Ever noticed how roller derby just seems to attract the best ones? Creative, ethical, practical; the derby demographic is all kinds of awesome - the sort of people my mum would approvingly refer to as "do-ers". Couple that with the passion behind the sport's DIY ethos and it's immediately clear why it's one of the fastest growing amateur sports in the world. Derby people make stuff happen. With all that in mind, it should come as no surprise that when Bath Roller Derby decided the time had come for their very first league merchandise order, we didn't have to outsource a thing! We're very lucky to count an uber-talented and eco-friendly screen printer amongst our ranks in the form of Hannah Conway, aka Conway The Barbarian. One half of I DRESS MYSELF, Hannah and partner Pete have been busily putting together our order and we're thrilled to announce that it's almost ready to put on sale! We'll be selling two kinds of shirt through this blog (a lovely pale blue and our trademark sunny yellow!) as well as rolling out a mixed bag of various colours and cuts at our bouts, fundraisers and socials. Lots of shirts are all made from fairly traded, organic cotton and they are all printed with water-friendly inks. So you can save all your chaos and destruction for the track ;)
All funds raised from the sales will go straight back to supporting the league, helping us progress and develop as a team. Watch this space!
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Dwayne 'The Block' Johnson Skate Number 279 Why Did You Start Roller Derby? I'd heard about derby and desperately wanted to try it. After waiting what felt like ages I saw in the local paper that Bath had a team and were looking for new skaters. Describe Your Roller Derby Career So Far Started skating early 2012, Fresh Meat in June, passed my minimum skills in Jan and have played in a couple of scrims and was on the winning side in my first public mixed scrim last week! What's Your Skate Set Up? Suregrip Rebel Avengers with DA45 trucks. Need to sort my wheels out next! Smiths Scabs pads. Who's Your Derby Idol? Tess Robinson from BRD, now LRG. I wish my hips moved like hers! Sum up Bath Roller Derby Girls in 5 words Supportive, friendly, most awesome decision. Fun Fact About You I used to fly gliders and have flown solo (completely by myself!) both myself and the glider were unscathed! Player Award 2013 Best Booty Blocker In The Business It's been a little while since our last proper update - we promise we haven't been hibernating! Here are some of the best bits of Bath Roller Derby's winter season... Get ready for a post of great epicness! Halloween Inter-League Scrimmage Epic BRDG Zombies vs. Witches Halloween showdown! This was a fantastic evening's intra-league scrimming; brilliant costumes, terrifying make up, some ace skating and probably too many sweeties if we're honest. A hard-fought win for the Zombies! Braaaaaaaaains! Braaaaaains! BRDG's Second Fresh Meat Course Kicks Off! After the success of our last Freshie intake, we've been dying to get Round 2 underway and at the start of January, it happened! Our 10 week Fresh Meat course was totally booked out, with over 30 lads and lasses taking their first steps into the wonderful world of derby. We're over halfway through the course now, and already seriously impressed by this gang's excellent attitudes and hard graft! We devised a shared coaching rota for this FM course, with a wide range of league members stepping up to take on teaching each week. This seems to be working really well; each session's coach is chosen because they excel at the skills being taught in that session, so Freshies get a great intro to each new element, as well as getting to know us 'big girls' in advance of joining our league training after graduation. Yays all round for integration! BRDG skater, The Hendenberg, also organised a super sweet wheel swapping evening, giving Fresh Meat the chance to borrow league skaters' wheels and test out loads of different kinds, sizes and combos before committing to buying their own. BRDG Christmas Social & Player Awards Bad jumpers, Secret Santa and a roast potato cook-off; the undisputed king of Christmas party formulas! As well as partaking in pressies, mince pies, and mulled cider, we announced our 2013 BRDG Player Awards, which you can check out here. Friendly Scrim with Dorset Roller Derby In January, we spent a great evening hosting Dorset Roller Derby at our Beechen Cliff venue. These girls are so much fun to play! We enjoyed a really close, evenly matched game; coming up against some really impressive walling, great tactical jammers and a few monster hits! Hopefully we can head down to their neck of the woods before too long for another session - thanks again for travelling to see us on a school night, ladies and gents! BRDG's First Sur5al Adventure! Earlier this month, Smasha Cake, Lazy Susan, Nan-Imosity, Scarlet O'Harma and Smashing Thumpkins headed down south to represent Bath Roller Derby at Sur5al, playing against skaters from Leagues across the South West, including our eternal favourites, The Devon Clotted Screamers! Big thank snogs to all the refs, NSOs and other skaters at this brilliant event - the rest of the league is itching to have a go at Sur5al too now! Victorian Roller Derby Bootcamp Massive thanks to Ruby Ribcrusher and The Flyin' Nun Chucker from the Victorian Roller Derby League for this epic four hour bootcamp! We learnt ridiculous amounts and had so much fun. It was really nice to have a few of Wiltshire's skaters join us too, thanks for coming ladies - we should train together more often! We ended the day in traditional BRDG style; Hell Cat's place, industrial amounts of vegan food, and freely flowing cider. As days go, that one's going to be hard to top... Closed Door With Wheels Of Gory Huge respect for Wheels Of Gory who played a super fast, pacey game incredibly short of players. We don't know what you're feeding your Duracell bunny jammers, but we want in on the secret please! Seriously impressive fitness and endurance... Was a real pleasure playing these girls, we're already looking forward to the rematch. International Bootcamping: Bruges & Berlin! BRDG went international this winter! Steg, Petra, Conway Barbarian and (an off-skates, boo!) Hell Cat flew out to Berlin for a gruelling but totally, epically amazing weekend with the Berlin Bombshells (video to follow soon!) We had an incredible time, one of the highlights being checking out Quad and stocking up on all manner of roller derby goodies. If you get the chance to go, go!
In February, LaySu, Tink, Steg, Lou Bootin' and Petra also hit up Derby Revolution in Bruges, where they trained with some bone fide derby legends! We've all been benefitting in league training sessions from the excellent jamming drills taught to them by none other than Suzy Hotrod, eeeeee! Getting to learn from some of the best players in the world, first hand... What a truly amazing sport we're a part of <3 Coming Up... + BRDG play their first INTERNATIONAL BOUT in Lisbon! + Fundraisers galore: BRDG Auction of Promises and Pub Quiz V + Grin N Barum Closed Door, Scrimming with the Clotted Screamers... + Fresh Meat's impending graduation! Skate Name
Petra Bomb Skate Number 1936 Why Did You Start Roller Derby? I have always done some contact sport, I loved to skate when I was a kid, and I like DIY culture and feminism so it was kinda a natural progression. Describe Your Roller Derby Career So Far Fresh Meat with Dorset Roller Girls, Skater with Bristol Roller Derby for a year while helping get BRDG going. What's Your Skate Set Up? Hand-me-down Riedell 265's with slightly-shonky-home-mounted Mag Avenger plates and Atom Jukes. Who's Your Derby Idol? There are many. Mick Swagger, Stef Mainey, plus everyone who's ever coached and encouraged me especially Delta Strike and Jet Reckless at BRD Sum up Bath Roller Derby Girls in 5 words Derby Love and Shoves. ... Biatch. Fun Fact About You Ahhh why you make me do this. I don't know fun things. Um. I can't handle carrots cut into rounds and was once bitten on the bum by a police dog. Player Award 2013 The Kingpin Award For Holding BRDG Together It's been a busy couple of months for Bath. Here are some highlights... We Got A Home In Bath! After a year of searching, we finally found a Bath home for Bath Roller Derby! No more trips to Tro Bo! We're delighted to announce that we'll now be regularly skating at Beechen Cliff School twice a week. Guest Coaching From Kid Block & Kevin BRDG were lucky enough to have two awesome guest coach sessions; an awesome session learning how to booty pop with the powerhouse that is Kid Block and a V-wall / recycling masterclass with the Harbour Harlot's Kevin. We learned so much from both of them and massively appreciated them taking the time to travel to train with us! Track To The Future This already got it's own post - but a big thanks again to Hereford Horror Bulls for throwing an awesome cherry popper! The Bath girls who played had a great time, and can't wait to play to a crowd again :) Our Fresh Meat Graduated! September marked the end of our 10 week Fresh Meat course! Our first ever batch of new recruits all graduated with flying colours (mainly yellow tbf) as we knew they would, thanks to the continued effort and awesomesauce of Rosie Hardcore Blondage. It's a pleasure to be skating regularly together now as a full league :) Watch this space for details of our next intake! Bristol Rookies Vs Bath Roller Derby We had a great time playing Bristol rookies in a friendly scrim! We fielded some of our newly graduated Fresh Meat and they really stepped up. Smac Down Angel in particular deserves a special mention for busting out what will now be forever known as her signature move; the JCB. Can't wait to play Bristol again! Bourne Bombshells Vs Bath Roller Derby Bourne Bombshells B Team spent a weekend in the wild, wild West Country and stopped by to play us the day after taking on Bristol Harbour Harlots B's. We were hoping that a night on the local scrumpy might have hindered their performance, but like true athletes, they had abstained and fielded a very strong side. We have much to learn regarding these Jedi Master levels of self control. We also have major kit envy. A big thanks to the Devon Clotted Screamers for lending us the awesome Kimi Krusher and Rolls Moyse - who did some ace blocking together during power jams! We Have Refs! We're chuffed to bits to announce that BRDG now has their very own herd of three regular, super great zebras! Poor guys probably thought they'd get to play some derby at some point, but now we've got them in stripes there will be no let up! Welcome on board Nan-imosity, Safety Barry-er and Ghengis Harm :) BRDG Birthdays! This month had more than the usual share of BRDG birthdays, including those of Smashing Thumpkins, Scarlett O'Harma, Tan Grenade and Tinker Hell. Celebrations included sparkly roller disco fun and a night of superhero alter egos (as if our derby alter egos weren't enough to contend with.) Oxford Mixed Scrim Hosted by Wheels of Gory (who we are playing in a couple of months) six of our girls headed to join another 30 or so skaters from leagues across the UK in a mixed scrim. Lazy Susan, Scarlett O'Harma, Smac Down Angel, Tinker Hell, Trevlock Holmes and Smashing Thumpkins all did us proud and spread the BRDG yellow fever! Devon Clotted Screamers Vs SRT B's After pinching Kimi and Moyse for our Bristol scrim, we returned the favour by loaning four of our skaters to the Devon Clotted Screamers in their scrim with Severn Roller Torrent B's in Gloucester. Since playing them earlier in the summer, the BRDG girls were eager for another encounter and enjoyed a hard-fought and hugely enjoyable game.
Coming Up... + BRDG Halloween Scrimmage! + BRDG Pub Quiz Fundraiser - Hob Goblin Bath, 7.30pm 5th Nov + Details of our new Fresh Meat intake... + BRDG Christmas Roast Potato Party / Mince Pie Hangovers BRDG skaters Hell Cat, Lazy Susan and Scarlett O'Harma were honoured to be a part of the brilliant Track To The Future double header in Hereford on Sunday.
After helping to bring home a win for Team Tannen in a nail-biting opening mixed bout, they're still on a massive high, and would like to say a huge thank you to Hereford Roller Girls (especially Minxy Dodd for her organisational super powers.) What a perfect way to spend a Sunday... We checked the records and exactly a year ago, to this day, a group of overly excited, wobbly would-be roller derby players were strapping on skates, gagging on cheap mouth guards and trying to figure out which way their knee pads went as they assembled at Green Park Station. Yep, Bath Roller Derby Girls first ever session was exactly a year ago - which means our little league has officially made it through its first year and turns one today! What a ridiculously amazing year it's been... The Dawn Of Time Displaying Spartan levels of stoic badassery, we soldiered through the dark initial days - skating in a freezing former railway station, never flinching as we pulled splinter after splinter from our bums, and maintaining a zen-like tolerance of the little kids who kicked footballs at us while we stretched out... It took a huge effort to get the league off the ground, and we owe a big thank you to Bristol Roller Derby at that time, for the loan of their spare kit, and for their help coaching sessions way back at the beginning - especially Tess, Matt and Jet. We count ourselves very lucky to have such awesome derby neighbours. I think even with the puddles, and the passing drunks and the massive sign that said "No Skating" and attracted many a disapproving OAP, we knew we were on to a good thing... Winter Is Coming: The Nomadic Days It is a truth universally acknowledged that you shouldn't have to wear gloves and a scarf to training. Green Park was open to the elements and we started to freeze. The nights drew in and our epic quest for a permanent home began... Drawing a blank with Bath's halls, we started a nomadic existence, shuttling between Frome and Corsham venues. The winter months ticked by, and we started to ramp up the social side of the league. We had an awesome Christmas social (ice skating - our time at Green Park had not prepared us for this as well as we thought it might) and held our first ever Booze and Bearings night. It was probably around this time that we started to realise quite how big a role roller derby was going to play in our lives, as whole weekends got swallowed by training, traveling to watch bouts and generally getting drunk together discussing the finer tactical points of the sport. Our boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, pets and children huddled hungry in cold, unlit houses - shivering, remembering happier times... The Tro-Bo Diaries The floor at Corsham got worse every week, and with new skaters swelling our ranks, we'd outgrown Frome and it's lethal hidden stacks of furniture. The next move was to Trowbridge; home of the lovely, lovely floor of dreams. Suddenly 25 in 5 didn't seem like such an impossible task - we started passing Minimum Skills! We've come on in leaps and bounds since we've been skating here - and aside form the amazing dedication of our own coaches, we also need to thank folks for the fantastic guest coaching we've received from Kid Block and Boba Fettish of the Tiger Bay Brawlers and the ladies ofSeven Roller Torrent (especially Fear, who is awesome.) With a bunch of us Min Skills passed, we also started preparing to take on other real life roller girls. Ho. Lee. Sheet. We had to kick things up a gear: this called for a training montage! We popped our cherry to the Devon Clotted Screamers. What can I say, you never forget your first. We've remained really good friends with these girls - if you ever get a chance to play them, or just hang out, jump at it. They are brilliant. We love you Screamers! Fresh Meat Delivery! And suddenly it was time to recruit Fresh Meat! This was amazing, and felt like such a huge step! Our 10 week course was fully booked, with a waiting list - and we were blown away by the tenacity, enthusiasm and sheer brilliance of our new recruits. Taking charge of all training was our beloved HC Blondage - who roams the globe like some kind of roller derby Gandalf, sprinkling magic and cider on everyone she passes (last spotted in Amsterdam, killing it on Team No Sleep.) Fresh Meat aced the course, graduating to league training at the end of the 10 weeks with no problem at all - we can't wait to get everyone up to Min Skills level and skating out with us. It's been brilliant to see Bath Roller Derby grow from a couple of girls nursing pints around a pub table and talking about starting something, to 35+ regular skaters, refs and NSOs. We celebrated their graduation in style with a Debutantes Crawl... Some Other Highlights... Our darling Wheelia Smith got WED! She didn't even slack off training to avoid wedding picture arm bruises! We gave her a suitably epic send off, and still got up the next morning to run the Bath Race For Life. This is a video of the first big 'derby weekend' we spent together as a team: fantastic South West bout, Booze & Bearings party, topped off with a training session. Phew. Another HUGE deal was our Derby Come Dine With Me contest! Designed to get the whole team mixing (and fat) - for months on end we threw and attended some of the best themed dinner parties known to man... We also had a lot of fun supporting our beloved Petra "Petra's Gonna Get Ya" Bomb in her own bout with the Harbour Harlots Bees! There's SO MUCH MORE I could add to this already epic post - but if I don't stop writing soon then it will be tomorrow, and no longer our 1 Year Derbyversary... To sum up and hopefully without getting too mushy; Bath Roller Derby is pretty much the greatest thing I've ever been involved with. It's made the last year one of the best of my whole life, and I know its introduced me to people who I'll be friends with until I'm an old, old lady, looking approvingly on at kids skating in places where skating is forbidden.
A huge thank you to everyone who's coached us, supported our fundraisers, driven us to training, traveled to play with us, slapped ice packs on our bruises, cheered us on and generally made the last 12 months all the fun they've been. I can't wait to see what the next year holds for Bath Roller Derby. Love and shoves, everyone - happy birthday BRDG x. Words: Hell Cat Photos: Assorted BRDG! Videos: Hell Cat Ever wondered what it's like to join a Roller Derby league? Huge thanks to one of our most dedicated, motivated and generally wonderful Freshies, Hen, for the following write up! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - About 2 or 3 years ago I once spent all day in bed, and I mean aaaaall day; I only got up to make myself cups of tea and food which I’d then consume back under the duvet, until I went back to sleep for the rest of the night. Until May of this year, I’d considered that day to be pretty much uncontested for the title of Best Thing I Have Ever Done, but then a challenger suddenly came out of nowhere and now a recount has been called. Fresh Meat with BRDG has been an amazing and completely unexpected experience. Long-time friend and BRDG team captain Steg O’Soar had been subtly, and then not-so-subtly, hinting that I should look into roller derby for a few months but I’d never seriously believed I’d actually do it. I was quite surprised when I actually pressed send on the “yep, I’ll do it” text when she told me that a new intake of skaters would be happening soon. I have no business joining a roller derby league: I had never worn a pair of skates in my life let alone played a team sport. Somehow I didn’t think that my experience of “fielding” (walking as far away from the actual game as possible with my pal Lucy and sitting down to chat on the grass) in rounders at school was going to help me much. I’d also not voluntarily exercised for a loooong time. All these factors might make you believe that I’d turn up to the first practice and totally suck… And I did! My first sessions on skates I needed a minimum of one of the BRDG helpers just to help me stay upright and moving forward. If I was feeling especially bold, I’d raise my hands a few inches above their forearms for a few seconds, before slamming them back down. Apologies if anyone still has claw marks in their arms from this. I absolutely wasn’t a comfortable or natural skater and I’m still not. I can move around the track unaided now and I’m slowly but surely picking up speed, but I still haven’t totally lost that sense of nervousness from having 8 wheels strapped to my feet. The list of basic skating skills I’m terrible at is pretty darn long, but so is the list of things I suck at less than when I first attempted them. And that feels incredible. I’m pretty sure I’m not the first person to discover that practising a skill you find insanely hard until you can do it is really satisfying, but I’m always surprised by how often I get that feeling in derby. In the immortal words of Jake the Dog from Adventure Time “Dude, suckin’ at something is the first step to being sorta good at something” And being bad at something you want to be good at is really hard. At best it’s challenging fun, like destroying your brother’s Sims family without him knowing it was definitely you, but at worst it’s utterly frustrating, like when you come home from a sleepover and the Sims family you’ve been working on for months suddenly all hate each other and the house you built for them is covered in their own urine. Despite finding it hard work (physically as well as mentally) training has become the highlight of my week since I’ve started. Like an excited child counting down the days until Christmas, I’m usually thinking about how long it will be until I get to kit up and skate again. This isn’t just because I enjoy circling a track and making poorly timed and clunky attempts at crossovers, but also because I get to spend two hours in the company of some of the coolest people I’ve ever met. I would never have been able to predict how brilliantly social a sport roller derby is. I’m struggling to think of a single person I’ve come across during my time with BRDG that I’m not super excited to know. Doing something slightly better than you were last week? Chances are at least one person will loudly announce to you how awesome you are, while you mumble something resembling “thanks” just in case there’s actually someone with your name standing directly behind you, doing backflips on skates. I’m convinced the biggest reason I’ve found derby such ridiculous fun so far is because of the people I get to do it with. I do sometimes wonder how there can be such a large group of people who can be as friendly, funny, smart and talented as the women and men I’ve met through BRDG. It just doesn’t seem logical that something this good can exist in a world that has Mrs Brown’s Boys or BT Customer Service call centres in it.
I might have to spend another whole day in bed just to be sure, but at the moment I’m thinking that joining BRDG Fresh Meat might just be the best decision I’ve ever made. A long overdue post to record our first ever closed door bout with the very lovely Devon Clotted Screamers! Having travelled to Barnstaple for some shared training and scrimming earlier in the year, we were really happy to have the chance to repay some of the Screamers' amazing hospitality and play them on home turf. On July 14th they braved the heatwave and M5 holiday traffic to join us at Withywood. It was a fast-paced, fun few hours, with both teams sending out very eager rosters. It was clear how much work both teams had put in over the few months since we'd last played together, with a huge improvement in everyone's tactical game play especially noticeable. After a few scrappy first jams, both teams seemed to find their stride and level out, continuing to push each other and keep the pressure on until the final whistle(s). Lots of love to all who reffed and NSO'ed (lots of first timers!) - and special thanks to XiXi Stomp for sorting our line ups, and MatLovin for being our first ever Bench Coach (we promise to do some listening drills in the coming weeks!) After a super sweaty couple of hours, we de-padded, wrung out our hair and headed outside to cool off and decide on who to award our bout certificates to. We also gave out some special BRDG goodie bags to thank the Screamers for coming so far to play us; stickers, badges, chewing gum, popping candy and some neon sticking plasters, just in case ;) Next up; group photo and certificates! Deciding on MVP, Best Blocker and Jammer was tough, but luckily we had some customised cupcakes as brain fuel... In the end awards went to; MVP Bath - Foxy Hard Knox Best Blocker Bath - Hardcore Blondage Best Jammer Bath - Kerri Kon Karnage MVP Screamers - Rolls Moyse Best Blocker Screamers - Whippety Split Best Jammer Screamers - Becky Spaghetti After the prize giving, both teams hoped into oven-like cars to drive all over Bristol looking for a picnic spot (which Hell Cat had been assured was very easy to find!) What felt like several hours later (waaah, sorry again guys!) we finally found Leigh Woods, where we proceeded to demolish indecent amounts of Jaffa Cakes. Perfect end to an awesome day. After the prize giving, both teams hoped into oven-like cars to drive all over Bristol looking for a picnic spot (which Hell Cat had been assured was very easy to find!) What felt like several hours later (waaah, sorry again guys!) we finally found Leigh Woods, where we proceeded to demolish indecent amounts of Jaffa Cakes. Perfect end to an awesome day.
Thanks again for coming to play us Screamers - we couldn't have lost our bouting cherry to nicer girls! Looking forward to seeing you all again soon :) It was a busy weekend for Bath Roller Derby! Sunday saw several of our league players shipped out to various scrims and bouts - we had a blast playing with other teams! First up, Steg O'Soar, Scarlett O'Harma, Smasha Cake and TinkerHell headed off to Cheltenham for theSevern Roller Torrent Vs. Central City Roller Girls Slaybelles bout, to play in the opening mixed bout: Dinosaurs vs. Unicorns! This was the intrepid foursome's first ever public bout (and Tink's first bout full stop!) Safe to say our resident dino-lover and venerable captain, Steg, had been waiting her whole life for this moment (as was perhaps evident from her bout program photo!) The bout was an epic showcase of mytho-legendary proportions, with TinkerHell and Scarlett O'Harma skating for Team Unicorn, and Smasha Cake and Steg O'Soar rolling for the Dinosaurs. With an array of impressive moves from both teams, it's no surprise that the crowd was baying for more magical bloodshed; but after a thrilling clash of fantastical titans, Dinosaurs clawed their way to victory with a final score of 214-122. Not to be outshone, our very own Scarlett (subbing in for the injured Shock & Awedrey) was awarded the 'Derby Crush' award for her glittering performance on track - congratulations Scarlett! (and here hoping the real Shock & Awedrey is fighting fit and back on skates soon!) Meanwhile, over in Bristol, Hell Cat, Lazy Susan and a last minute Tan Grenade were incredibly excited to be part of the Bristol Roller Derby Harry Potter Graduate Scrimmage! The girls played in both of the spell-binding 30 minute scrims - one of which was their first ever foray into the world of co-ed derby - and loved every second. Skating first for Ravenclaw and then Hufflepuff, they chalked up one defeat (to a bewitching Slytherin) and one magical last minute win (against Gryffindor)- with a lot of time out on the track and only a couple of spells in "detention" (penalty box!) between them ;)
We have a ton of respect for the amazingness of Bristol Roller Derby, and getting to be a part of this afternoon, especially sharing the excitement as Fresh Meat underwent their Sorting Hat ceremony to be allocated to their new league team, was a real honour. From the cake pops and ref costumes to the house banners hanging on the wall and the Diagon Alley themed merch stall - it was clear how much work had gone into making the day really special for the Fresh Meat, who'd obviously been putting heaps of effort into passing their Minimum Spells too. 10 points to BRD! |
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