A loss must be discussed

Right, so the Steam Rollers lost.

Oh well.

It was a VERY physical game, and it just felt like a blur of hits and fastness and reaction. It was our first game as a team, and I think it showed. The Suffra Jets have had more time skating together, not to mention a lot of them had been on teams together before, so they worked better as a unit. We’ll get there though. For the first and second period we were up to 40 points behind, but by the third period it started to come together. We clawed back slowly to a 14 point deficit, but unfortunately just ran out of time. We have plans for the future though. As Slice says, the backup plan is always world domination.

Next game is against the Ultraviolent Femmes, with the winner going to the championship against the Suffra Jets again.

And meanwhile we have a month off derby. Unbelievable….a whole month!! I am kicking it off by going away to Zurich for the weekend – a little surprise trip that Tom booked. Very excited as its another country to add to my list, and the city will be full of Christmas markets and snow!

Bout Footage:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=y9GIyvW6Xno (I am in dark red top with white knee caps)

A Glorious Tale of Steam Machines

In February I will have been playing roller derby for 3 years. That's a pretty long time. And yet, this Saturday is going to be the VERY FIRST time I am ever going to play a game with my own permanent league team! Why is that? It has a lot to do with my moves and my leagues.

When we started ACDG we just didnt have enough girls for league teams, so for a long time we just played black vs white or whatever. And then just when we split into teams and I became a Berzerker I ended up moving to London. I never did get to play a game with my Berzerker crew.

And then in London we had a whole expo season of Pink vs Black. Now FINALLY I have a league team! I am a STEAM ROLLER - and this Saturday sees the debut of the team I am co-captain of!

It's gonna be a tough game. We are up against the mighty Suffra Jets - a team that has half of their roster on the LRG travel team, and who on paper have a pretty powerful set of lineups. They have already played one game this season, and they beat the Ultraviolent Femmes pretty solidly. We figure this is a must win game for our team in order to make sure we get into the finals, so its gonna be a hard one.

Oh, and half our team is injured or ill. :)

But we are going to look damn cool.

Steam Rollers - the steam punkin bad-ass rollergirls of the LRG.




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk

http://www.londonrollergirls.com/zero/teams/steam-rollers

The subject experiences a slight change of location

Oh yes, I forgot to mention it, but I moved! Now that I am an engaged woman, it was time to play house properly with Tom. I really did love the flat in Notting Hill and the great flatmates, but it was just getting way too cramped. Basically it got to the point where if all our laundry was clean, there was nowhere to put it.

So one day we took a little trip up to Hampstead village and said “wow, let’s live here!”

Then we had a reality check on the prices/availability and decided to walk down the hill a bit and see where it led us.

It led us right to Belsize Park. So that’s where we are now. Around the corner from the shops and café’s of England’s Lane, down the hill from the Belsize Park tube, close enough to Chalk Farm and Camden, and a short jaunt to Primrose Hill and Hampstead Heath.

It’s great to finally have space! We live in one of the “…modern developments from the 60s and 70s with underground parking and spacious spacious layouts…” quoted here.

We have been exploring the leafy neighborhoods and checking out the pubs for our new local. It’s great! And now I have two sets of furniture (one US, one UK) cause the flat was unfurnished and we had to buy everything.

Pic: view of central London from Primrose Hill park

A new map of London is presented

HA!

A woeful lack of updates are shared

Just been sooo busy. No time to update the old blog. Had a crazy summer of work, and in desperate need of a holiday I ran off to Rollercon 2008 in Vegas. I took Tom with me, and he actually had a pretty good time. Probably because it turns out he fell in love with Vegas. We also went to Los Angeles for some family visit time, and also had a few days of wine tasting in the Santa Ynez valley. Now we are back in London, and looking for a new flat just of our own. London Rollergirls has finally split into permanent teams and we are getting ready to kick off our next season. Good stuff! Check out this latest derby portrait taken at the last LRG expo game:

click here if you are viewing in email


Photo by Samuel Hicks

A cacophony of celebration

Yes, inevitably, there is a shaky video of the proposal. Be careful of your ears, there is lots of screaming...



(thats: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Swj7k9JosYM)

A bout, a victory, a proposal, a celebration…all are had in the summer sun

I had a bloody good weekend. Team Canada came to town, fresh of a major win against Glasgow the night before, ready to kick some London girls in the derby behind. Or so they thought…

Skating with London Rollergirls (and specifically the Travel Team) has reached a very interesting point. We think we are good….like with the potential to be actually GOOD…but we don’t have the benefit of real testing against hardened teams, and we don’t have the benefit of all the guest coaching you can get in the states. I know we aren’t ready to take on the big guys, but I have had this sense that the potential is there, and we have a crop of newbies that make it even more of a possibility. So I was really interested to see what happened against Team Canada, and I had a pretty strong sense that we were going to give them a big shock.

Team Canada has some great skaters, but they aren’t really a team. They are made up of gals from 5 different leagues, who have never skated together before. That’s a big disadvantage in derby, where after a certain level of competency in skating is reached, I think it becomes more about automatic strategy and teamwork. They were also jet lagged and travel weary. I have had to skate against a few tough opponents back in the states after long trips, and I know how it can sap your endurance. So major props to them for giving a super physical game the whole time.

And that’s a big build up to say that it was quite a game. I have to be honest, in the very first jam, Sky Rockit broke through the pack as lead jammer like a shot of nowhere and I pretty much said to myself “yup, we got it”. It never changed. We dominated the score line the whole bout, despite some great jamming efforts from the TC bench (watch out for Mirage and her wily skills). But man it was good. Super hard hits and takedowns, dramatic moments, rock star jamming, the whole lot…

The audience loved every minute of it too. I normally worry about a wide score margin, thinking that the audience will get bored, but it wasn’t a concern here. It was just a fantastically entertaining time.

And in the end, we won 128-45. The victory lap with the LRG flag felt pretty good. We look pretty sweet in black.

Victory Lap Picture:

Video highlights of the bout:

So then we all lined up in front of the audience for the bout awards, and Tom came up with an award envelope too. I won Penalty Queen (again)…not sure why I always get that in bouts, but not in practise, but whatever. (I think it’s the 20 feet violations!)

So finally Tom was the last one left with an award envelope, and he took the mic and pulled out a blank award and said he couldn't write down what he felt about this special person. Then he got down on one knee and pulled out a ring and proposed to me. I said yes, of course.

Proposal Pic:

Another proposal pic:

The whole audience was cheering, my girls were crying, and it was all around the biggest derby-cheesiest best moment ever. Straight out of a Hollywood movie, and pretty much a perfect proposal for a spectacle lover like me. Tom doesn’t normally like the limelight, but he did an awesome job, and I love him for it.

So we got to celebrate a lot at the after party. Then Sunday was the nicest warmest day we have had all year, and we sat in the sun in Clissold Park with friends and just chilled. The day ended with drinks with Canada in Kensington and a well deserved sleep.

So there you have it…quite a weekend.