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:- GP 746 Goals 218 Assists 416 Pts 624 PIM 440
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.
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