Year of the Dragon

Just got back form roller derby bouts at the Dome Arena. Guess I'll give a quick report. This was the first night of derby action of the extended travel season. The local B-sides took on the Worcester Roller Derby and the Roc Stars battled the Tri-City Thunder.

The B-Siders had the advantage in the first bout. The Worcester team had a long trip to get to Rochester and were also short on players. There were times that players would play in consecutive jams without a rest. While this fatigue would hurt them in the long run the B-Siders still pulled to an earlier lead with some outstanding playing. In the end the B-siders won 125-71.

The second bout got off to a bad start for the Roc Stars. Tri-City Thunder jammers were becoming lead jammer on a regular basis and got in a really large lead in the first few minutes. Penalties were quickly racked up by both teams, some players were spending so much time in the penalty box they should have been paying rent. By half-time Tri-City had outscored Rochester by about two to one.

In the second half the Roc Stars had a wonderful opportunity to close the gap in the score. A few jams later they were actually a few points ahead of Tri-City. Things were looking good and it was certainly exciting, and the penalty box was still pretty full. Unfortunately the Roc Stars jammers would end up in the penalty box too often giving Tri-City power jam opportunities that allowed them to re-establish a dominating lead which they held until the end of the bout. Final score, the Roc Stars lost to Tri-City 92-124. Still a great bout.

The musical interludes were performed by Roarshark. Normally I'm not too much into music, a bit hard of hearing. It's always hard to have conversations with friends during intermission with the music playing. While I had the same problem tonight, I actually did enjoy their music.

All in all it was a great time. Next bout is March 24, 2012 at the RIT Field House.

Victory at the Dome

Tonight two roller derby bouts were held at the Dome Arena. In the first the Rochester B-Sides took on the Albany All-Stars B Team and in the other the Roc Stars took on the Rideau Valley Vixens from Ottawa.

The first bout was an overwhelming victory for the B-Sides. They crushed the Albany B-Team 227 to 32. That 227 is the highest score I've seen to-date in a roller derby bout. The All-Stars didn't seem motivated at all, there were times their jammers seemed to have trouble passing their own teammates. There were only a handful of times that they managed to get the lead jammer spot, and many of the times they did a B-Sider jammer would be hot on their tail. In the second half their game did improve, but they were so far behind at that point it didn't matter.

The second bout was a much more active and physical game. The Vixens pulled to an early lead and kept it to half-time. Both the Vixens and Roc Stars were doing their part to keep the penalty box officials company. At half-time the Roc Stars were trailing by about 15 points and it seemed that the Vixens would eventually win. However in the second half the Roc Stars came back with a vengeance. They slowly began to dominate the track and eventually pulled off a victory, 160 to 103. A close and exciting game.

Two great bouts and a musical interlude between games. All-in-all a great and inexpensive way to spend an evening. Victory for the local teams in both bouts was a bonus!

Start of the 2011 Roc City Roller Derby season

The new Roc City Roller Derby season started this last Saturday at the Dome Arena. The place was packed, but not quite a sell-out. I’ve heard of the terrible attendance figures for the Amerks over the last year or so, averaging 2,800 (which from what I’ve heard on local sports shows is an inflated number). It’s a shame that the Roller Derby doesn’t get the coverage that other local sports do.

Looking over at the Democrat & Chronicle website there is no real coverage of the sport, only a brief mention of the season starting.

Anyway, on to the main event. The three home teams battled each other in a round-robin bout.

Part One:
Midtown Maulers v. 5-H8-5s 83 to 55.
There were a lot of penalties during this bout, most of them earned by the 5-H8-5s.

Part Two:
Rotten Chesters v. 5-H8-5s 61 to 20
With two bouts over the 5-H8-5s had a total of only 75 points, not enough to overtake the Maulers.

Part Three:
Rotten Chesters v. Midtown Maulers 59 to 35
I was expecting the Maulers to win this one but that was not to be. Not only did they lose this bout but in terms of overall score the Rottenchesters beat them out for the night by two points.

So the final score was:
Rotten Chesters 120
Midtown Maulers 118
5-H8-5s 75

I'll try to take better notes next time. This weekend I was very sleep deprived.

Roller Derby

A couple of weeks ago I went to see a roller derby double-header in Rochester. In the first match the home Rottenchesters battled the visiting Blue Collar Betties and defeated them 147 to 37.





Above is a very blurry photo of the excitement!


The second match-up was the local 5-H8-5s against the Ithaca Bluestockings. During the warm up prior to the game I could tell the Bluestockings would be trouble. They way they skated side-to-side and practiced their tactics, it seemed like they had a lot on the ball. Sure enough they beat the 5-H8-5s 134 to 68.





A penalty being called!


All and all a fun evening. The next roller derby in the Rochester area will be at the Dome Arena on 14 August 2010. The Roc Stars against the Queen City Roller Girls' Lake Effect Furies from Buffalo, NY. Check it out at the Roc City Roller Derby website.

Who knows; I might even figure out how to use my camera before the next bout!