Not so n(ice) for a Sunday night

Friday 6th February 2009, 10:15AM GMT

Ice hockeyI can’t pretent it doesn’t still hurt. Five days after my first attempt at ice hockey in well over ten years my muscles still ache, I struggle to walk up stairs (nothing new there) and I have a mysterious bruise on my leg.

But I loved it – training on Sunday night with the Telford Spartans recreational ice hockey team gave me the biggest buzz in years.

The decision to start playing after so long on the sidelines was inspired by two seasons of filming Telford Tigers in the English Premier League.

It can’t be that difficult, I thought.

In my own rose-tinted view of those carefree days in the under-16 side, I glided like a butterfly – but had a shot like a flea.

Nothing much had changed as I ventured on to the ice in the same boots I bought in 1994, but I learned an immediate lesson.

Skating isn’t like riding a bike. Okay, you never forget the basics, but falling on to the ice feels much more humiliating and the sympathy is just not there.

Typically, my team-mates are a hardy bunch who have been playing for years and there are some familiar faces.

So how did my skills compare to those long-lost days of my youth?

The flea-inspired shot is still there – I still cannot hit the puck hard without falling over, as I humiliate myself constantly.

Okay, I can still skate after a shaky start, but control is a real issue. Several of my fellow players learned that to their cost as I tumbled into them at speed and the netminder was never bothered as I flew past the net with the puck nowhere near my stick.

Surely I wasn’t that bad when I played before.

But the biggest difference? That will be the fitness.

With 30 minutes of the hour-long session to go, I trudged off the ice, knackered.

I have never been so exhausted in my life and found myself in such a state that I vowed no to get in that position again.

So why am I returning on Sunday night for another instalment?

It’s the ice hockey bug, I suppose – I was bitten all those years ago and I have caught it again.

I’ll let you know how I get on next week…