Friday the HURTeenth! Blitz Dames vs Team Canada!

Roller Blitz Old Skool Roller Disco in Birmingham, UK

 

The UK has a thriving roller disco scene and now Birmingham is about to revitalise the beloved roller disco locally and polish it to a mirror-ball shine. The Roller Blitz event promises to bring the joy of eight on the floor to a new audience, showcase Britain’s VIP jam skaters, and give the rest of us an excuse to dust of our skates for a groovy alternative way to fitness. 

The floor has bags of room for everyone, there will be games and a raffle. Besides, there’s little else this fun that donates a portion of the profits to Cancer UK. Set your supersonic sights on B4 7ES and come skate with us!
www.myspace.com/rollerblitz

 

Leeds Dolls on BBC

Leeds Roller Dolls out of England appeared on BBC News! Check it out:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7367333.stm

London Brawling vs Irn Bruisers video interview

Lesbilicious magazine caught some of the derby action in London England, and asked them some fun and silly questions:

A Guide for the Derby Widow

So, fellas, and some lucky ladies, your partner has joined the derby.  You thought it would be fun for your woman to pick up a new sport, and now you sit in a house full of sexy hosiery wondering when you will see your partner again.  This is a challenging time fraught with confusion and loneliness.  Know that you are not alone.  The mourning process is real.  Every widow’s experience is unique, but you may recognise the following: 

1. Denial – Many of us are ashamed to admit that early in the derby widow experience, it is actually exciting.  Suddenly, it’s ok to watch a mass of women in short skirts plow into each other without turning off the internet browser filter. Your home is often filled with your wife’s hot, hilarious teammates.  Your lover’s fitness is advancing at an astonishing rate, she’s taken over changing tyres, and she seems to have found an inexplicable comfort with firearms.  When she drags you to the local all-night roller disco, you beam with pride at her skating skills.
2. Anger- It’s 9:30 p.m. and you haven’t seen Madamoiselle de Derby since yesterday.  The house is littered with skates or wristguards that smell like week-old roadkill that previously subsisted on a diet of limburger.  She’s spending all her time doing ‘tracking stats’, writing ‘line-ups’ or glued to some message board discussing the merits of taping make-up sponges to her blisters.  Then, when you slump off to the pub to drown your sorrows with your mates, she rolls in two hours after you, red-faced and laughing about the ‘after party’. 
3. Bargaining – You are a product of the modern age, no?  You can handle this if she’ll just give in a bit. But your attempts to keep Wednesdays for ‘us’ time and coax her to take the summer hols somewhere where she can’t visit a local league just aren’t making it go away. 
4. Sadness - You miss her.  It’s common to experience ‘What if’ questions at this stage, like ‘What if I had just encouraged her to join something more delicate, like street fighting or kendo instead?’
5. Acceptance – Hard as it may be to understand this, you will eventually learn to embrace your roller derby girl.  You may start to realise that your mates crowd around with anticipation to hear about the latest pile-up at practice, that when you finally watch a bout it feels like your first rock concert, or that you’ve tried on the referee stripes and have developed a taste of your own for the track.  The women of the roller derby are a rare breed who will find the derby with or without you.  All you can do is thank the derby goddesses above, and start on that sign for the next bout.

For more to soothe your soul, visit Birmingham’s own original roller derby league at www.blitzdames.com.  Better yet, come to our next bout on the 12^th of April at Cocks Moors Leisure Centre and see what the obsession is about.  Doors open at 6:00 p.m and the action starts at 7:00.  Tickets now available online.

Written by “Helen Fury”, #10 Birmingham Blitz Derby Dames, and approved by my own dear derby widow.

 

 

LRG in the London Paper!

Just before their bout with Glasgow Roller Girls, the London Roller Girls are featured in free rag: London Paper!

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UK Midlands bout: Crash of the Titans!

Birmingham Blitz Derby Dames ENGLAND vs. Glasgow Rollergirls SCOTLAND  

 

The roller derby scene is thriving the UK, with 10 current leagues and new ones springing up every week in places like in Windsor, Manchester, Brighton and Essex. This roller riot is cross between x-treme games and burlesque. It’s fast, furious and a bit sexy too! 

Roller derby makes curious fans into quick converts. Neophytes should check out the rules. And, yes, it is based on the roller derby you know from the kitsch 1970’s. Except, now, nobody’s faking.  

Formed in 2006 and after training hard for a year, the Birmingham Blitz Derby Dames are in a successful inaugural season. The hometown roller derby queens, the ‘Dames are set to pour salt on the wounds of an ancient grudge.  

Tickets £7 Advance, £8 Door Tickets and more information www.blitzdames.com. Following the bout, the Dames will be holding their celebration after party at Subside Bar, Fletchers Walk, 4 Paradise Pl, Birmingham, B3 3HJ.  

 

click to enlarge

Spotlight!

Brand new: our first spotlight! THis month on: THE GLASGOW ROLLERGIRLS! Go check it out: just follow the link at the top of the page that says ‘Spotlight’

B’ham Dames ♥ Leeds Dolls ith Tough Love

February 2008

Goddess bless the great British privatised motorway services.  The dingy grey roadside affairs of my youth, featuring bolted-on wooden prison toilet seats, have been replaced with gleaming outposts that sell cappuccino.  Sure, a sandwich and coke will set you back the price of roast Sunday lunch provisions for five, but as I was soaking up the early morning sun in a comfortable café off the M42, I could hardly be bothered about such things.   Today the Blitz Dames were headed out on a derby-filled road trip to Leeds. 

The Leeds Roller Dolls are one of the many newer roller derby leagues who have come together blaze track in this country. In the true cooperative spirit of DIY roller derby, they had helped the Blitzdames earlier in the weekend with a generous loan of equipment for a BBDD sports session with the University of Birmingham Rugby team.  So, the ‘Dames were delighted to accept the invitation to work with their roller sisters in LRD on some derby training collaboration. The enthusiasm was mutual, as the entirety of Leeds Roller Dolls had just gotten kitted out in full protective gear in anticipation of the day’s hard knocks to come.  What a great attitude!

The LRD’s head trainer, John Kirkham (an accomplished jam skater), started the session with a knackering quick-manoever warm-up drill.  The BBDD then took the lead with derby-specific stretches to loosen everyone up, and garner a few smiles as we displayed our lack of modesty (just tell me that stretch doesn’t look like a stripper).  One of BBDD’s top blockers, Bee Bentley, continued the session as she helped the Leeds ladies take the sheen off their pads with a barrage of falling drills.  Falling safely -with proper equipment!- is the best protection against injury; so it was important to make falling technique even more automatic that snapping up knee high socks in your team colours.  Having spent some quality time hitting the leisure center floor, the training progressed through all the derby action we could pack into two hours.  The focus included pack skills, endurance work, and whips (demonstrated by the agile Violet Attack).

The rock hard women of Leeds took everything BBDD dished out, including press-ups for getting out of pack formation, and the occasional surprise meeting with immovable surfaces.  During one of the rare breaks in the action, the LRD stylishly produced jaffa cakes to keep the masses fueled. By the last conditioning exercise, smiles mixed readily with grimaces of pain.

Afterwards everyone shared a huge Mexican restaurant table where the burritos were solidly lackluster, but the company couldn’t have been better.  The Leeds Roller Dolls are dedicated skaters who –like the first modern women’s roller derby leagues in Texas- are undaunted by their newness to the sport.   LRD even make it an advantage, by exploring creative solutions unencumbered by needing to follow established protocols.  Both of our leagues learned useful tips from each other’s experiences, and too soon it was time to head home. Like the outbound trip, spending time with BBDD mates made the return journey finish in a flash.  It was fab to ‘wreck and roll’ with the Leeds women and we look forward to future training field trips, and other potential collaborative projects with them later this year.

 

Helen Fury 

#10 Birmingham Blitz Derby Dames 

Rugby Women Trade Scrum for Derby in Brum

The descripitves of roller derby practice sound like a war film synopsis: pain, impact, high velocities, laughter, courage, strategy, collusion…but to us it’s a good time.   This weekend we joined forces with another set of athletes who similarly prefer their fun flavoured with adrenaline: The University of Birmingham Women’s Rugby team.

The Rugby team rose admirably early on a Saturday, and showed up right on time to meet the Birmingham Blitz Derby Dames at the university campus, only to find out that our sports hall slot was replaced with volleyball.  Despite indignation at the scheduling gaff, it wasn’t nearly enough to deter our collective ranks from getting some skating action!   So, after a brief intro to roller derby game play, complete with video of Rollercon bouts, the groups parted with plans to refuel and car pool to our general practice later that day.

Despite the chaos of nearly 40 women on skates, the practice was amazing! The aim was to give the University athletes an opportunity for team building, cross-training, and an introduction to our sport, sometimes called ‘rugby on skates’. From their performance on Saturday, rugby players clearly deserve their reputation as strong and audacious, and we loved it. 

Mostly they were just fearless. Few had any pads, but these insane gals acted as if they were encased in bubble wrap. Undoubtedly, as rugby athletes, they are used to the hard knocks of full contact sports!  It was the kind of approach that makes us roller derby skaters drool in admiration.

The training agenda focused on drills that all levels could do, teamwork, a few fun games, and endurance/strength training that had all the participants of both teams sweating. The Blitz Dames took to the track near the end for a roller derby demonstration that included a scrimmage jam with all the hard knocks of our game.

The rugby athletes were incredibly quick learners. They won at dodge ball and did their fair share of JUMPING the limbo rope! Did I mention they were FEARLESS? They were testing themselves to see how high the rope could go and even the ones that were a bit wobbly - nailed it! They were simply amazing.

All of the Blitz Dames enjoyed getting to know the University of Birmingham Rugby team, and look forward to joining them on their turf for future events (including a planned one where we will give rugby a go!).  Several of the rugby players plan to try out for the Blitz Dames - and we are more than happy to have them.  We look forward to more cross-training with the rugby league and developing our fitness with these amazing rock hard women!

Wreck n’ Roll,

Blitz Dames