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Inducted into the Hall of Fame on 1999. Born August 4th, 1931 in Acton, West London defenceman Roy Shepherd has claimed a unique place in the history of British ice hockey. As well as having held down a regular place in both the English and British National Leagues, at a time when Canadians dominated the sport in Britain, Roy Shepherd is the Englishman who taught the Russians something about the game on ice. The
occasion was the first ever visit of the USSR team to Wembley, in
December 1955. In those days, the Soviets played a highly skilled, but
virtually non-contact brand of hockey. That night, they were to become
acquainted with the fine art of body checking in the ample form of Roy
Shepherd. Roy dumped first one and then another Russian forward to the
ice with crunching, but perfectly fair body checks. The visitors, who
had seldom experienced the like before, withdrew to their bench and for
a while it looked as if they would not continue the game. After lengthy
discussions between officials and the Soviet delegation, the game was
completed leaving the Russians to ponder over an aspect of the game that
was to them, completely new. These
days of course with dozens of their players plying their trade in the
professional ranks in North America, the Russians play a much more
physical game. It is not too fanciful however, to date their change of
attitude to those two shattering Shepherd hits at Wembley in 1955. Roy
Shepherd started his hockey playing career just after the end of the
Second World War when, along with hundreds of other youngsters, he
turned up at the Empire Pool for a tryout. He was soon playing for the
Wembley Terriers in the Southern Intermediate League and progressed to
the senior team, the Lions in 1951. He remained a regular member of the
team until the league folded in 1960. Following the collapse of the British League, Roy Shepherd played for the Southampton Vikings, Brighton Tigers and the briefly revived Wembley Lions in the sixties. In the seventies, he iced for both Sussex and the Bristol Redwings. After 13 years in the wilderness Southampton returned to competitive action in 1976. Roy made a return to the Hampshire club to play out his final 2 seasons in competitive hockey. First as a player in 1976 then returning as player-coach the following year before hanging up his skates. Roy Shepherd’s final statistical record in all
competitive domestic hockey reads:-
Roy Shepherd also played in a
total of four World Championship tournaments for Great Britain, Pool A
in 1951 and 1962, and Pool B in 1952 and 1961, during which time he
recorded four goals in twenty-three appearances. Compiled with research, provided by Martin C.Harris – March 1999. |
