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Inducted
into the Hall of Fame in 2007. Now
the owner, coach and manager of Edinburgh Capitals, in his playing
days Scott Neil was one of our leading forwards with Sheffield Steelers
and the various Edinburgh teams. Between 1979-80 and 2001-02 he piled up nearly 1,300 points and
was capped 37 times for his country for which he debuted when he was
only 17. In recent years, he has
almost single-handedly kept the game alive in his home city while
increasing the crowds. Andrew Scott Neil was born in Edinburgh on 1 August 1962 into a family who have a share in the ownership of the Murrayfield Ice Rink. He played a lot of sport as a youngster, mainly football and rugby, and came late to skating at the age of 14. But he took to ice hockey quickly and by the age of 16 he had scored his first goal for Murrayfield Racers, at the Billingham Forum in April 1979, a feat he clearly remembers Two years later the
precocious teenager made his World Championship debut for the GB senior
team in China, after earning his first international cap in 1980 in the
European under-18 tournament when he netted an astonishing five goals in
GB’s victory over Belgium. Through a contact of Alex
Dampier, the Racers’ Canadian coach, Neil attended university in
Canada. As in his boyhood, he played more football than hockey while he
completed a business course. On his return to Edinburgh he found the
sport starting to take off with the Heineken sponsorship and live
television coverage. In his seven seasons with the
Racers he scored over 100 league points four times and helped the team
to win the Heineken League twice, an Autumn Cup once, and reach the
British Championship finals weekend at Wembley in every year bar one. He then decided to join his
former team-mate Ronnie Wood in the new Sheffield Arena and spent five
years as a Steeler. This included their Grand Slam season and their
first in the Superleague. In the Superleague’s opening campaign,
Scott’s cousin, Tony Hand, and Welshman Nicky Chinn were the only
other Brits on the Steelers. In 1997, aged 35, Scott headed back to his native city where he has since worked tirelessly to keep his team going through several changes of ownership and names. He is a strong believer in promoting local talent and, under his jurisdiction, the Edinburgh club includes players of all age groups, with Scott himself coaching the under-12s. But he is also aware that the
economics of the sport requires the leading teams to use overseas
players. He was the first to appreciate that Eastern European players
gave the best value and in season 2002-03 he signed, among others,
defenceman Jan Krajicek, forward Martin Cingel and goalie Laidislav
Kudrna who went on to play several seasons here. By the end of his career,
Scott Neil had played in 687 official games, scoring 694 goals and 1,282
points, with only 329 penalty minutes. Internationally, he appeared in
six senior World Championships and an Olympic Qualifying competition,
scoring 23 goals and 35 points.
Compiled with research, provided April 2007. |
