it to the last four. Inside the arena the noise was deafening and was a riot of colour. The lights went down, the music got turned up a notch and suddenly out skated the lads to an unbelievable reception.

ABOVE: Durham celebrate at Wembley in 1988

The games themselves were usually edge of the seat stuff - definitely not for the faint-hearted. I remember us losing to unfancied Ayr in the semis in 1989 - that was about my lowest Wembley moment. The closest game was the 7-6 win in the Final against Nottingham, but the two games I recall the most were both Final wins, 9-5 against Murrayfield in 1987 and 8-5 against the Fife Flyers a year later. The win against Murrayfield was sweet because they were the favourites that year having won the league, and the Fife game was again a close-fought encounter which could have gone either way.

In all the Finals that we won, the Durham crowd started going nuts as the clock started ticking down the last minute - and the celebrations were something else when we won, with the team all diving on each other to celebrate and the fans all crowding towards the plexi to shout and cheer and generally let rip. This was followed by the presentations and then, finally, it sank in that this was the end of the hockey season. No more hockey till the end of the Summer. Unbelievable. Trips back to the North East always seemed a lot shorter after the Wembley victories!!

Now, you’re not strictly a “northerner” and definitely not a bona-fide “Mackem”, so why do you think you became so passionate about hockey Wearside Style?
That’s true – I’m a complete southerner who just got adopted by the hockey-mad fraternity that used to make up the Wasps fans. There really was a special atmosphere about the rink from the ordinary fans right through to the team and the management. My mate Paul and I got to know the ‘hard-core’ supporters when we started going on the away trips - it’s hard to remain anonymous when you’re sharing a bus for 5 or 6 hours each way, waiting in the cold and rain outside rinks that refuse to let you in until the official opening time, and getting back at 3 or 4am without having had a wink of sleep in case you end up on the receiving end of one of the player’s little ‘pranks’!

The people were, and are, very special. It was a club that prided itself on families and that was evident in the playing side as well. I guess I was lucky enough to be part of the ‘family’ for a few years and no other team will ever be able to come even close.

ABOVE: Wasps fans in full voice in the old “Clockend” stand

When did you move South, and how often did you manage to catch Wasps games after moving away from Durham?
As I was a student, I only was really up in Durham during term times anyway - so I missed some of the home games which was a real downer. However, one game which I didn’t miss and which does stick in my memory, though, was an away game at Billingham. The game was due to coincide with the start of the new term, so I suggested to my parents (who were by now also Wasps’ fans) that they could take me and my mate Paul to the game and then after that they could drop off us at the college. Fearing that it was a long way to go on the off-chance, particularly because it was a small rink, we decided to phone up and book tickets from the Billingham rink. The management were very friendly and when they found out that we were coming from Berkshire to see the game, they said that we weren’t to worry and they would sort us out tickets on arrival.

So, we turned up in deepest Billingham and presented ourselves at the ticket office, at which point an official was summoned. Talking mainly to my parents, he ushered them upstairs advising them that seats had been reserved for all of us. However, he then got a bit of a shock when he realised that Paul and I were fully decked out in our Wasps supporters’ gear. We understood his surprise and consternation when we realised that he was taking us up to the balcony (which stood at one end of the rink), which was reserved for officials and sponsors! Shameless as we were, Paul and I unfurled our large ‘DURHAM’ flag over the balcony which got a huge cheer from the Durham fans who were sat in the main part of the rink.

I graduated in 1987 and moved to London, so I didn’t get to see the Wasps as often as I would have liked. I usually managed to get to see them on the road at Peterborough, Nottingham, Solihull, Bracknell, Romford, Streatham and Basingstoke, and because my girlfriend Carolyn (or wife as she is now) was still studying in Durham after I left, I could combine trips to see her with visits to the rink. Luckily enough, she was mad about the Wasps too (even though she’s another southerner) - she was awestruck when I told her that her Wasps’ scarf had been sold to me by Anthony Johnson (who was working in a sports shop in the city at the time). Naturally, I also got to see them at Wembley, and at places like Altrincham and Solihull in their City Wasps’ days.

What was your reaction when you heard the Wasps had been sold and were to be relocated?
Disbelief. Revulsion. Physically sick. I just couldn’t believe that a famous club such as Durham, with all its history and its’ important place in the community could just be relocated like any other commodity. To me, it didn’t matter if the relocated team still had ‘Durham’ in its name, I knew that wouldn’t last and the last link with the past would soon be dispensed with. I was moved to write to the IHNR and plead with the BIHA to not let this happen, but in the end money talks. Similarly, I was also incredulous that the new owners were not happy with the City Wasps using the Durham name - even though they were playing in Durham!!! The whole sorry saga still rankles with me, even now after so many years have passed. I am sure that the Smiths had their reasons for selling up and somehow I can’t bring myself to think too badly of them as I knew all of them personally and they were always very friendly and welcoming. I just wish that another way could have been found.

And what did you make of the Durham City Wasps season?
I thought it was fantastic that the ‘real’ Wasps were reborn; sadly it was all too short-lived. Some fans may have drifted away because of the lower standard of play, others may have gone to watch the relocated ‘Wasps’ but there were still a huge number who were prepared to follow the City Wasps. Sadly, because the City Wasps played in the Northern Conference, I was unable to see as many games as I would have liked to - but I did manage to make it to Altrincham where we got beaten, and an unforgettable (for all the wrong reasons) trip to Solihull where the home crowd were not very welcoming, to put it mildly.

ABOVE: The Durham City Wasps team of 1995/96 - the last team to play out of the Riverside Rink

How important to you think the rink was to Durham and how much of a blow to the area do you think it was when it closed?
The rink and the club were hugely important to Durham. On Sunday nights, against the top teams, you would get 4,500+ supporters in (well in excess of the published rink capacity!). The Wasps and their junior teams gave the whole city a feeling of pride - there was a mayoral reception in the market place after one Wembley win - and the club really put the town on the map. All of us used to be amazed that a city the size of Durham could produce a team capable of being the best in Britain.

But it wasn’t only the hockey - the rink provided skating facilities for young figure skaters, and it was also a place where people could socialise and enjoy themselves (the Friday night disco skate had to be experienced to be believed).

You’ve been following CDIF’s campaign for a while now, how do you view the progress made so far, and do you think a rink will return again to Durham?
I was delighted when I found out that CDIF were campaigning for a new rink. I’m sure that there are still many people out there who are fervently hoping for the day that a new rink opens its doors, both old fans such as myself and a new generation of fans and skaters who may not have had the chance to experience hockey. Naturally, I would like progress to be quicker but I realise it’s not always possible when you’re trying to negotiate with various partners and when you’re not sitting on a pile of money! Nevertheless, I definitely think things are moving in the right direction and I’m very optimistic that a rink will return one day soon to Durham or the surrounding area.

Will you be back for the opening game?
Just try and stop me! I think that my whole family will want to be there - and not just for the opening game either!!!