text:
Elite Ice Hockey League

The Elite Ice Hockey League (EIHL), sometimes referred to internationally as the British Elite League, is an ice hockey league in the United Kingdom. Formed in 2003 following the demise of the Ice Hockey Superleague, it is the highest level of ice hockey competition in the United Kingdom.

The league operates three competitions for members; the British Championship play-offs determine the national champion for the season, following a regular season league competition for which separate champions are also crowned, and which selects and seeds the teams in the play-offs. Finally, a stand-alone cup competition, the Challenge Cup, is also held annually including only EIHL teams, beginning with the group stages followed by a knock-out format. In effect, the play-off final, regular end-of-season table and Challenge Cup final crown the British or National Champions, the EIHL League champions and the Cup champions respectively.

The league currently consists of one division of ten teams, with representation from all four nations of the United Kingdom – the only league in any sport to do so. Five of the teams as of 2023 are situated in England, while the other five are spread throughout the other nations; three in Scotland, one each in Wales and Northern Ireland. In fourteen completed seasons the league championship has been won by five different teams, while the play-offs have crowned six different teams as national champions.

A system of promotion and relegation is not operated by the Elite League; teams enter the league on the basis of a decision by the board of directors. A similar system operates in most American sports, and also in various competitions in Britain and Ireland, including the British Basketball League, the United Rugby Championship, the Netball Superleague, and The Hundred and County Championship in English and Welsh cricket.

Despite this, other organised ice-hockey does take place in Great Britain. The level below the Elite League is the National Ice Hockey League, and historically teams have moved between the two leagues for competitive and financial reasons, by agreement of the respective leagues' management.

Internationally, teams from the EIHL can participate in the International Ice Hockey Federation's annual Champions Hockey League (CHL), competing for the European Trophy. Participation is based on the strength of the various leagues in Europe (excluding the European/Asian Kontinental Hockey League). Going into the 2022–23 CHL season, the EIHL was ranked the No. 8 league in Europe, allowing them to send their top team to compete in the CHL.

The day-to-day operation of the league is overseen by a chairman (as of 2023, Tony Smith), a director of hockey operations (Michael Hicks), media manager / hockey operations (Luke Fisher), head of commercial operations (Mark Brooks), and a board of directors. Disciplinary matters are handled by EIHL Hockey Operation's Department of Player Safety (DOPS).

Early years (2003–2010)
British ice hockey's structure underwent a major reorganisation in 1996. The British Hockey League (the highest senior competition since 1982, featuring the top two divisions of the sport) was disbanded and replaced by the Ice Hockey Superleague (top tier) and British National League (second tier).

The loss of the Cardiff Devils and the Newcastle Jesters in 2001 reduced the membership of the Superleague to seven; and when the Manchester Storm and the Scottish Eagles folded within a week of one another at the beginning of the 2002–03 season, there were just five remaining teams. In December 2002, the Bracknell Bees announced their intention to resign from the league to join the BNL at the end of the season; and uncertainty surrounded the future of the London Knights and their London Arena home; which ultimately led to the Knights folding in 2003. Owing a large debt to Ice Hockey UK and facing the prospect of having only three members, the league placed itself into liquidation on 30 April 2003.

The three remaining clubs (Belfast Giants, Nottingham Panthers, and Sheffield Steelers) began considering the formation of a new league with a lower wage cap and larger commitment to British players to attract other clubs into joining them. In the weeks that followed they were joined by the Basingstoke Bison, Cardiff Devils, and Coventry Blaze of the British National League and two new organisations, from London and Manchester. A team based in Glasgow was also planned, but did not come to fruition. The new league met considerable opposition from the British National League and the governing body Ice Hockey UK. The IHUK wished for the remaining Superleague clubs to integrate themselves into the BNL and initially refused to grant the new league affiliation. The Superleague clubs were reluctant to join the predominantly British-trained league after several years of playing in an import-dominated league where British players were seldom able to step up to the standard of their North American and European counterparts. The Elite League instead preferred a twelve import limit with the rest of the team being British-trained players.

The refusal to grant affiliation caused a bitter row that showed little sign of being resolved. Despite not having the support of the governing body, the new league continued their plans. No affiliation would have meant that the clubs would have problems attaining work permits for their signings and finding officials to referee their matches. The row also threatened the future of the Nottingham Panthers, as the National Ice Centre were reluctant to allow a team from an unaffiliated league to hire their arena. The issue was resolved in August 2003 when the Panthers and the NIC announced an icetime agreement. The EIHL finally gained affiliation in August 2003, with only weeks to go before the beginning of the new season.

The new league began on 12 September 2003, when the Sheffield Steelers, who went on to become the inaugural league champions, defeated the newly formed London Racers 6–1 at Alexandra Palace. Charles, Prince of Wales dropped the first puck, after unveiling a plaque. The Racers endured a difficult first season, moving to a different rink only weeks into the season and having to wait 40 games to record a win, a 3–0 victory over the Cardiff Devils. The Racers finished the season with 10 points, 38 points behind second-to-last Basingstoke. The other new team, the Manchester Phoenix, fared slightly better, qualifying for the playoff finals after finishing sixth in the league, where they were defeated 6–1 by Nottingham in the semifinal. The club played at the 17,500 capacity MEN Arena which had been home to the Manchester Storm, but Phoenix crowds averaged 2,250, well below the break-even mark of 3,000. Late in the season, the Phoenix choose to play a game at IceSheffield rather than pay the considerable cost of hiring the arena for a mid-week game (which usually had lower attendances). In the close season they allowed fans to vote on the option of either suspending playing operations while a new rink was constructed or playing in exile away from Manchester while a new rink was built. Supporters opted to suspend playing operations pending the construction of a new facility.

The second season of the EIHL saw a series of games between the EIHL clubs and the members of the BNL. In addition to three home games and three away games against their Elite opponents, each club also played one home game and one away game against the BNL clubs in crossover match-ups. Results in these crossover games counted towards a team's points tally. The NHL lock-out also saw a number of NHL players join British clubs. Coventry won the League Title, The Challenge Cup and the Playoffs, winning the championship with an overtime victory over the Nottingham Panthers, whilst Belfast won the EIHL-BNL Crossover League.

The crossover games with the BNL clubs were seen by many to be the first stage towards an amalgamation of the two organizations into one league; essentially reforming the original BHL. However, early in the season it was revealed that two teams from the BNL, the Edinburgh Capitals and Newcastle Vipers, were seeking to resign from the BNL and join the EIHL; preferring the standard of hockey that the EIHL had to offer. A withdrawal of these clubs would leave the BNL with only five remaining participating teams. This situation led to the resigning teams temporarily withdrawing their Elite League applications and entering into collective discussions on the entire BNL joining the EIHL instead. The Elite League offered the BNL clubs invitations to join the EIHL structure, which were declined by the remaining teams due to unfavourable terms. Subsequently, the Capitals and Vipers both resubmitted individual applications to the Elite League; both of which were accepted. This ultimately led to the dissolution of the BNL, with the five remaining teams joining the next tier of British hockey (which consisted of the English Premier Ice Hockey League in England and the Scottish National League in Scotland).

With the Edinburgh Capitals and Newcastle Vipers becoming the ninth and tenth members of the league, the 2005–06 season began with nine clubs (Manchester had opted to take another season out with no rink yet constructed). However, in November 2005, the London Racers withdrew their team from competition and immediately ceased operations. From their formation the Racers had suffered problems finding a rink with comparable facilities to those of their rivals and they had maintained only a very small fan base. The club had made the Lee Valley Ice Centre their home after playing only a small number of games at the Alexandra Palace in their first season. The facilities were very basic, seating only 900 people with an overall capacity of barely 1,000. In November 2005, during a game against the Nottingham Panthers; Panthers player Blaž Emeršič suffered a serious facial injury after colliding with a protruding object in the boards. Further concerns were raised when a game against the Sheffield Steelers was abandoned after a piece of plexiglas shattered in an irregular manner, injuring a spectator. When a similar event took place during practice a few days later; the Racers management began to question seriously the safety of the rink. With the Ice Centre unable to ensure the safety of players and spectators at Elite League games, the Racers were forced to suspend team operations effective immediately.

In January 2006, the Manchester Phoenix were granted planning permission to construct a new rink in Altrincham. A few weeks later, the Cardiff Devils also received planning permission for the construction of a new rink. The Wales National Ice Rink was earmarked for demolition and a campaign for the council to provide a new facility proved successful. With both clubs confirming their intent to take part the following season, speculation began about the possible inclusion of a tenth team to replace the London Racers. After the season was over, rumours about the possible admission of either Hull or Dundee became more and more widespread. On 22 June 2006, the Hull Stingrays were formally elected into the Elite Ice Hockey League as the tenth active member.

In June 2006, the EIHL announced the adoption of the "zero tolerance" interpretation of the rules with regard to holding, hooking and interference implemented in the National Hockey League during the 2005–06 season. These rules had proved highly successful in the NHL, increasing the pace of the game and leading to a rise in spectator numbers.

On 25 August 2006, the Elite League announced a sponsorship deal with the low cost airline bmibaby. The agreement saw the company's name incorporated into the league's title and the airline's branding at each of the league's ten arenas. The deal was intended to last for seven seasons, but ended prematurely during the 2008–09 season.

On 30 April 2009, the Manchester Phoenix announced that they would withdraw from the league, and play instead in the English Premier Ice Hockey League, due to cost issues. This news followed the announcement that the Basingstoke Bison were also leaving to play in the EPL for the 2009–10 season.

League expands and changes (2010–2020)
After losing two teams at the end of the 2008–09 season the Elite League was boosted by a new franchise joining the league. The Braehead Clan were announced as the ninth team for the 2010–11 season. On 27 April 2010, the Dundee Stars were unanimously accepted into the League by the EIHL board as the tenth team.

The Hull Stingrays withdrew from the League on 11 August 2010, announced via the club's official website, and later confirmed on the BBC's site. However, after a takeover from the Coventry Blaze on 17 August 2010, the Hull Stingrays confirmed that they would indeed be participating in the league for the 2010–11 season. The Stingrays again withdrew, on 24 June 2015, as the club announced on its official website that it has been placed into liquidation.

From the 2013–14 season onwards, the league has consisted of two conferences; each consisting of five teams. These are the Erhardt Conference and the Gardiner Conference. These can roughly be split into north and south, with the Erhardt featuring the teams from Belfast, Cardiff, Coventry, Nottingham, and Sheffield; and the Gardiner featuring the teams from Dundee, Edinburgh, Fife, and Glasgow along with Hull Stingrays until 2015, and their replacements Manchester Storm from 2015 onwards.

On 27 April 2017 it was announced that the Milton Keynes Lightning and Guildford Flames were joining for the start of the 2017–18 season and that the league schedule would be increased to 56 games in the regular season with three new conferences of four teams.

Conference 1 consisted of the Braehead Clan, Dundee Stars, Edinburgh Capitals and Fife Flyers known as the Scottish Conference.

Conference 2 consisted of the Coventry Blaze, Guildford Flames, Manchester Storm and Milton Keynes Lightning known as the Southern Conference.

Conference 3 consisted of the Belfast Giants, Cardiff Devils, Nottingham Panthers and Sheffield Steelers known as the Arena Teams. This meant that teams would play teams in their own conference eight times (four home and four away) totaling 24 games and play the other conference's teams four times (two home and two away) totaling 32 games, giving the league a total of 56 games.

In April 2018, when the Murrayfield Ice Rink asked for bidders for the ice time at the arena, the Edinburgh Capitals and Murrayfield Racers (a newly formed team) bid for the rights with the Racers winning the opportunity. The Racers asked for permission to join the EIHL, but on 30 April the league refused their application and they subsequently joined the Scottish National League (SNL).

On 4 May, the EIHL released a statement explaining that they would have to move forward without the Edinburgh Capitals with a board meeting on 22 May to discuss the league future format and decide on any clubs wishing to participate in place of Edinburgh.

After the conclusion of the 2018–19 season, the Milton Keynes Lightning officially left the EIHL after just two seasons in the league and moved to the newly created National Ice Hockey League (NIHL), returning the number of teams to 10. The three conference format was also scrapped.

Recent years (2020–present)
The 2019–20 EIHL season was cancelled in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Only the Challenge Cup (won by Sheffield Steelers) was awarded with both the league and play-offs cancelled.

The 2020–21 EIHL season, originally scheduled for a September start, was suspended indefinitely on September 15, 2020, due to ongoing coronavirus restrictions and continuing social distancing which made the league season a non-starter.

While there were tentative plans for a shortened league season, featuring a handful of sides to potentially begin play in January 2021, this idea - and the prospect of a 2020–21 season - were shelved by the league in February 2021 due to concerns around funding.

Then, in March 2021, the Elite League announced that four of the English teams (Coventry, Manchester, Nottingham and Sheffield) would take part in the 'Elite Series' between April–May 2021, a total of 24 games to be played at Nottingham's Motorpoint Arena, culminating in a best-of-three play-off final series. Nottingham claimed the trophy by virtue of a 2–0 series win over the Sheffield Steelers in the final, winning game one 5-3 and game two 5-2.

In the 2021–22 EIHL season, the first full season to be completed since 2018–19 due to the impacts of the Covid pandemic, the Belfast Giants won both the Elite League title and the Challenge Cup, while the Cardiff Devils won the play-offs.

In May 2022, all ten Elite League clubs agreed to increase the gameday roster size from 19 to 20 - to take effect from the 2022–23 season. Import numbers in a gameday squad were once again capped at 14.

In April 2023, the league announced that the end of season play-off final weekend would continue to be played at Nottingham's Motorpoint Arena until at least 2029.

In the 2022–23 EIHL season, the Belfast Giants became the first team since Nottingham in 2013 to complete the Elite League grand slam, after winning the league title, Challenge Cup and play-offs. The Giants finished ahead of second placed Guildford in the league, and defeated the Fife Flyers and Cardiff Devils in the Challenge Cup and play-off finals respectively.

The following season, 2023–24, the Sheffield Steelers won their first league title since 2016, the Challenge Cup and the play-offs to complete a grand slam of their own. It was Sheffield's first grand slam in the Elite League era and first since 2001.

In May 2024, the Elite League announced a new Challenge Cup format, taking effect from the 2024–25 season. All 10 clubs agreed to scrap the cup quarter-finals, with a group stage feeding straight into the semi-finals.

Structure
Several competitions fall under the jurisdiction of the Elite League.

Up until the end of the 2018–19 season, the league consisted of three conferences, the results of which were compiled in one league table:
 * Gardiner Conference: Dundee Stars, Fife Flyers, and Glasgow Clan
 * Patton Conference: Coventry Blaze, Guildford Flames, and Manchester Storm.
 * Erhardt Conference: Belfast Giants, Cardiff Devils, Nottingham Panthers, and Sheffield Steelers.

Teams played each other six times (three home, three away), making for a 60-game regular season, but after the departure of Milton Keynes Lightning in 2019, the conference system was scrapped for the first time since 2011–12. Each team now plays 54 games.

Two points are awarded for a win and one for an overtime or penalty shootout defeat. Overtime consists of five minutes of three-on-three hockey and ends immediately if a goal is scored. The team that has most points at the end of the regular season is declared champion. Each team receives a regular season participation trophy.

The playoffs are contested by the teams with the best regular season records. The winner is crowned the champion of the British Championship. The number of teams competing in the playoffs has varied. However, since the 2006–07 season, the top eight teams of the regular season have qualified for the quarter-finals, with their league position determining their seeding. All quarter-finals are two-legged ties. Both the semi-finals and the final take place over a single weekend in April at the National Ice Centre in Nottingham.

The Challenge Cup has taken a number of different formats, ranging from a table formed from the results of designated league fixtures to groups of four teams playing on a round-robin basis at the beginning of the season. During some seasons, Elite League games have also been classed as Challenge Cup games and points counted for both. The semi-finals and final are two-legged games, the winner being the team with the highest aggregate score at the end of the second game. All quarter- and semi-finalists receive a playoff participation trophy.

Potential future clubs
The Aberdeen Lynx (currently competing in the Scottish National League) have stated that their ambition is to establish an Elite League team in the city in the future.

The Nottingham Panthers and Glasgow Clan owner Neil Black is rumoured to be setting up a new EIHL franchise in London, playing at Wembley Arena. Black has also stated in the past that he would like to see franchises in Manchester (which has now been achieved) and Dublin.

Wayne Scholes, owner of the Telford Tigers (currently in the English Premier League), has stated that his organisation does not have any immediate plans to make the step up, but has not ruled out the possibility of joining the EIHL in the future, saying that "We have had conversations with the Elite League before but they have to invite you. You can't approach them. It is one of those things where they want to see that you have got two or three years of really good solid success. They want to see that it is sustainable and that you are up to a certain standard, and then they will reach out. At that point, it's a discussion that we will have but right now we are pretty happy where we are."

EIHL Champions by season
The following table sets out the League champions, National champions and Challenge Cup winners of the EIHL era only. Several previous top-tier leagues, such as the Sekonda Super League have also existed, in which some EIHL clubs competed successfully, and the end-of-season play-offs and Challenge Cup both have a long history prior to the founding of the EIHL, again feature many of the teams currently in EIHL.

Only four teams have won a domestic grand slam in the EIHL era; Coventry Blaze in 2004–05, Nottingham Panthers in 2012–13, Belfast Giants in 2022–23 and Sheffield Steelers in 2023-24. By contrast, teams have come within one match of a treble on no less than 13 occasions, beginning with the very first season when Panthers denied Sheffield Steelers by the odd goal in seven in the Challenge Cup final, and including the four completed seasons before last where Belfast Giants twice and Cardiff Devils twice, have been denied a 'Grand Slam' by losing in either the Challenge Cup or play-off final. Although dominated as might be expected by the English teams that represent the majority of the clubs in the league (winning 34 of 55 available trophies up to 2023), the sole entrants from Northern Ireland and Wales, Belfast (13 trophies) and Cardiff (eight trophies), have both enjoyed significant success across all competitions in the EIHL era. In 2023 Fife Flyers became the first Scottish team in the EIHL era to reach a major final, losing 9-3 to Belfast Giants in the Challenge Cup final.

Players
Elite League teams rely heavily on players from outside the United Kingdom (termed imports). The majority of these players are from North America, and typically played in the minor North American leagues such as the ECHL and American Hockey League (AHL) before coming to Britain. For example, of the 21 players to play for champions Belfast Giants in the 2005–06 season, 10 were Canadian, 8 were British and 3 were American. The league restricts the number of import players which can be dressed for a game, with a current limit of 14 imports. Player turnover is high, with a large proportion of players spending a single season at a team before moving on, and multi-year contracts are uncommon.

As would be expected in a league dominated by North American players, the style of ice hockey in Britain is similar to that played in North America, and has a more physical style than that played in other, technically natured European countries. This was demonstrated during the 2004–05 NHL lock-out. Of the NHL players to join Elite League teams, the majority were players noted for physical play rather than puck-handling skills; such as Wade Belak and Eric Cairns.

While British players account for a minority of Elite League players, the league supplies the majority of players for the British national ice hockey team. All 22 players in the Great Britain squad for the 2018 World Championships played for Elite League teams in the preceding season.

Television broadcast deals
In the 1980s and 1990s, Sky Sports and BBC's Grandstand programme covered the British Hockey League and Superleague and their important games and competitions regularly.

However, in 2001 the Superleague sold its broadcasting rights to Premium TV Ltd who planned to set up a new sports channel, which never materialised. British ice hockey was left without coverage from any television network. This situation continued through the final seasons of the Superleague and into the first seasons of the Elite League.

In 2005, Elite League officials concluded an agreement with the North American Sports Network to provide a weekly highlights and news programme. These usually provide highlights from a game recorded the previous weekend and are an hour in length.

In September 2007, the Elite League announced a deal with Sky Sports for a weekly show of Elite League highlights.

In 2010, Sky Sports showed the playoff final between the Belfast Giants and Cardiff Devils live, the first time Sky had shown a live game for several years. Sky Sports have recently announced plans to show live games along with a weekly highlight show during the 2010–11 season.

In the 2013–14 season, Premier Sports acquired the rights to film and broadcast 23 games from the Elite League with a live game shown every Saturday night from 23 November onwards.

On 6 December 2016, it was announced that a new TV show called Facing Off would be broadcast on a UK free-to-air channel called "Front Runner TV" every Thursday, Friday and Saturday to show the highlights of the week's EIHL games. The deal ran to the end of 2016–17 EIHL season.

Then, on 20 July 2018, the EIHL agreed a two-year deal with FreeSports to broadcast one live EIHL game every two weeks, alongside a pre-season preview show, highlights package, and live coverage of the end of season play-off final. The coverage, which was available via Freeview, Sky, Virgin, FreeSat, TalkTalk, BT Vision and online via the TVPlayer, was fronted by Aaron Murphy who previously commentated on the league for Premier Sports.

In January 2020, the league announced that Premier Sports would show live coverage of the 2020 Challenge Cup final and 2020 Elite League play-off final.

In September 2021, the league confirmed that Premier Sports had become headline sponsors and the EIHL's exclusive television partners for three seasons, beginning from the 2021–22 season. Coverage would again be fronted by Aaron Murphy, with analysis from Paul Adey, and consist of 27 live matches - including 23 league games, the Challenge Cup final and the end of season play-off final weekend. During this time, the league was known as the Premier Sports Elite League. In November 2022, following news Viaplay had acquired Premier Sports, the Elite League's title sponsors changed to the Viaplay Elite League to reflect the rebrand.

The EIHL were without a major television rights holder during the 2023/24 season after ending their relationship with Viaplay. However, after Premier Sports re-acquired the contract from Viaplay in April 2024, they broadcast the end of season play-off final weekend from Nottingham. Aaron Murphy, Paul Adey and Chris Ellis were again the broadcast crew.

Other coverage
Ice hockey receives little national media coverage in the United Kingdom. Some national newspapers list results and provide short summaries of the league's news but more extensive coverage remains minimal. There was a small surge in interest during the 2004–05 season when newspapers such as The Times reported on the NHL players playing the Elite League as a result of the lock-out but since the lock-out ended, coverage has returned to its previous levels.

Of the national newspapers only the Daily Star has a regular ice hockey column, which appears on Tuesday and Sunday.

Coverage in the towns and cities where Elite League clubs are based is more extensive, and local newspapers have dedicated ice hockey reporters who cover the local team. Local radio stations such as BBC Coventry & Warwickshire, BBC Radio Nottingham, and BBC Radio Sheffield all provide programming on the sport. Radio Sheffield also provides a weekly ice hockey programme Iceline while Radio Nottingham has broadcast a similar programme, Powerplay, since the later stages of the 2005–06 season, and has a 15-minute weekly preview of games on Saturday evenings during the ice hockey season after the station's coverage of the local football teams is completed. BBC Coventry & Warwickshire have also followed suit with Faceoff, a programme broadcast on the first Thursday of the month during the season.

The Cardiff Devils are given weekly highlights coverage on local TV station, "Made in Cardiff", which is available on Freeview Ch23, Sky Guide Ch134 and Virgin Ch159.

Most of the teams also provide webcasts on match nights.

Comparison to other leagues
In attendance, the EIHL ranks seventh among the European top leagues with a 2,842 average. Three teams are among the top 100 of the continent: 2016 Challenge Cup champions Nottingham Panthers at 38th (5,720 average), the 2016 league champions Sheffield Steelers at 64th (4,830), and the 2012 league champions Belfast Giants at 70th (4,603)

Previously, the EIHL champions were invited to play in the IIHF Continental Cup, Europe's second-level club competition. For the 2009–10 tournament, the EIHL's entrants began the tournament in the penultimate (third) group stage. However, with the introduction of the Champions Hockey League, this has changed. From the 2015–16 season, the top two teams in the EIHL participate in the CHL, with either the team that wins the post-season playoffs, or the team finishing third if the playoffs winner is one of the top two, entering the Continental Cup.

During the 2012–13 NHL Lockout, several NHL players plied their trade in the Elite League, including; Matt Beleskey, Paul Bissonnette, Drew Miller, Tom Sestito and Anthony Stewart.

The league has had a reputation for attracting ex-NHL players, including Dustin Kohn who played for the Sheffield Steelers, Kevin Westgarth who played for the Belfast Giants, Cam Janssen, formerly of the Nottingham Panthers, ex-Braehead Clan captain Matt Keith and Stefan Della Rovere, Ryan O'Marra of the Coventry Blaze, and Brian McGrattan who played for the Nottingham Panthers.

Elsewhere Jared Staal – brother of NHLers Eric, Marc and Jordan – played a season for the Edinburgh Capitals while Patrick Bordeleau played a season with the Cardiff Devils.

Other recent ex-NHL players in the league include Jason Williams, Ric Jackman, Jay Rosehill, Jim Vandermeer, Pavel Vorobyev, Michael Garnett, Tyson Strachan, Tim Wallace, Aaron Johnson, Dylan Olsen, Patrick Dwyer, Griffin Reinhart, and Chris Stewart.

Meanwhile, in being drafted by the Arizona Coyotes in 2018, Sheffield Steelers forward Liam Kirk became the first English born and trained player to be drafted by an NHL side. Kirk signed a three-year, entry-level contract with Arizona in June 2021.

Criticism of the EIHL
The main criticism levelled at the EIHL is that the league is too expensive, an accusation given credence by the collapse of the London Racers mid-season in 2005, and the continued financial problems experienced by a number of other member clubs (most notably the Basingstoke Bison and Manchester Phoenix in 2008–09).

Both the Edinburgh Capitals and Newcastle Vipers made public statements about their potentially perilous financial situations, casting further doubt over both their own, and the league's sustained viability.

This perceived problem with expenditure was given further credence when the Hull Stingrays announced, on 11 August 2010, that they were ceasing operations immediately, due to insufficient funds from sponsorships to guarantee completing the season. They were, however, taken over on 17 August 2010 by the Coventry Blaze and therefore the Hull Stingrays continued to operate. However, Hull did fold in 2015.

In 2011, the Newcastle Vipers announced that they would not be able to compete in the 2011–12 season due to financial difficulties and lack of a permanent home stadium. Newcastle had, up to this point, been playing their home games at Whitley Bay ice rink. A proposed new stadium in the Newcastle area did not materialise.

Expansion
Despite there being a limited number of suitable venues for league expansion, there have been various attempts during the EIHL's lifespan to expand the league. After the successful addition of the Braehead Clan and the Dundee Stars for the 2010–11 season, the EIHL reported that it had entered discussions with the Fife Flyers formerly of the defunct BNL, and then resident in the SNL.

On 24 June 2011, it was confirmed that the Fife Flyers had been admitted to the EIHL in time for the commencement of the 2011–12 season.

Further to this, Neil Black, owner of the Nottingham Panthers and Glasgow Clan has expressed the desire to see a Manchester team back in the EIHL by 2015, along with teams in Dublin and London, subject to there being suitable venues available.

In mid-2013, stories began to circulate that the EIHL had approached AEG with the intention of placing a London-based franchise into Wembley Arena. League chairman Tony Smith confirmed that a franchise had been awarded to a London-based group for a franchise located within the capital.

On 29 March 2016, it was announced that the Milton Keynes Lightning (playing in the second-tier English Premier League) would be joining the Elite League for the 2017–18 season. They remained in the league for two seasons.

On 24 February 2017, it was announced that the Guildford Flames would make the step-up to the Elite League for the following season, thus expanding the league to twelve teams.

Records

 * Most regular season titles: Belfast Giants, Sheffield Steelers (6)
 * Most play-off championship titles: Sheffield Steelers (6)
 * Most Challenge Cup titles (EIHL era): Nottingham Panthers (8)
 * Most Knockout Cup titles: Belfast Giants, Cardiff Devils, Coventry Blaze, Sheffield Steelers (1)
 * Most wins in regular season: Belfast Giants (46) (2011–12, 54-game season)
 * Most ties in regular season: London Racers (9) (2004–05, 50-game season)
 * Most losses in regular season (inc. Overtime): London Racers (51) (2003–04, 56-game season)
 * Most goals scored in regular season: Cardiff Devils (269) (2010–11, 54-game season)
 * Most goals allowed in regular season: Edinburgh Capitals (418) (2010–11, 54-game season)
 * Most points in regular season: Belfast Giants (95) (2011–12, 54-game season)
 * Most shutouts in regular season: Ervins Mustukovs (Sheffield Steelers) 10 (2010–11)
 * Highest attendance in regular season: 9,289 (Sheffield Steelers vs. Guildford Flames, 24 March 2024)
 * Most goals in a single game (team) (regular season): Sheffield Steelers (18) (Sheffield Steelers 18–1 Edinburgh Capitals, 15 January 2011)
 * Largest winning margin (regular season): Sheffield Steelers (17) (Sheffield Steelers 18–1 Edinburgh Capitals, 15 January 2011)

title: Elite Ice Hockey League


text:
Insolubilia

In the Middle Ages, variations on the liar paradox were studied under the name of insolubilia ("insolubles").

Overview
Although the liar paradox was well known in antiquity, interest seems to have lapsed until the twelfth century, when it appears to have been reinvented independently of ancient authors. Medieval interest may have been inspired by a passage in the Sophistical Refutations of Aristotle. Although the Sophistical Refutations are consistently cited by medieval logicians from the earliest insolubilia literature, medieval studies of insolubilia go well beyond Aristotle. Other ancient sources which could suggest the liar paradox, including Saint Augustine, Cicero, and the quotation of Epimenides appearing in the Epistle to Titus, were not cited in discussions of insolubilia.

Adam of Balsham mentioned, in passing, some paradoxical statements (dated to 1132), but he did not dwell on the difficulties raised by these statements. Alexander Neckham, writing later in the twelfth century, explicitly recognized the paradoxical nature of insolubilia, but did not attempt to resolve the inconsistent implications of the paradox. The first resolution was given by an anonymous author at the end of the twelfth or beginning of the thirteenth century. There was an established literature on the topic by about 1320, when Thomas Bradwardine prefaced his own discussion of insolubilia with nine views then current. Interest in insolubilia continued throughout the fourteenth century, especially by Jean Buridan.

The medieval insolubilia literature seems to treat these paradoxes as difficult but not truly "insoluble", and, though interesting and meriting investigation, not central to the study of logic. This may be contrasted with modern studies of self-referential paradoxes such as Russell's paradox, in which the problems are seen as fundamentally insoluble, and central to the foundations of logic.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Insolubilia


text:
Peter Ellis (architect)

Peter Ellis (1805–1884) was a British architect and inventor of the paternoster lift from Liverpool. He is best-known for designing Oriel Chambers, built in 1864, which is the world's first building to feature a metal-framed glass curtain wall. For this achievement he appears in the Guinness Book of Records.

From the mid-1840s he lived at 40 Falkner Square, a house which he designed and on which an English Heritage Blue Plaque is now sited.

Buildings
Peter Ellis designed Oriel Chambers in 1864 at the corner of Water Street and Covent Garden in Liverpool, considered by many architectural historians to be one of the most influential buildings of its age, a precursor of the modernist style in architecture and one of the earliest attempts to break away from the classical tradition of commercial architecture. It was described by Charles Reilly, Professor of Architecture at Liverpool University as the "oddest building in Liverpool, at once so logical and so disagreeable...as a cellular habitation for the human insect it is a distinct asset to the town," and by Nikolaus Pevsner as "one of the most remarkable buildings of its date in Europe."

His other well-known commission was 16 Cook Street, Liverpool, of 1866. This building has been noted for its "surprisingly modern" spiral staircase, cantilevered out from the main building and clad with sheets of iron and glass.

From evidence in the Liverpool Mercury he is known to have had commissions for at least four other buildings (1856-1874), whilst the Corporation Lease Registers reveal that his early career (1833-1844) involved his design and construction of a variety of houses for sale, rent or personal use (see Career).

Career
Peter Ellis was born on 1 August 1805 at Shaw's Brow (subsequently renamed William Brown Street), the third son in a family of seven born to Peter Ellis senior and Ann (née Appleton). The family moved to Primrose Hill in 1807 where Peter's father was involved in the construction of courts, and to Gloucester Street (now buried beneath Lime Street Station) in 1811 where his father worked with other builders in developing the area. In 1822 they moved to Low Hill and it was whilst living there that Peter subsequently met Mary Helen Syers who was living in Everton Village and whom he married in 1836.

Although Peter first appeared in Gore's Liverpool Directory in 1834 as an architect with an office in Renshaw Street, prior to that he would have learned his trade working with his father on several terraces of properties in Audley Street (1824), Kent Square (1830), and Great George Square / Upper Pitt Street (1832). Then in 1833 Peter Ellis the Younger of Liverpool Surveyor first appeared in the Corporation Lease Register regarding terraces of property to be built along the south east side of Great George Square and into Cookson Street.

In 1835 Peter acquired a lease on property and neighbouring building land in Sandon Street (originally a part of Chatham Street). One of the properties became Peter and Mary's first home, and it was whilst they were living there that Peter submitted designs for the 1839 St George's Hall competition subsequently won by Harvey Lonsdale Elmes. In 1843 Peter acquired a lease upon which he built 78 Canning Street and in the following year he obtained a lease on neighbouring land upon which he built what became 40 Falkner Square, the house in which he and Mary lived for the remainder of Peter's life.

In 1845 Peter moved his office to Clayton Square and it was whilst he was there, in 1856, that he was commissioned to design St Saviour's National Schools in Canning Street (the site now lies beneath the Liverpool Women's Hospital), and, later, the Hardman Street Homoeopathic Dispensary, opened in 1860.

In the early 1860s Peter moved offices, briefly to Bank Buildings and then for a longer period to Orange Court (they lay on opposite sides of Castle Street), and it was in 1863 that a fire destroyed offices and a warehouse at the junction of Water Street and Covent Garden. The building was owned by Rev. Thomas Anderson and it was from him that Peter received the commission to design Oriel Chambers, the fire-proof replacement that was constructed upon the site (1864–65). Whilst still at Orange Court, Peter was then commissioned by the accountants Paterson and Thomas to design 16 Cook Street (1866–68), also a replacement for a pre-existing building.

Quentin Hughes suggested that it was possible that Peter's career as an architect was adversely affected by criticism of Oriel Chambers, such as that which appeared in The Builder of 20 January 1866, where it was described as a "large agglommeration of protruding plate glass bubbles", a "vast abortion" without any aesthetic qualities. He also noted that although Peter practised for a further eighteen years after the Cook Street commission, his entry in the 1867 edition of Gore's Directory of Liverpool describes him as both architect and civil engineer, whilst in the 1884 directory the term "civil engineer" precedes "architect", suggesting that architecture became a secondary strand in his career.

The extent to which the Oriel Chambers criticism was of primary significance in influencing either Peter's future career or interests remains unclear. After The Builder article he went on to design a Welsh Baptist Chapel in Hall Lane and an office/warehouse in School Lane, whilst, by 1865 (if not earlier), he had already become sufficiently interested in engineering to begin producing patents on a variety of topics, the most significant of which concerned the invention of a continuously moving lift which he subsequently installed in Oriel Chambers in 1869.

Peter moved his office from Orange Court to Oriel Chambers in 1871, and it was there that he continued to practice as an architect, valuer, surveyor and civil engineer, with the Liverpool Mercury containing reports and advertisements concerning his work up to May 1884. He died at the age of 79 at his home at 40 Falkner Square on 20 October 1884, the death certificate recording endocarditis (inflammation of the lining membrane of the heart) and pneumonia as the causes. He was buried on 23 October, and the Liverpool Daily Post the following day carried a warm tribute to him, of which this extract is representative: "The deceased gentleman was held in high esteem by the members of his own profession and solicitors and others with whom he had business relations...Mr. Ellis, for more than half a century, was at the head of the leading practice in his way of business in Liverpool, and was ever ready with his kindly advice to those who sought it." Peter outlived all his siblings but he and Mary died without having had the joy of bringing up a son or daughter. They lie at peace together in Toxteth Cemetery.

Influence
Peter Ellis's work may have influenced that of the American architect John Wellborn Root who came to Liverpool when 16 Cook Street was being constructed. For example, in the Rookery Building, Chicago, Root used a glass and iron spiral staircase similar to that in 16 Cook Street.

Quentin Hughes has suggested that Ellis's career would have been very different if, like Root, he had gone to Chicago where his use of oriel windows to provide interior daylighting was adopted and exploited by American architects.

"Oriel Chambers, along with the work of Kahn, were real touchstones for the practice" of Arup Associates.

title: Peter Ellis (architect)


text: Category:Fictional objects

title: Category:Fictional objects


text:
Ladder Bay (Saba)

Ladder Bay is an anchorage on the leeward side of the Caribbean island of Saba. The bay sits on the west side of the island, directly under a set of 800 steps hand carved into the rocks locally known as "The Ladder". Until the construction of Saba's first pier in the 1970s, Ladder Bay was a primary point of entry for supplies to the island. An abandoned customs house sits on the lip of a cliff overlooking the bay.

History
Before European colonization, the area above Ladder Bay may have been occupied by Amerindians during the Ceramic Era. Archeologists have not yet found evidence of an Amerindian settlement above Ladder Bay, but they have found ceramic artifacts in the area.

Saba was settled by Europeans in the mid-17th century. There is long-standing documentation of early European settlements near Tent Bay, Fort Bay, and above Well's Bay. But more recently, archeologists have found 17th-century ceramics above Ladder Bay, suggesting the area may have been occupied during early years of European settlement.

From the 1650s until the 1970s, the two primary ports of entry for Saba were at Ladder Bay and Fort Bay. Boats could offload cargo at Ladder Bay, which would then be transported up "The Ladder", a series of steps carved into the ridge above Ladder Bay. The cargo would then be transported to Saba's capital, The Bottom, via a footpath through an area known as The Gap.

Both cargo and people were brought onto Saba via The Ladder. Even large items were transported up The Ladder, one of the most famous being a piano.

In the 1930s, The Ladder in its current form, as well as the Customs House, were constructed. The steps of The Ladder were made of poured concrete, and the staircase walls from a mixture of concrete and rock.

In the 1970s, the Capt. Chance Leo Pier was constructed at Fort Bay. With a harbor at Fort Bay, the use of Ladder Bay as a port fell out of use. In 2017, the bottom 2 meters (6.5 ft) of The Ladder were severely damaged by Hurricane Maria.

Today, "The Ladder" is an iconic Saban monument and popular hiking location, and Ladder Bay is an official mooring area and the site of multiple popular dive sites.

Hiking
The Ladder (Trail): The trailhead is located between The Bottom and Well's Bay. The trail goes past the old customs house, and descends all 800 steps of The Ladder, before coming back up. The strenuous hike takes about 1 hour round trip. The dry forest portion of the trail includes diverse trees, including mahogany trees (e.g. Swietenia mahagoni) and cinnamon trees (Pimenta racemosa).

Middle Island Trail: The trail begins close to The Ladder trail, and has views of Well's Bay and Ladder Bay. It is a heritage trail that includes ruins of an open cistern, stone walls of a farm, and a cavern. The hike takes about 40 minutes one-way.

Diving
Ladder Bay is the location of multiple dive sites for scuba divers.

 * Porites Point, named for the quantity of Porites coral at the locating, including Mustardhill Coral (Porites astreoides) and Branching Finger Coral (Porites furcata).
 * Babylon, a site with dramatic overhangs (possibly reminiscent of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon) home to sea fans, as well as a site for seeing sharks, turtles, eels, and fish.
 * Ladder Labyrinth, named for the labyrinth of tall, 10-foot coral and rock ridges that are for shrimp, crabs, and lobsters.
 * 50/50, named for divers' choice of multiple areas to explore, including underwater lava formations, a shallow reef area, and a rubble field.

At Babylon, Ladder Labyrinth, and 50/50, divers can place their hands on hot, sulfur-colored sand, resulting from the active status of Saba's volcano.

Marine life
The bay is home to a variety of fish, including Burrfish, Chromis, Filefish, Glassy Sweepers, Horse-eye Jacks, Lancer Dragonets, Lizardfish, Peacock Flounders, Pikeblennies, Schoolmasters, Spotted Drums, Tarpons, Yellowfin Groupers, and Yellowhead Jawfish, as well as Nurse Sharks and Reef sharks.

Other marine life in Ladder Bay includes Channel Clinging Crabs, Green Turtles, Hawksbill Turtles, Spotted Moray Eels, Squat Lobster, and Tigertail Sea Cucumber.

Ladder Bay's reefs include a variety of coral. The most common are Star coral (Astreopora), Brain coral, and Gorgonian (Alcyonacea) coral, as well as Porites coral at the Porites Point dive site. The bay is also home to sea fans such as Deepwater Seafans.

Moorings
Saba has two designated anchorage zones within the Saba National Marine Park: one between Ladder Bay and Wells Bay (west coast), and one in front of Fort Bay (southern coast). Between Ladder Bay and Wells Bay, the Saba National Marine Park manages about half a dozen moorings that are in about 60 feet (18 m) of water. The use of mooring buoys can help eliminator anchor damage to coral reefs.

Passengers of moored boats are advised to enter the island via through Fort Bay Harbor for safety reasons. Additionally, passengers from arriving yachts are required to go to Fort Bay to clear Customs and Immigration, as well as to check in and out with the Saba's Harbor Master.

In March 2017, a French-owned boat broke free of its mooring, and became stranded on the rocks in Ladder Bay. No one was aboard, and the boat was successfully salvaged a few days later. That same year another vessel ran aground at Ladder Bay; all passengers were unharmed. In April 2023, a mooring holding a French charter boat broke off during the night while the crew was asleep. The crew was alerted and safely re-anchored, but only two visitor moorings remain.

title: Ladder Bay (Saba)


text:
Henry Pownall

Lieutenant General Sir Henry Royds Pownall, (19 November 1887 – 10 June 1961) was a senior British Army officer who held several command and staff positions during the Second World War. In particular, he was chief of staff to the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France and Belgium until the battle of France in May/June 1940. He was later chief of staff to General Sir Archibald Wavell until the fall of Singapore in February 1942, and was then chief of staff to Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten in South East Asia in 1943–1944.

Early career
Henry Royds Pownall was born in London on 19 November 1887, the second son of Charles Assheton Whately Pownall and his wife, Dora Bourne Royds. His brother was Sir Assheton Pownall and his Grandfather The Ven. Assheton Pownall Archdeacon of Leicester. His father Charles Pownall was a consulting engineer with the Japanese railways, and Pownall lived in Japan from when he was three until he was eight years old. He received his education at Rugby School and Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Field Artillery on 20 December 1906. He began his military service with the Royal Horse Artillery, where he was stationed at Lucknow with U Battery. He was promoted to lieutenant on 20 December 1909.

First World War
During the First World War, Pownall served on the Western Front in France and Belgium. He was promoted to captain on 30 October 1914, and awarded the Military Cross on 1 January 1917. and major on 31 March 1917. He was Brigade Major, Royal Artillery, of the 17th Division from 12 April 1917 to 12 March 1919. For his service during the war he was twice mentioned in despatches, and awarded the Distinguished Service Order on 1 January 1918.

Interbellum
On 10 December 1918, Pownall married Lucy Louttit, the widow of Captain John Gray, a British Indian Army officer of the 36th Sikhs who had been killed in the siege of Kut Al Amara in 1916. They had no children, but he acquired a stepson, Willoughby Gray, through his marriage.

Pownall attended the Staff College, Camberley from 1920 to 1921, and then served as a brigade major at the School of Artillery in Larkhill from 1924 to 1925. He continued his training and education as General Staff Officer (Grade 2) at the Staff College, Camberley from 1926 to 1929, where he became a brevet lieutenant-colonel on 3 January 1928. After completing his training at Staff College he took part in operations on the north west frontier of India through 1931, for which he was mentioned in despatches a third time, and awarded a bar to his Distinguished Service Order.

Pownall attended the Imperial Defence College in 1932, and, following this, he held a series of staff appointments, serving as the Military Assistant Secretary for the Committee of Imperial Defence from 1933 to 1935, then as Deputy Secretary for the Committee of Imperial Defence in 1936. His rank of lieutenant-colonel became substantive on 31 January 1935, and he was promoted to colonel on 1 May 1935, with his seniority backdated to 1 January 1932. From 1936 to 1938, he was Commandant of the Royal School of Artillery, with the rank of brigadier from 15 September 1936. As the threat of war grew, he was Director of Military Operations and Intelligence in the War Office from 1938 to 1939. He was promoted to major-general on 26 March 1938.

Second World War
Britain entered the war on 3 September 1939, and the following day Pownall was appointed Chief of General Staff of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), with the acting rank of lieutenant-general. He served in this capacity in France and Belgium until after the fall of France in June 1940, He was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 11 July 1940, and again mentioned in despatches.

Pownall then assumed the position of inspector general for the recently created Home Guard and was Commander of British Troops in Northern Ireland, before being appointed the Vice Chief of the Imperial General Staff (VCIGS) in the War Office in 1941. It was rumoured that he might succeed Field Marshal Sir John Dill as Chief of the Imperial General Staff (CIGS), but this did not occur, Winston Churchill wanted to appoint Major-General Archibald Nye, but Nye managed to persuade him to appoint General Sir Alan Brooke. Whereupon Nye was appointed VCIGS.

Pownall became commander-in-chief of the British Far East Command in South East Asia from December 1941 until 1942, which did not achieve anything of note when it was succeeded by the short-lived ABDACOM, and he became chief of staff to General Sir Archibald Wavell. His rank of lieutenant-general became substantive on 17 January 1942. For this service, he was mentioned in despatches once more, and he was made a Grand Officer of the Order of Orange-Nassau by Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. After ABDACOM was dissolved in February 1942, Pownall assumed the role of Commander-in-Chief, Ceylon, and then became commander-in-chief of the Persia and Iraq theatres in 1943. Finally, he was chief of staff to Vice Admiral Louis Mountbatten, the Supreme Commander of the Allied South East Asia Command from 1943 to 1944. He had an operation to remove a kidney stone on 12 August 1944 and did not return to duty until October. Mountbatten had doubts about Pownall's health and asked for a replacement. He handed over to Lieutenant-General Frederick Browning in December 1944.

Pownall was made a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the 1945 New Year Honours on 1 January 1945, but never held another command. He retired from the British Army on 8 September 1945.

Post war
After the war, Pownall was chairman of Friary Meux Limited and a member of the committee of Lloyds Bank. He was the Chief Commissioner of the St. John Ambulance Brigade from 1947 to 1949, and became the chancellor of the Order of St John in 1951. He served as a military consultant on the writing of Churchill's The Second World War from 1948 to 1954. Pownall died in London on 10 June 1961, aged 73. His papers are in the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives.

title: Henry Pownall


text:
Arno (singer)

Arnold Charles Ernest Hintjens (21 May 1949 – 23 April 2022), better known by his stage name Arno, was a Belgian singer. He was the frontman of TC Matic, one of the best-known Belgian bands of the 1980s. After the band split in 1986 he enjoyed a solo career.

Career
Arno sang in a mixture of English, French, Dutch and his native Ostend-Flemish dialect. For TC Matic, a band which achieved moderate artistic success throughout Europe, he wrote or co-wrote all the band's material, much of it together with guitarist and producer Jean-Marie Aerts. After going solo he released more than a dozen albums during a successful career. In 2002 he received the title "Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres" (Knight in the Arts and Literature) of the French government. A 2004 biography by Gilles Deleux was translated in Dutch as Een lach en een traan ("A Smile and a Tear").

In the Belgian film Camping Cosmos he played the homosexual lifeguard Harry who does not pay attention to Lolo Ferrari who is incarnating a caricature of Pamela Anderson.

At the beginning of 2020, Arno postponed his upcoming tour after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Until the end of his life he was performing and recording music. Opex was his last record, recorded while he was very ill. He died from the disease on 23 April 2022, in Brussels, at the age of 72.

Solo

 * Arno (album) (1986)
 * Charlatan (1988)
 * Ratata (1990)
 * Tracks From The Story (1992)
 * Idiots Savants (1993)
 * Water (1994) with the Subrovnicks
 * À La Française (1995)
 * Live À La Française (1997)
 * Give Me The Gift (1997)
 * European Cow Boy (1999)
 * À Poil Commercial (1999)
 * Le Best Of (2000)
 * Arno Charles Ernest (2002)
 * Longbox (2002)
 * French Bazaar (2004)
 * Live in Brussels (2005)
 * Jus De Box (2007)
 * Covers Cocktail (2008)
 * Brussld (2010)
 * Future Vintage (2012)
 * Le coffret essentiel (2014)
 * Human Incognito (2016)*'
 * Santeboutique (2019)
 * Vivre (2021)
 * Opex (2022) (His last album was posthumously released)

F reckleface

 * Freckleface (1972)

With Tjens Couter

 * Who Cares (1975)
 * Plat Du Jour (1978)
 * Singles 1975-1980 (1978)
 * If It Blows (Let It Blow) (CD compilation, 1991)

With TC Matic

 * TC Matic (1981)
 * L'Apache (1982)
 * Choco (1983)
 * Yé Yé (1985)
 * The Best Of (Ça Vient, Ça Vient, Change Pas Demain) (1986)
 * Compil Complet! (2000)
 * TC Matic - The Essential (2003)

As Charles

 * Charles Et Les Lulus (1991) with Roland Vancampenhout, Adriano Cominotto and Piet Jorens.
 * Charles and the White Trash European Blues Connection (1998)

Filmography

 * 1987: Skin (by Guido Henderickx) as Chico
 * 1996: Camping Cosmos (by Jan Bucquoy) as Himself
 * 1997: Alors voilà (by Michel Piccoli) as Himself
 * 1999: Surveiller les tortues (Short, by Inès Rabadan) as André
 * 2006: Komma (by Martine Doyen) as Peter De Wit / Lars Ericsson
 * 2007: Ex Drummer (by Koen Mortier)
 * 2007: Parade nuptiale (by Emma Perret)
 * 2007: I Always Wanted to Be a Gangster (by Samuel Benchetrit) as Himself
 * 2009: Petites vacances à Knokke-le-Zoute (TV Movie, by Yves Matthey) as Maurice
 * 2014: Le goût des myrtilles (by Thomas De Thier) as Eric Dessart
 * 2015: Prejudice (by Antoine Cuypers) as Alain (final film role)

Honours

 * Knight in the French Order of Arts and Letters: 2002
 * Grand Prix du Disque for French Song (Charles Ernest): 2002
 * Honorary citizen of Brussels: 2017
 * Honorary citizen of Ostend: 2018
 * Music Industry Awards Lifetime Achievement Award: 2019
 * Ostend Film Festival Lifetime Achievement Award: 2022
 * Officer in the Belgian Order of the Crown: 2022

title: Arno (singer)


text:
ECW World Heavyweight Championship

The ECW World Heavyweight Championship was a professional wrestling world heavyweight championship originally used in Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) and later, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was the original world title of the ECW promotion, spun off from the NWA World Heavyweight Championship. It was established under ECW in 1994 but was originally introduced in 1992 by the promotion's precursor, Eastern Championship Wrestling. The inaugural champion was Jimmy Snuka, however, WWE considers the inaugural world heavyweight champion to be Shane Douglas, with his reign beginning on August 27, 1994.

The title was deactivated in 2001 when ECW went out of business. ECW was then purchased by WWE two years later during the summer of 2003. In 2006, WWE reactivated the championship as the world title of their newly established ECW brand. It was the third concurrently active world championship in the promotion, complementing the WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Championship of the other two brands, Raw and SmackDown. The ECW Championship briefly appeared as the sole world title of the Raw brand in 2008 as a result of that year's draft. When WWE disbanded the ECW brand in 2010, the championship was subsequently retired following the final episode of WWE ECW with Ezekiel Jackson as the final titleholder, who also had the shortest reign with the belt at 2 minutes 25 seconds as he won it during the episode.

Origin
The ECW World Heavyweight Championship was introduced originally in 1992 as the NWA-ECW Heavyweight Championship with Jimmy Snuka becoming the inaugural champion on April 25. However, its origin is attributed to events that began in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA), an organization with many members promotions. In the early 1990s, Eastern Championship Wrestling (ECW) was a member of the NWA and by 1994, the NWA World Heavyweight Championship, the world title of the NWA, was vacant. Consequently, a tournament was organized to crown a new NWA World Heavyweight Champion and on August 27, NWA-ECW Heavyweight Champion Shane Douglas defeated 2 Cold Scorpio in the finals to win the title. However, Douglas immediately relinquished the NWA World Heavyweight Championship and instead proclaimed himself the new ECW World Heavyweight Champion. ECW subsequently seceded from the NWA and became Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW). The ECW World Heavyweight Championship was thus established, spun off from the NWA title. It remained active until April 11, 2001, when ECW closed and World Wrestling Entertainment subsequently purchased its assets. The final champion Rhyno went on to win the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in 2005.

Recommission
By 2005, WWE began reintroducing ECW through content from the ECW video library and a series of books, which included the release of The Rise and Fall of ECW documentary. With heightened and rejuvenated interest in the ECW franchise, WWE organized ECW One Night Stand on June 12, a reunion event that featured ECW alumni. Due to the financial and critical success of the production, WWE produced the second ECW One Night Stand on June 11, 2006, which served as the premiere event in the relaunch of the ECW franchise as a third WWE brand, complementary to Raw and SmackDown. On June 13, Paul Heyman, former ECW owner and newly appointed figurehead for the ECW brand, recommissioned the ECW World Heavyweight Championship to be the brand's world title and awarded it to Rob Van Dam as a result of winning the WWE Championship at One Night Stand 2006. Heyman had originally stated that either the WWE Championship or the World Heavyweight Championship would "become" the ECW World Heavyweight Championship if a competitor designated to the ECW brand became WWE Champion or World Heavyweight Champion at the event. However, Rob Van Dam later declared that he would hold both titles simultaneously instead. The title became known as the ECW World Championship in July 2006, and later simply as the ECW Championship in July 2007.

ECW World Championship Tournament (2007)
The ECW World Championship Tournament was a tournament created to determine a new ECW World Champion after Bobby Lashley vacated his championship due to being drafted to Raw on June 11, 2007. The finals took place at Vengeance: Night of Champions. This tournament is notable because one of the semi-final rounds was Chris Benoit's final match. The tournament final was supposed to be Benoit vs CM Punk but Benoit no-showed the event and was replaced by Johnny Nitro, who would go on to win the title. It was reported the day after the event that Benoit, his wife Nancy, and their son Daniel were found dead in their home in suburban Atlanta. The day after police ruled that Benoit himself had killed his wife and son before committing suicide. This event has gone on to be known as the Chris Benoit double murder and suicide.

(*) – Johnny Nitro was an event-day replacement added by WWE after Chris Benoit was a no-show, with the official statement a "family emergency". It was later discovered Benoit's double murder/suicide had taken place that weekend.

Brand designation
Following the events of the WWE brand extension, an annual WWE draft was established, in which select members of the WWE roster are reassigned to a different brand. ECW was revived as a third brand in 2006 to rival Raw and SmackDown and continued to operate until February 16, 2010, rendering the title inactive once again.

Championship belt designs
The original belt was a five-plate title belt made by Mike Vartanian. The belt was an exact copy of NWA-ECW's forerunner Tri-State Wrestling Alliance's Heavyweight title. The only difference was that the NWA-ECW's main plate featured the promotion’s name and had areas painted blue. During this belt's period of use, it was treated badly and was grinded, repainted, and had jewels placed on the main plate, which would explain why it appears different in almost every photo of it. By the time the belt was replaced, it was in a very bad state and two of the side plates were broken off or missing.

When Eastern Championship Wrestling withdrew from the NWA to become Extreme Championship Wrestling in 1994 it continued using this belt until 1996 when it had a new belt created in 1996 starting during Raven's second title reign and was used through 1998.

In 1998, ECW had a new belt created for its championship that would be used until the promotion ceased operations in 2001.

Soon after its recommissioning, the ECW World Heavyweight Championship belt design was updated to a design similar to the belt used before ECW's original closure in 2001, which featured a black leather strap with a snakeskin pattern on the rear, snaps to wrap around the waist of the wrestler who wore it, and five pieces made of gold. In the middle of the strap was a large centerpiece, which featured a design of a blue globe in the center, and to the left and right of the globe were a pair of baseball bats wrapped in barbed wire. At the top of the piece, a purple ECW logo and the words "World Heavyweight Wrestling Champion" were engraved with the words "Heavyweight Wrestling" in red, which gave the text a blood-like appearance. In addition, the entire piece was engraved with a pattern similar to that of a steel cage. Along the strap, on both ends, were four smaller pieces that featured a design similar to that of the centerpiece. The new belt as of June 20, 2006 was differentiated by a full black strap with barbed wire tooling, red ECW logos, and the innards of the steel cage pattern outlined in black.

On July 22, 2008, ECW General Manager Theodore Long introduced a new belt design for the ECW Championship belt. This design features a large black leather strap with five platinum pieces. The large centerpiece features a design of a phoenix over a globe in the center with its wings expanded and rays of light emitting from it. At the top of the piece, the WWE logo and the words "World Wrestling Entertainment" are engraved with "ECW" in large letters engraved prominently over the phoenix. A nameplate, which has the name of the champion etched, is located below it and at the bottom of the piece, the word "Champion" is engraved. Additionally, the entire piece is bordered by a jagged saw-like pattern. Along the strap, on both ends, are four small biker cross-shape pieces that feature a design similar to that of the centerpiece.

Reigns
Overall, there have been 49 ECW World Heavyweight Championship reigns shared among 32 individuals. The inaugural champion was Jimmy Snuka, who won the title by defeating Salvatore Bellomo in April 1992. The Sandman holds the most reigns as champion, with five. Shane Douglas, in his fourth reign, had the longest reign in the title's history which lasted 406 days. Ezekiel Jackson's 3-minute reign following his defeat of Christian on the television finale of ECW is the shortest, as the title was retired with the cancellation of the ECW brand. Christian's second reign was the longest under WWE at 205 days.

title: ECW World Heavyweight Championship


text:
Oriel Chambers

Oriel Chambers is an office building located on Water Street near the town hall in Liverpool, England. It was the world's first building featuring a metal-framed glass curtain wall, which has since become a defining feature of skyscrapers around the world. Designed by architect Peter Ellis and built in 1864, it has been grade I listed due to its outstanding importance.

History
Ellis won the commission for Oriel Chambers by competition and completed it in 1864 as evidenced by the building's inscription A.D. 1864 in the gable. It comprises 43000 sqft of floor space set over five storeys. Ellis maximised the influx of light by employing a grid of oriel windows, which became the building's defining feature.

Initially, it was not well received. The Builder of 20 January 1866 savaged it: "The plainest brick warehouse in town is infinitely superior as a building to that large agglomeration of protruding plate-glass bubbles in Water Street termed Oriel Chambers. Did we not see this vast abortion – which would be depressing were it not ludicrous – with our own eyes, we should have doubted the possibility of its existence. Where and in what are their beauties supposed to lie?"

However, the potential of Ellis's design was not lost on all of his contemporaries. John Wellborn Root studied in Liverpool as a teenaged boy, having been sent there by his father to be safe from the American Civil War following the Atlanta Campaign (1864). In all likelihood, he studied the then-brand-new Oriel Chambers and put the lessons learned to good use when he developed into an important architect of the Chicago School of Architecture, exporting Ellis's ideas across the Atlantic Ocean. Long rows of bay windows (of which oriels are a type) characterise some of Burnham and Root's 1880s American skyscrapers.

More importantly, Oriel Chambers, and Ellis's building at 16 Cook Street, Liverpool, are amongst the precursors of modernist architecture for another reason. In addition to the extensive use of glass on their facades, both boast metal-framed glass curtain walls toward the courtyards, which makes them two of the world's first buildings to include this feature. Both buildings rely on H-section iron columns at the perimeter, which support the floors and cladding. Ellis's method for cladding was, however, not adopted by Burnham and Root: their Monadnock Building of 1891 has its distinctive bay windows still set in load-bearing brickwork.

Recognising its modernity, unsurprisingly, the critical assessment of Oriel Chambers was far more favourable in the 20th century. Nikolaus Pevsner called it "one of the most remarkable buildings of its date in Europe" and in his earlier book, Pioneers of Modern Design, describes it thus: "The delicacy of the ironwork in the plate-glass oriel windows and the curtain walling at the back with the vertical supports retracted yet visible from outside is almost unbelievably ahead of its time."

Architect Adam Caruso (born 1962) describes Oriel Chambers in near-poetic words: "Its membranous windows are almost an expression of the open space of the interior pressing out into the space of the street."

Today
Today the building looks a little different, combining its period architecture with a 1950s extension added after German aerial bombing destroyed a small section during the Second World War.

In 2006 it was purchased from DCT Developments by Bruntwood for just over £5 million who then spent £750,000 refurbishing the building. Bruntwood sold the building in 2019 to Yakel Property Investment who planned to undertake works to update the building.

The building's primary tenant is a set of barristers' chambers, which has been in occupation in various parts since 1965.

Popular culture
Oriel Chambers and 16 Cook Street were featured in the first episode of John Grundy's television series Grundy's Northern Pride, which focused on buildings in the north of England.

title: Oriel Chambers


text:
User talk:Naz 2

Some advice from Wikipedians
Please do not create articles about non-notable highschool bands. Individual band members are not important enough in the grand scheme of things to warrant articles in Wikipedia.

Right now, there is discussion on the appropriate procedure for deleting them. The only thing that is certain, is that they will be deleted within about a week. So if you continue to work on the articles, your work will go to waste.

Feel free to contribute to other parts of Wikipedia, but don't create articles about yourself or your friends. — David Remahl 16:32, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)

I'm sorry but I feel that these kinds of articles about your band and team membes should stay in your user page only, the only exception would be SMK Sri Permata as it is the only notable one from our view. --Andylkl 08:38, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)

title: User talk:Naz 2


text:
Category:Tarot

Tarot cards have two distinct uses. As playing cards they were invented in Europe in the 15th century for playing games and are still used for that purpose. From the late 18th century, certain Italian-suited tarot packs were utilised for fortune telling - a practice known as tarotology - nowadays bespoke packs are produced specifically for this purpose. Please use the correct sub-categories accordingly.

__NOGALLERY__

title: Category:Tarot


text:
Saint Gobain

Saint Gobain (died 670), also known as Goban, was an Irish monk and spiritual student of Saint Fursey at Burgh Castle, Norfolk, England.

Born in Ireland, he was a brother of Saint Wasnon, (to whom a church is dedicated in Condé-sur-l'Escaut). Gobain accompanied Fursey to France. Some accounts have him staying at the Abbey of Saint Vincent in Picardy, or the abbey of Corbény in Champagne, before settling in a hermitage in the forest of Voas, near the present Saint-Gobain. There he brought forth a spring by thrusting his pilgrim's staff into the ground.

In 670, Gobain was beheaded by marauders, and buried in his oratory, which became a place of pilgrimage. His feast day is observed on 20 June.

title: Saint Gobain


text:
Dehydrogenation

In chemistry, dehydrogenation is a chemical reaction that involves the removal of hydrogen, usually from an organic molecule. It is the reverse of hydrogenation. Dehydrogenation is important, both as a useful reaction and a serious problem. At its simplest, it's a useful way of converting alkanes, which are relatively inert and thus low-valued, to olefins, which are reactive and thus more valuable. Alkenes are precursors to aldehydes (R\sCH\dO), alcohols (R\sOH), polymers, and aromatics. As a problematic reaction, the fouling and inactivation of many catalysts arises via coking, which is the dehydrogenative polymerization of organic substrates.

Enzymes that catalyze dehydrogenation are called dehydrogenases.

Styrene
Dehydrogenation processes are used extensively to produce aromatics in the petrochemical industry. Such processes are highly endothermic and require temperatures of 500 °C and above. Dehydrogenation also converts saturated fats to unsaturated fats. One of the largest scale dehydrogenation reactions is the production of styrene by dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene. Typical dehydrogenation catalysts are based on iron(III) oxide, promoted by several percent potassium oxide or potassium carbonate.
 * C6H5CH2CH3 -> C6H5CH\dCH2 + H2

Other alkenes
The cracking processes especially fluid catalytic cracking and steam cracker produce high-purity mono-olefins from paraffins. Typical operating conditions use chromium (III) oxide catalyst at 500 °C. Target products are propylene, butenes, and isopentane, etc. These simple compounds are important raw materials for the synthesis of polymers and gasoline additives.

Oxidative dehydrogenation
Relative to thermal cracking of alkanes, oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) is of interest for two reasons: (1) undesired reactions take place at high temperature leading to coking and catalyst deactivation, making frequent regeneration of the catalyst unavoidable, (2) thermal dehydrogenation is expensive as it requires a large amount of heat. Oxidative dehydrogenation (ODH) of n-butane is an alternative to classical dehydrogenation, steam cracking and fluid catalytic cracking processes.

Formaldehyde is produced industrially by oxidative dehydrogenation of methanol. This reaction can also be viewed as a dehydrogenation using O2 as the acceptor. The most common catalysts are silver metal, iron(III) oxide, iron molybdenum oxides [e.g. iron(III) molybdate] with a molybdenum-enriched surface, or vanadium oxides. In the commonly used formox process, methanol and oxygen react at ca. 250–400 °C in presence of iron oxide in combination with molybdenum and/or vanadium to produce formaldehyde according to the chemical equation:
 * CH3OH + O2 -> 2 CH2O + 2 H2O

Homogeneous catalytic routes
A variety of dehydrogenation processes have been described for organic compounds. These dehydrogenation is of interest in the synthesis of fine organic chemicals. Such reactions often rely on transition metal catalysts. Dehydrogenation of unfunctionalized alkanes can be effected by homogeneous catalysis. Especially active for this reaction are pincer complexes.

Stoichiometric processes
Dehydrogenation of amines to nitriles can be accomplished using a variety of reagents, such as iodine pentafluoride.

In typical aromatization, six-membered alicyclic rings, e.g. cyclohexene, can be aromatized in the presence of hydrogenation acceptors. The elements sulfur and selenium promote this process. On the laboratory scale, quinones, especially 2,3-dichloro-5,6-dicyano-1,4-benzoquinone (DDQ) are effective.
 * DDQ-dehydrogenation.png

Main group hydrides
The dehydrogenative coupling of silanes has also been developed.
 * n PhSiH3 -> [PhSiH]_{n} + n H2

The dehydrogenation of amine-boranes is related reaction. This process once gained interests for its potential for hydrogen storage.

title: Dehydrogenation


text:
Tisha Campbell

Tisha Michelle Campbell (born October 13, 1968) is an American actress and singer. She made her screen debut appearing in the 1986 rock musical comedy film Little Shop of Horrors, and later starred on the NBC musical comedy drama Rags to Riches (1987–1988). She has appeared in films including School Daze (1988), Rooftops (1989), Another 48 Hrs. (1990), Boomerang (1992), and Sprung (1997). She received a nomination for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female for playing Sidney in the comedy film House Party (1990). She reprises the role of Sidney in the sequels House Party 2 (1991) and House Party 3 (1994).

Campbell starred as Gina Waters-Payne in the Fox comedy series Martin (1992–1997) and as Janet "Jay" Marie Johnson-Kyle in the ABC comedy series My Wife and Kids (2001–2005), winning the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series for the latter. Her other television roles include Rita Rocks (Lifetime, 2008–2009), The Protector (Lifetime, 2011), Lemonade Mouth (Disney, 2011), Dr. Ken (ABC, 2015–2017), Outmatched (Fox, 2020) and Uncoupled (Netflix, 2022).

Early life
Tisha Michelle Campbell was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and raised in Newark, New Jersey, where she attended Newark Arts High School, and also East Orange, New Jersey, where she attended Washington Academy of Music. The eldest of her parents' four children, Campbell grew up singing, encouraged by her family's love for music. Her mother, Hattie "Mona" Washington (née Raye; formerly Shockley and Campbell), was a nurse, talent manager, gospel singer, and vocal coach. Her father, Clifton Campbell, was a factory worker, singer, and chess master, who worked with underprivileged children. Through her father, Campbell has an older half-brother and two younger half-sisters. Campbell has said that she was raped at age three by a male family friend who was baby-sitting her at the time.

Acting
Campbell's first television appearance was at the age of six, in an episode in 1974 of the PBS show The Big Blue Marble. As a child, she won many talent shows, going on to appear in such children's programs as Kids Are People Too, Unicorn Tales (played lead Daisy Bunsen in episode, The Magnificent Major), and Captain Kangaroo. At age 17, she performed in the musical feature film, Little Shop of Horrors as Chiffon, one of The Supremes-like girl group Greek Chorus, along with future Martin co-star and best friend, Tichina Arnold.

After graduating from the Arts High School in Newark, she moved to Hollywood, where she became a star on the NBC musical comedy-drama series, Rags to Riches (1987–88). She later starred in the musical comedy drama film School Daze, directed by Spike Lee, as Jane Toussaint.

In 1989, Campbell costarred in the crime film Rooftops. The following year, she starred alongside Eddie Murphy in the action comedy Another 48 Hrs.. She later appeared in a supporting role in the 1992 romantic comedy Boomerang, also starring Murphy. Her most notable film credit is 1990 comedy House Party for which she received Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Female nomination. She later co starred in its two sequels; House Party 2 (1991), and House Party 3 (1994). In 1997, she received her star billed role in the Trimark Pictures' comedy film Sprung. She later had the leading role in the independent drama film The Last Place on Earth (2002), and appeared in Kevin Smith's sex comedy film Zack and Miri Make a Porno (2008) playing the acerbic wife of Craig Robinson's character.

In 1992, Campbell was cast as Gina Waters-Payne in the Fox comedy series Martin. She left the show in April 1997, after settling the lawsuit against Martin Lawrence of sexual harassment. The following year, she starred opposite Diahann Carroll in the Hallmark Hall of Fame film The Sweetest Gift (1998). Campbell returned to television in 2001, starring opposite Damon Wayans in the ABC comedy series My Wife and Kids. The series ran for five seasons, until 2005. In 2003, she won NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series for her role.

After My Wife and Kids, Campbell was a regular in the Lifetime comedy series Rita Rocks (2008–09). In 2011, she starred opposite Ally Walker in the Lifetime police drama The Protector. The series was canceled after a single season. Also in 2011, she starred in the acclaimed Disney Channel original film Lemonade Mouth. In September 2015, she was cast in the ABC sitcom Dr. Ken, starring Ken Jeong. The series was cancelled after two seasons in 2017. In the beginning of 2018, she played Olympic gymnast Simone Biles' mother in the Lifetime movie The Simone Biles Story: Courage to Soar. Later in 2018, Campbell starred on the ABC drama pilot The Holmes Sisters about the lives of five African-American sisters, all officers in the NYPD. It was produced by Regina King and Robin Roberts.

Music
In 1993, Campbell released her debut album, Tisha, which was a moderate success, selling 40,000 copies. Two singles received minor airplay on the R&B stations: "Push", which was produced by Derek Bramble, and "Love Me Down". Campbell contributed vocals for the soundtrack of the 1997 film, Sprung, in which she starred, singing a cover version of "Don't Ask My Neighbor" with Tichina Arnold.

She appeared in several music videos in the 1990s and 2000s, including two for Will Smith ("Will 2K" and "Wild Wild West") and one for Toni Braxton ("You're Makin' Me High"). In 2012, Campbell starred in Mindless Behavior's music video for "Hello".

On September 21, 2015, she released the single, "Steel Here". On February 24, 2016, Campbell released the single, "Lazy Bitch", as well as an accompanying video, where she featured her friend, Tasha Smith. On February 2, 2018, Campbell released the single, "I Don't Wanna Be Alone Tonight". On October 6, 2019, she released the single, "22 Summers," with an accompanying video.

Philanthropy
In 2011, Campbell co-founded Colored My Mind, a non-profit foundation dedicated to raising awareness of childhood autism in communities of color. She was inspired to start the organization by her son Xen, who was diagnosed with autism when he was 18 months old.

Personal life
On August 17, 1996, Campbell married actor Duane Martin. Together, they have two sons. In February 2018, Campbell filed for divorce after 21 years of marriage. The couple finalized their divorce in December 2020.

In November 1996, Campbell left the Fox series Martin during its final season, citing "intolerable" working conditions. In January 1997, Campbell filed a lawsuit against co-star Martin Lawrence on the counts of sexual harassment and abuse both on and off set. By April 1997, Campbell had settled the lawsuit, and returned to appear in the last two episodes of the series. Campbell and Lawrence have both stated that they have since reconciled.

Discography

 * Studio albums
 * Tisha (1993)

title: Tisha Campbell


text:
Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Peter Allis (Architect)

Peter Allis (Architect)
Due to my stupidity I typed in Allis rather than Ellis. Petter Allis (Architect) is unkown becuase he doesn't extist. Peter Ellis (Architect) is a different matter. --Jirate 16:40, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)

Comment. Then replace the content with patent nonsense or blank and mark for speedy deletion with an explanation in the edit summary. I don't think it needs to be here. Jallan 18:17, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)

 * Ok I've done that.--Jirate 19:23, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)

 * Except of course I got it the wrong way round again. Now done by someone not having a bad day.--Jirate 12:23, 3 Oct 2004 (UTC)