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.