For the new season we welcome players old and new alike to the squad – head over to the Players 2015/16 page to check out who’s been signed so far. Details of additional players, including an import, will be posted shortly.
Category: Players
Lions’ season starts this weekend
Lee Valley Lions open their 2014/15 campaign with a trip down the A12 to face Chelmsford Warriors away this Saturday, 11 October. The current list of players registered for the new season is here. The likes of Aaron Mallet, Ashlee Cave, Matt Drake and James Hatfull are all returning and joining them are Stewart Spence and Grant Bignell, James Tipple and Mark Robinson, ex-Haringey, and Joe Day from Slough.
More photos from Legends game
I have uploaded some cracking shots from last week’s Legends game, courtesy of Pat Ayling, featuring the likes of Jim Graves, Glen Moorhouse, Eddie Joseph, Tari Suwari, Simon Wren and Ali Rodger. You can see them via the Photos page, here.
Former Dynamos Add Experience to Lions’ Squad
The Lee Valley Lions are delighted to announce the signings of long-serving Invicta duo, Kevin Lake and Matthew Drake. Both players sign from Invicta Mustangs, but have had very successful careers with the Invicta Dynamos, where together they won consecutive league titles from 2003/04-2007/08.
Lions’ Coach Gary Dodds had this to say on the new signings…
“I can’t express the excitement of having these guys join the Lions, having played on the same team as them I know exactly how they can help the Lions achieve a mid-table position. Kevin brings so much experience and fire-power to the team and will bring the best out of other players on his line, which has already been observed in recent training sessions. Kevin can not only score goals, but he has great vision and his stats prove that he creates just as many chances on net as goals. Once Kev has a few games under his belt (as he has missed part of the season already) you’ll see what I mean.
“Meanwhile Rocky (Drake) brings a wide range of skills as he is the one of the best Utility players in the league, he can step into a defensive role as well as attack and has the hardest shot in league by far. With his fire-power, we can start winning games by more than the one-goal margins achieved this year. He is also a hard-hitting defenceman who puts his body on the line for the team in any situation. This is Matt’s first move in his career, but he’s the type of player than can settle into the Lions’ Den with ease.”
Lake, a former Captain of the Kent club, has a great scoring pedigree with both the Dynamos and the Mustangs. In 103 games for the Dynamos he racked up 143 points and, since dropping down to the Mustangs, he has scored a whopping 255 points in 125 games.
Former Dynamos’ enforcer Drake, has totalled 29 in 87 games for the ‘Mos and 132 points in 130 games for the Mustangs.
Both players will bring vast experience with them to East London and should both be available for Saturday’s clash with Swindon Wildcats at the Den.
You can also keep up with the Lions on Twitter and Facebook.
Where are they now? Barry Smith in Sweden.
Fans of the original Lions might be interested to know that import Barry Smith went on to an impressive coaching career and he is currently based at Swedish side, Modo. Mikael Uhlin, who runs a site about the former London Lions, has kindly sent me an article about Barry that featured in a Swedish magazine, together with an English translation. You can find it in the Team History section, here.