What a fun but immensely tiring weekend we had... we went up to Birmingham on Saturday to watch the Birmingham Blitz Dames play against the Middlesborough Milk Rollers, a relatively new team in the Derby world as this was their first open bout after starting 18 months ago. So this was interesting for us to see a less experienced team cope with their first bout as we know that something we will be facing within the next 12 months.
The bout was fantastic, considering the final score of 198 – 78 to the BBD’s I thought the MMR girls did really well and should be really pleased with their performances. The BBD’s are a tough team to go up against at the best of times and have some excellent skaters on their pack. Violet Attack is a joy to watch as she whizzes through the pack with ease and makes it look easy, but believe me its not!
Quite a few of our team had not seen a proper bout before, so this was a real eye opener for them and for most of them it just whetted their appetite even more to get on and skate and to take part in our own bouts. Because Roller Derby is still a relatively unknown sport, alot of our skaters knew the very basics of what happened but to see it in all its glory is a totally different matter! Luckily everyone seemed to really enjoy the bout and didn’t cringe or run away saying “that's not for me!” so that was a bonus!
After the game we headed back to our hostel, the amazing Birmingham Backpackers Central, a fabulous hostel offering cheap but excellent accommodation for those on a budget, they are also sponsors of the BBD’s. We were lucky enough to get one of the pod rooms, something that I had been really looking forward to since seeing something on the TV about pod rooms in Japan, ok these Pods were not quite like the ones I had seen on the tv but were still exciting! The only downside to the room was the fact that one of the pods was already occupied so we had a stranger in our midst! But we decided there were enough of us to scare the bejeezus out of whoever it was should we get any trouble!
The bout was fantastic, considering the final score of 198 – 78 to the BBD’s I thought the MMR girls did really well and should be really pleased with their performances. The BBD’s are a tough team to go up against at the best of times and have some excellent skaters on their pack. Violet Attack is a joy to watch as she whizzes through the pack with ease and makes it look easy, but believe me its not!
Quite a few of our team had not seen a proper bout before, so this was a real eye opener for them and for most of them it just whetted their appetite even more to get on and skate and to take part in our own bouts. Because Roller Derby is still a relatively unknown sport, alot of our skaters knew the very basics of what happened but to see it in all its glory is a totally different matter! Luckily everyone seemed to really enjoy the bout and didn’t cringe or run away saying “that's not for me!” so that was a bonus!
After the game we headed back to our hostel, the amazing Birmingham Backpackers Central, a fabulous hostel offering cheap but excellent accommodation for those on a budget, they are also sponsors of the BBD’s. We were lucky enough to get one of the pod rooms, something that I had been really looking forward to since seeing something on the TV about pod rooms in Japan, ok these Pods were not quite like the ones I had seen on the tv but were still exciting! The only downside to the room was the fact that one of the pods was already occupied so we had a stranger in our midst! But we decided there were enough of us to scare the bejeezus out of whoever it was should we get any trouble!
After dropping our bags off and a quick tidy up we headed off into the city centre, grabbed some food on the way and eventually found the afterparty at the Stateside Rock Club. Some of our team were already there so was nice to see some friendly faces and the BBD’s welcomed us which was nice. The drinking now began in earnest, Dolly Diablo had braved the elements to come out with us which must have been a little scary as her plaster had only been removed a few days before so her ankle was feeling a little bit vulnerable, but after a few pints Dolly was up and dancing about with the rest of us. We all had an amazing time in Stateside, the booze was flowing, the music thumping and the photos were snapping! Yes we all went a little crazy with Dolly’s camera, I dread to think how many photos were taken, I see a lot were put up on facebook last night and considering I wasn’t really drinking, I look as if I had drunk the city dry! But honest guv, I didn’t have very much!
A few of us decided to take the opportunity to move on to a nightclub for some cheesy tunes as we were a little “rocked out” so off we went in search of Nightingales. Wow nightingales was fab! A huge club and I was warned it was easy to lose people in their and they weren’t wrong! Within 5 mins I had lost everyone, but thank god they found me! So we grooved to the cheesy music before venturing up to the top floor to check out the dance floor for some serious dance music. We strutted our funky stuff until we were ready to drop and went down to get some grub from the cafe on the 1st floor. Well no prizes for guessing what we went for.... Cheesy Chips!! The trouble was they took so long to get there, that we had lost the will to live let alone eat, so we just picked at them really and decided that perhaps it was time to head on back to the pods. I knew I was most certainly flagging now and needed my bed! So we headed back to the hostel and managed to get a nice taxi driver to take us as it was only a short walk, but you know what its like at 3am and being on your feet all day!
Soon we were back in our room, trying to be quiet as we could so that we didn’t wake our unknown pod inhabitant and Betti Bootz and Jude who had left a bit before us. I think we managed to be fairly quiet, until I got a text at around 4am from Dolly to say she had lost her camera had any of us got it. Trying to muffle the sounds of “you cant touch this” whilst in a pod was quite funny! Well I heard a few sniggers anyway at my desperate attempts to shut it up! I took quite a long time to get to sleep and when I did it felt like seconds later that I was awake again and it was 7am! I led in bed for a few hours just dozing hearing various people popping out of the room to go to the loo but all the time I kept thinking I wonder when someone is going to get up and go for breakfast, I bet they are all sleeping still... WRONG! Sulu and Lightnin were already down having breakfast! How Wude!!! They even rang me to tell me to get my lazy ar5e out of bed! Doh! So once I got up everyone got up, apart from the mysterious man in the pod next to me, who seemed to be engrossed in watching football on his laptop!
We made our way down to breakfast and sat around the fire eating our toast and drinking our teas and coffees trying to decide whether we had the energy to make practise or not.... some already said they wouldn’t make it due to Mothers Day commitments and other things and for the first time in a long time a few of us really didn’t feel like we would be able to survive training! :-P
But we set off home and just about had time for a quick change before setting off to practise wondering how many people would be there, so were pleasantly surprised to see Sam Assasinator and her son Bradley, Cupid Stunt and Nats waiting to go in. Cupid warned us that those with hangovers would not get off any lighter than normal and that we would be made to skate until we puked... although I didn’t have a hangover so to speak, I was dog tired and didn’t relish the idea of that!
Rules test..... hmmmmm not a good day for any of us really, especially as I hadn’t even looked at section 6, so countless punishments of 10 press ups for me and pretty much everyone else as well. I think the only person not to get all her answers totally wrong was Sulu Warrior!! (brown nose!) So today my arms are aching from my 60 odd press-ups! DOH!!!
Jude and Betti Bootz turned up mid rules test so our numbers increased slightly which was good, but our answers still resulted in countless press-ups!
Onto skating and Sulu took a crashing fall as a peice of plastic on the floor jammed her skate, but luckily she got up ok but I suspect she’ll have a sore arm for a while. I cant really remember what we did in great detail to be honest as definitely wasn’t in great form, but we practised our snow ploughs, t-stops and skating backwards, which I still struggle with. We also did two minutes of skating while crouched down, which kills your thighs, so much so my left leg spasmed and I went flat on my face, which must have looked very funny!
We also tried a routine of the slowest skater out in front with the faster skaters in order lined up behind, the idea was for us to keep in arms length of that person going as fast as they could for a lap, they would then fall back and it was then the next persons turn. So in theory you’d be going faster and faster, the trouble with this was that as there were only 6 of us, three of them were pretty fast and the other 3 (myself included) were a lot slower so this was hard and didn’t work that well with our small numbers.
We also tried out my amended version of British Bulldog, renamed to SRT bulldog. I started off as the bulldog but found it really hard to catch people so eventually caught Sulu and finally started tagging people so managed to end the training on a high.
Time for the circle of pain and stretches.... no pub today for any of us lol! Time for bed me thinks!!
So that concludes my roller derby weekend, so a huge thanks to the BBD’s and MMR’s for an entertaing bout and a special thanks to the BBDs for their hospitality and look forward to seeing them again soon!
Adios Amigos!!
Honor Ass xx
A few of us decided to take the opportunity to move on to a nightclub for some cheesy tunes as we were a little “rocked out” so off we went in search of Nightingales. Wow nightingales was fab! A huge club and I was warned it was easy to lose people in their and they weren’t wrong! Within 5 mins I had lost everyone, but thank god they found me! So we grooved to the cheesy music before venturing up to the top floor to check out the dance floor for some serious dance music. We strutted our funky stuff until we were ready to drop and went down to get some grub from the cafe on the 1st floor. Well no prizes for guessing what we went for.... Cheesy Chips!! The trouble was they took so long to get there, that we had lost the will to live let alone eat, so we just picked at them really and decided that perhaps it was time to head on back to the pods. I knew I was most certainly flagging now and needed my bed! So we headed back to the hostel and managed to get a nice taxi driver to take us as it was only a short walk, but you know what its like at 3am and being on your feet all day!
Soon we were back in our room, trying to be quiet as we could so that we didn’t wake our unknown pod inhabitant and Betti Bootz and Jude who had left a bit before us. I think we managed to be fairly quiet, until I got a text at around 4am from Dolly to say she had lost her camera had any of us got it. Trying to muffle the sounds of “you cant touch this” whilst in a pod was quite funny! Well I heard a few sniggers anyway at my desperate attempts to shut it up! I took quite a long time to get to sleep and when I did it felt like seconds later that I was awake again and it was 7am! I led in bed for a few hours just dozing hearing various people popping out of the room to go to the loo but all the time I kept thinking I wonder when someone is going to get up and go for breakfast, I bet they are all sleeping still... WRONG! Sulu and Lightnin were already down having breakfast! How Wude!!! They even rang me to tell me to get my lazy ar5e out of bed! Doh! So once I got up everyone got up, apart from the mysterious man in the pod next to me, who seemed to be engrossed in watching football on his laptop!
We made our way down to breakfast and sat around the fire eating our toast and drinking our teas and coffees trying to decide whether we had the energy to make practise or not.... some already said they wouldn’t make it due to Mothers Day commitments and other things and for the first time in a long time a few of us really didn’t feel like we would be able to survive training! :-P
But we set off home and just about had time for a quick change before setting off to practise wondering how many people would be there, so were pleasantly surprised to see Sam Assasinator and her son Bradley, Cupid Stunt and Nats waiting to go in. Cupid warned us that those with hangovers would not get off any lighter than normal and that we would be made to skate until we puked... although I didn’t have a hangover so to speak, I was dog tired and didn’t relish the idea of that!
Rules test..... hmmmmm not a good day for any of us really, especially as I hadn’t even looked at section 6, so countless punishments of 10 press ups for me and pretty much everyone else as well. I think the only person not to get all her answers totally wrong was Sulu Warrior!! (brown nose!) So today my arms are aching from my 60 odd press-ups! DOH!!!
Jude and Betti Bootz turned up mid rules test so our numbers increased slightly which was good, but our answers still resulted in countless press-ups!
Onto skating and Sulu took a crashing fall as a peice of plastic on the floor jammed her skate, but luckily she got up ok but I suspect she’ll have a sore arm for a while. I cant really remember what we did in great detail to be honest as definitely wasn’t in great form, but we practised our snow ploughs, t-stops and skating backwards, which I still struggle with. We also did two minutes of skating while crouched down, which kills your thighs, so much so my left leg spasmed and I went flat on my face, which must have looked very funny!
We also tried a routine of the slowest skater out in front with the faster skaters in order lined up behind, the idea was for us to keep in arms length of that person going as fast as they could for a lap, they would then fall back and it was then the next persons turn. So in theory you’d be going faster and faster, the trouble with this was that as there were only 6 of us, three of them were pretty fast and the other 3 (myself included) were a lot slower so this was hard and didn’t work that well with our small numbers.
We also tried out my amended version of British Bulldog, renamed to SRT bulldog. I started off as the bulldog but found it really hard to catch people so eventually caught Sulu and finally started tagging people so managed to end the training on a high.
Time for the circle of pain and stretches.... no pub today for any of us lol! Time for bed me thinks!!
So that concludes my roller derby weekend, so a huge thanks to the BBD’s and MMR’s for an entertaing bout and a special thanks to the BBDs for their hospitality and look forward to seeing them again soon!
Adios Amigos!!
Honor Ass xx
I am awed that anyone manged to make it to practise. It just wasn't happening for me.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you enjoyed the bout, it was really awesome playing it!!! I really cant wait until the next one now!! Smokin' Ace (MMR) xx
ReplyDeleteHehe, sorry for the 4:00 AM text!!! It was a good weekend :)
ReplyDelete