UB Cup - Ulaan Baatar Hockey

Beijing Hosa Tournament - 2007
Beijing International Ice Hockey

Beijing Helping Shanghai Hockey
Beijing helped Shanghai on Sept 4,. 5th & 6th during their Beijing tour playing 5 games in the Hosa Tournament. Goat Boy, James Aldridge, Mini-Me, Gervais, Cunningham & Plummer alternated in to fortify Shangahai, and in the course of the tournament scored about 20 of Shanghai's 25 goals. How did we every lose to Shanghai in our tournament?

HORROR AT HOSA - Beating up a Referee
Perhaps one of the ugliest scenes seen in Chinese hockey, on Sept 6th, 3 players from Changchun disagreed with a string of penalty calls in the 2nd period during their game against Beijing HOSA, and started to slash the referee in the head. All three of them at once! When the referee covered his head with his hands, they kept slashing (baseball swings) and appeared to break his hand.

In the "real world", touching a referee will get a player suspended for weeks if not a season. In China, after the referee was rescued by a visiting Czech player and taken to the dressing room, a substitute referee was put in, and the game continued, no penalties! The Czech and two Canadian players from HOSA boycotted the game. In a continuation of China strangeness, with 7-minutes remaining in the game, and HOSA losing, they decided to quit and skated off the ice.

This is not the first time that Beijing International has witnessed violence against referees. See the 2005 Kunming Tournament Write-up where two different teams attacked the referees in one tournament.

In the past 10 years, at least a dozen Beijing International players have been "axed" in the head, crosschecked or speared in the face by local players. One reason Beijing International now mostly plays amongst its 5 team predominantly expatriate league and travels to expat tournaments.

THE AFTERMATH.... Three 1 year suspensions!!!

Rough translation follows:

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"During the game against Team HOSA on Oct 6, Changchun players # 33, #7, #21 and #16 used their fists and hockey sticks to hit the referee, which led to injury for the referee, thereby seriously breaking tournament rules and causing tremendous damage to the image of the China Recreational Ice Hockey Association. This did not only compromise the personal safety of the referee but did also go against the "Happy Hockey, Friendship & Health" spirit of the Recreational Hockey Association.

After discussion, the Association Committee concluded that:

1. Changchun should issue a self-criticism in writing

2. All results for Changchun in the tournament are null and void

3. Changchun team is to offer a formal apology to the referee and pay a RMB 2000 compensation for medical treatment

4. Players # 33, 7, 21 and 16, who were involved in hitting the referee are suspended from all competition for one year.

5. The leaders of the Changchun team should internally 'criticize and educate' in order to avoid that a situation like this happens again."

China Recreational Ice Hockey Association Planning Committee