FORMER NEWCASTLE VIPER BEN CAMPBELL JOINS LINE UP AT GUILFORD FLAMES
FORMER NEWCASTLE VIPER BEN CAMPBELL JOINS LINE UP
News Release
16/06/10
The Guildford Flames ice hockey club have added further youth and speed to their line up with confirmation that former Newcastle Viper forward Ben Campbell will be joining the Spectrum outfit for 2010-2011. The 23 year old Durham native spent the past 3 seasons with Tyneside’s top club. Last year he had a breakout year of sorts, playing on one of the club’s top lines while contributing 19 goals and 29 points over a 56 game campaign. He had another 119 Viper starts over the 2 preceding years where he registered 12 goals and 13 assists. His debut with the Vipers occurred during the 2006-2007 term in which he iced 53 times with the big team. That same season he starred with the English National League Vipers B squad with whom he had 20 goals and 39 points in just 11 starts.
His first senior activity came before his 16th birthday when he took to the ice with the Whitley Braves during the 2002-2003 season. From 2003-2004 through 2005-2006, the 5’10”, 170lb skater split his time with the Whitley under 19 team and the Whitley Warriors ENL club. In 47 Warriors games, Campbell had better than a point a game pace when he netted 28 times and added 31 assists.
He has represented Great Britain internationally when he was part of the student squad that travelled to the World University games in Torino, Italy in early 2007.
Paul Dixon, Flames head coach, discussed the newest acquisition:
“Ben has made great strides in his development over the past several seasons, especially this last year with Newcastle when he really started to come into his own as a key player in their line up. He performed so well that they were able to release a foreign national on the roster which says a lot about the respect he had from the organisation in terms of his ability to fill an important roster spot. He is a good skater with good offensive instincts and we think he will fit in very well with the style of hockey we try to play here in Guildford. Whenever you are adding youth and speed to the team you can hardly go wrong so, in conjunction with what we know of Ben, we believe we have made a high quality addition to our staff.”
|