The Edinburgh Capitals held a special thigh-burning training session at Murrayfield Ice Rink this week.
Over the course of an afternoon the professionals put the amateur players from the Police Scotland Ice Hockey Section and from the UK Firefighters team through their paces in a series of fast-paced training drills and short games.
The session was organised in preparation ahead of next Friday’s charity match between the emergency services in aid of The Sick Kids Friends Foundation.
Richard Hartmann who is player/coach of the Edinburgh Capitals as well as the Assistant Coach of the GB ice hockey team, led the training session.
He said: “We are delighted to help in this event and show our respect to the guys as they have really hard jobs.
“Hopefully, a lot of people will make it along to the match next week and show their respect to these guys as well as help raise some money for a very good cause.”
The upcoming match follows a similar event held last year when the squads met on the ice at the Braehead Arena in Glasgow, raising more than £8,000 for The Scottish Police Benevolent Fund and The Fire Fighters Charity.
Kenny Allan, a firefighter at Yorkhill in Glasgow, hopes another impressive sum of money can be raised this time round.
He said: “We raised a lot of money for two charities after the last game so hopefully we can do the same again.
“The Sick Kids Friends Foundation is another worthwhile cause and anything we can do to raise money for them is brilliant.”
Detective Sergeant Martin McKay of the Scottish Police Ice Hockey section said: “The countdown is on so I would ask everyone who wants to watch two good sides battle it out on the ice to book their tickets now and in return help a fantastic local charity.”
Victoria Watson who is a community fundraiser at The Sick Kids Friends Foundation is looking forward to the match.
“This event is fantastic and it is the sort of fundraising activity that we, as a charity, dream of,” she said.
“Police Scotland and the Firefighters have been absolutely brilliant.”
Tickets are now on sale for the charity match priced from £8 to £40.
As an added bonus, the ticket price also includes entry to the league match between the Edinburgh Capitals and Cardiff Devils, which follows immediately afterwards.
Face-off for the charity match is 5:15pm at Murrayfield Ice Rink on Friday, February 13.
Tickets are available from www.edinburghcapitals.ticketsource.co.uk
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
