Tattoo Freeze

On Sunday 17th January, the Blitz Dames popped down the road to Telford to the Tattoo Freeze convention to play their first bout of 2010. Tattoos and a day of derby you say? Was this the best day ever? Why yes it was!

A mini tournament was set up composed of half hour bouts throughout the day. With stiff competition from the formidible London Roller Girls league teams; The Ultraviolent Femmes, The Suffrajets and The Steam Rollers, the Dames decided to call in some help from their allies. Our roster was made up of 7 Blitz Dames skaters, plus 7 guest skaters from London Rockin' Rollers, Severn Roller Torrent and Leeds Roller Dolls to form The Blitz Dames Allied Army!!! (It was also the first time the Dames had had the opportunity to bout wearing our shiny new logo!)

(The Blitz Dames Allied Army: Bitchy the Killer, The Skatrix, Bruise 'em Banshee, Jack Attack, Violet Attack, Sleazy Rider, Roisin Roulette, Saintly Sin, Diamondback Belle, Von Bitch, Moxie Blitz, Cat A Sonic, Hooligal, Helen Fury and Frantic)

The first mini bout of the day was The Ultraviolent Femmes vs The Steam Rollers. In a closely fought match that turned the LRG inter-league expectations on its head, The Ultraviolent Femmes won with 31 points to The Steam Rollers' 28.

After a short break it was time for our first bout of the event against The Suffrajets. After a fairly good start, our jammer ended up in the box, allowing the jammer from The Suffrajets to get a 30 point jam. This left the Blitz Dames Allied Army trailing at the end with 20 points to The Suffrajets' 86 points. Ouch!

Next up was The Steam Rollers against The Suffrajets. The Suffrajets, tired from playing their second match in a row, caused The Steamrollers to win this bout 28 points to 60.

The Blitz Dames Allied Army then took on their second team of the day, The Ultraviolent Femmes. With blocks that were notoriously difficult for our jammers to get past, and some excellent jams from the Femmes' Kamakaze Kitty, the final score was 17 to the Blitz Dames Allied Army and 89 to the Ultraviolent Femmes.

The Femmes went from victory against us, straight into victory against The Suffrajets, winning their match against them 97 points to 12.

Our final round robin bout of the day, was against The Steam Rollers. After what seemed a promising start, The Steam Rollers secured a win with 88 points to our 21.

As the Allied Army and The Suffrajets had won the least games so far, we then went on to play them for third place in the tournament. The Allied Army fought valliantly, but determined not to be in 4th place, The Suffrajets pulled out all the stops and used their most effective tactics to break the 100 point barrier and win the game with 126 points to the Allied Army's 12 points, securing them third place in the tournament.

The final between The Steam Rollers and The Ultraviolent Femmes was nail-bitingly close for the entire half hour. With the team in the lead changing many times throughout the bout, it really could have been anyone's game. However, in the final jam, Fox Sake managed to clock up enough points for The Steam Rollers to lead them to victory. The final score; The Ultraviolent Femmes: 33, The Steam Rollers: 36.


(Raw Heidi for The Steam Rollers, recieves the trophy for the winning team. Photo by Teshi)

Although the Blitz Dames Allied Army didn't even get a whiff of a win all day, it was unanimously agreed to be a great day of derby. The atmosphere was both electric and friendly, with derby-types from leagues all across Britiain helping to organise, officiate, and promote roller derby!

The event also drew a huge number of fans from the tattoo convention who came along to see what all the fuss was about and there wasn't a time during the day when there wasn't a large crowd of people against the barriers, craning their necks to see oddly-dressed girls skating around bashing each other! It has to be said it went down very well with the punters at Tattoo Freeze.

The Dames all had an excellent day and would like to thank all three LRG teams for not going easy on us and making us up our game. It was a tough, challenging, but awesome event. We'd also like to thank Tattoo Freeze for having us there, and our allies from LRR, SRT and LRD for going into battle with us. It was an honour to fight beside you!

Winter Wheelies

Time for a little review of recent times to distract us from how all this weather is unsettling the normal schedule for skate practice. You'd think roller girls would be used to sliding all over the place and therefore ideally suited to arctic conditions, but eight wheels is NOT the same as an icy road, sadly.

November brought us the great fun of bouting the London Rockin Rollers away. Thinking about the wonderful warm welcome we received might just melt the snow! Possibly the fastest pack speeds ever seen in UK derby, and some awesome defensive play, took the LRR to victory, beating us 179 to 61. The grins on so many Blitz faces after the bout suggests that we at BBD don't like the easy life, there's so much to learn when you're being challenged, LRR were generous hosts and it was a pleasure to skate with them. Special thanks for the medals!

I will NOT be mentioning any of the silliness that took place travelling between Birmingham and London. Let's just say it can be a lot of fun hanging out with Dames in a confined space and we've no intention of growing up and getting boring any time soon. :-)

Such fun was had with LRR that we were setting a date for another chance to skate with them before the bruises had even had a chance to show. So right after new year, bulging with mince pies, we held a mixed scrimmage at Aston Arena welcoming skaters and officials from LRR, Rainy City, Severn Roller Torrent and Bedfordshire Roller Girls, among others. We had a wonderful day, despite the cold, and were so glad that so many roller girls and guys made the effort to get to us. It was really great to pack up in different combinations and learn to work different tactics and with different on-track personalities. Hanging out in the bar with cake and pizza, to witness the Derby Marriage of our Sleazy Rider and Roisin Roulette, was a great way to finish the day. Again, massive thanks to everyone who was there. We hope we'll be able to repeat the event and get even more leagues involved soon!

As well as having fun at Subside for our Christmas fundraiser, and getting to see lots of bouty goodness courtesy of Rainy City and LRG, we've been training hard and welcoming lots of lovely new Dames into the derby way of life. We're hoping the snow won't disrupt our attendance at Tattoo Freeze, where we'll be bringing a team with guests from LRR, Leeds Roller Dolls and SRT to take on the three LRG teams in the hope of converting a fan or two to our sport. Tattoo enthusiasts and roller derby? Doesn't sound like a promising mix... ;-)

The future's bright: the future's roll-y.

New Year, New Logo!

For the New Year we’ve decided it’s out with the old and in with the new and we’ve had a new and improved logo designed by Mr Volatile, our very own Kylie Volatile’s derby widow.





The Dames will next be bouting, with special guests from Severn Roller Torrent, London Rockin Rollers and Leeds Roller Dolls, against all 3 London Rollergirls teams at the Tattoo Freeze tattoo convention at Telford International Centre on Sunday 17th January. The fun kicks off at 11am. For more info on the convention got to - http://www.tattoofreeze.com/




The Birmingham Blitz Dames would like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year.