Two back again for the Bees

The Bracknell Bees are delighted to announce the return of British forward Alex Barker and British defenceman Ben Johnson for the 2011/12 English Premier Ice Hockey league campaign.

20-year old Alex returns to the Hive for his second full season with the Bees following several successful and productive seasons with the Bracknell Hornets ENL team. Alex is a product of the Bracknell junior system and was part of the squad that helped the Hornets win the ENIHL Southern Play-Offs in 2009/10. Alex proved himself to be a great asset to the Bees squad last season scoring 10 goals and picking up 7 assists in 53 matches.

25-year old Ben returns to the Hive for his second consecutive season with the Bees after playing for the Bracknell Hornets ENL team and prior to that, with the Bees under former Bees coach, Adam Bicknell. Ben is a product of the Guildford junior system but started his senior hockey career in 2004/2005 for the Haringey Greyhounds before returning home to Guildford to join the Flames for 2 seasons. Since then, Ben has been a permanent fixture at Bracknell with both the Hornets and the Bees. Ben was also was part of the squad that helped the Hornets win the ENIHL Southern Play-Offs in 2009/10.

Bees head coach Gareth Cox said - "I'm so pleased to have both Alex and Ben on board again having worked with them for a long time. Alex impressed everyone last season with the quality of his finishing and I know that a number of our local rivals were keenly trying to recruit him up this summer. He has excellent vision and comfortably held his own playing alongside more experienced campaigners. Ben is much under-rated player, but does the simple things well and always works hard to never let his team mates down. His confidence is improving year on year and he also a fantastic guy off the ice, supporting our schools and community programmes. These were two key guys that we wanted to bring back and both are already hungry to get started again."