Berkshire Bees

Bees began life in the Heineken League Division Two, under the leadership of former Durham Wasps and Nottingham Panthers forward, Jamie Crapper, where they finished 6th.

Having finished third, behind Humberside and the Slough Jets, Bees progressed to the top tier of British hockey, the Heineken Premier Division, via the play-offs, alongside the Seahawks.

As well as finishing a respectable 5th in the league, Bees made it to the play-off final, beating the Sheffield Scimitars in the semi-finals at the SkyDome Arena in Coventry.

10 months later, On 11 March 2007, the Bracknell Bees were crowned champions of the English Premier Ice Hockey League for the 2006/2007 season, following a 3–0 shut-out of the Romford Raiders, as the only remaining contenders for the title, the Sheffield Scimitars lost at Milton Keynes.

Not content with one trophy though, Bees followed it up with their first ever play-off success at the SkyDome Arena in Coventry, overcoming the Peterborough Phantoms 2–1 in a semi-final shoot-out, before defeating archrivals and the previous season's league champions, the Guildford Flames, 3–2, in the final.

Smital was replaced by Michal Kanka and Peter Jasik and the team continued to enjoy success, before off-ice problems started to set in.

This was announced mid season in an effort to allow time for a new owners to be found and make the relevant arrangements with John Nike Leisuresport, who would issue the operating licence.

With little time to build a new team, Bees recruited Claude Dumas as player coach, after his club Telford Tigers announced that they were to mothball.

Dumas recruited three imports from the French Elite League, forwards Michal Pinc and Jaroslav Cesky, along with Dutch international defenceman, Chad Euverman.

Cox had been the coach the Bracknell Hornets English National League team for a number of years, leading them to a playoff title before moving to the Bees.

Together, the pair set about rebuilding the Bees from the bottom up, bringing back former Bees, Martin Máša, Matt Foord, Shaun Thompson, Carl Graham, Tom Annetts and Brad Watchorn, and adding some players used to competing at the top end of the table, including Guildford captain, Rob Lamey and Slough pair, Michael Bowman and Andy Munroe.

Bees showed a big improvement, doubling their points tally of the previous season, but still missing out on post-season play, finishing 9th, with only Telford behind them 2012-13 saw far less changes, with coach Gareth Cox choosing to just tweak what he had.

[2] PSM, led by former Bracknell junior Ben Beecher and local businessman Andrew Cross, stated an ambition to make the Bees vibrant, visible and viable and the best family sporting experience in Berkshire.

In doing so, the aim is to build a sustainable sporting entertainment experience for the supporters, raise attendance at home games, and recognise the role played by many in the wider Bees family.

"We received several expressions of interest and proposals but the PSM business plan offered the best all round package for the Bees and Bracknell", commented Director Martin Weddell.

"Their recognition of the efforts put in by the previous team and their innovative future plans were key factors in making our due diligence decision.

Helped by the strong emergence of youngsters, Harvey Stead and Vanya Antonov, Bees achieved this goal on the penultimate weekend of the season.

Vanya Antonov, in his first full season was the team's top British scorer, while youngsters Josh (Tiger) Tetlow, Tom Relf, and Ziggy Beasley got their chances on two way contracts, as Bees looked to development for the future It was announced in March 2015, that Red Hockey Ltd, the company which also owns the Telford Tigers, had purchased a significant shareholding of 49% in the Bracknell Bees from Precision Sports Marketing.

However, the major shareholding of Bracknell Bees will remain under the control of Precision Sports Marketing, led by Ben Beeching and Andrew Cross.

[5] In June 2016, the supporters' trust raised enough revenue to commence the season and was granted entry into the EPL The Directors were keen to point out that it is thanks to fans, volunteers, sponsors and partners that the club was saved.

The Bees assured fans that positive progress was being made in finding a new home for the 20/21 season and beyond, stating "whilst the Hive may have closed, the club will live on.