4 Andrew Carter

Andrew Carter was part of the famous Durham Wasps, coming through their various junior teams before being a part of the last ever 'kid-line'. With the Wasps getting bought out by Newcastle United owner Sir John Hall in 1996, and re-locating to Newcastle, the old Riverside Rink was sold off meaning hockey in County Durham had died. The club carried on playing for 1 more year in Sunderland before finally disbanding, but Durham's loss was certainly Whitley's gain in more ways than one. With so much home grown talent the former Wasps players moved to either Whitley or to the Sunderland Chiefs, which is where Andrew ended up. With Whitley dropping down the leagues over the next few years Whitley and Sunderlad would end up playing in the same division (the English National League) and along with a third North-east side the Billingham Eagles/Bombers would dominate the honours list. Sunderland and Billingham faced each other in the play-off final of 1999 and Andrew was leading goalscorer in the league that season, which alerted Whitley to sign him. So with Andrew in place for the millenium season Whitley dominated the championships for the next 3 years (1999-2002). With the Vipers recruiting all local players from Whitley, Andrew teamed up with Karl Culley but after playing the first few games couldnt agree terms of a contract with the BNL club and so returned to Whitley and helped lend some experience to a very youthful side and make the 2003 playoffs. Andrew continued to play the following season but with the team in fast decline he called it a day after a bizarre game in Bradford in February 2004. With the return of Simon Leach to Whitley in 2006, Andrew decided to make a return in the spring of 2007, but as he hadn't played the whole season coundnt compete in the playoffs. (there was a rule stipulating that you had to play a certain percentage of regular season games to qualify to play in the playoffs, this was to stop teams that had a link up to a senior side in a higher league from using their players and dominating the championship) If it was hard to accept losing Andrew for the playoffs the upside was that he was fresh and raring to go in the Northern league finals weekedn in Dundee, where such rules did not apply. Andrew helped lead the side to victory and end our 5 year trophy drought. With player-coach Simon Leach leaving for Australia, Andrew and best friend Culley teamed up to co-coach the team during the 2007-08 season. It would prove to be his last as a player, but what a season it was, as the pair rolled back the years linking up with some very fast paced hockey and great inter-changing plays between the 2. Sometimes it made you think if they had some sort of telepathic sense, as they knew exactle where the other would be and how to play the puck to each other. Ending on a high Andrew helped to win the ENL Championship playoffs in Coventry then made his final appearance in his testimonial later that month.