Born in Kirkcaldy on 16 May 1973, the Downie clan consists of mother and father, his brother and Jenny, his fiancée. Colin and Jenny are about to add to that clan when their baby comes along later this year.

Colin has always been a netminder, his first game between the sticks being 13 years ago, and why did he want to play hockey? "You can have lots of beer and girls at a young age. And you can hit people in the back with a big wooden stick!"

Since then Colin has also played for Fife, Altrincham and Storm before ending up in the Blackburn camp in 1998. Whilst playing for Altrincham in 1994 Colin suffered what he considers to be his worst hockey related injury, hurting his shoulder which kept him out of the game for a while.

He bounced back from that to sign for the Storm in 1995, being one of only three players to take part in all 66 games that season and a part of the British League Division One championship winning side that year. Their biggest defeat that season just happened to be at the hands of the Hawks in a 9-12 game that was shows a much closer scoreline than the game itself actually was. He then went on to play a part in their inaugural Superleague campaign the next season.

Stepping down from the Superleague to now play in ED1, I asked what the main differences were between the two leagues. "Superleague is terrible to watch, there are more mistakes in the national leagues which make them more interesting.

"Blackburn could do better with marketing but they always try their best and turn up with a team every year, the Arena is good and the fans are just great."

Which brought me to the subject of players being shielded from fans in many Superleague clubs, " it's good to meet the fans, I've got a lot of old friends down here and I like a lot of the people that it's good to keep in touch with. The main difference is the pay though, and there's totally different training. Superleague players train every day where in these leagues you have to do another job as well so can't always train every day."

And having two jobs doesn't leave much spare time, Colin used to enjoy a relaxing round of golf but doesn't get much time for it now, with a job in the sales team at Time Computers. "Paul Gelder, my team leader is great, he helps me out a lot, giving me time off for training and motivating me to earn lots of money!"

Colin would like to keep on in sales after his hockey career is over, maybe working in hockey training if he had the time but at the moment that time isn't there. At the start of this season he announced to Eye of the Hawks that he would be retiring from the game and was just helping out for the first couple of matches, "I didn't retire because they were going to pay me for playing!" So as for next season, "I'd like to stay here, as long as Bobby will have me and I can stop getting so many injuries."

As you can see, Colin being a typical Scotsman likes his money, he lists his favourite team as "anybody who'll pay me," and with qualifications like his who wouldn't, "Qualifications? I've got a very good mouth!"

As for this year with the Hawks, Colin thinks he's made a good decision to stay on, "I've enjoyed this year, all the guys make a big effort, they're nice guys with no big-heads. We win as a team and lose as a team. , It's been my happiest year in Blackburn,

If you didn't already know, Colin likes his beer, sipping MVP Dan Mackriel's can of Carling he says his favourite drink is beer, especially in the White Bull in Ribchester. On this note I let him go and join the rest of their team on their regular post match night out.

Colin Downie was talking to Tony Preece, 16th January 2000.

This site is copyright of Tony Preece, 1998 - 2000.