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!