Festival City vs Area 705: Melee in Milverton + Blog Announcement

After a long break from derby, I'm back, training to be a referee with the Forest City Rangers, the referees associated with London's own Forest City Derby Girls. I'll also be blogging about my experiences in hopes that offer trainee refs and folks curious about working to earn their stripes might find it useful. Look for updates each Monday!

Copyright Area 705 Roller Derby

As part of my training, I'm currently NSOing as often as I can. This past Saturday, the Festival City Rollergirls' Decapulettes hosted the Area 705 Roller Derby's Smooth Operators. The match-up promised a great chance for the Decaps to show their fast-paced improvement and Area 705 to take on a more experienced team and earn both some bruises and some crucial playtime. Both teams had visiting players from other leagues (including Toronto LOCO, LOCO Kitchener and LMRD) and referees from all over (WEWRA, FDCG, among others already mentioned) showing derby spirit and helping fill the rosters and positions

The Decaps maintained control throughout the game, with some excellent jamming and hard hits. But the Smooth Operators were no slouches and showed a great deal of potential with incredible sportsmanship. From the perspective of the penalty box, I saw quite a few players from both teams, but the Smooth Operators did their league proud with great attitudes.

My favourite players of the bout? The Decaps' nimble Cargoyle and the Smooth Operators' Rainbow Crash, who was all enthusiasm in Pinkie Pie socks.

Copyright Festival City Rollergirls

My favourite sight at the bout were the "Go Decaps!" pennants on sale. Cheap and easy to make, pennants are a great way to sell some merch, distract children and get some team colours into the crowd. Kudos to whoever in Festival City decided to go for them. It's great to see leagues diversifying the content of their merch tables. A Decaps fan at Saturday's bout could buy shirts, buttons, pennants and hot sauce. Happily the hot sauce did not come to the after-party.

All in all, Saturday's bout was a great showing and a wonderful way for a derby fan to get back in the game.

On the Hamster Wheel: Penalty Wrangling

This past Saturday, I joined my fellow LOCO folk and headed to New Hamburg to see London's Violet Femmes go up against Durham Region Roller Derby's Atom Smashers. It was great to see my brother Matt, our Head NSO-in-training in action: he's shaping up to be a great resource for the LOCO family. My partner Antonio also jam-timed, looking strangely official in his tie (for comparison, I was wearing a Tool sweatshirt). The arena was bracingly cold, but spirits were high.

To get used to calls and practice recognizing signals, I had my first taste of penalty-wrangling, running after the pack and relaying penalty calls to the two penalty-trackers (Matt and a new volunteer, Adrian). I felt a bit overwhelmed at first - everyone's-yelling-what-number-was-that-who-am-I et cetera. Soon, I adjusted and actually really enjoyed running in circles, writing things down like "W-360-L" and yelling at the wrong tracker even after multiple corrections. It was interesting how I had to consciously choose to watch the refs, rather than the pack (which is pretty attention-grabbing). It was a bit like trying to unfocus your eyes while girls in hot pants dive for your ankles.

I learned a few things yesterday. One is that four-digit numbers are a pain in the ass and they should be made illegal. With refs and NSOs barking and new penalties coming up fast, there isn't time to say "7635". There just isn't and the added numbers up the chance of a mistake being made. On the flipside, officials also need  to be more specific: if a skater's number is 7/8, the officials should establish that this number is properly pronounced as "seven eight", not "seventy eight". Everyone involved in the bout should contribute to its smooth execution, even as early as choosing the number you'll wear.

Most importantly, the skaters seemed to be having a good time and I saw some joking at the jam line, which warms the cockles of my derby heart. Atom Smashers took it home with a score of 223-132, with the Femmes trying to close the gap in the second half.

Afterward, it was time to locate and demolish food, which was done most thoroughly.Then I woke up and it was Monday - surely the sign of a bout well-done.

In other news, two of our skaters made me a ref dress and it it is the best. I will study harder in hopes of earning the right to wear it.

Coming up in future posts: how awesome junior roller derby is and developing a sense of community in your league.

Bouting Over the Rainbow: LOCO Does London Pride

This upcoming July 28th, LOCO London will be bouting against LOCO Stratford and London's Violet Femmes will be facing off against the Royal City Rollergirls, all in the name of pride. The bout will coincide with London Pride celebrations and proceeds from the bout will go to the London chapter of PFLAG. I've said before that roller derby and queer activism can and should go hand in hand. And I'm am so, so proud that my league is supporting PFLAG.

PFLAG is a treasure. It is on the front lines of community support. It is where confused or scared but loving parents go. It is where friends who are so full of love they want to lend a hand to the community their loved one is part of go. It is where coworkers, educators, clergy and people with questions can go. PFLAG saves lives and families and its existence and success are a testament to the power of love, empathy and community organizing.  Watching members share their stories will make you weep.

PFLAG deserves community support and I hope folks in the London area will join in to enjoy the thrill of the bout and the joy of community involvement. Details below!

Rock the Rainbow
July 28th
Medway Arena,
119 Sherwood Forest Square
London, ON

Doors open at 6:00 pm

Tickets are $12 in advance, $15 at the door

99 Bottles of Beer - LOCO vs Green Rollergettes, South Simcoe Rebel Rollers vs Rollergettes

Derby Lesson of the Day? If you want to know the score at the bout, don't work the beer table.

I arrived in Toronto yesterday, carrying a back-pack and a duffel bag after spending a few weeks house-sitting with my brother. I schlepped my way across the city to the George Bell arena in Toronto. After locating my buddies from LOCO, there to play a pre-game "mini-bout" against the newer members of the Rollergettes, I dumped my bags in the locker room and offered myself up to the volunteer coordinator, the lovely Jillenium Falcon. I ended up spending the evening taking beer tickets, slinging drinks and occasionally jumping to avoid broken glass from exploding beer bottles.

I can't tell you much about the pre-game 20-minute bout, save that the LOCO ladies rocked it, 34 to 20. As for the main bout between the Rollergettes and the South Simcoe Rebel Rollers, I can say even less. But here's what I can comment on - at a derby bout, the fans are thirsty, they tip well and if the beer you've poured in their cups has too much head, they'll gladly down what's left in the bottle to save you having to fill another cup, bless them.

From a high corner in the humid George Bell arena, I saw sweaty, fantastic derby girls - South Simcoe looked tough and hot in their black tees, the Rollergettes looked home-team confident in purple, white and green, and LOCO showed the crowd that low-contact still means an exciting game. I saw equally sweaty fans, cheering the players and routinely coming back for more beer, and paramedics coming to snag some of our ice.

Our set-up was simple. We had a tub of ice and three kinds of beer courtesy of Great Lakes Brewery. Fans' choices included Golden Horseshoe Lager, Orange Peel Ale and Green Tea Ale, all of which were godsends in the hot arena. The crowd favoured Horseshoe all night, but Green Tea made significant gains as word of mouth spread. A valiant fan lent us his bottle opener when our original was proving a bit lackadaisical and I made enough tip money to buy a South Simcoe t-shirt (thanks, Toronto!).

Notable happenings: beer exploded. Two bottles of Green Tea Ale popped without warning; one, in the ice-bin and one all over the floor. A sweet fan fished out most of the broken glass from the bin, mindful of my poor fingers, which are currently band-aided. My injuries (bout beats of a kind, to be sure) are mostly limited to some cuts and blisters from frequent ice baths, sharp bottle caps, and the general business of opening beer bottles for four hours.

So what did I learn last night? Derby is a family game and derby is a hard game. One guy is there strictly for beer and hotpants while the patron behind him dandles an adorable child over his tattooed arm. Cute hipsters stalk the arena and sweet dresses are often in evidence. People who love derby embrace all of it, from the hits to the sweat to the sequins.

Derby Lesson of the Day #2: If volunteering, always put your cell phone in the pocket less likely to get beer and ice-water repeatedly poured on it.

After my (awesome) shift, I got a Green Tea Ale for myself (it tasted like ginseng and danger) and finished 650 ml of beer in about two minutes. I congratulated my friend and LOCO alumnus Knuckle Slamwitch on her win and a kick-ass jam and then caught a ride back to London with my league-mate Avalanche. We got lost on the way into London, but my night ended, as I like it to, safely in my partner's bed.

I'm proud to have had my first bout as a volunteer. Derby bouts are electric and it takes hard work on and off-skate to make it happen. I was thoroughly impressed by both the volunteers and players brought in by LOCO, South Simcoe and the Rollergettes. Next time, whether my shirt is soaked in sweat or beer, I know to look forward to the quality crowd derby brings out.

And I'll know a bout is nothing if there isn't flying glass.