Hi all who remember Paisley ice rink and especially Paisley Pirate Fans.This E is coming to you from Montreal Canada where I have lived ever since coming from Scotland in 1957. I discovered your web site when trying to find some historical data about the Pirates and Paisley Ice Rink, and I was devastated to discover the rink closed many years ago - I did not know that. During the years I lived in Glasgow, I was addicted to ice skating. I first learned to skate in Kelvin Hall in Glasgow during the latter part of the war years where you could rent outdated "figure skates" use them in the ice, then visit the dance floor. Much later after my years in the service when I returned to Glasgow, I was a regular visitor to Paisley Ice Rink where you could then buy from the concession stand a new pair of skates. I bought my first pair of hockey skates there around the year 1953 (cost 6 pounds) and visited the rink at least twice a week. Around the year 1955 I became a steward in Paisley Ice Rink (Johnny Gibb if I remember was the chief steward) and I attended the rink several nights a week and of course was always on duty for the pirate games on a friday night. These were wonderful and happy days that have special treasured memories for me. During the summer months when Paisley closed, we used to make the drive down to Ayr where we could continue to skate! My love for hockey was born in Scotland during those days, and of course for many decades now have followed the National Hockey League in Canada with the wonderful "Stanley Cup" being prominent. I only have one picture taken on the ice in Paisley ice rink which I would be happy to send you if you are interested, but I will forever treasure the memories of those days, and how well I remember the club and bar upstairs! Contact me if you are interested in any more nostalgic memories. Thank you for your web site and a re-awakening of wonderful youthful years long since gone. Lew. 30/5/03

One of the many memories I've got from my 11th season of supporting the Pirates is from back in season 1, in 92-93, we were in Scot 1 for the first time, the same sort of standard as we have now, only then, rather than a lot of people turning up their noses at a Scottish League, we were playing to absolute sell out crowds every week, with 2 games every weekend (a big plus, admittedly, over the current one home game a fortnight).
We started late, after the demise of the Ayr Bruins/Raiders who had been playing out of the Lagoon, (certain similarities 10 years on, eh?) but hit the league with a force such as had never been seen before-crowds of a few hundred at other rinks were exceptional, yet we were beating them away with a stick every weekend, playing to capacity attendances of 1250 every game. With 3 imports in the form of Mike Bettens (in my own not so humble opinion, the greatest ever Pirate to pull on the jersey), Graeme Garden, who went on to play for Great Britain by nature of his British passport, and Robert Koutny, a six foot something Czech who left Aviemore mid season to come to us, we ran away with the league-I remember waiting for news of our first ever away match, a tough one against Kirkcaldy Kestrels, former league winners, and the 19-5 win for the good guys suggested we MIGHT just have a decent team in the red, white and black! We won the league by the length of the M8, but while we didn't do much in the playoffs for entry into the big boys league, we got an invite anyway, due, no doubt, to our very large, not to say vociferous, home support, and the rest, as they say, is
history! We had a lot of other less well known players who didn't feature greatly in future Pirates' squads, such as David Adam, John O'Hare, Stewart Stronach, Richie Lamb, Scott Archibald, but I think it's only right and proper to remember them all for the part they played in getting the Pirates Mark 2 on the road-I only wish we'd had Davie Ormond flogging videos of the first season's team from the table, it would be great to relive some of those memories now! -Bill Elliot

I used to go to Crossmyloof to see the Dynamos, with the big derby match being against the Mohawks. There used to be a bunch of mental women who came along to support Paisley and they howled abuse for the whole match. Their prime target was the young Shields boy. Whatever happened to him? The matches used to be pretty physical, surpise surprise.Onto the present day, and the team deserve a lot of credit for their performance up at Camperdown, especially with so few skaters. A couple of superb goals, with the wee netminder on top form. Hopefully that's the Killie match out of their system - .Auld Dynamo

I see that a few people have mentioned the East Lane rink. I went to a five a side tournament at a rink in Paisley (possibly) in the late 60's - would it have been there? They laid wood over the ice, but the ice started to melt and water started coming through! -Keith

Nottingham panthers v Paisley Pirates. In January 1956, a game against the then notorious Paisley Pirates ended in mayhem, as players from both sides were joined by some fans in swapping punches, both on and off the ice and then en route to the locker room. Police eventually cleared away the crowd, ending an incident later described as the "worst exhibition of sportsmanship seen in Nottingham and probably in the whole of British Ice Hockey. One administrator claimed "This could kill the game in this country".