Varsity Ice Hockey: “Biggest Night of Uni Lives”

Nottingham Mavericks President Reece Clarke expects the Varsity match against UoN to be “the biggest night” of the players’ time at University.

Trent star Clarke also predicted Monday night’s game to “live up” to the hype following last year’s nail-biting clash.

A veteran of the last-gasp 4-3 defeat to Uni last year, Clarke joked that Trent only lost the game because teammate Ryan Rathbone “let the forward through in the last play.”

President Reece Clarke in action

With a sell-out crowd of 8,000 students packed inside the Capital FM Arena, Rathbone did not rule out the possibility of the pressurised atmosphere resulting in further mistakes.

“The crowd will play a big part, that’s for sure. For a number of the lads, this is their first match in front of such a large crowd. There’s a chance they could buckle under pressure”.

Rathbone will be hoping he doesn’t break under pressure…

Playing together under the Nottingham Mavericks umbrella, Trent and UoN had a mixed start to the season before rising to their current position of second in the BUIHA North Division 1.

Clarke explained that the teams were divided from the Mavericks’ player pool to create “two teams as balanced and fair as possible”.

As Trent boast a Great Britain international in the shape of Danny Rose, it remains to be seen just how balanced these sides are.

GB star Danny Rose

With both sides in top form, a GB international on show and Nottingham’s Dan Atinkson’s assertion that there will be a “few more beers flying around than in most games”, Monday night’s fixture has the potential to be a classic.

No ticket? NO WORRIES! The Tab will be keeping YOU up to date with our play-by-play live text blog on Monday night. Just report back to https://thetab.com/uk/nottingham/category/sport/ in time for the 7.30pm start.