The Basingstoke Bison are pleased to announce the signing of British netminder Tom Annetts.

The latest capture by the Herd joins Davey Lawrence as the Bison's final line of defence and arrives at the club from the Bracknell Bees with impressive stats

The Reading-born goalie had three shut-outs last season as the recorded a 92.4 per cent save rate, being beaten 45 times from 582 shots in 1,037 minutes in goal for the Bees.

The previous year he played at Slough Jets with new Bison boss Steve Moria and collected two clean sheets.

The 22-year-old first went between the pipes at Bracknell for their under-10s team and year he started playing was 1995 and 95 is the shirt number he still wears today.

From there he moved to Guildford and twice won the English Championship with their under-19 team, once in a penalty shoot-out and then was given his chance with the Flames in the EPL

A highly-rated young goalie Bison player/coach Steve Moria who played with Annetts at Slough is delighted with his latest capture and said: "Signing Tom will give us a great combination in net. Netminding is a critical position on the team and it is important to have two good goalies.

"Tom played well for me in Slough. Last season he was even better in Bracknell. He took his chance when Gregg Rockman was injured and did a great job for them."

The latest Bison signing Annetts said: "I am looking forward to coming to Basingstoke and I think one of the highlights of my career so far was being part of the Jets team that won the Play-Off finals in Coventry."

He added: "I have never played on the same team as Davey (Lawrence), but I have seen him play and I look forward to working with him this season

"I know what my job is and I will do everything I can to help the Bison as I want to be part of a winning team."