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Ice Hockey UK have added two netminders, Welshman Stevie Lyle and Scotland’s Charlie Huddlestone, to their Hall of Fame.
Both have been indicted because of their ‘outstanding service to British ice hockey’.
Cardiff-born Lyle had a glittering career after making his debut at the age of 14 and said: “I have so many amazing memories from my time in the sport and it is special to be recognised in this way.
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“It is a massive honour to be inducted into the Hall of Fame and it would not be possible without the many team-mates I have had over the years.
“I am touched by the award and feel honoured to be listed alongside some of the most famous names in this sport in the UK.”
Lyle played for home city club Cardiff Devils at the age of 14, making his debut in 1994, and went on to play for 23 seasons, 12 of them at the top level.
He was a schoolboy when Cardiff coach John Lawless selected him to start in a Continental Cup quarter-final match in 1994 at the backstopped the Devils to a 6-2 win over Ukrainian champions Sokol Kiev and the club went on to qualify for the cup semis.
“I don’t remember being particularly impressed with this,” says Lyle. “I was so young I suppose I thought it was normal.”
He collected two league trophies, two playoff titles and a Challenge Cup. His agility in the nets earned him six Best British Netminder awards, places on three All-Star first teams and a Player of the Year honour.
Lyle spent 10 seasons playing for Devils, while he also played for Manchester Storm Belfast Giants, Guildford Flames, Bracknell Bees, Basingstoke Bison and Swindon Wildcats.
He played overseas for three years – in the USA, Italy and France where he was numbered among the French league’s All-Stars.
The highlight of his British league career was winning the inaugural Superleague season with the Devils in 1996-97 when the league voted him their Player of the Year.
“That was amazing,” he said. “I was only 17 and was playing with all those import guys.”
He was capped 82 times for Great Britain, playing in 13 World Championship tournaments and seven Olympic qualifiers, compiling an overall 2.53 goals against average.
Lyle retired at the end of the 2016-17 season after three years with the Wildcats.
Scottish international netminder Huddlestone was one of the leading lights in the sport in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Glasgow-based Huddlestone, better known as Charlie or Chuck, regularly took his teams to play at Brighton, Southampton, Whitley Bay, Durham, Blackpool and Altrincham, which were the only ice hockey rinks in England in those days.
Charlie doubled as coach driver, bundling them all into in his own minibus, and even found time to report the team’s games back to The Bulletin newspaper in Glasgow.
The team, self-selected from a pool of about 30, would turn up one weekend as Glasgow Flyers and another as Ayr Hurricanes, mixing and matching players to make up the teams.
Huddlestone represented Scotland three times between 1947 and 1962. In his first Home International at Falkirk, the Scots lost 4-2 to England. Fourteen years later he backstopped them to an 8-6 win at Southampton, only to lose 7-3 next day along the coast in Brighton.
He ran a guest house in Glasgow’s west end for many years and died in 1998, aged 73.
