Berkshire Bees Fans

 New import signs as Marcel Baláž joins the Bees Slovakian Marcel Baláž has joined the Bees after spending a season with the Basingstoke Bison. The forward hails from Trebisov in Slovakia, he spent 14 years in the junior and senior leagues in his home country before making the move to France to play for Dunkerque, Brest and Clermont. Marcel and Bees coach Dominik Gabaj were teammates at Brest at the start of the 2019/2020 season before Dom made the move to the Bracknell Bees part way through that season. Last season Marcel made the move to Basingstoke Bison where he was the second highest points scorer with 66 points in the regular season (arguably his best season to date).  Marcel is 34 years old and the second import on Bees 23/24 roster. He joins fellow Bison team mates Edgars Landsbergs, Liam Morris,  Aidan Doughty and Brendan Baird who have also moved to Bees in the off season.

    Brython Preece Joins the Bees Following the blow that Pavel Krajcovic and the Bees are unable to facilitate his move to the UK (probably as a result of falling short of UK Visa requirements), exciting news has lifted the fans that Brython Preece has signed for 23/24.  Brython began his hockey with the Cardiff Devils junior teams before venturing to play in the Ontario Hockey Academy in 2014/15 and 2015/16. The following year he made the move to play in the WSHL for the Utah Outliers before returning across the pond in 2017/18 to play for the Coventry Blaze. He then made the move Dundee where he has played for the Stars where he remained until signing for the Bees. Brython is 25 years old and will wear number 44. He is the tenth player to fill a spot in Bees category 1 over 25's section leaving just one more place available in this category. He's not the first player to make the move from the Elite League to the NIHL during the off season, the opportunities in the NIHL...

  * Due to events beyond Pavel's and the Bees control he is unable to join the team. Good luck Pavel *  Bees add import netminder to the roster with the signing of Pavel Krajcovic Bees have announced the first import netminder in the league with Pavel Krajcovic joining the team from HK Delikateso Bratislava in the Slovakia 3 league. Pavel has a wealth of experience from playing most of his career to date in Slovakia and Sweden with a brief spell in Hungary. His stats are consistently high, recording a save percentage of .924 last season in the regular season and .934 in the playoffs.   A fellow countryman of Bees coach Dominik Gabaj, Pavel not only brings a high quality minder to the team but also a international qualified net minding  coach which will benefit new signing Brett Shepherd. Pavel is 29 years old and fills the second import spot for the team. Interestingly he will wear #69, probably one of the least worn numbers within hockey of all levels. Brett Sh...

  Edgars Landsbergs Joins the Bees Edgars has joined the Bees from Basingstoke Bison. He was born in Latvia but spent his junior development at Coventry Blaze making appearances for the under 16's and under 18's followed by a year at the OHA in Swindon. This all means that under the NIHL National rules of competition he is classified as a British trained player. After the year in Swindon he headed across the pond where he spent four years in the Canadian and US development leagues before heading to Poland where Covid cut short his spell with MKS Cracovia Krakow. In 2021/2022 he played for Milton Keynes Lightning before making the move to Basingstoke last season. He has impressive stats from his year at Bison with 16 goals and 17 assists in the regular season, these would have put him level with the 5th points scorer for Bees that season with only three Bees players scoring more goals than him in the regular season which makes this a really exciting signing. Edgars is 24 years o...

Welcome to the Bees Liam Liam Morris has made the move from local rivals Bison to the Bees for the 23/24 season. Liam, who is 28 years old, was born in Scotland. His Dad is Frank Morris, a name some of our fans will recognise. Frank hails from Ontario Canada but played the majority of his senior hockey in Scotland most notably for some considerable time at Fife Flyers. Liam followed in his father's footsteps playing his junior hockey in Canada before making the move to the UK in 2017 to play for Bison where he played for four seasons before making the move to Bees. Liam is a utility player who has been described as feisty and entertaining with a work rate second to none meaning not only will he add depth to the Bees but he will become a fan favourite for sure. His stats suggest he's no stranger to the penalty box but his strong presence on the ice will definitely cause problems for the opposition.  Liam follows fellow team mates Aidan Doughty and Brendan Baird who have also mov...

Welcome back Aidan Bees announced that Aidan Doughty has signed for next season, Aidan was on the Bees roster between 2018 and 2020 and made a huge impression in those two seasons. This is great news on so many levels, most importantly it means that Aidan is recovering well from his spinal surgery following a freak accident in January when he injured his L3 lumbar bone after he fell awkwardly into the boards at Basingstoke whilst playing for the Bison. Aidan played his junior hockey on the Isle of Wight before heading to the USA for three years playing for three Colorado clubs in the Western States Hockey League. He returned to the Wightlink Raiders shortly before the Ryde rink closed in 2016, he then moved on to spells with the Solent Devils and Streatham before signing with the Bees in 2018. During his two seasons with the Bees he made a huge contribution to the offence finishing 4th and 6th in the Bees scoring charts. His second season with the Bees was coach Dom's first season ...

  Welcome back Brendan Baird! Returning to the Bees after three years away with the Bison, Brendan was the highest scoring defender and 7th overall points scorer for Bison in 22/23 with 5 goals and 18 assists in the regular season. We know Brendan very well from his time with the Bees and he will bring a lot to the team with his skill and passion and, as long as he keeps his penalty taking in check, he should make a great addition to the Bees defence. He's a player you would rather have on your team than be playing against and will no doubt be an asset to the roster. His signing brings the number of Bees defenders currently signed up to 4, we are yet to see if Dom will bring in an import defender with the extra non-British player spot available to the teams next season but I suspect this is something he is seriously working on.