THE SLIPPERY SLOPE OF ICE SOCCER

A Christmas card from one of my readers was rather splendid and showed the seasonal ice rink outside Somerset House. Skaters were in full flow and his question was; if this rink is a decent size for a football match has there been Ice Football (soccer)?

Well yes! In the big winter freeze (was it 1963?) my Pulborough chums and I would take a stroll to the Arun Wild Brooks where the floodplain had a reasonably safe amount of water on it which had frozen hard. Being careful not to indulge our enthusiasm actually on the river channel, we made goals with "jumpers" and played slidey football for an energetic hour of so. Thankfully there were no broken bones despite many "tumbles" from quite a few slide tackles.

On December 9th 1967, Manchester City under the watchful eyes of Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison, took on Spurs at Maine Road and they played in unhelpful conditions. Joe told his lads to rip off the "leather tops" of their studs to reveal the three nails that held the stud into the leather sole of the football boot. Hey presto, his boys had grips on their boots and Spurs were on the slippery slope. Referees didn't check studs in those days and the City boys stood up to the conditions.

36,000 supporters saw Tony Book's side go behind to a Jimmy Greaves' goal early on but the City boys kept their feet and beat Spurs 4-1. Apparently Allision, prior to the game, had convinced his team that they could "walk on water" and well they did, sort of!

Looking for proper soccer games on ice rinks led me to Zorb Football which involves the protecting big bubble and there are Ice Leagues where matches are played either trainers or on skates.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLAepjWmmjg

Roller soccer is a convivial game where hockey rules seem to have been incorporated into the game of soccer. This game goes back quite a while and involved ladies!.
http://www.britishpathe.com/video/soccer-on-skates

Put this on a roller blade rink with inline blades and there is another game and then stick the whole thing on ice with "blades" and there you have it.
Jacob Gayman has "invented" the sport with 5 a side, no gks, no kicking above waist high and small goals 3' high and 4' wide. Offside is complex, so I wont go there.

There is also this game which seems to be a very social event!
http://www.icesoccer.com/ice_soccer_rules.html  these are the rules
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2a4DbRS3EA this is a sort of example!

I found a few references to Ice Soccer, especially in US states like Colorado and Utah-this is not Ice on the ground, but just a name for soccer played in the winter, I think??? and there is also a computer game with that name. There is also "Soccie" a combination of soccer and hockey.