Keeping a Championship winning Team together is a lot harder than some might think.
At the end of the 2000-2001 season, Stan Marple lost the services of Ryan Campbell, Wayne Crawford and Barcley Pearce through retirement; Karry Biette moved on to Fife, Chris Crombie moved to arch enemies Slough Jets and Scott Campbell and Stan Marple had not agreed terms for the new season.
As these players left through one door, in through the other door came defencemen Regan Stocco and Jason Dailey along with centreman Kent Nobes and right-winger Tony Redmond.
Like the previous season, the Flames began their campaign with back-to-back games against the Bracknell Bees; unfortunately it was the Berkshire side that won the two-leg series 8-3 on aggregate to take the Baker Tilly Shield back to Amen's Corner.
The next trophy up for grabs was the Findus Challenge Cup, the replacement for the defunct Benson and Hedges Plate, where the Flames were grouped with Coventry, Milton Keynes and the Solihull Blaze of the English Division.
The Flames finished second behind Coventry, and with only the Top Team from each of the 4-groups advancing into the semi-finals, the players found that another trophy had slipped from their grasp.
The Flames League campaign started with a tough home game against the newly formed Dundee Stars, which they unfortunately lost 3-1. On the 6th October Marple added to his offensive firepower with the addition of ex-London Knight Todd Wetzel. By the 14th October they had played 7 League games, with a record of 6-wins and 1-loss, but Head Coach Marple felt that things still needed to be changed. Out went defenceman Jason Stone and in came another ex-London Knight, Greg Burke. Things started to go all right with the latest acquisition of and the Flames won the next 2-games. Unfortunately that is where the luck ran out and they lost their next 5-games, 2 of which were in OT. On the 10th November, a week after the 5-0 drubbing of the Cardiff Devils, Finnish playmaker and ex-London Knight, Mikko Koivunoro left the Edinburgh Capitals, where he had started the season whilst waiting for the Newcastle Jesters season to start, and joined the Flames. Following right behind Mikko was hard hitting defenceman and Flames fans favourite, Scott Campbell.
Unfortunately, Team Captain, place 14-points off League leaders the Dundee Stars. With so many players on the roster, some had to go, so out went forwards Kent Nobes and Guildford Junior product Rob Lamey.thBy mid-November the Flames were sitting in 5Paul Dixon picked up what everyone thought was just a groin strain, but it was a lot worse than that and after going under the surgeons knife, he was forced to sit on the sidelines for the next 10-weeks. At the same time, Jason Jennings damaged the ligaments and nerves in his right hand, for which he decided to return home to Canada for treatment. There was to be one more casualty in the shake up of the playing personnel and on 12th December Regan Stocco was released by the Club.
Over the Christmas period the Flames were not the only Club to make changes, British defenceman Ian Defty, who was released by the Hull Thunder made his debut for the Flames on the 5th January, funnily enough against his old Club.
At the turn of the New Year, the Flames fortunes began to turn for the good, putting together a string of wins, but by now the Dundee Stars had all but ensured the league title, leaving the Flames to hope for a better playoff showing, but unfortunately for the Guildford faithful, this would not be the year as the Flames bowed out of the playoff semi finals to the Coventry Blaze over a 2 leg affair, with the Blaze moving on to drop a narrow playoff title defeat to the double winning Dundee Stars.
