The Bespoke Guardians Swindon Wildcats confirm player for the 2021/2022 season

For the new NIHL National Season beginning later this year, The Bespoke Guardians Swindon Wildcats are delighted to confirm that Ben Nethersell will once more be icing as part of the Cats D core for 21/22.

Ben properly broke through into the senior Wildcats side in 2016 after graduating from the Okanagan Hockey Academy. Whilst he had made a handful of appearances before this year, the 16-17 season was his first senior season of ice hockey where he put up 15 points in 38 games for the Cats.

Since then, the 23-year-old has spent each season in Swindon and has grown into a crucial part of Aaron Nell’s team. During the 19/20 campaign, Ben was awarded the Most Improved Player after the season ended abruptly thanks to the Covid-19 Pandemic.

He’s iced in over 200 games for the club and has represented his country on two separate occasions with the Team GB U18 teams at two world championships.

Head Coach Aaron Nell was delighted to have got Ben to sign on the dotted line for another season in Swindon

I’m really happy to have Ben back in the team for another year. He was a stand out name for my Most Improved Player award in 2019/20, and he backed that up with some strong Spring Cup performances. It will be exciting to see how he develops over what we hope will be a more normal season.

Ben is still young and he’s still learning the game, he has the ability to move the puck and his responsibility has grown in the last couple of years. I’m looking forward to working with him again, and I know how eager he is to get going. I hope this will be a big breakout year for Ben.

After putting pen to paper, Ben himself was happy to be back in Swindon again:

It was a really easy decision to sign here again, Swindon feels like home now and I couldn’t think of anywhere else I’d rather play. I can’t wait to have some normality back in my life, it feels like ages since playing in proper competitive games and it’ll be great being back with the boys.

It was strange playing in the spring cup behind closed doors and seeing other sports now with the fans back makes me even more excited to have fans back in the Link Centre, it makes a huge difference on game night. I want to continue my development with the team, keep pushing forward, working hard and moving up the line up next year.

Once again Ben will be sponsored by Clements Building Contractors who are a building firm based in Blunsdon, but if you are interested in any other sponsorship regarding the 21/22 Wildcats email [email protected] for more information.

*Photo by Kat Medcroft and article by Ben Callaghan.