Mother May I?

Last night we went to watch the 2010 home opener bout of the Black-n-Bluegrass Rollergirls that was held at the Florence Fundome. The place was packed with fans and friends that came to watch the BBRG double header event dubbed “Mother May I?” In the first bout the BBRG Blue Lightnin’ team took on the Vette City Vixens and in the second bout the Black Thunder team took on the Quad Skate Terrors. Congratulations to the BBRG skaters on two wins for their home opener!

The first bout was a see-saw battle the whole way. Both teams were struggling to pull together a consistent, coordinated blocking effort. There were some good individual efforts, but the teams weren’t able to bottle-up the opposing jammers consistently. Both teams were getting their share of lead jammer status based primarily on speed. As a result, there were quite a few lead changes during the bout that kept the fans of both teams on edge. BBRG jammers included Beka Rekanize (shown at right), Scary Garcia, Kris P. Cream, and Honey Bunny. At the half, BBRG was up by two points.

During the second half of the first bout the scoring pace kept up, but with several minutes left in the bout BBRG was down by around 20 or so points. With a never-say-die attitude, the BBRG skaters buckled down and had a couple good jams that left them closer, but still behind the Vixens going into the last jam. The first photo below shows Kris P. Cream getting a whip to help her get around the turn and score. In the last jam the Vette City jammer was sent to the penalty box and the outcome of the bout was on BBRG jammer Honey Bunny and her teammates. BBRG slowed the pack and Honey Bunny kept up her speed to post a couple grand slams that in the end put BBRG ahead by one point when the whistle blew. The second photo below shows Honey Bunny wearing the jammer star in an earlier jam. What an exciting finish to the bout! BBRG won with a score of 164 to 163.





In the second bout of the evening the BBRG Black Thunder skaters took control of the bout from the start and held the lead over the Quad Skate Terror skaters (that included some BBRG Blue Lightnin’ skaters) for the entire time. It’s no secret from past posts that I’m a QST fan, but this wasn’t the iron fisted QST team we’ve seen in the past. They were struggling against the BBRG squad. The Black Thunder jammers included Pinup Pussycat (first photo below), EMolition (at right being blocked by a QST skater), Petal to the Metal (second photo below), Shelter Skelter, and Aine Ass. They were able to consistently get through the QST blockers to score and the BBRG blockers were able to slow the QST jammers and on occasion double team them to block their progress. There was a lot more blocking in this bout, but because the score gap was so wide it didn’t have the nail-biter appeal of the first bout. At the half BBRG was ahead with a score of 95 to 30 and at the end of the bout the Black Thunder won easily with a score of 167 to 64. Congrats to BBRG on the win and kudos for QST for skating hard the entire bout!





I didn’t hear final attendance figures, but it seemed to me that the crowd was about twice the size of the crowds at BBRG bouts I attended last year. The crowd really taxed the capacity of the Florence Fundome – a good thing for BBRG. It was standing room only and the floor suicide seating was packed for the first bout. After the bout I got to meet and talk with Honey Bunny and Dianne got a picture of us. Besides the photos shown in this post, you can see all the other photos I took during the bout in a Flickr set here. The next BBRG home bout is on June 26th when they take on the Fort Wayne Derby Girls. Check out the BBRG website for more information about tickets, times, and other events around town where you can meet the skaters.