Leeds Knights: Jamie Chilcott ready for challenge of stopping former team-mate Bobby Chamberlain

Fortunately for Ryan Aldridge’s team, they will head south today for the first of those meetings armed with inside knowledge on how to deal with one of the most potent of those Lightning threats, forward Bobby Chamberlain.

Recently-added defenceman Jamie Chilcott knows Chamberlain’s game all too well having played with the tenacious 26-year-old for several seasons at Hull Pirates.

With Chilcott as captain, both were part of the all-conquering Pirates team that won the NIHL One treble in 2018-19, the season before the NIHL National was launched.

Chamberlain has consistently put up the points wherever he has played in the second tier.

It has been no different this time around – his third overall with the Lightning – leading the line with 64 points in all competitions, fifth in the league with the Knights’ Kieran Brown and Brandon Whistle sat top and third respectively.

Having played both with and against Chamberlain, Chilcott is looking forward to embracing this weekend’s challenge of keeping his former team-mate quiet.

“Bobby is one of the league’s top talents,” said 28-year-old Chilcott.

“That has been the case for a number of years now – he is one of those players that, wherever he plays, he’s going to score goals.

“When he was at Hull, he was playing with Matty Davies a lot and everyone knows Matty’s talent in terms of assists and creating offence and Bobby did well playing with him over the years.

“But he has been able to go to MK and prove that he can also do it on other teams and it’s no surprise that he has done that this season again.

“I obviously played with him for a number of years at Hull and it will be different being on the other side of it. But I’ve played against him before when he was at MK previously and it’s always a good challenge and one I’m looking forward to.”

With Sam Zajac missing due to work commitments and Bobby Streetly finding ice time hard to come by in recent games, the experience and leadership qualities of D-man Chilcott will be invaluable to the Knights this weekend.

His return to the game after almost two years out because of the Covid pandemic has been pretty seamless, albeit one that has indeed proved as physically demanding as he expected it would.

But in the Knights he believes he is part of a roster that has the talent to match any of their second-tier rivals, including Milton Keynes.

“It’s been really enjoyable since I got back, obviously quite physically demanding,” he added.

“The first game was relatively easy on the body, given it was only a one-game weekend and it was nice to ease my way in.

“Then last week was the complete opposite with practice on Thursday and then games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with a long trip down to London thrown in for good measure.

“I admit I was aching a bit when waking up on Sunday before the Sheffield game, but that was to be expected really.

“When you look at the team we’ve got here, we can win on any given night.

“I’m not naive to think that we will win every game, that’s never going to happen, but with this roster we certainly have a chance to win every game against any team.”