Well That Was Fun

“Two houses, both alike in dignity. In fair (?) Bray where we lay our scene. From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, where civil blood makes civil hands unclean…”.

Yeah… okay… thanks for that. Stop now.

It may not have been a drama worthy of Shakespeare and there was no blood. Or ancient grudge. But hey, it was a pretty momentous occasion. For us anyway. East Coast Cyclones Roller Derby, for the first time in our seven year history had enough members and qualified skaters to form two intraleague teams.

The day was Friday 23rd, a cold night in February. The time, well, was supposed to be 730pm but was closer to 8-ish. The place, St Kilian’s Sports Hall of shitty floor fame. The geographical location, Bray. The less said about that, the better. The houses of which I spake, “The Hail Marys” versus “The Lightning Strikers”, in Green and Orange respectively.

The whistle blew and straight away… Let’s just say that if there had been a ball, team Orange dropped it, Green picked it up and just ran and ran. And fair play. As scorekeeper, I saw some good stuff from both teams but the Greens had it from the start. Strong, nippy jamming, communication, good offence and great defence… They just had their shit a little more together than team Orange. Seizing lead jammer consistently, I saw some great calling off the jams, while other times their jammer knew just to keep on going, spotting and shooting through the holes in the opposition (some made by the Greens, some naturally occurring), racking up those points and rattling the Oranges. Orange, a little slow reacting, and possibly a bit surprised and thrown by the early lead grabbed by the Greens recovered later but for this first game, it was just a little too late. A short second period was unfortunate (goddamn late first whistle) and a little more time might have closed the gap, but only slightly… The Greens won. Defo.

Final score 196 – 58 to The Hail Marys. Possibly with religion on their side. Next time, Lightning Strikers, we call on the full might of Zeus. If it takes my own blood in the moonlight, we will win.

Next intraleague date, coming soon!

Thank you refs and NSOs who made the trip to Bray- Duracell, Ms Fury, EdBanger, Nutritional Beast, Jimbob and Mars, our own Fanny Pack finally on the mend as head NSO, Freshmeat Cathy Q learning all about penalties and Mass T-Struction and other half Special K on scorekeeping.

Big thank you to Mr Foxyblocks Al McAleese for some great pics!