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Widnes Wild
City	Widnes, England
League	NIHL
Division	Division One North
Founded	2013
Home arena	Planet Ice Widnes Capacity: 500 Ice size: 56m x 28m
Colours	Black, Gold & White
Owner(s)	North West Winter Sports Club, Chairman Matt Lloyd (Paralympian)
General manager	Jon Anderson
Head coach	Richard Haggar
Affiliates	Widnes Wild Women, WNIHL 2
Farm club(s)	Widnes Junior Wild
Website	http://www.widneswild.co.uk/

The Widnes Wild ^[1] are an English ice hockey team from the town of Widnes who play at Planet Ice Ice Rink in Widnes. They were formed in 2013. They currently compete in the Moralee Conference of the English Ice Hockey Association National Ice Hockey League (North).

The current club chairman is Paralympian Matt Lloyd. ^[2]

The club has a youth system which starts at Under-9's, as well as a women's team competing in the Women's Premier League. ^[3]

With the support of the local community the Widnes Wild run a vibrant schools programme to introduce children to ice hockey. ^[4]

In the 15/16 season the Wild finished second in the league to Deeside Dragons. In the final league game of the season the Wild forfeited the games against the Deeside Dragons citing safety fears, after Wild player Lee Kemp suffered a head injury following an altercation with Dragons' Alex Roberts. ^[5]

The Wild finished the 16/17 season second in the league to the Blackburn Eagles, missing out on promotion after a dramatic overtime loss to the Deeside Dragons; ^[6] however, the Wild went on to win their first piece of silverware by winning the 16/17 D2N Playoffs. ^[7]

In September 2017 it was announced that Ollie Barron had won the first English National Ice Hockey League D2N Player of the Month award. ^[8]

In the summer of 2018 it was announced that the Wild would be sponsored by YKK.

The Wild also won the NIHL Laidler Playoffs in the 2017/18 season and 2018/19 season to complete a trio of playoff championship titles ^[9] as well as being crowned league champions for the first time in the 2018/19 season. At the end of the 2018/19 season it was announced that Ollie Baron would step down as player/coach to focus on his life outside of hockey and Mike Clancy was appointed as the new head coach. ^[10]

League history

Season	Position	Wins	Draws	Losses	±
2013-14	5	11	1	16	-50
2014-15	4	20	2	14	37
2015-16	2	19	3	6	86
2016-17	2	20	4	4	59
2017-18	2	23		9	82
2018-19	1	28		4	140
2019-20	4	15		7	51

^[11]

Club roster 2022-23

(*) Denotes a Non-British Trained player (Import)

Netminders
No.	Nat.	Player	Catches	Date of birth	Place of birth	Acquired	Contract
35		Evan Coles	L	(2000-02-13) 13 February 2000 (age 24)	Sheffield, England	2021 from Bradford Bulldogs	Two-Way
39		Miles Finney	L	(1993-10-16) 16 October 1993 (age 30)	England	2022 from Sheffield Steeldogs	22/23
		Jake Lowndes		2002 (age 20)	England	2022	22/23

Defencemen
No.	Nat.	Player	Shoots	Date of birth	Place of birth	Acquired	Contract
5		Rhys Edwards	L	(2006-06-04) 4 June 2006 (age 17)	England	2022 from Bradford Bulldogs	Two-Way
15		Lee Kemp	L	(1988-01-18) 18 January 1988 (age 36)	Nottingham, England	2015	22/23
18		Jonathon Williamson	L	1994 (age 28)	England	2022 from Altrincham Aces	22/23
20		Bez Hughes	R	(1995-05-02) 2 May 1995 (age 28)	Wrexham, Wales	2016 from Telford Tigers NIHL	22/23
71		Jack Murray		(2001-05-23) 23 May 2001 (age 22)	Blackpool, England	2021 from Blackburn Hawks	22/23
84		Thomas Jackson	R	(1995-05-21) 21 May 1995 (age 28)	Glossop, England	2014 from Hull Jets	22/23
86		Kieron Furlong		2002 (age 20)	England	2021 from Hull Jets	22/23
91		Calum Ruddick	L	(1990-12-19) 19 December 1990 (age 33)	Manchester, England	2022 from Blackburn Hawks	22/23

Forwards
No.	Nat.	Player	Shoots	Date of birth	Place of birth	Acquired	Contract
9		Ken Armstrong	R	(1985-06-14) 14 June 1985 (age 38)	Sale, England	2013 from Blackburn Eagles	22/23
10		Nathan Britton	R	(1993-03-20) 20 March 1993 (age 31)	Sheffield, England	2021 from Sheffield Senators	22/23
14		Joe Wyatt		1990 (age 32)	England	2021 from Altrincham Aces	22/23
16		Michael Gilbert		1997 (age 25)	England	2017 from Altrincham Aces	22/23
17		Andrew Hopkins		1997 (age 25)	Northern Ireland	2022 from Altrincham Aces	22/23
19		Richard Haggar	R	(1991-01-26) 26 January 1991 (age 33)	Hull, England	2021 from Hull Jets	22/23
23		Josh Reynolds		2002 (age 20)	England	2022 from Bradford Bulldogs	22/23
24		Adam Jasečko	L	(2004-09-13) 13 September 2004 (age 19)	Spisska Nova Ves, Slovakia	2022 from Hull Jets	Two-Way
44		Daniel Haid		(1993-12-02) 2 December 1993 (age 30)	Bietigheim-Bissingen, Germany	2019 from Chemnitz Crashers	22/23
63		Joe Coulter	R	(1995-06-12) 12 June 1995 (age 28)	Dumfries, Scotland	2022 from Leeds Knights	22/23
89		Matthew Barlow	L	1999 (age 23)	Partington, England	2021 from Bradford Bulldogs	22/23
94		Joe Greaves	L	(1992-07-17) 17 July 1992 (age 31)	Royton, England	2021 from Blackburn Hawks	22/23

Team Staff
No.	Nat.	Name	Acquired	Role	Place of birth	Joined From
19		Richard Haggar	2020/21	Player-Coach	Hull, England
		Jason Coles	2021/22	Assistant coach	England
		Mark Gillingham	2013/14	Assistant coach	Blackpool, England	Fylde Flyers, NIHL 2
		Jon Anderson	2015/16	General Manager	Widnes, England
		Louis Rosslyn	2021/22	Equipment Manager	England

2021/22 Outgoing

Outgoing
No.	Nat.	Player	Shoots	Date of birth	Place of birth	Leaving For
4		Tom Brierley	R	(1989-10-26) 26 October 1989 (age 34)	Cleethorpes, England	Hull Jets, NIHL 2
13		Vladislavs Vulkanovs	R	(1998-02-28) 28 February 1998 (age 26)	Ventspils, Latvia	Sheffield Steeldogs, NIHL National
28		Chris Wilcox	R	(1986-12-25) 25 December 1986 (age 37)	Solihull, England	Hull Seahawks, NIHL National
32		Harrison Walker	L	(2002-06-25) 25 June 2002 (age 21)	Bradford, England	Leeds Knights, NIHL National
56		Tom Stubley	R	(1998-11-30) 30 November 1998 (age 25)	York, England	Hull Seahawks, NIHL National

References