Cherry popping skatey time!
On Saturday 11th May the Norfolk Brawds hosted Jam Theft Auto! DRR’s own Zippy Kye Ay and Mrs Kripling (me!) were invited to play in the Cherry Popper mixed opener: The Slaughterhouse Sisters Vs The Machete Mama’s.
So with our very own fan club in tow in the form of fellow Dolly Orla Skew we set off (very early!) on the long journey to Norwich. This was Myself and Zippy’s second ever Roller Derby bout and we were both excited (more Zippy!) and nervous (more Kripling!) but very much looking forward to skating with some lovely new fellow Cherry Poppers! Zippy was set to play for the Slaughterhouse Sisters and I was a Machete Mama so it wasn’t too long before the competitive banter started… well we hadn’t even got out of Leicester actually!! Once we’d worked out each others injuries to aim for later, the rest of the journey was filled with erm… talking about Roller Derby!!
The venue was fantastic despite the ever so tempting ‘Roller Skating prohibited’ sign outside!! The massive sports hall was taken over by dozens of stalls, the track and bleachers for the ever increasing number of Roller Derby fans arriving, I think we estimated it at approximately 300! Yep that’s 300 loud screaming Roller Derby fans *inserts frightened face here! The floor was an absolute dream to skate on, wooden with a beautifully smooth finish and just the right amount of grip, it was perfect. After meeting our teams and getting in to our boutfits it was time to get on track!! Nerves were high for both teams, for many it was their first ever bout in front of a real live audience it’s seriously daunting. The scariest prospect for myself was the fact I was set to Jam in the second line up! Now any fellow Dollies know.. “I don’t Jam” so to say I was bricking it is an understatement!! Zippy however is a serial Jammer so she was relishing the opportunity of being Jammer for the Sisters first line up, and in true Zippy style she got Lead Jammer, scored all her points and called the Jam off like a true Pro! My first jam I wasn’t so lucky in getting lead.. but the other jammer got sent to the penalty box so I got a Power Jam which lasted what seemed like forever but I got a load of points and a new found love for Jamming! The Mamas continued to rack up the points in the first half with Zippy and I being the predominant Jammers for our teams, and I believe getting Lead Jammer for the majority of our respective jams (awaiting statistical clarification ahem…Skew?!) At half time the Mama’s were in the lead but the Sisters were ready to fight back! And fight back they did! Taking full advantage of a Power Jam in the Sisters favour they levelled the score and were looking for the win! And win they did very deservedly!! Time for the obligatory crowd pleasing high fives around the track and the line seemed to go on forever… the place was packed and it was an awesome end to an awesome bout! Big love to our Dolly supporter Orla Skew who did a cracking job cheering for both our teams and the live Twitter feed! It was lovely hearing our names called out from the crowd, made us do a little smile and we even got our own posters which were the best things I’d ever seen!!
It then came to the awards for the bout, where each team nominate a player from the other team for MVP, Best Jammer and Best Blocker! Now there was some very GOOD players on these teams and never in a million years did we ever think that Zippy and I would be coming away with anything but… We BOTH got Best Jammer for our teams! Shocked, bewildered, ecstatic, proud just a few words to describe how we felt at that moment! Could not have asked for a better end to our Cherry Popping bout!
Still on cloud nine we watched the main bout where the Norfolk Brawds fought hard and secured a win over the Vendetta Vixens in an incredibly close bout.
The only way this day could be topped was by playing a themed game of ‘I Spy’ in the car! The theme? Rain! as that’s all it did on the way home! But it didn’t dampen our spirits because there were rainbows (but no unicorns!) and because… YEAH WE ARE DOLLIES WHAT YOU GONNA DO?? DRRAH DRRAH!!
Mrs Kripling x