Brawlroom Blitz – Fredericton Double Header

Saturday, October 20, 2012. Fredericton, NB.

Well I've managed to squeeze in some end of season derby by bench managing a bout in Fredericton this past weekend! The Capital Exhibit Center is so far my favourite venue for derby. It is big enough to host a large number of fans yet still small enough to make the bout very up close and personal for them. The enthusiasm of the Fredericton crowd has yet to be topped in my experience too!

First up was Muddy River Rollers Daughters of Anarchy versus Fog City Rollers Scarlet Swarm. This bout was fun and energetic all around! To be honest though, as I was bench managing Swarm for this one, I was mainly paying attention to the bench instead of the track. A few early power jams put DOA at a relatively good lead in the first half and they widened it further by half time. Swarm was able to improve on defence and put some more points up on the board throughout the second half but though the point gap slowed, it did not shrink. The major difference I noticed was in the discipline of the DOA jammers. Decepticat (DOA) was heavily relied upon and managed to stay out of the box entirely throughout the whole bout. Another top jammer, Tootsie Valentino, only made two trips to the box. Though one of Swarms jammers (Sinnamon Twisted) managed to pull a no-penalty bout, the others had no such luck, collectively providing about fourteen power jams that DOA exploited admirably. Final score was 255 to 105.

The second bout was Halifax Roller Derby Association versus the Capital City Rollers Daisy Cutters. These teams have faced each other twice at Slay of Fundy, each taking one win, one loss. Once again, penalties came strongly into play in this bout resulting in a significant win for the Daisy Cutters. During the first half there were several lead changes, however in the second half the HRDA penalties increased and resulted in many power jams for the Daisy Cutters and two skater expulsions for HRDA. Both teams offered some breathtaking jammer moves (those spontaneous seeming explosions of footwork/twirls/hit avoidance) and some teeth-rattling hits. Unfortunately the penalty troubles for HRDA allowed Daisy Cutters to pull ahead for a wide lead, with a final score of 331 to 191.

The New Brunswick leagues are collaborating on making an "All-Star" bout for late November, comprised of the best skaters from each league mixed up together into two teams and pitted against each other! I won't be able to make it to that one, unfortunately, but it will certainly be an impressive bout and the first of its kind in NB. I highly recommend keeping an eye out for details and making the effort to come out and watch!

Slay of Fundy - The Atlantic Regional Championship Tournament!

Slay of Fundy, the first annual Atlantic regional roller derby tournament, has just concluded this past Sunday September 23^rd. What a weekend! On Friday night Fog City Rollers hosted a disco skate night for all visiting skaters. There were flashing lights, costumes, a disco DJ, and a lot of smiles. It was heartwarming to see so many derby girls having fun on skates together! On Saturday all the teams got down to business. Some teams played five full length bouts over the weekend, which I believe is a first for any of our Atlantic teams.

The skill levels of a lot of the teams were very close. There were several very tight scores over the weekend. My personal favourites to watch were the Halifax Roller Derby Association (HRDA) versus Capital City Rollers (CCR - Fredericton) bouts. They were extremely well matched teams and both play a very physical game so it was fast paced, athletic, and a lot of back and forth in the scores… HRDA took the first bout on Saturday (215-198) and CCR took the second bout on Sunday (236-149). Unfortunately the one bout I missed was the closest bout of the weekend which was between CCR and 709 (Newfoundland). 709 took the win in an overtime jam (190-186)!

Red Rock N' Roller Derby (RRnRD - PEI) was one of the most surprising teams to watch this weekend because, for a team that has only bouted a few times, they demonstrated a grasp of most current strategies used by other teams, and executed them in a cool headed manner. This is uncommon to see in new teams. With some more bout conditioning under their belts they have a good chance of being a rising star in Atlantic derby next season!

709 deserves more time and credit than I can give right now but they really deserve a big hand all around! Despite having little derby diversity on “The Rock” they have managed to train to a very competitive level, as demonstrated by the way they took 3^rd place in the tournament. The team is full of friendly and tough skaters, with fresh playing styles, and a general boisterousness that makes them fun to either play or socialize with! The fact that they traveled the farthest to be here means a lot too!

 

The most tense competition of the weekend was between Muddy River Rollers (MRR - Moncton) and Fog City Rollers (FCR - Saint John). Having had a controversial 1 point game earlier in the season, both teams were hungry for a win and put their hearts fully into the games. They played two bouts against each other in one day, the first resulting in a 3 point win for MRR (215-212), which resulted in FCR needing to battle 709 for access to the championship game. The score for that game, in favour of FCR over 709, does not truly reflect the amazing skills and tricks pulled out by both teams (202-119). In particular the jammers for both teams demonstrated some excellent footwork and doled out a lot of contact!

The championship game was well fought by both teams. MRR pulled ahead for a stronger win than before with 227-174. Regardless of the scores over the weekend, everyone put 100% of their being into these bouts and should be proud of the results!

I did NSO work for five of the bouts over the weekend and watched another five. It took a couple days to get over as an NSO so I can only imagine how the skaters are feeling. I feel I spent half the weekend exclaiming at amazing athletic feats and the other half rushing about and worrying about doing my job well. I’m glad we were able to pull off our first tournament with no major problems and that all the regional teams had the chance to push themselves to their highest potential all in one weekend!

***Edit: I can't believe I left out the all the volunteers that made this work! We had an army of officials, headed up by TORD's R'effin Adora Bell (tournament head referee), MRR's Elle Frozen Over (tournament head nso) and FCR's Naughty Cal! Most volunteers worked 5 or more bouts, and some worked pretty much all of them. The time commitment alone was amazing to have from so many people!

The MRR Lumbersmacks (Slay of Fundy First Place) and FCR Shipyard Sirens (Slay of Fundy Second Place) will be training in preparation for the Canadian national championships, which have yet to be announced.

I should take this opportunity to announce I will be signing out of derby blogging for a time. I am getting close to giving birth to my first progeny and so my time and attention is becoming inundated with baby clothes and curtains and toys and all those fun things… However I will be back on skates next season and hopefully will be able to make the time for some derby blogging as well!

Slay of Fundy Bracket (with scores and mvp's)  leading into the championship bout

Thank you to Marc Henwood Photography  (or Mr. Shotgun) of Saint John and  Richard Lafortune of Halifax for yet more beautiful shots of the action over the weekend!

Jamtastic June and July!

 June and July have been busy times for the Atlantic region, with 7 full length bouts so far and a weekend of 18 mini-bouts during the Muddy River Atlantic Jamboree. We have seen some first ever bouts from several new leagues, some interleague play between home teams, travel teams and even international visitors!

There has been a flood of new leagues and teams hitting the track this summer which makes for an exciting future for derby in the Maritimes. There has been an influx of new visiting trainers to the Maritimes as well including Bonnie D. Stroir and Shirley N. Sane this year. I can't wait to see more bouts with new skills and new blood!

Here are some full length bouts and scores:

June 2 - Saint John Razor Girls 253 vs Halifax Roller Derby Association 120

Halifax came to visit Saint John to play the Razor Girls (a first time match up). As is often the case, the penalty minutes played a strong role in this bout however the teams showed some great jammer skills and solid hits.





June 9 - Saint John Shipyard Sirens 244 vs Moncton Lumbersmacks 243

Also in Saint John, this was an extremely tight bout with multiple lead changes. It was often breathtaking to watch, a very exciting bout!




June 16 - Saint John Scarlet Swarm 241 vs Dieppe Hits N' Sass 112

This was the debut bout for Hits N' Sass, in Saint John. With a few borrowed Razor Girls from SJ, the Dieppe team made a good showing, with good pack communication and some very talented jammers and blockers.





June 23 - Moncton Lumbersmacks 382 vs Halifax Roller Derby Association 56

Unfortunately I was not able to attend this bout but it looks like the Lumbersmacks once again demonstrated their greater skill, discipline and star jammer roster against Halifax.

July 7 - Scarlet Swarm 208 vs Halifax Roller Derby Association 195

Scarlet Swarm took this bout by a very narrow margin. Halifax had managed to reign in their penalty minutes (down to only 17 compared to the 38 received during the Razor Girls bout) and in fact surpassed Swarm in their ability to stay out of the box. This was a very exciting and physical bout.


July 13 - Moncton Lumbersmacks 165 vs Maine Rock Coast Rollers 93

 Rock Coast Rollers came on their first time visit to New Brunswick for two bouts. This was a well fought bout between two excellent teams in Moncton. Rock Coast pulled out several skills that have not been seen so developed in the Maritimes yet like extremely effective and frequent backwards blocking and very precise and effective hits even from the smaller members. However, the Lumbersmacks jammer talent and ability to endure the abuse brought them ahead with a generous lead.

July 14 - Maine Rock Coast Rollers 205 vs Saint John Shipyard Sirens 138 

After a night in Moncton, Rock Coast came to visit Saint John. Though the majority of the bout saw the Shipyard Sirens trailing by less than 20 points until mid-way into the second period, the ability of Rock Coast Rollers to maximize on power jams became clear in the second period. Both teams had multiple power jam opportunities but Rock Coast demonstrated the endurance, speed and pack work necessary to give their jammers a relatively smooth ride to points!

Here is a list of mini-bouts from last weekend's Jamboree, where new PEI and Anapolis leagues made their debut in the bouting world::


Duchesses de Quebec 50 vs Moncton Reines of Terror 48
Halifax Roller Derby Association 100 vs PEI Red Rock N Rollers 94
Moncton Daughters of Anarchy 57 vs Maine R.I.P. Tides 25
Dieppe Hits N' Sass 92 vs Annapolis Valley 72
Moncton Reines of Terror 45 vs Moncton Daughters of Anarchy 31
Fredericton Capital City Rollers 77 vs Halifax Roller Derby Association 61
Duchesses de Quebec 47 vs Moncton Daughters of Anarchy 44
PEI Red Rock N' Rollers 100 vs Dieppe Hits N' Sass 16
Moncton Reines of Terror 99 vs Maine R.I.P. Tides 24
Halifax Roller Derby Association 117 vs Annapolis Valley 52
Fredericton Capital City Rollers  82  vs Annapolis Valley 68
Moncton Daughters Of Anarchy 64 vs Maine R.I.P. Tides 26 vs
PEI Red Rock N' Rollers 61  vs Fredericton Capital City Rollers 36
Duchesses de Quebec75 vs Maine R.I.P. Tides 10
Halifax Roller Derby Association 84 vs Dieppe Hits N' Sass 34
Moncton Reines Of Terror 66 vs Duchesses de Quebec 47
PEI Red Rock N' Rollers82 vs Annapolis Valley 49
Fredericton Capital City Rollers  vs Dieppe (Dieppe Forfeit)

Fog City Rollers will be visiting St. Johns Newfoundland for a double header event between each leagues two home teams at the end of July.


Thank you to Marc Henwood Photography  (or Mr. Shotgun) of Saint John,  Richard Lafortune of Halifax and Andrew Macdonald (or Mr. Chop)  from Saint John for some excellent shots!

Saint John Shipyard Sirens take on the Moncton Lumbersmacks

The Lumbersmacks

Allie B Bashin, DeceptiCat, Fancy Nancy

Plower Child

Last Saturday I saw the most exciting NB bout I have yet to witness! It was between the Saint John and Moncton "A" Teams. Saint John Shipyard Sirens took on the Moncton Lumbersmacks here at our home venue the Lord Beaverbrook Rink. Last week the Saint John Razor Girls had made an excellent showing against the Halifax Roller Derby Association. Unfortunately the point differential was so wide in Razor Girls favor it became clear quite early what way it would go, Halifax did make an admirable comeback in the second period, learning quickly to get their jammers out of the pack faster and attain lead jammer many times, reducing the divide significantly but ending with Razor girls 253 to Halifax 120. Last night, however, had fans sitting on the edge of their seats with no idea who would come out on top!

The Lumbersmacks remained unbeaten in the Maritimes throughout the 2011 season, which makes an intimidating start for any local team. Both leagues have been training hard for this season and on Saturday this really showed!

Tacky Tammy

Tootsie Valentino

In the first period the Smacks spent the majority of the time with a lead in points but the Sirens were never far behind. In the last jam of the first period, the Sirens pulled ahead with a 4 point lead, setting a halftime score of 107-103. In the second period neither team could maintain a lead for long. There were at least 5 jams in a row where each one resulted in a lead change! There was one magnificent jam where Decepticat (the nights top scoring jammer for the Smacks) scored 33 points as a response to Tacky Tammy's (Sirens top scoring jammer) 29 points only two jams before. I tell you this bout was so exciting my heart was in my throat for the majority of it! Both teams had strong aggressive blocker lineups, who appeared to be at the top of their game. Both teams were competing with only 12 skaters, making the bout more taxing for all. Tacky Tammy scored 113 points throughout the bout for Sirens, second came Fancy Nancy with 59. Decepticat scored 96 points for Smacks, followed by Tootsie Valentino with 73.

Lexxie Lasher w/ Plower Child

Fancy Nancy

Narbruzzi

The only thing to interrupt this showcase of local derby skill was the confusion regarding scoring near the end. The second to last jam of the bout resulted in a lead for Smacks at 219 to Sirens 194. At that point it was going to require a pretty strong and lucky comeback to use the last jam to catch up, and Tacky Tammy did not disappoint. Smacks jammer Thora Thunder took a major penalty in the last jam of the period and Tacky racked up 25 points, bringing the teams to a tie at 219 each. As the period clock had run out, this required an overtime jam to decide a winner. Tacky scored 25 points, and Thora scored 24. This brought Sirens to 244 and Smacks to 243. There was an official review with the score trackers and a few pre-emptive cheers from either team at the end as the scoreboard was adjusted at least three times.  The final approved score after the review was the 1 point win to Sirens with 244.

Next up will be SJ Scarlet Swarm versus Dieppe Roller Derby team Hits N' Sass for their debut bout next Saturday, June 17th!

Tacky Tammy, Lexxie Lasher, Skate Monkey Skate

Endless thanks to Isurus Photography for once again capturing and sharing some awesome photos with us!

Muddy River comes out swinging!

May has been host to both Saint John and Moncton season opener bouts that have showcased Muddy Rivers ability to maintain their status as the big fish in the New Brunswick pond.

In Saint John Scarlet Swarm continued its historical trend of loss to the Moncton Reines of Terror (287 – 83) while in Moncton Daughters of Anarchy rose to the challenge and took the lead after two losses in the 2011 season to SJ Razor Girls (217 - 188).

Unfortunately my first aid course overlapped the Moncton bout but from the photos it looks like it was a serious affair. I am told that jammer penalties and strong walls seemed to be the deciding factors. As for the Saint John bout I attended, clearly in tribute to my skater number, Swarm incurred 42 penalties; 13 of which provided amply exploited power jams to the skilled and opportunistic Reines of Terror. Their speedy jammers attained lead jammer 75% of the time and consistently scored between 15-30 points per power jam, while their pack demonstrated effective assistance. Burn’n Rub’her (Reines) characteristically burned up the track obtaining the sole 30 point jam near the end of the first period! Lexxie Lasher (Swarm) also astonished onlookers by taking out the penalty chairs twice in a row! Rumor has it that Tacky Tammy from Razor Girls also obtained a 30 point jam in Moncton which would not surprise me, but I don't have the stats to prove it.

In other exciting news, Capital City Rollers (Fredericton) have been cooking up some great ideas for an NB All-Star bout as well as a multi-league bout weekend! It looks like it’s in the discussion and development stages but I wait in gleeful anticipation. The exposure for New Brunswick would be excellent, and any endeavor that gets our leagues working closely together helps with the organization and progress of the sport in our province!

June will be a busy month for both Fog City and Muddy River, with bouts between their travel teams and against the Halifax Heartless.

Thanks to Isurus Photography for once again capturing some amazing derby moments for us!

Muddy River Rollers Reines of Terror lay seige to Beast of the East

Reines of Terror were the first team from New Brunswick to make the trek to Montreal to compete in the 2012 Beast of the East tournament. Heads would have rolled that day if I had not made it home in time to watch the bout! Having attended the tournament as a spectator last year, I anticipated they would make some headway as I had seen several teams of comparable skill and experience attend before. Reines have been a dominant force in the Maritimes since they began and my home team (Scarlet Swarm, FCR) was closest to a win against them last year by 25 points and are soon to match up again! Unfortunately due to the merciless random selection process Reines first pairing was against the team that ultimately went on to win the tournament: Vicious Dishes (Kitchener, ON).

Brandy Swifter

Vicious Dishes doled out a shut out 139-0 bout. The usually good habit of building walls at the front proved to leave Reines jammers trapped and battered behind the Dishes superior rear walls until assistance arrived. Reines had started dramatically improving their defense and jammer assists by the end, but only enough to release their jammer moments after losing the Dishes jammer, ensuring a slower point leak by forcing her to call it quickly. The Vicious Dishes had a variable but good weekend. They moved on to a loss to Montreals Filles du Roi  with 47-30, another shut out win against Les Duchesses (Quebec City, QC) with 123-0, a win over Les Contrabanditas (Montreal) with 64 to 54 and a win for first place over defending champions: Slaughter Daughters (Ottowa, ON) with 118-63.

Burn'n Rub'her

Reines second bout, against Babes of Thunder (Thunder Bay, ON), was much closer with 71-34 for Babes. Had Reines been able to keep their jammers out of the box for the two or three power jams that made up that point spread, I have no doubt they could have made it to the second day and had a chance to test their mettle against the Thames Fatales (London, ON). In this bout though, their jammers got their opportunity to shine! Burn'n Rub'her, Brandy Swifter and Thora Thunder were the primary jammers who hit the track with surprising pep and agility considering the physical trial that was their previous bout of the day. Thoras footwork really stood out to me and she made very good use of sneaking through on the inside line. The Babes were showing very effective wall building but Reines offensive blocking was often sufficient in making way for their jammers. Babes of Thunder went on to beat the Thames Fatales with 77-20 and were eliminated in round four for by Chicks Ahoy (Toronto, ON) 83-22.

Thora Thunder

On a separate note, former Capital City Roller (Fredericton, NB) Amanda Pummeler was bouting for the Slaughter Daughters (who took second place this year) as one of their primary Jammers. Great Job Amanda!

I would have loved to see Reines of Terror match up against Thames Fatales, Les Duchesses and Derby Debutantes as I think their scores against the same or comparable teams suggest a more equal footing. There’s always next year, and maybe we’ll flood them with more NB teams too!

The images used above are not from Beast of the East but borrowed from Isurus Photography from previous local bouts.

Fog City Rollers first International Bout: Shipyard Sirens vs. MRD Calamity Janes

Shipyard Sirens with Calamity Janes

Tacky getting lined up for a hit from a Janes Blocker

While preparing for the first bout of the season, and the Sirens third bout as a team, it was difficult to know what to expect from the Maine Roller Derby Calamity Janes. We knew that we’d been borrowing content from the online copy of the MRD training manual since we started as a league; we knew that their skaters should have relatively comparable experience/time/bouts under their belts and the mentorship of some extremely experienced skaters but we didn’t know much else. I personally assumed that we’d be bedazzled by a bunch of new, top notch American derby strategy (cause you know we get things here late), and be beaten smoothly and precisely (there is no lack of loyalty in realism). But that’s not how it went down at all. I choose to view it as a microcosm of the US vs Canada bout. Sirens were out-skilled by a team of fearless, relentless warriors! They used very basic, logical derby strategies we recognized, but countering them was virtually impossible! Their jammer footwork and psych outs were explosive. To a skater there were none that could be identified as a ‘weak link’ or an easy goating opportunity. Their hits were frequent and hard as hell. This is worthy of note because as a league, FCR has often prided itself in its contact skills, both in giving and taking. However, instead of having just four or five big hitters, Janes seemed to have all big hitters, without sacrificing speed. Masquerage literally limped away from that bout, and if you know Masq, you know she's one tough cookie!

The two broad skills I believe that set Janes ahead were their excellent timing and use of hits. It served to set the tone of fear it took the Sirens a long time to shake (and some I suspect never did). When a Sirens blocker would line up the Janes jammer or blocker for a hit, there were immediate preventative or retribution hits, usually streaming in unnoticed from left field. In boxing, there is a thing called the “counterpunch” that is similarly effective. When a boxer receives an immediate pop in the nose for every hit he doles out, he starts to be less willing to throw punches. The same holds true in derby in my experience. If you are getting knocked on the floor from any direction any time you try to do something (jammer or blocker) you become more hesitant to take risks. Despite the constant flurry of abuse, little of it was wasted, as it was applied at opportune times, swarming forward to help jammers through as well as fuelled the exhaustion of the opposing team. This is what set the Sirens back in general in the first period I think, the effective crushing of souls.

Most of the Janes lineups looked to be using a pretty standard 3 defense 1 offense blocker and dominating the front of the pack. By the second period, Sirens started getting pretty good at fighting for the front and building two or three-walls there, while cycling their most effective jammers in more often. They were even lucky enough to get several power jams, but the points they could pick up were limited because the Janes have excellent defense and pack control. Their walls are tight and they proved effective at controlling pack speed with goating or staying just out of reach at the front to keep it sped up.

Fancy Nancy

Tacky Tammy

Scrum starts on the jammer line seem to have contributed effectively to Sirens improving their performance in the second period, and bought them a majority of their lead jammer statuses if I remember correctly. The point difference was about 200 to 18 in the first period and the leak was cut in half and points earned about tripled in the second period ending with 308 to 54. Sirens actually got lead jammer many times in the second period but the Janes ability to switch immediately from defense to a frenzied offense, and the excellent footwork of their jammers assured their jammer was never far behind, limiting sirens to tiny bites of 2 to 4 points before being forced to call it off.  

Lil Chop happy in da box

Another worry we had going in to a bout with a WFTDA league was the possible disconnect between the officiating we’re used to and the WFTDA type. Though our rules training and testing is pretty regular, we didn’t know if we had been missing a bunch of subtle rules that we’d get called on. We just weren’t sure. The bout officiating was excellent, and very reassuring! Head referee was 3 Day Bender (WFTDA) from Boston and there was a mix of MRD, Boston, and FCR (Brad Pittiful) refs there. The pre-bout meeting was very efficient, lining up the NSO’s and Refs who would work most closely together to discuss any signals they may use and so on. I was doing outside whiteboard, and it seemed to run like clockwork. The teams ended up with what appeared to me from the center board as about equal penalties. There were no expulsions, and as far as I remember no more than 3 or 4 majors per skaters. Our Allie B Bashin only got 1 minor! At the half time 3 Day Bender emphasized a warning about being careful of impact and not accidentally calling majors when they should be minors. They were very careful and fair on their calls and I did not hear a word of complaint from our skaters afterwards. All in all the officials were very officious, as they should be!

The Calamity Janes proved that the team with the better physical ability in implementing a strategy, even if both teams know it, will come out on top. Sirens pulled a few moves that appeared to confuse the Janes and work a bit but it didn't make much of a dent in the face of superior ability. Sirens walls were tight (for FCR) but Janes walls were tighter. Sirens jammers had good footwork (For FCR) but Janes footwork was better. Sirens hits are pretty strong in general, but Janes were harder and they stood up better to Sirens hits as well. Sirens now have some experience and feedback to further work on their training program and set higher standards of performance to continue pushing to be competitive locally and internationally! Thank you Calamity Janes for the schoolin and the pizza! We and our fans had a great time!

Thanks to Marc Henwood of Isurus Photography for some great photos!