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!