Bout Recap: Hellions vs. Maine Roller Derby's Calamity Janes

In front of a house of 300 fans, the Hellions continued their home winning streak on Saturday night coming out on top against Maine Roller Derby. This was a rematch from last summer, when we took a friendly beating (just kidding... kinda) in June 2010 when we traveled up to Portland.

Like I remembered from last year, Maine had heavy hits and played a very focused game. Our coach, Roarshock, commented how tight and organized their girls looked while they were warming up.

This year, for the Hellions, was another story. Coming off our high from our third place win at Empire Skate Showdown earlier this month, we were ready to take on Maine on Saturday.

But first we had a team effort to lay down the track! Setting up for a bout is a team effort.

Taping down the track boundaries before the bout. One layer of tape, one layer of rope, another
layer of tape. Short Temper, Disharmony, and Sick Puppy in the foreground. Photo by Space Chalky.

When we say this is a skater owned and operated league, we mean it!

Each team started off with a few good jams, and the team work on both teams was great. The Hellions began to pull ahead into the first period. At the half the score was 104 Hellions - 40 Maine.

Photo by Zack Zoll

Maine started the second period strong utilizing a one on one strategy, and had a few good jams which initially caught them up in points. The Hellions we able to adapt, but had to continue taking hard hits and face Maine's effective booty-blocking from A-Block and Cherry Clobber, a formidable two person wall. Maine also increased their jammer rotation to include REDdemption, a newer face to Janes - but you couldn't tell based on her determination to get through the pack.

Side note: I actually had the pleasure of meeting REDdemption the weekend before at Eastern Regional Playoffs. I sat with some Maine players and their fans during one bout. They were a super friendly bunch! Maine's all star team, the Port Authorities were the tenth seed last weekend at Playoffs. They faced some tough opponents, but they looked good doing it!

The game ended with a score of 201 Hellions - 109 Maine. Game MVPs were Baby Nuclear for HoTRD and REDdemption for Maine. Game Heavy Hitter Awards were presented to Kitty from HoTRD and Cherry Clobber from Maine.

Photo by Space Chalky

Mathundra Storm with her light saber.
Photo by Space Chalky

The Hellions also got a special treat during half time...!  Ed, the father of our announcer Eloda Sarcasm, present the league with some super awesome LIGHT SABERS as a "trophy" for coming in third place at Empire Skate Showdown.  It was awesome! And so super thoughtful of Ed! Ed is definitely one of the Hellions SUPER FANS.

This bout was cool for me because two of my sister and my mom were able to attend and cheer us on.  My best friends Rachel and Jen from high school where also there!  Ahhhh yay!!  My boss was also there with his wife and son. So awesome.

I got feedback from some people on my team that they think my sister Carol looks like my twin, if I had a twin in the 1980s. What do you think?!  And for the record, those are her natural curls - no fancy perms here.  Should I get a perm?

Carol and me at the after party.
Photo by Space Chalky

OK - that's all she wrote - for now!

Bring goods to the bout this weekend and get $2 off at the door

For each bout, the Hellions donate a portion of their proceeds to charity. The September 24 bout against Maine Roller Derby will benefit the recent flood victims in Schoarie County.

The Hellions are also hoping that their fans will lend a hand to those affected by Hurricane Irene by bringing and donating the following items:

• non-perishable food items
• personal hygiene items
• baby items
• cleaning supplies

Fans bringing items to donate will receive $2 off door ticket price.

Eastern Region Play-offs: Nightmare on 95 Day 1

I've got thoughts on three of Friday's bouts for you.

In the first game of the tournament, the Dutchland Derby Rollers took on our friends from Maine Roller Derby (we're playing their B team next week!). I think it was a surprise to a lot of people, but Team USA rostered skater, V-Diva, recently transferred to DDR from Lehigh Valley. Maine did well but Dutchland took the win- their next bout would've been against Gotham (#1 tournament seed) later in the day - except they chose to forfeit. Read about that over on derbynewsnetwork or pretty much any facebook wall of someone related to roller derby.

The London vs Carolina game was one I had been looking forward to. I saw London play Providence Roller Derby, and I thought they were pretty great! Last year at Regionals (back when it was "Regionals"), Carolina played Montreal, winning by only a couple points. In my mind, this was sort of an international rematch for Carolina.

Carolina literally facing of vs London

London ruled the game with smart trapping and super recycling from their blockers; and beautiful footwork by their jammers. Even with hard strikes to the hips driven by Carolina, the London jammers would rarely take a tumble, and more like do some sort of spin-around move and stay on their feet. I actually saw this move from a couple jammers this weekend, including Charm City's CC Bang Bang.
Carolina interesting strategy of starting facing the jammers. From the crowd, it seemed intimidating. I'm curious about this strategy - I'm sure we'll be hearing about it.
The final score was London 160 - Carolina 67.


Montreal vs. Steel City
So, first of all you had to wonder - is the whole league wearing unitards under their jerseys, like the coaches? Or are those just pants?
This was a low scoring game for the first 10 minutes, with a score of score 16 Steel - 6 Montreal. Steel inched up to about at 25 point lead, but in the final jams of the period, Montreal nearly shortened the gap to 49-41 - still a quite low scoring game.
Soon into the second period, we saw the first 1 point lead change.  Midway into period two, the Steel City jammer was unable to take advantage of a powerjam due to what appeared to be an equipment malfunction seconds into the jam. A minute passed as she attempted to adjust her kneepad (?) and shortly the Montreal jammer was back on the track.
Steel City's defense endeavored to be ruthless: with big girls Athena and Bonecrusher in the back of the pack, it was nearly impossible to get around them. I'd like to rephrase myself and say that they were big girls... with incredible endurance and jammer stopping hits. By the end of the period, Steel regained the lead and took the game 134 - 88.

Next bout: Saturday, September 24

Time for a rematch! In June 2010, the Hellions traveled to Portland, ME for an epic weekend of fun and good old fashioned roller derby. I also jammed for the first time in this bout (and scored 4 points!) Read the bout recap here: http://hellionsoftroy.blogspot.com/2010/06/maine-bout-recap.html
The final score from this game was 157 Maine - 85 Hellions, so we're eager for this rematch. A year has gone by and our players have gained a lot of experience.
We're excited for this rematch!

Coming to the bout? Say so on Facebook.
Buy your advance tickets here: tinyurl.com/hotvmaine
As always, look for our ad in Metroland the week of the bout (9/22 edition)!

East Coast Extravaganza

This weekend I was in Philadelphia checking out East Coast Extravaganza (ECE).  This three-day tournament is sponsored by the Philly Roller Girls.  According to the website, there were 900+ skaters in 47 bouts.  The main attractions were the WFTDA sanctioned bouts, which were played by teams who are part of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association.  The Gotham Girls played on Boston; Maine (we played their B-team last month!) took on the Dominion Derby Girls from Virginia Beach; Providence, RI, played girls from Minnesota (arguably the best game of the weekend!), and sooo many more games.  Roller derby is a national sport, and this tournament is one way teams from across the country can get together and play each other to figure out their nation rankings.

There were also plenty of "challenge bouts" (basically pick-up games) that anyone could skate in if they registered as a skater.  Silly me didn't get my act together until the last minute, so I missed out on this!  Definitely next year!  What's fun about challenge bouts is that you can sign up to play on a team with some sort of theme, and you're pretty much matched with girls you've never skated with before, as you all sign up to skate for a team remotely.  There was a men's derby challenge bout which was great because there were lots of people at ECE who had never seen men's derby.  We are spoiled here in the north east!

So anyway, I went down to Philly with Eloda and Ida.  We spent Friday afternoon in Philly, saw Reading Terminal Market (same place as Reading Railroad from Monopoly!!) and took a double decker bus tour around town.  Then we headed over to the Sportsplex to check out the action.  We watched the Gotham Girls play Windy City (from Chicago).  Gotham is currently ranked #1 nationally  and Windy City is ranked #9.  It was a good bout.  Both teams played exceptionally, but Gotham is just outta control. They won the game 191 - 50.  Still, it was was so fun to watch - all of the girls had so much energy and were very limber.

I hope to blog about some other games and experiences from the rest of the weekend soon.  Can't wait until next year!

Couldn't make it to Philly this weekend?  Check out some of the bouts on Derby News Network: http://www.derbynewsnetwork.com/live/archive  They were broadcasting bouts all day on Saturday and Sunday.  Host a post-ECE derby watching party and perhaps play the DNN Drinking Game!  I definitely recommend Provide vs. Minnesota!  Such a close game.

Maine bout recap

Finally, my recap from the Maine bout on June 12, 2010.

I rode out to Portland with Rambo and Porkslap on Friday night and had an enjoyable time that evening and on Saturday during the day.  Rambo and I headed to the Portland Expo Center around 3pm.  Most everyone was there already and I met a few of the Maine Roller Derby girls - The Calamity Janes.  Their co-captain, Allagasher, was super friendly!  The Expo Center is a really nice facility and they had nice locker rooms for us.  Here I am being short as usual:

The game started at 6pm (earlier than we're used to, but maybe since their dang bars close at 1am and there was an after party to attend?)

It seemed like Maine's style of play was strong walls (sometimes 4 girls all up in the front) and a fast pack as needed.  Their jammers weren't as mean as some I've seen.  There wasn't really any hitting right off the jammer line.  The blockers were another story.  As soon as the whistle blew, they were ready to blow us up.  A-Block, with her big mouth and even bigger derby booty (stated as a compliment - for real!) made me laugh when she threw her butt/hips at me when we were lined up to start the jam and exclaimed "I'm an ******* !" and threw her head back and laughed.  They played all in good fun but they played a serious game.

Be sure to check out my post about my first time jamming here: http://hellionsoftroy.blogspot.com/2010/06/4-things-i-learned-my-first-time.html

It was also awesome to play an actual WFTDA team.  Playing such solid players was a good experience.  They took us to town at with a score of 157 - 85.  Congratulations to MVPs to Shockratease for HoT MVP and Spry Icicle for MRD!  Yeah!

Thanks again to Maine for being a great host!  Also, thanks for the crazy time at the afterparty... can you say light up dance floor?  AMAZING.





Check out some other recaps of the game here:

Maine's recap: http://mainerollerderby.com/wordpress/?p=142 (I got a mention for my 4 points!)

POP NINJAS podcast: http://www.popninjas.com/popninjas.com/Podcast/Entries/2010/6/13_DerbyCast.html (listen to a podcast of the bout.  Sweet!  The beginning also has a great interview with Punchy O'Guts from MRD, where she debunks a lot of the Pop Ninja's misconceptions of roller derby.)

See some pictures: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ballofpopcultur/sets/72157624299668446/ (including one of yours truly!)

Photo by ballofpopcultur

4 Things I Learned my First Time Jamming

At the bout this weekend in Maine, I assumed I wouldn't be put in to jam.  I mean, maybe I should've at least considered the possibility because I've been jamming a lot at practice.  But as far as I knew, I'd be playing the front inside blocker position.  Easy enough, but important.  Guard the line.  Watch for the jammer.  Work with the pivot.  Got it.  

Halfway into the second period, Beefcake told me I was on deck to jam next.  Kitty smiled at me and told me I could do it.  I grabbed the jammer panty and made to sure wave it at Eloda Sarcasm who was sitting behind our bench.  Then it was time.

1.  Don't be scared.  Don't be scared.  Don't be scared.  Don't be scared.   (oo00ooOOoo000mmmm)  I want to be a team player, and I want to do what coaching tells me to do; I trust them.  Beefcake thought it was a good idea, so I went for it.  I didn't even want to think about being scared.

2.  You can do it in scrimmage, you can do it in a bout.  I stepped up to the jammer line.  I had done this before.  The girl next to me was doing a "runners start" (almost down on one knee, touching the floor.)  She was ready to go, and I knew she didn't plan to hit me off the line.  Phew, no nonsense.  Except from me.  I love jumping/bouncing on my top stops when I'm lined up to jam.  I feel so energetic and I need to let it out somehow.  Was it appropriate, though?  Would I look silly?  I decided I didn't care and started my engine.

3.  Trust your blockers.  One thing Beefcake told me before going out to jam was that he had a solid group of girls blocking for me.  I wish I could remember who exactly was out there, but most importantly Sally Mae Hurtyou was out there.  Somehow, I made through the pack as lead jammer.  Holy crap.  Maine was playing a fast game, so I had to concentrate on catching up.  Next mission: how to get through?  But then I saw Sally, who was about 10 feet behind the pack.  I called her name, grabbed her hips, and ducked down.  She started plowing through the pack.  We got by a few girls and I hopped around on the inside line past the last person in the front.  4 points!!

4.  4 points is enough.  I called off the jam soon after I broke through the pack and scored my points.  Maine's jammer was still trying to catch up to the pack to make her first scoring pass, so she didn't score at all that jam.  A net gain of 4 points for us!  I had a couple options.  Let her catch the pack and hope my blockers could keep her back, but in reality she might've gotten through so that would've been 4 points for each of us.  Net gain of 0.  Say I wanted to make up for that - I could try to achieve another scoring pass, but would I be able to?  At that point 4 points (Maine) vs 8 points (Hellions) is still just a 4 point net gain.  The game is won in increments of 4.  I did what I needed to do.