1903-04 in French ice hockey

This was the 1903-04 season in French ice hockey:

Season Overview

The epicenter of French hockey shifted to Lyon this year. In early September, SC Lyon announced its intention to establish a Challenge Cup for the local Lyon clubs to be played at the local Palais de Glace.

On November 10, the players began practicing. The practices were three times a week (Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday) for one hour a day.

In late November, the players of SC Lyon were divided into two teams of six players apiece (captains - Aubert and Chaboud), and the squad began to partake in inter-club matches. There was also a third team formed for the other players.

The players took their training seriously, in preparation for the Challenge Cup against Paris. Recall that under the rules of the Challenge/Bronze Cup, individual city competitions were to be played before the best team from each city would meet in the finals.

Canadian ice hockey continued to win the hearts of Lyon athletes. For example, local amateur cyclists who are in the ranks of the French Cycling Union (Union Vélocipède de France;), formed an ice hockey team, which staged its first practice session on December 20, 1903. On January 1, 1904, an ad appeared in the Lyon newspaper announcing that the newly formed team club would play against the second team of SC Lyon the following evening. The more experienced SC Lyon II won handily, 5-0. These were the rosters from the match: SCL-II: Knoeri de Fernex; D. Lehmann - A. Bellon; Chaboud (cap.) - Vignon - Comte. UVF: Doste Aîné; Falconnet - J. Doste; Temporel - Kahn - Reybillet.

Meanwhile in Paris, they were busy preparing for the annual festival hosted by the L'Auto newspaper at Lake Enghien, scheduled for January 3. Henry Couturier (Dickard) supervised the preparations. It was planned to hold skating races in 200 and 500 meter disciplines, as well as ice hockey match between the first team of Club des Patineurs de Paris and the team Cercle de Patinage d'Enghien.

However, on the scheduled day of the festivities, a thaw began, and instead of the promised match between CdP and Enghien, an inter-squad game of Club des Patineurs de Paris was played. As a result, on very bad ice, "Rouge" defeated "Bleu" 5:4. The match was repeatedly interrupted by player disputes and consisted only of one period.

After a while, after losing an international match, the eyes of the Lyon players once again turned in the direction of Paris. However, the players from the capital were not in a hurry to carry out the inter-city competition to follow-up to play the Challenge Cup between Paris and Lyon.

Continuing to hope that the games for the Cup would still be held, games were played in Lyon every Sunday between the various clubs in the city. FC Lyon was the most active of the clubs, playing in all four matches staged in February. Game report from the February 13 match: FC Lyon - SC Lyon II - 8:2 Official: J.Gros. FCL: J. Vuillermet; Automne - Terraire; S. Krücker - Bernavon (cap.) - C. Martin. SCL-II: O. Lehmann; Waldmann - Vignon; Comte - A. Bellon - Chaboud (cap.). And the February 27 game: FC Lyon - SC Lyon II - 2: 1. FCL: J. Vuillermet; Automne - S. Krücker; Bernavon (cap.) - Terraire - C. Martin. SCL-II: Stockhammer; O. Lehmann - Comte; Chaboud (cap.) - A. Bellon - Vignon.

To conclude the season in Lyon, two matches were scheduled. In the first of them the strongest team in the city - SC Lyon - met a combination side of UVF/FC Lyon. Report from the match, played March 5: SC Lyon - UVF/FC Lyon 4: 1 Official: Binding. SCL: Stockhammer; J.Gros - D. Lehmann; R. Aubert (cap.) - J. Serve - A. Kimmerling. UVF/FCL: Zix; Terraire - D. Rondelli; C. Martin - Temporel - Automne. Goalscorers: Kimmerling - 2, Aubert, Serve / Rondelli.

The final game of the season was played on March 10 between SC Lyon II and UVF Lyon. Several unusual circumstances conspired to turn the game into a dull 0-0 draw. UVF had no reserve players and had to advertise through the press to find a substitute. A player named Martin from FC Lyon was willing to play for UVF, but SCL refused to have someone they deemed a very strong player participate. So the teams played with five players each. During the second period, a player received a blow to the nose and started bleeding. He left the game and the others players followed, wondering what to do next. The referee blew his whistle in vain but no one listened. Several of the players started getting ready to go home, and a mutual agreement was made to end the game.

One final note, the Challenge Cup between Paris and Lyon was never played in 1904.