Ice Hockey: Cardiff Devils - 35 years in the making

Little did John Lawless know how a minibus ride on 12 October 1986 would herald the start of a remarkable sporting journey that would make Cardiff Devils one of the most successful ice hockey teams in the sport's United Kingdom history.

Then 25-year-old Canadian Lawless drove the hired vehicle with a team of young players along the M4 from Cardiff to play their first match against Oxford City Stars.

In the 1980s ice hockey in Britain as a spectator sport was growing with leading clubs based in Scotland, the northeast of England, Nottingham, Streatham and Peterborough.

The owners of Peterborough Pirates - a company called Sports Nationwide, headed by Dennis Adams had bought land in the centre of Cardiff and were building an ice rink.

Part of their investment plan was to set-up an ice hockey franchise.

In the summer of 1986 Adams invited one of his Peterborough players, forward John Lawless, to take on setting up the team in Cardiff for him.

"I went down there and had a look at the building as it was getting constructed and I thought "whoa this is a nice rink' and I just jumped at the chance and I thought 'ok, let's go,'" Lawless recalls.

At the time the British game had three tiers - the Premier, Division One and Two with the latter having at most one import player and in some cases they were essentially the second squad of a Premier Division franchise.

"Knowing we had the support of the ownership I just knew that if we could get three import players and a few good British players we should be okay in Division two." said Lawless

So alongside player-manager Lawless the Devils signed Canadians defenceman Bill Taylor and player-coach Perry Olivier.

British players such as Bristol Bulldogs' Paul Farmer were poached, along with a Cardiff University student who had grown up in Canada, Paul Morganti, Yorkshireman Glen Hayley who was at the Polytechnic of Wales and the first Welshman to play for the Devils, Bleddyn Davies who had played in North America.

Cardiff Devils players celebrate success

"It wasn't hard to entice the players here. Who doesn't like to play in front of fans, be on a good team and be looked after?" Lawless added.

So why did Sports Nationwide and Lawless think that a Cardiff ice hockey team could become successful?

"I knew that Cardiff was such a sports orientated town and I had seen hockey develop in a smaller town - in Peterborough [founded in 1983] and it took off pretty good, but it didn't have a great facility," Lawless said.

"He [Dennis Adams] saw the potential and thought 'if I build an ice rink in Cardiff they will come'."

And they did come.

The construction schedule of the arena in Cardiff meant the Devils' first game at the Wales National Ice Rink did not take place until the end of November, 1986 with the visit of amateur Nottingham team Ashfield Islanders in front of a sold-out arena,

"People were intrigued, they were like 'let's go check this out' and the fans really jumped on supporting the Devils pretty much from day one," said Lawless.

The Devils beat Ashfield Islanders 32-0 and in their first season were unbeaten, drawing just one game. Three years later they had risen to the Premier Division.

To get them there Lawless had recruited more Canadians, including former Peterborough team-mate Shannon Hope, Doug McEwan and forward Steve Moria.

Along with the imports he signed some of the best Britons in the history of the game such as the Cooper brothers - Ian and Steve - Jason Stone, netminder Jeff Smith and the late Brian Dickson.

By the time they had reached their first season at the top in 1989-90 training on Tuesday and Thursday evenings after public skating sessions was a thing of the past. The Devils were now fully professional and on the rink most days of the week.

Three-and-a-half years after their first match in Oxford the Devils won the league title and the legendary play-off final that was broadcast on Grandstand, which bumped the World Snooker Final Saturday afternoon session off the television schedule.

Lawless reminisced: "That was just amazing, that was a ride that I'll never ever forget."

The Devils won the double again in 1993 and the next season made it a Grand Slam by winning the Autumn Cup, league and the play-offs.

"The other thing I liked about Cardiff was that it had its own identity. When you drive into Wales you feel like you're in another part of the world," he said.

"That drive alone for the away team was probably a little intimidating because also our team was good and they would be going 'oh no! We're going into the cauldron' and that the Devils fans were just so passionate."

In the mid 1990s Lawless left the Devils to set-up Manchester Storm with some success, which included attracting over 10,000 spectators for their first match and two games in excess of 16,000.

At the end of the newly-created Super League's first season, which had controversially increased import numbers, Manchester finished next to bottom and Lawless was relieved of his duties.

Lawless later had a season with Telford Tigers as a player-coach before returning to Canada in 1999.

A three-time coach of the year, as a player Lawless also appeared for Great Britain in the 1990 and 1991 World Championships and in 1997 he was inducted into the British Hockey Hall of Fame

At the Cardiff Devils his shirt has been retired and when asked how he now reflects on his time in Cardiff, Lawless becomes emotional.

"I absolutely loved it, I don't have any bad memories, I just know it's with me forever. Truly I was blessed," he said.