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!!