Durham Wasps
| Durham Wasps The Big Blue Machine |
|
|---|---|
| City | Durham, England |
| League | British National League |
| Founded | 1947 |
| Operated | 1947-1996 |
| Home arena |
Durham Ice Rink Capacity: 2860 Ice size: 184ft x 85ft, 56m x 26m |
| Colours | Royal Blue and Gold |
| Owner(s) | Defunct |
The Durham Wasps were an ice hockey team located in Durham and was one of England's most well-known names in ice hockey. The team was bought by Sir John Hall and moved to the neighbouring city of Newcastle Upon Tyne in August 1996. The Newcastle team, after several changes became known as the Newcastle Jesters.
The Durham Wasps began their prosperous start to hockey just after the war, and was started by Michael Davey of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, along with a few other Canadians, who after the war made their homes in Durham.
Ice hockey remained popular in the sixties and seventies, but it exploded with popularity between the eighties and nineties, and the period from around 1982 to 1992 was one to remember for the Wasps. In this period alone they won the Heineken Championship four times, the league championship six times, the Norwich Cup three times, and other trophies like the Autumn and Castle Eden Cups on many other occasions. The Durham Wasps dominated the British League for over 10 years. There was an intense local rivalry with both the Whitley Warriors and the Billingham Bombers. It was a golden period for hockey in the North East with derby matches against the Warriors often resulting in crowds which exceeded the stated capacity of the rink by a considerable margin.
With the rise of teams such as the Cardiff Devils and Sheffield Steelers, the Wasps started to struggle to fund a competitive team. At the same time, the rink was in need of significant investment. Around this time, John Hall, then owner of Newcastle United Football Club, laid plans to form a centre of sporting excellence in Newcastle. As part of this he purchased the team with the intention of moving them to a new ice rink in Newcastle. In the meanwhile, the team temporarily played out of the Crowtree Leisure Centre in Sunderland.
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