He is known locally as the A15 Hockey Man – and it’s easy to see why.
For 30 years, Paul Hinson has played roller hockey almost everyday – in Baston Lay-by off what is one of Lincolnshire’s busiest roads. Drivers still double-take as they see him: dressed in fulL padding and stick in hand, shooting pucks into a goal with the focus of a professional player.
All while traffic sails by just meters away at 60mph.
“It’s a way of life for me,” he says. “And I love it.”
He has managed to turn this roadside area into a place of enjoyment for him – and for the many drivers on the A15 who wave or beep to him when driving by. Earlier this year, he went semi-viral when a video he posted to TikTok of him playing was viewed by 45,000 people in just three days.
Yet the journey to this much-loved routine was a long and, at times, devastating one.
After suffering a major nervous breakdown in 1993, he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, manic depression and bipolar across a number of years. “I know I’m not quite the same as everybody else,” he says. “But I can’t help that.”
Initially, he says the breakdown caused him to become a recluse, while he gained a significant amount of weight due to the medication he was prescribed. He moved from Peterborough where he was living and working as a DJ back to Baston where he had grown up.
But he was a lifelong rollerskater – his parents had met doing it – and, as he began to recover, he used the hobby to lose weight again.
“I couldn’t run because of my knees, and I won’t go on a bike as I was knocked off one as a kid,” he says. “The only way I could lose weight was if I put my skates on.”
He started gliding around Baston village at night, before a police officer – apparently worried he might smash into somebody – suggested he use the nearby A15 lay-by.
Things started simply – just skating up and down the patch of road – but he quickly got bored of this and started playing with a hockey stick and ball. This was until the ball kept rolling into the road.
“I would have got me squashed going to catch it,” he notes.
Pucks were the solution and he began using them instead of the ball, followed by adding a goal, cones and a net to stop the pucks from flying into the grass verge. “It saves me searching all day for them,” he notes.
His collection of pucks has grown over the years. He now has 150 of them. However his favourite remains the first one he got – a yellow one – all those years ago.
In addition, he now wears elbow and knee pads, and a chest protector in case he falls when its wet. He also has a huge speaker to keep him entertained, and a body camera both for his protection and to film online content for his social channels.
Many people either in the village or driving by stop to speak to Paul these days. He’s been given all sorts of things by well-wishers down the years, from water bottles and chocolate bars to cards and equipment. The former captain of Peterborough Phantoms ice hockey club, Jon Cotton, once gave him three shirts.
“I didn’t realise who it was, I didn’t ask him his name,” says Paul. “I only realised when I asked a friend who was number 12 on the team.”
It’s a fitting gift, perhaps, because Paul’s energy has undoubtedly brightened up plenty of people’s days, either on social media or as they drive past. He is man – the A15 Hockey Man – who has certainly made his mark on his community
