Historic Ice Hockey Cup Presented To Hockey Hall Of Fame

After 90 years shut away in an English attic, new light has suddenly been shed on a unique piece of hockey history dating from 1910. It is a beautiful solid silver cup engraved with the image of an early ice hockey match in progress on a lake in the Swiss Alps. England's Cambridge and Oxford Universities battled for this trophy. The caption reads: Oxford - Cambridge Challenge Shield, Ice Hockey, Wengen [Switzerland], 1909-10.' Last seen after Cambridge's victory in the 1913 Varsity Ice Hockey Match, the cup was lost at the outbreak of the First World War and was only recently re-discovered.

Cambridge University is presenting the trophy to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. Cambridge Head Coach Bill Harris, who will be presenting the award with current Captain and Gates Scholar Andrew Ashcroft, says, It's a fascinating story. Cambridge University Ice Hockey Club is one of the oldest hockey clubs in existence. The first Varsity Match was played in 1885, and the annual Cambridge - Oxford match is the oldest, ongoing hockey rivalry in the world.

The trophy dates from the early years of that rivalry. When Cedric Molton Fiddian, the president of the Cambridge University Ice Hockey Club at the time, went off to war in 1914, this solid silver cup was stowed away in the family home for safekeeping. Cedric was wounded in the war; other team members never returned. The team was temporarily disbanded and the cup was forgotten. Cedric eventually became principal of the King's Choir School and the story goes that whenever it got cold enough for the lakes to freeze, he cancelled classes and took the entire school ice-skating.

Cedric's son Bill found the silver cup when he and his wife unpacked the attic following the death of his father. As they did not know that the Cambridge University Hockey team was still in existence, his wife used the beautiful bowl, which she kept highly polished, as a flower vase for several years. It only came to light again as a result of an article publicizing the current Cambridge team in a local paper, which inspired Bill Fiddian to give the trophy back to the Cambridge University Ice Hockey Club.

It gives the Cambridge University Ice Hockey Club great pleasure now to present this trophy to the Hockey Hall of Fame, not only as unique piece of hockey heritage, but also as a memorial to those past heroes of the game, concludes Coach Harris.

Phil Pritchard, Curator and Vice President of the Hockey Hall of Fame, adds, The Cambridge-Oxford game is one of the most recognized challenges worldwide and we are honoured to display this priceless piece within our Exhibit Hall. The 'Royal Canadian Mint World of Hockey Zone' at the Hockey Hall of Fame already features some of the game's greatest international matches, but few match the determination and desire that these two clubs display year in and year out.

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	Ice Hockey Cup
Historic Ice Hockey Cup Presented To Hockey Hall Of Fame