Mighty Tykes battle it out at Alan Nixon Tournament

April 3, 2014 · 0 Comments

The Alan Nixon Memorial Tyke tournament finally took place over the weekend in Shelburne.

It’s not that the Tykes didn’t want to play, but the first two scheduled dates were cancelled due to the bad weather that closed local highways and stopped out of town teams from making the trek.

“Originally we were scheduled for January 25. That was the night the arena was closed and we ended up having 400 visitors spending the night here,” said tournament organizer Mairi MacRea. “It was rescheduled for a day in February and again we had the weather. So we had to cancel because it just wasn’t safe.”

Mairi along with Meghan MacRea organized the tournament that included three Shelburne teams and teams from three visiting towns – Orangeville, Essa, and Flesherton –with around 110 players taking part.

The Tyke teams all play three games on tournament day.

“The older teams are more capable of going away and taking part in weekend tournaments,” Mairi explained as to why they started a Tyke level event. “Whereas with the Tykes, a one day tournament is just about the right amount of time for them.”

The Tykes appreciated getting so much ice time in a single day.

“Most of their practices as split ice,” Mairi said. “So they don’t necessarily get full ice all the time because they’re little. This is their fun day. They have a blast. They have a great time.”

The is the first time the tournament as been named in honour of Alan Nixon – a local resident involved with the Relics hockey teams as well as having grandchildren playing with the Wolves.

The tournament is very “community involved,” Mairi said, with a silent auction, raffle table, and even baked good for sale.

At the end of the day, the Tykes were pretty excited about having their own tournament and having the chance to show off their hockey skills in front of a hometown crowd.

By Brian Lockhart