Daphne Does Derby: Forward! March! bout recap

There’s nothing like bout day, is there?

It’s not even about the skating - that’s a whole experience in itself. But the beauty of having your league come together to celebrate something they love is truly excellent.

Yesterday saw the Blitz Dames bouting their old friends Croydon Roller Derby. It must be said, the Dames were on fine form. Their jammer lineup consisted of Violet Attack who sliced through the pack time and time again; Suzette la Flamme who consistently bumped up the scores and never faltered, even in jams that seemed to last forever; Nico Warrior who has always been sneaky but in this game was an actual ninja, and Nina Nunchucks who was just incredible.

No seriously. Nina was incredible. I used to have mixed feelings towards her because she was my derby mum and I always thought she was giving me tough love from afar, when in reality she’d forgotten that I was her daughter. But yesterday she was everything a roller girl aspires to be. Her crossovers! Her juking! Her leaps. I’m telling you, at one point she jumped the apex and I nearly cried, it was that beautiful.

The Croydon side was no less formidable. Totting fearsome war paint, they kept the Dames on their toes. Led by their coach, Herbie Licious who was wearing extremely wide trousers, they were cleaner skaters and impressively kept four blockers on track for the majority of the game.

Mosquito graced our venue again, sprinting around that track and giving our jammers a run for their money. What she lacks in height she makes up for in skill and confidence. One of the jammers I wasn’t familiar with was Vikispeedia but aside from having a great name, she really did live up to it!

I tried to take more notes on Croydon, but instead all I seem to have written about is Gin Atomic’s tiny, tiny skirt. It was so small, I am not even kidding. I mean, this is derby, most players dress like there’s a clothing shortage, but the skirt deserves a mention of its own. She also was kind enough to show me that if she had fallen over, the skirt would have flipped up to reveal pants that aptly read ‘FAIL’.

Ah, rollergirls. What’s not to love.

Aside from the actual bout and Gin Atomic’s TINY, TINY SKIRT, there was much excitement off track The Blitz Dames were selling scandalously generous slices of incredibly yummy cake. My derby wife bought me one slice and I ate it for the entire four hours that I was there, that’s how big it was. There were also gingerbread dames that sadly all suffered debilitation injuries.

Additionally, Izzy Dauntless who makes jewellery that is sort of good (kind of) was taking orders for league rings with name and league initials on (she’s making me one with ‘Daffy Gu Gu’ on it as we speak) and many an order was placed while her son, the Blitz Dames mascot, ran around roaring at people.

Our next match is against Rainy City Roller Girls in Manchester. We’re hiring a bus, so if you want to ride with us - and who wouldn’t - drop us a message!

~ Daphne du Gorier #905

(Roller derby is serious bananas and Daphne is the most serious banana)

*images by Simon White.

Full Metal Track It Write Up

Photo courtesy of Neal Humphris

30 January 2011: Full Metal Track It
Usually we’re busy stuffing our faces with roasted food, Sunday lunchtime, but not this week. No, this week the Dames bouting team, Refs, NSOs, lineup and bench team and travelling supporters were meeting up at the van hire centre or outside the Mailbox with skates, pads, snacks, flags, snacks, boutfits, make-up bags, snacks drinks and more snacks, ready for the 3hr drive to Croydon Roller Derby’s bouting venue in Carshalton.

Having agreed that it would be childish to race all the way there in our two minibuses, we settled in for a Dames road trip. Bus 2 took an early lead, but timing and an attention-grabbing moon from Violet Attack and Little Ruffty helped Ruffty (at the wheel of Bus 1) gain ‘Lead Driver’ status as we approached the M40 and the driving contest was effectively won there and then.

Croydon were well organised and when we parked at the venue just after 4pm the track laying was well underway and we were met and directed to the changing room. This was a first public bout for several Dames (Izzy Dauntless, Nico Warrior, Kathleen Hamma, Rip Lashes and Razor Red) and there was some nervous chatter, and some nervous silence, as we waited to warm up and have equipment checked before the game. But as soon as the first whistle began we just played roller derby.

The Dames hadn’t bouted as a team since April 2010 and some of the more experienced blockers were initially a trifle over-excited to be back on track; I for one didn’t play as sensibly as I should have done, being sent to the penalty box twice early on. The first half points were fairly evenly distributed but with there was a succession of Dames stuck in the penalty box, including one jam where the box was full and blockers were waved off. Croydon later had an amazing 20-point jam (Jessica Rammit jamming) to go into the lead and by half time the score was Croydon 50-41 Blitz Dames.

Dames Captain Violet Attack gathered her troops for a quick team talk: she told us that the Dames were allowing the Croydon jammers to fly past on the outside far too easily. If we could just keep 5 players on the track for each jam, we could stop Croydon scoring. Without their power jam, Croydon would not have been in the lead. Dames blockers just needed to play with less heart and more head, and stay on the track so that our jammers would have the help they needed to slip through the pack.

We don’t like to disappoint Attack. And so the second half was a different story, with the Dames holding the Croydon jammers back more effectively, and Dames jammers steadily scoring points. There was brave and determined jamming from Nico Warrior (and I’d like to send our thanks to the Warrior friends and family for their passionate and noisy support) slipping through walls and bouncing back up every time she was knocked down, and confident and crafty jamming from Nina Nunchucks; Violet Attack as ever caused problems for the opposition wherever she chose to play, and Sleazy Rider and Izzy Dauntless were tireless in knocking holes or positionally blocking in the pack. Rookie skater Razor Red worked well at the front of the pack with Bitchy or Doc, and teamwork across the second half saw the Dames outscore Croydon with 74 points in the half against Croydon’s 31.

Croydon players we were particularly wary of were Jessica Rammit and Amazon Dragstar, Mary Blockins, Mosquito and Jeopardy Jinx; we felt that the level of derby skills was good from both teams, and everyone will have learned something from the bout. Croydon were lovely hosts, we felt welcomed and well looked after (they fed us! brought fruit and water and cake! gave us goodie bags!) and we hope we can return the love in a home fixture before too long.

Everyone involved in a roller derby game has a slightly different view and interprets that view in their own way; whether you’re in the suicide seats, the back of the stands, skating in it or standing in the centre of the track, you can’t see everything. This, then, is my recollection of the game; I was on the track a lot, I am well known for my inability to think and skate at the same time and obviously missed a lot of what was going on around me. So if I fail to mention someone’s brilliant play or amazing piece of skill, sorry, I was probably in a world of my own at the time.

~ Roisin Roulette #N17

Full Metal Track-It Final Score....

The final score from the Blitz Dames' bout yesterday against Croydon Roller Derby....

Birmingham Blitz Dames: 115 - 81: Croydon Roller Derby

Well done to everyone who skated yesterday, huge thanks to the refs, NSOs and Croydon Roller Derby for being such fabulous hosts. It was an honour to be in your first open home bout with you!

The Dames invade Croydon!

A last minute invite to Croydon Roller Derby's Fenris Flyer's and Brighton Rocker's Closed Mixed Scrimmage saw me (Bitter Sweet), Nina Nunchucks and Nico Warrior (and not forgetting Metal Ed!) make the traffic riddled and arduous journey down to Croydon for some real Roller Derby fun.

With Mixed teams from Croydon, Brighton, London Rockin' Rollers and of course the lovely Blitz Dames (Biased? Much!) Team Black and Team White faced off against each other! Both teams quite nervous to start with as most skaters on the teams were new to the sport but nervousness soon turned into the drive to kick some Rollergirl ass!

Team White, dubbed White Spirit (which had players like Nico Warrior, Nina Nunchucks from the Dames and Flash Bang Wallop from LRR on) took an early lead with Team Black (Dubbed the Black Pearls) failing to score for the first 3 jams. Team White 20 - Team Black 0. Ouch!

But Team Black (Consisting of players such as Bitter Sweet of the Dames, Mosquito, Liv Fast of CRD and Deadly Devito and Taco Hell of LRR) weren't gonna take it lying down! Jam 4 saw Liv Fast of the Black Pearls nabbed herself a Power Jam scoring 25 points and getting Team Black on the score board! Team White fought back but Team Black played it tactically, controlling the pack and jamming their lil hearts out! the score remained close all the way through, the lead changing many a time!

By half time Team Black had secured an uncomfortable lead! By half time the happenings of the Rollergirls had attracted the attention of the staff and users of the Leisure Centre! As the Ladies left the track they were bombarded by questions about the wonderful game!

Drinks and Fags and Tactical talk over the girls returned to the track, Team White determined to close the gap and Team Black determined to skate away with the win!!

The second half was, at times, scappy and intense with lots of penalties and lotsa points scored who came out the winner.....

The Black Pearls AKA Team Black!

Team White 63 - Team Black 79

I think all players on all teams came away from the Scrimmage with new knowledge of the game and tactics and a whole new confidence in their own abilities!

I'd just like to thank Ghouldielocks, who unfortunately couldn't skate (Next time woman *shakes fist*), for inviting the Dames to come along, for the whole of Croydon Roller Derby for setting up such an awesome Mixed Scrim and all of teams, skaters, refs and NSO's that got involved and made the day such a great success!

Bring on the next one :)

Peace out!

Bitter Sweet ♥
#<3