Battle of the Buckeye -- Bout Recap

There were a couple hot battles at the Cincinnati Gardens last Saturday night. It was temperature hot (the photo at right shows jam timer Susie Shinsplintski fanning herself during a timeout) and there was a lot of hot action during the Battle of the Buckeye event where the Cincinnati Rollergirls hosted the Ohio Roller Girls from Columbus. In the first bout (40 minutes) the CRG Silent Lambs took on the OHRG Gang Green. The second bout (60 minutes) was between the CRG Black Sheep and the OHRG All Stars. I thought I heard Collier Mama say this was the largest crowd yet at a bout (~1400+). I think the largest group challenge certainly added to the crowd. It was fantastic to have such a large crowd for the last home bout of the season!

Before the bout, CRG had a small party in the Legends Museum. It was a nice way for family and friends to talk with the skaters, coaches, and staff as well as take in some of the history of the Gardens shown by all the posters and sports memorabilia in the room. By the way, where was the CRG bout poster on the wall. Someone has to get a “Some Bunny’s Gonna Get Hurt” poster up there! At right is a photo of CRG announcer extraordinaire The Tank as he was talking to some fans.

In the first bout the Silent Lambs, led by Captain Cherry Choke, were solid from the start and kept control of the entire match. It was a hard hitting group of skaters. Kyle and Tresha, sitting next to me, commented on how much more physical this bout was compared to the previous CRG bout. At right you can see Bex Pistol doing a great job slowing down the Gang Green jammer. The first large photo below shows Mirderher about to put a hit on a Gang Green skater. The second photo below shows CRG skater Cherry Choke in the air after a hit. New on the team for this season were Jewel B. Hurt, Nuk’em, and Buckhead Betty who all added their blocking talent to the team. On the Gang Green side, I was particularly impressed with rookie skater NailHer who was dishing out some pain to the Silent Lambs.

The Lambs had quite a few skaters giving the jammer position a try. In general the scoring was solid all around. At the half the Lambs led 50-26 and although the scoring pace slowed just a bit in the second half, they easily won with a score of 84 to 49. Congrats to the Lambs for a great win to finish off the home season!





In the second bout, the Black Sheep had a bit of a rocky start against the OHRG All Stars. A few minutes into the first period the Sheep were behind. About half way through the period the Sheep found their rhythm, narrowed the gap, and after about two-thirds of the period they regained the lead and held it for good. At the half the Sheep led with a score of 45 to 28. Like the Lambs bout, this also was a physical match both ways with a lot of hard blocks dealt out. That was fun to watch and made it much easier to get some blocking photos. The first photo below shows Ruff’n the Passer blocking OHRG jammer Kitty Liquorbottom. The second photo shows June With a Cleaver going shoulder to shoulder with an OHRG pivot. Sadistic Sadie, Hannah Barbaric, and K. Lethal seemed to do the bulk of the jamming with Dr. McDerby and Candy Kickass helping as well. A couple jams where Sadistic Sadie was paired against OHRG jammer Drrty Grrl were entertaining – even watching them get situated at the jammer line. The photo above and right shows one of those encounters. Sadie's peripheral vision glance says it all! The CRG momentum increased in the second half and the bout ended with the Black Sheep winning with a score of 100 to 49. Congrats! It was a great way to end the home season.





After the bout I had a chance to talk briefly with Mirderher, who was doing a great job blocking during the Lambs’ bout. Kyle took this photo of me with her. I also noticed that Jeff snuck in a photo of the crowd – check it out here. Thanks for that! I look kind of serious. It must have been when the Sheep were behind in the first period. Check out all of the great photos from the bout in Jeff’s photostream and Jason’s photostream on Flickr. I have all my photos in a Flickr set here.

A big thank you to CRG for another wonderful home season of roller derby at the Gardens!! You all did a great job and showed us some great derby action. Next year let’s pack the Flock section and get a cheering section that rivals what I’ve seen at Louisville and Indianapolis!

There is plenty of CRG activity left though as they have a busy travel schedule over the next few months. You can catch them next weekend at the ECE and cheer them on as they battle Windy City and Atlanta. Check their web site for more information about their activities as well as Miss Print’s blog.

Summer Schoolin -- BBRG vs. BRR Bout Recap

On Saturday, June 13th, we went to the Florence Fundome to see the Black-n-Bluegrass Roller Girls (BBRG) host the Blue Ridge Rollergirls (BRR) in the “Summer Schoolin” event. BBRG had their Black Thunder team skating for this bout. After their last bout, the BBRG website had a detailed description of each jam. I expect they’ll have something similar posted again so I’ll just give some general impressions.

During the first half, the Blue Ridge team was in control of the bout. Most of the jamming work was done by Moong Chi, Skelley Tor, and Poison Sue Smac, but there were several other skaters like Sugar Magmaulya wearing the star as well. The first photo below shows Moong Chi going outside to get around Hellaina Havoc. At right, Moong Chi gives a hard block to Pinup Pussycat. Blue Ridge was getting the majority of the lead jammer status and they had several grand slams that helped them hold the lead. The pace of the pack seemed to be a bit slow and the Blue Ridge blockers were fairly good at holding up the BBRG jammers. The BRR pack was also very good about giving whips to their jammers. Although the pack was slow, the blocking slowed the jammers and the score of most jams wasn’t terribly high. At the half, BRR was ahead of BBRG with a score of 59 to 30.



The second half was a different story though. Something happened in the BBRG locker room during halftime. BBRG came out with fight in their eyes. They slowed the scoring of Blue Ridge and picked up their own scoring pace by getting lead jammer status more often. Petal To The Metal (in the photo at right) had some good jams and teammates Pinup Pussycat, Hellaina Havoc, and Haterade were also contributing to the scoring. The blocking seemed more coordinated and focused on the Blue Ridge stars. Aine Ass, Damnit Janet, Irish Iris and Hot T Molly were among the especially busy BBRG blockers. The first photo below shows Aine Ass giving a hard block. The second photo has Hot T Molly giving a block that knocked the BRR jammer off balance and out of bounds. With just a couple jams left in the second period, BBRG got within 5 points! Unfortunately the BRR held them off in the last jams and won the match with a score of 86 to 98. Both teams deserve kudos for a good bout with an exciting finish!





After the bout I got the chance to talk with Petal to the Metal and Damnit Janet. Dianne got photos of me with each of them – thanks to both of them for taking time to chat and for posing for a photo. Besides the photos included in this post (click on any photo to see a larger image), you can see all my photos from the bout in a Flickr set here. I was experimenting a bit more with multiple remote flashes and I got some interesting effects. It’s a very different style than what you get with an on-camera flash.

Black-n-Bluegrass goes on the road for the next couple of bouts before their next home bout against the Lafayette Brawlin’ Dolls near the end of July. Check out the BBRG website for more information on their schedule and information on tickets. Get there to cheer them on!

CRG Summer Naughty, Summer Nice -- Bout Recap

Last Saturday the Cincinnati Rollergirls hosted the Grand Raggidy Roller Girls for the event called “Summer Naughty, Summer Nice.” The CRG Silent Lambs took on the GRRG G-Rap Attack! in a 40 minute bout and then the CRG Black Sheep battled the Grand Raggidy All-Stars in a 60 minute bout for the WFTDA rankings. I was there along with Kyle and Tresha (their first flat track derby event – thanks for coming) and about 1300 other CRG fans.

In the first match, the Silent Lambs got off to an early lead and never looked back. Although many skaters took a turn wearing the jammer star, I would guess that Polly Rocket (shown sprinting off the starting line at right) led the scoring for the Silent Lambs. Cherry Choke, Jungle Lacy, and Miss Print also had quite a few jams wearing the star. Sadly for Grand Raggidy, I lost count of the number of grand slams that CRG had – a reflection of both speedy jammers and solid CRG blocking. Unfortunately the Librarian, usually a pivot, wasn’t skating. Candy KICKass, instead of her usual role as jammer, filled in as a pivot and was quite effective as a blocker. You can see her in action in the photo below.



Cincinnati blocking was tough and effectively shut down the G-Rap scoring. The first photo below this paragraph shows Mirderher cutting off the opposing jammer at turn 3. My impression was, unlike the last bout against Madison, the CRG skaters (on both the Silent Lambs and the Black Sheep) were much more coordinated as a team. There were many instances where you could see blockers paired and working together. When one skater would force a jammer wide, the other skater of the pair would hold the line while their partner quickly returned to them. By alternating blocks as a pair, and quickly returning to position, the team really stalled the G-Rap jammers. As a CRG fan, that was fun to watch. At the half the Silent Lambs were ahead by 55 to 9. That ratio pretty much held in the second period and the Silent Lambs easily beat the G-Rap Attack with a score of 103 to 25. Congrats to all the Silent Lambs – and especially all the rookies who were skating. The photo at right shows Guided By Vices, one of the rookie skaters, giving a block to a G-Rap jammer to force them wide. Incidentally, Quad Almighty can really yell when the opposing jammer has her helmet panty on inside out!



In the second bout the Grand Raggidy All-Stars took a 1-0 lead after the first jam. However, the Black Sheep got on the board quickly to take the lead and hold it for the rest of the bout. At the half the Black Sheep were ahead with a score of 84 to 7 and the final score was 147 to 29. With Dr. McDerby making her first appearance this year jamming for the Black Sheep. She had quite a few jams wearing the star and must have scored a lot of points. Dr. McDerby also took her licks from Grand Raggidy that included the slam by Bette Mangler (shown in the photo below this paragraph) that sent McDerby flying through the air. There was plenty of CRG jamming power along with K. Lethal (shown at right), Sadistic Sadie, and Hannah Barbaric. In another surprise position switch, Trauma wore the jammer star a few times and scored several points. It was fun to see Trauma use her blocking ability to punch through the pack as a jammer.



Most of the photos I took were of CRG blockers hitting Grand Raggidy jammers Dot Matrix and Jackie Daniels. One example is the photo at right showing Sista Sacralicious giving a shoulder to Dot Matrix. Both Dot and Jackie are talented skaters, but the Black Sheep regulated the pack and controlled the jammer path with a great team effort. That control, along with CRG’s smart use of their lead jammer status to call off jams, kept the scoring of Dot Matrix and Jackie Daniels to a minimum. Sadie even got in some taunting (shown below) of Dot Matrix during one jam that got a rise out of the crowd. In the end, the Black Sheep easily beat Grand Raggidy once again with a score of 147 to 29.



After the bout, I got to chat with some of the skaters and Kyle took photos of me with Silent Lamb skaters Polly Rocket (first photo at right) and Maim E. VanGoren (second photo at right and below). Thanks to both of them for taking the time for a photo – and for making sure I got this posted in a timely manner.

You can see all my photos from the bout in my Flickr set here. Of course Jason and Jeff have their awesome photos on Flickr as well. I’m also pleased that CRG is getting a lot of blog/internet buzz about their bouts. Of course there is the Roller Derby Diva blog written by Miss Print. In addition, check out these posts about the bout:
Randomville has a post with photos.
The News Record has a nice article with photos.
Like it Derby?, written by CRG skater Captain Painway, has an extensive recap.
5chw4r7z also has a bout post – missed seeing him this time.
The Kman.com (who I was sitting next to) has a nice post.

That’s great and hopefully that will help pull in even more fans for the bouts.

At this event, CRG donated $500 to the charity of choice that was picked by the largest group attending the bout – the Ronald McDonald House. That’s a great idea that helps the community and also brings in spectators. When announcing the winning group, I believe Sk8 Crime mentioned they would run that promotion again at the last home bout of the season on June 20th. So get a group together and cheer for CRG as they take on the Ohio Rollergirls from Columbus. You might even get a donation to your favorite charity. If I heard Sk8 Crime correctly, I also thought she mentioned they will be auctioning off dates with rollergirls at the next bout. I’m sure someone will correct me if I’m wrong about that.

So get in the Flock section and cheer hard for CRG during their last bout!

Momma Said Knock You Out! -- Bout Recap

I’ve been a derby blogging slug. On the 9th I went to the Cincinnati Gardens to watch two teams from the Mad Rollin’ Dolls league in Madison (Team Unicorn and the Dairyland Dolls) take on the two Cincinnati Rollergirls’ teams, the Silent Lambs and Black Sheep. The Team Unicorn mascot is shown at right. I expected it to be a tough bout as Cincinnati was ranked #4 in the North Central division and Madison was ranked #3. In the end it turned out the rankings were accurate. Madison’s Team Unicorn beat the Silent Lambs 120 to 43 in the 40 minute bout and the Dairyland Dolls beat the Black Sheep 108 to 50 in the 60 minute bout.

I thought both match ups were pretty physical in the pack. There were a lot of hard hits dished out by both teams. Of course there were blocks made to help out jammers that were stuck so they could advance through the pack. But in addition there were a lot of what I think of as “wake up” blocks – jostling and hits made that let opposing team members know who has control even when the jammer is in the open, or hits that set up the pack to make the jammer’s entry a bit easier. Even with all that blocking, it didn’t seem like there were an excessive number of falls. That’s a testament to the skating ability of players on both teams. That made it a lot of fun to watch! Cincinnati had some very solid individual efforts during the bouts – both jammers and pack skaters. The advantage that the Mad Rollin’ Dolls seemed to have was great team coordination.

In the Lambs vs. Unicorns bout there were several Lamb skaters who took a turn wearing the jammer star, but I’d guess that scoring was led by Miss Print (shown sprinting in the open in the photo below) and Polly Rocket. At the half, the Unicorns were in the lead with a score of 43 to 18. In the second half the Unicorns widened their lead with the help of Harlot Bronte who is a fast jammer and good blocker. The second photo below shows her going around Bex Pistol.





In the Sheep vs. Dairyland Dolls bout, the Dolls shut down Cincinnati scoring for several of the initial jams. It wasn’t until about twelve minutes in to the first period that Hannah Barbaric (shown at in the photo at right -- along with Madison jammer Jewels of Denile) had a 10 point jam to put Cincinnati on the scoreboard. A couple jams later she scored 4 more points to bring the Sheep within 5 points. The Dolls kept up the heat and at the half they lead with a score of 45 to 23. It was no picnic for the Dolls though as Cincinnati was giving some tough blocks. The photos below show Panterrorize blocking Stitch (I think) and Mae C. Stars blocking Jewels of Denile (who I would guess was the Dolls' top scorer of the evening). It seemed Cincinnati was plagued by an over abundance of penalties during the bout. That definitely contributed to the widening of the Dolls’ lead in the second half.





During and after the bout I got to meet several folks including Schwartz, the author of 5chw4r7z (see his bout post here), Erin (another crazed CRG fan), and Papa Razzi who is a photographer for the Mad Rollin’ Dolls. His bout photos aren’t up yet, but here are his 2009 season photos. I'm sure the CRG bout photos will be there soon. As usual, the CRG photographers Jeff and Jason have their photos posted – Jeff’s Lamb photos, Jeff’s Sheep photos, Jason’s Lamb photos, Jason’s Sheep photos. And special visiting photographer Elisa Baker also has her photos posted on Flickr here and here.

After the bout Dianne got a photo of me with two of the Silent Lamb skaters, Fight Attendant (on left) and Cherry Choke. Thanks to both for taking the time for a photo! You can see the rest of my photos in my Flickr set here. It’s great to see a lot more buzz about the bouts on the web too. In addition to Miss Print’s recap, you can also read more about the bouts on the Game Day blog here and on the My Never-Humble Opinion blog here and a brief mention in the Isthmus.

The next Cincinnati bout is coming up fast! On Saturday, May 30th they take on the Grand Raggidy Rollergirls from Grand Rapids. Hopefully that bout will be a repeat of the two wins CRG had when visiting them earlier this year. Be at the Gardens to cheer on the Silent Lambs and Black Sheep!!

Hard Hitting Bootcamp Photos

I spent Saturday morning watching roller girls from teams located in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Virginia (hope I didn’t miss anyone) knock each other around on the track. I went to the Hard Hitting Bootcamp put on by the Quad Skate Terrors. The event was held at the Hamilton Round-up Roller Rink in Hamilton, Ohio.

The QST arranged for Mark Weber to attend the event and help coach the skaters. Mark was one of the X-men of the Nevada Hot Dice on RollerJam that was televised on TNN. He’s a heavy hitter as seen in this video and was a good instructor at the bootcamp. He got right in the pack and had the ladies hitting him for practice during the drills. Mark is shown in action in the photo at the right.

I tried some different photo techniques during the bootcamp. A couple photos are shown below. I ended up taking quite a few shots that you can see in a Flickr set here. I tried to get a photo of everyone and I hope I was successful. Thanks to Juwana Hurt for letting me know about the event.

Some Bunny's Gonna Get Hurt -- Bout Recap

Wow! WOW!! Were you at the Some Bunny’s Gonna Get Hurt event at the Cincinnati Gardens last Saturday? If not, you missed a barnburner! In the first bout, the Cincinnati Rollergirls’ Silent Lambs took on the Windy City Nadabees. In the second bout, the CRG Black Sheep battled the Burning River All-Stars from Cleveland. It was quite the evening of see-saw battles. There seemed to be a good crowd for the event and there was a lot of cheering going on! The photo at right is a fisheye view of the gardens near the end of the first bout.

Before the bout, I got to talk with several folks that were tailgaiting. It was nice to meet some of the local fans, including many scooter folks and Leslie from ClassX 88.9 radio, as well as Al Naturel from Windy City.

In the Lambs vs. Nadabees bout, the Lambs started out strong and took an 8-1 lead after the first couple jams. However, the Nadabees adjusted quickly and went on a strong run that took the score to Lambs 12 and Nadabees 33 at the end of the first 20 minute period. The Nadabees have some talented skaters and some of them were pretty tall compared to the Lambs. That is illustrated in the photo at right that shows Ruth Enasia (in blue) lined up with Miss Print at the jammer line. In general the Nadabees did a great job controlling the pack with some solid blocking and good team coordination. I was particularly impressed by Windy City skater Go-Go Hatchet, which I noticed from their website is on their all-star team. The Lamb jammers were mostly the same as those in the last home bout (mainly Dr. McDerby, Miss Print, Polly Rocket, Bex Pistol, and Cherry Choke). The photo to the right shows Polly Rocket trying to get around a couple Nadabee skaters. I have to give credit to all the Lambs that hung in there and gave it their all. Near the end of the second period Dr. McDerby had some good jams that helped give the Lambs some more points and the blockers were able to slow the Nadabee jammers a bit. The photo below shows McDerby coming out of the pack. When the clock ran out, the Lambs lost to the Nadabees with a score of 40 to 96.



For the second bout between the CRG Black Sheep (WFTDA North Central rank #3) and the Burning River All-Stars (rank #9) I expected CRG to control the bout the entire way. I know CRG was looking to avenge the loss in the Black-Eyed Buckeyes bout that ended the 2007 season. Initially they started out with a strong defense that shut down Burning River. The Black Sheep had an early lead of 33-0 that reminded me of the last home bout. The usual CRG jammers Sadistic Sadie, K. Lethal, Hannah Barbaric, and Candy KICKass all contributed. But kudos to Burning River. A couple of CRG jammer penalties and some adjustments by Burning River got them on the scoreboard. The jammers Ivanna Destroya, Eva Lucien, E. Gargiulo, and Stroker Ace worked hard with their team against the CRG blockers. I caught several photos of the blockers in action. At the right is a photo of Sk8R Kinney and Panterrorize blocking Burning River jammer E. Gargiulo. The photo below shows Ruff’n the Passer giving a block while Blu Bayou cuts off the escape on the inside. At the half, CRG was ahead with a score of 60 to 40.



Twenty points isn’t much with 30 more minutes of derby action. Burning River came out of the locker room looking tough! They started scoring and the Black Sheep scoring slowed a bit. At one point in the second period Burning River was up by at least 15! With a few minutes to go, you could tell both teams stepped it up a couple notches – CRG to come back and win it and Burning River to try and hold their lead. That effort really got the crowd involved in the bout! The Gardens was rockin’ those last few minutes. All the blockers were working very hard and CRG jammers K. Lethal and Sadistic Sadie were zipping around the track to score. The photo at right shows Sadie doing a little trash talking at the line before a jam. The photo below shows K. Lethal during one of the final jams. The Black Sheep had an amazing, strong finish to take the bout by a score of 107 to 93. It was an exciting night (maybe a little too exciting ☺ ) and most of the crowd was hoarse after all that cheering during the last 10 minutes or so.



After the bout, Dianne got a photo of me with the CRG mascot – Little Bo Peep. Having a mascot to help get the fans fired up is a great idea. Now we just need to fill up The Flock section so Bo Peep has something to tend to.

I also had a chance to talk a bit with Bex Pistol, one of the CRG Silent Lambs. Dianne got a nice photo of us (below) as well as a shot of Bex signing autographs. You can see all my photos from the bout in my Flickr set. Also, be sure to check out great photo sets of the bout from Jeff and Jason on Flickr. Look for bout recaps on Miss Print's blog and Captain Painway's blog -- Like It Derby?

If that event didn’t get you hooked on derby, nothing will! Be sure to check out the next CRG home bout on May 9th when they host the Mad Rollin’ Dolls from Madison.

The Schooling of Hard Knox -- Bout Recap

Last Saturday I went to the first event of the home season for the Cincinnati Rollergirls – The Schooling of Hard Knox – held at the Cincinnati Gardens. It was a double header with the CRG Silent Lambs taking on the Hard Knox Brawlers in a 40 minute bout and the CRG Black Sheep battling the Hard Knox A-Team in a 60 minute bout. The event turned out to be appropriately titled as both of the CRG teams came away with decisive wins. Congrats to all the Silent Lambs and the Black Sheep! It was a great evening for the large crowd. I didn’t hear an attendance count, but judging from the sizes of last season’s crowds there must have been more than a thousand people there. Just noticed Miss Print reports over 1500 spectators!!

The opening match was the first time most CRG fans saw some new skaters to the sport (Captain Painway, Bangin’ Brunette, and Manic Janet) and some experienced transplants (Polly Rocket and Karma Krash) joining the returning CRG skaters. It was an especially unique bout for Karma Krash, who was skating against her former teammates. The spectators also saw the return of Susie Shinsplintski as the official blowing the starting whistle with style and gusto as shown in the photo at the right.

Initially the primary Silent Lamb jammers were Dr. McDerby, Polly Rocket, Miss Print and Bex Pistol. McDerby looked strong as usual and got the Lambs off to an early lead. Miss Print had several high scoring jams in the first period and at least a couple grand slams (and I think one double grand slam?) during the bout. She took some hard hits from the Brawlers, but kept moving without getting hung up in the pack. The photo at right shows Miss Print taking a hard block from Rock Nasty that sent MP to the floor.

The Lambs were working pretty well together as a team. Skaters in the pack were doing a pretty good job shifting from offense to defense. The photo below shows Miss Print getting a nice whip from Killian Destroy. The Lamb blockers were also successful at slowing the Brawler jammers. At the end of the first period, the Lambs were ahead with a score of 41 to 19.



As the match progressed, several skaters took their turn wearing the jammer star. Cherry Choke, Jungle Lacy, and Glamour Azz all had the chance to score. The second period was a repeat of the first period and the Lambs ended up with a decisive win over the Hard Knox Brawlers with a score of 93 to 34. Great job from the Lambs. You can see more of my photos from the Silent Lambs/Brawlers bout in my Flickr set here.

The second match between the CRG Black Sheep and the Hard Knox A-Team started out with a surprise. After the initial couple of jams, the Black Sheep trailed Hard Knox with a score of 11 to 7. Although four points isn’t much in a bout, it was nonetheless a surprising start. But once they settled in, the Black Sheep went on an amazing scoring spree while almost completely shutting down the Hard Knox jammers. The CRG defense was so effective, the Black Sheep jammers had quite a few grand slams even though they had to make it through the Hard Knox blockers on their own quite a bit of the time. The primary jammers were Hannah Barbaric, Candy KICKass, and K. Lethal (photo above at right). According to the CRG twitters during the bout (by the way, nice touch having a dedicated Twitterer during the bout), K. Lethal led the first half scoring with 33! Sadistic Sadie was jamming, but unfortunately for Hard Knox the addition of K. Lethal to the jammer rotation allowed Sadie to rotate in with the already tough Black Sheep blockers. The photo at right shows the Hard Knox jammer Goblynn boxed in by the CRG blocking team of Sista Sacralicious, Trauma, and Sadistic Sadie. Good luck trying to get through that! At the end of the first half the Black Sheep were ahead with a score of 85 to 18. You know it's bad when the pivot on the opposing team is skating backwards in front of you -- I love the photo below.



The second period was another rough 30 minutes for Hard Knox. They scored 20 more points, but were shut down at 38 for quite a few jams! In the meantime, Hannah and Candy led the CRG jamming effort and the bout ended with the Black Sheep winning with a score of 178 to 38. Congrats to the Black Sheep! The photo below shows Candy KICKass rounding the turn during one of her jamming sprints. The rest of my photos from the Black Sheep/Hard Knox bout can be found in this Flickr set.



Overall I thought it was a great event. It’s good to see the Black Sheep greet and connect with the crowd while the Lambs are warming up. I like the new floor seating arrangement that puts the fans close to the track and effectively surrounds the player benches instead of having the players off to the side. The half-time entertainment by the CincyCool Skate Crew was very good! Finally, as usual, the skaters were good about making themselves available to give autographs and chat with fans after the bout. Dianne took a photo of me with Karma Krash (at right) and I got to meet K. Lethal (photo below) as well. The only thing that disappointed me a bit was that it was difficult to hear the announcers The Tank and Collier Mama. That was too bad as I enjoy The Tank’s commentary and Collier Mama brings some color and skater experience to the mix.

I was sitting by several folks from the Cincinnati Imports group from Facebook – Miss Print fans. It was nice to meet you all. I noticed quite a few blog posts about the bout. Check out this post by 5chw4r7z, this post from Queer Cincinnati, and this wonderful story and bout impressions on Kate's random musings (thanks Kate for exchanging Moo cards).
Also, click here for photos from Jason and here for photos from Jeff – the CRG photographers that rock!

The next CRG event is on April 11th. I hope attendance stays up to cheer on the Cincinnati Rollergirls. If you go, stop by the Flock section before the bout or at a break to say hello. It’s always great to meet other derby fans.