The Seagull Has Landed: A Light-Hearted Review Of the First 12 Months Back Together Of the Blackpool Seagulls Ice Hockey Team

Ice hockey has a proud history in Blackpool dating back to the original golden age of the 1930s when the Great Britain team won the Olympic gold medal and scores of new arenas opened up across the country, including the famous “Ice Drome” at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. The Blackpool Seagulls were a potent force in the game from the amateur days of the early 1950s through the hockey wilderness years of the 60s and 70s and right through to the over-professionalisation of the sport in the early 1990s. The teams moved away from the famous but dated Ice Drome arena in 1992 to make use of the better facilities at the new custom-built rink in Blackburn but the passion for the game remained in the historic holiday resort. When a new ice rink opened in nearby Cleveleys in the spring of 2011, ice hockey returned to the Fylde Coast after a near 20 year absence and it wasn’t long until some of the old Seagulls players got their skates back on and took to the ice again. This is the story of the rebirth of the historic Blackpool Seagulls ice hockey team.