August -October

Time for a little catch up on the happenings of the Blitz Dames as the season gets underway.

August started with the Goodwood Roller Marathon and raising vast sums for Zoe's Place and earning lots of blisters.

L-R Kiki, Attack, Suzette, Lornatik, Fyta, Margo and Vortex.

The August Bank Holiday saw us hosting our inaugural Dames Awards Ceremony. With Hollywood glamour, in the sparkle of the camera's flash, we got together at our sponsor Subside bar to celebrate the strengths of the last season and look forward to the next.

Awards included: Most Valued Player and Highest Scoring Jammer for Violet Attack, Penalty Box Queen and Best Overall Hitter for the much missed Union Jack-U-Up. Bitchy The Killer as Best Rookie, Kylie Volatile as Most Improved and the inevitable Smelliest Pads going to Saintly Sin.

It was another fab Blitz Dames event, with much consumption of our Blitz Bomber cocktails and many people releasing their inner diva on the karaoke stage. Big thanks to the fabulous Voodoo Kings who rockabillied our night away!

Then in September our Saintly Sin and Kylie Volatile skated with Severn Roller Torrent's Quad Squad in the Middlesborough Milk Rollers' Northern Exposure event in Darlington. It wasn't easy, with Leeds Roller Dolls bouting so well, and Quad Squad comprising members from several teams who hadn't skated together before, but as always, our girls went out there to do their best and have a good time. Mission achieved! Great to see MMR and CCR on the track too!

And ending October we found ourselves invited by pop artist Jann Haworth to the private view of her new exhibition at Wolverhampton Art Gallery. Ms Haworth is the mother of England's Glory, jammer for Utah team Leave It To Cleavers, and roller derby has inspired some of her work. We had a fabulous chat about derby with her, and a great time exploring her soft sculpture. A big Blitz Thumbs Up to a very interesting exhibition: Go see it!

L-R: Attack, Elle, Lornatik, Jann Haworth, Maddie Hit-her, Mimey, Vortex and half a Sprite.

The end of October also see the launch of the Birmingham Contemporary Art Forum's The Event, our Rip Lashes' baby, bringing together many artists in unexpected exhibition spaces around the city. Should be good!

Looking to the future we mustn't forget our next away bout on the 21st of November. Click HERE to get your tickets for The Fightmare Before Christmas against London Rockin Rollers. Whooop!

The Fightmare Before Christmas

It's been a while since the Blitz Dames had a bout to get excited about, but it's not long now until the fabulous London Rockin Rollers host us in a bout they're calling The Fightmare Before Christmas. Both teams have been training hard, and after seeing each other pull out spectacular performances at Roll Brittannia, it's fair to say it will be a hard fought and closely matched battle.

The event takes place at York Hall in Bethnal Green, London on the 21st of November, and tickets are available at LRR's website right now. It's a beautiful venue with a well equipped bar, so everyone needs to be there to cheer us on and support the sport of roller derby.



Click HERE to get your tickets.

And to check out the event on facebook go HERE.

Off Wheels

Exciting times, as ever, at the Blitz Boot Camp. We're all training hard to get ready to kick start this season and a quartet of our lovely skaters have decided they needed more of a challenge. Four of our heroines in khaki: Training Director Sleazy Rider, hard hitter Bitchy the Killer and star jammers Roisin Roulette and Kiki Kasplat, will be leaving their wheels at home and running 13.1 miles on Sunday 11th October to raise money for the Birmingham Women's Hospital.

Of course we want everyone to have the opportunity to support us, so click here and with a bit of luck you'll be able to drop off a few pennies for a good cause. All gifts appreciated, so if it's just fifty pence, rest assured, you've warmed the cockles of the Blitz Dames' collective heart and helped us make a difference. We'd also value your support on the day. You'll easily spot these dames running together in bouting kit (minus pads and skates). Also, look out for many of our supporters and team mates in the crowd and come and say hello!

We'd like to take this opportunity to thank all our supporters in the summer, after we raised well over £1000 for Zoe's Place when a bunch of us skated the Goodwood Roller Marathon. HUGE thanks to everyone who donated so generously. I think all our blisters have now healed.

The End of an Era

The Birmingham Blitz Derby Dames wish to make it known that as of today, 1st September 2009, Bee Sting 101 is no longer affiliated with this league. We acknowledge and thank her for the work she put in to create this league, and wish her every success in the future.

Please direct any queries or comments to league-liason@blitzdames.com and we'll do our best to help.

Birmingham Blitz Derby Dames #2 in Europe!

BIRMINGHAM - The Birmingham Blitz Derby Dames Roller Derby Team has returned from a weekend full of knocks, blocks and fierce competition to rank #2 Best in Europe!

Roll Britannia was the first ever European-wide roller derby tournament to be held (18-19th July). Where 12 teams met to fight it out over two days at London's Earls Court London to be named winner.

The Blitz Dames played Leeds Roller Dolls and Berlin Bombshells in the first heat emerging successful wins for both to be put through to the semi-finals to take on Auld Reekie Roller Girls from Edinburgh. Both teams were hungry for a win after having their last game determined a controversial draw. The Blitz Dames fought hard and got the win placing them firmly in the #2 position in the tournament.

The final saw the Dames take on tournament favourite London Brawling. Although they lost this one, the Dames were happy to have scored more points than any other team during the tournament against this notoriously hard team.

This tournament marks the end of the Blitz Dames' 2nd successful inter-league season where they competed against Stuttgart, Germany; Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland; London, Middlesbrough and Leeds. They ended the season with a 7 wins 2 loss and 1 draw making them one of the most prolific and successful interleague roller derby teams in Europe.

The Blitz Dames will be on a break over the summer but will return with new fixtures beginning in September to bring Birmingham more fast, furious live roller derby action from their new bouting venue at Aston Arena.

The team are actively recruiting and training women interested in skating and men who would like to learn how to referee.

Video Highlights:

*** THANKS TO THE LRG FOR HOSTING SUCH AN AMAZING WEEKEND!!! YOU ROCK! DERBY LOVE TO ALL THE TEAMS WHO PARTICIPATED AND SKATED AGAINST US WITH HEART, YOU DIDN'T MAKE IT EASY AND WE NEVER EXPECTED YOU WOULD! CYA ON THE TRACK SOON!

FOR MORE INFO ON LONDON ROLLERGIRLS AND ROLL BRITANNIA CLICK HERE:

www.londonrollergirls.com

Photos here:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=britannia+london+birmingham&m=text

http://forum.londonrollergirls.com/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=10030

the naughty step..... ooooo

http://forum.londonrollergirls.com/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=10015

A Head Ref Speaks

Yesterday's Fear and Lothian bout between Auld Reekie and the Blitz Dames was a close, evenly matched event. It was our last bout of the season and my first as Head Ref, and it ended with a somewhat controversial draw of 117 all.

We've had some pretty tough and demanding times at BB*DD of late. Some because we've had the happy stress of about a bout a month during 2009, some because of the expected personnel changes and injuries, some for a wide array of personal reasons. Amid all kinds of busy and a change of venue I was well aware we were doing the best we could, but that it wasn't perfect. But I was hoping everything would go smoothly.

Unfortunately towards the end of the second period a problem with communication regarding scoring was observed. Even more unfortunately the full extent of these problems was not discovered until the period had ended and the scoreboard showed a Blitz victory. A full enquiry has yet to be undertaken, let's hope video footage helps clear up any grey areas to help prevent anything similar happening in future bouts, but it was clear that there was a discrepancy and Auld Reekie had been disadvantaged by this.

The obvious response was an overtime jam, but once the discussions between refs and captains had taken place, the skaters were cooling down and worn out from an hour of play. The Auld Reekie girls seemed quite sure they didn't want to get back on the track. The scores were reasonably close at the end and had been throughout, Auld Reekie we presume were missing points from some of their jammers' passes through the pack, so both sides agreed the fairest outcome would be to declare a draw. It might not be quite how WFTDA rules would have it called, but there was no way I was going to let our guests leave feeling cheated by our mistakes, so I believe this was the best call in a difficult situation.

The thing I'm taking from this is how keen I am to implement the changes that need to be changed, and how I cannot wait to have my second bout to Head Ref and prove how much better we can organise and officiate a bout. Much much derby love to our two visiting referees LRG's Ragged Reaper and ARRG's Ella Bella Bang Bang, who both displayed a fantastic understanding of the game and gelled into a focused team with the BB*DD refs. You both taught me so much, and I'm massively grateful.

I would like to make it absolutely clear that no one at BB*DD would feel any victory in falsely gained points or illegal behaviour, and we do set out to be absolutely fair. We love roller derby and we love being part of this ever growing wonderful community, but it isn't easy to produce and run a bout and, being human, mistakes are made. As Head Ref I want to say a big sorry to anybody who had a disappointing experience and a big thanks to ARRG for coming down and playing so well. Can't wait to see you all at Roll Britannia!

Derby love, Mimey Vice x

A Savage Journey to the Heart of Roller Derby

So it's only one week since we faced the London Roller Girls and already the next bout is almost upon us.

London Brawling won 249 - 20. A scoreline not dissimilar to the first time we faced each other, but the bouts were miles apart. We have some fearless hitters, LRG have even less fear and even more hit. We have some super sleek, powerful jammers who can weave themselves through tiny spaces between roller girls...until they meet an LRG wall at the front of the pack. We have jammers who look fast and sneaky, until an LRG jammer whooshes past them. We've come such a long way since we first faced LRG on the track last October, but, sadly for us, LRG weren't snoozing in the intervening months either.

BB*DD had an awesome day (and night) of derby in London, and what the scoreboard showed after two chunks of thirty, really was not the most important thing. All of our skaters finished the bout with a massive grin on their face, many proud bruises and aching limbs, and a sense of achievement. We played hard, learned masses, and played as a team; nobody could ask for more than that.

LRG were friendly and helpful hosts. The first bout of the double header, between Leeds Roller Dolls and LRG's B-Team, the Brawl Saints was fantastic. The crowd was amazing, lively and supportive. The fun flowed freely at the after party. Memorable moments as this blitz dame remembers it:

~Correctional Felicity seeming to be an impenetrable wall even without any team mates. What's a word that means more impenetrable than impenetrable?
~Union Jack-U-Up finally getting back on her feet, and being ok, after she'd flipped into the wall and lay shaking on the floor for what seemed like hours.
~Kitty Decapitate and Fox Sake lapping the pack far too quickly. Far too easily.
~Those few happy jams where our jammers made it through the pack and scored some points.
~Realising roller derby has made it as a legitimate sport, when a newly naked man completed his first lap of the pack. Our first streaker!!!!! A naughty man who was properly punished for interfering with play. A very naughty boy who amused many.

Massive respect to LRG for being such an amazing league of skaters and much appreciation for treating us to such fun. <3 <3 <3

Here's to hoping we offer Auld Reekie a similar experience at our last bout of the season. Fun, frolics and fearsome derby action guarranteed at our new home Aston Arena. Tickets available here.

Share the Skate

These have been super busy times for the Blitz Dames. We're all fired up and ready to cause (legitimate and fair) carnage with London Roller Girls which is, eek, tomorrow. Thanks for hosting us, London, here's to a great sportswomanship, excellent entertainment and every Dame coming home knowing they've done their best. Preferably in one piece. Good luck to all skaters and officials. Then a mere two weeks later we're hosting Auld Reekie in our new home Aston Arena. It's boutiful!


We've been lucky to spend time with skaters from other leagues. Last month saw BB*DD sharing a scrimmage with London Rockin Rollers, skating several sessions with Blue Ruin from the Emerald City Roller Girls, and having a training session led by Winona Fighter from the Rocky Mountain Roller Girls

We've picked up new drills, honed old techniques, gained insight on aspects of gameplay and most of all, enjoyed basking in the love of the derby community. It's been amazing for us to meet so many fabulous people in the name of derby. MASSIVE thanks to all the skaters and skate lovers who took part in all of these meetings and made it happen. And big derby love.