MARC Etherington has known all about ‘ice time’ for as long as he can remember.

The Oswaldtwistle teenager, now aged 18, recalls his days of messing around at Blackburn Arena as a toddler as elder brother Dan played for the Hawks.

He was just four years old when he stepped on to the ice for the first time and learnt the basics from Karen Barber, the former Olympic skater and Dancing on Ice judge.

And in his years of playing for the Hawks junior teams up until he was 16, he was named Most Valuable Player at every age group.

But despite ice hockey being his first love, success for the former Norden High School pupil has come in the form of inline hockey - winning silver medals in the Junior Olympics and, more recently, the European Championships.

Etherington was vice captain of the GB team that went all the way to the final of the European Championships in Germany before losing to the host nation, nothing new there for British teams.

He helped GB to victorious over the best in Europe, Holland, Austria, Denmark and Switzerland, scoring four goals in the process on the march to the final.

“Playing for the GB inline team is one of my most memorable experiences and scoring in the European Championships this year is up there as well,” said Etherington who has played for West Coast Wasps since he was six years old.

But with Etherington about to embark on a law course at Lancaster University, he admits his inline skating days will probably play second fiddle to both his ice hockey and his studies.

“Although most of my notable achievements have come from playing inline hockey, I consider myself very much an ice hockey player,” said Ethertingon who also studied at St Mary’s College. “I only train on ice, very rarely at inline I just transfer everything I have learnt out there on the ice on to the roller rink.”

However, there could be one last inline ‘hurrah’ for Etherington as the Wasps chase national glory.

Having captained the Wasps to five Northern League titles, Etherington masterminded another at the weekend to earn a place at the National Champion-ships in Bisley, London next month.

“I’ll continue to play as much as I can, when I can but I plan to cut back on the inline hockey though and focus more on ice,” revealed Etherington who plays for Trafford Metros. “I’ll continue to play for the Metros and train with the professional team to help improve my game.”

Having played for British Inline Skating Hockey Asso-ciation (BISHA) and the British Inline Hockey Puck Association (BIHPA), Eth-erington is aiming to break in to the Great Britain Universities ice hockey side.

“My main aim for the next couple of years is to get on the GB University ice hockey team,” he said. “I think this is an achievable goal for me.

“The highest level theor-etically I could play would be Elite League in this country. However, in reality I never will as I am not good enough and with univ-ersity looming I simply don’t have the time required to train myself up to that standard.”

Despite playing at major tourna-ments in inline hockey, Etherington proved that ice hockey was his true love by admitting a good old fashioned on-ice brawl was the highlight.

“We were playing in an international club event for the Manchester Phoenix against a Dutch side Den Haag.

“The match was abandoned because of the fight and I remember waving to all the fans who were cheering.

“That would be one of my best moments in hockey.”

Ice time just doesn’t get any better that that!