Black-n-Bluegrass Roller Derby

Memorial Shatter Day Recap and Photos

Congratulations to BBRG’s B Team, Blue Lightnin’, for pulling out a victory last weekend, against the Glass City Rollergirls! Final score 139-75.

Click the image below to view all photos taken by Joe Schuster. Thanks Joe!

Earl of Rabid Derby Fan has some fabulous shots, check out his entire set by clicking the image below! Great to see you there Earl, thanks for the support!

Memorial ShatterDay Recap by Rusty Wheeler

May 23, 2009
— Florence, KY (y’all)
— by Rusty Wheeler

The Black-n-Bluegrass “B” team, aka the “Blue Lightnin’,” took the lead in the 1st jam and skated to a relatively easy 139-75 win over the visiting Glass City Rollers from Toledo, OH. Glass City was skating in only their 2nd competition, while BnB has been bouting since 2007, and the experience of the BnB skaters won out.

Black-n-Bluegrass won the 1st half 67-37, and won the 2nd half by 72-38, making for two almost identical halves of derby action. BnB had more lead jammers in the 1st half, 9-5, and a 9-8 edge in lead in the 2nd half. BnB notched 13 grand slams in the game, whilst GC only got 3, and that alone was almost the final margin of victory.

1st Half

Black-n-Bluegrass’s Haterade grabbed lead jammer on the game’s opening jam, got 3 quick points against Glass City’s Punk Monkey, then quickly called off the jam. GC’s Satan’s Little Helper got the lead in jam 2, but allowed BnB’s Shelter Skelter to pass, and each jammer scored 3 points before Satan called the jam off. BnB then pitched back-to-back grand slam 5-0 jam wins in jams 3 and 4 by beka rekanize and Pinup Pussycat to make the score 16-3.

Punk Monkey struck back in jam 5 with a 9-3 win with a slam for GC, but then BnB’s Shelter Skelter won jam 6 by 6-4 in spite of Satan’s Little Helper having lead jammer status. beka rekanize put up a 2-0 win for BnB in jam 7, and then in jam 8 it was BnB’s Haterade skating to a 10-0 win with two slams. Pinup Pussycat followed that with an 8-4 win with a slam in jam 9, and then finally GC’s Punk Monkey won jam 10 by 4-3, aided by BnB’s jammer, Shelter Skelter, making two trips to the penalty box during the jam. Punk Monkey also got sent to the box late in the jam, but since this game was played under WFTDA 4.0 rules, the jam continued instead of succumbing to the dread “jammerless jam” rules of the past. After 10 jams, Black-n-Bluegrass led it 48-24.

Jam 11 was called off by the officials after only a few seconds, so the same lineups stayed on the track for jam 12. In the end, BnB’s Shelter Skelter scored a 5-0 win with a slam over Vod-Killah in a jam with no leader. GC’s Satan’s Little Helper had what was the most picturesque jam of the night for her team en route to a 9-0 jam win with a slam. Satan made some nice veer moves to avoid BnB blockers. That pulled GC to within 20 points at 53-33, but then BnB took charge in the final three jams of the half with 4-4, 5-0, and 5-0 jams by Honey Bunny, Shelter Skelter, and Pinup Pussycat. At the intermission it was 67-37 for Black-n-Bluegrass.

Black-n-Bluegrass’s superior experience showed in the first half. BnB’s blockers would usually control the fronts of the packs, usually with at least a two-skater blocking wall across the front. In one jam, BnB started with two blockers in the penalty box, yet their other two blockers on the track were able to control the front of the pack and keep the GC jammer in the pack until the BnB jammer got lead. GC’s blockers, meanwhile, were not building or attacking walls, and were not paying much attention to where the jammers were on the track.
2nd Half

Glass City’s hopes of getting back in the game were quickly dashed in opening jams of the 2nd half. Haterade, Honey Bunny, Shelter Skelter, and beka rekanize put up 9-4, 2-0, 8-0, and 4-3 jam wins to stretch the Black-n-Bluegrass lead to 90-44. The fans were almost treated to a wardrobe malfunction in jam 2 when Honey Bunny tried to hip whip herself off teammate and captain Natural Disaster. Honey tripped herself and almost pulled down Natural’s pants, but quickly let go before any modesty was lost on the track. Jam 3 featured a true “split pack”–at one point there were skaters all around the track. Those types of splits packs recurred a few more times in the half.

Punk Monkey and Vod-killah got a few points back for GC in jams 5 and 6, winning them 4-0 and 5-0, respectively, Vod with a grand slam. GC was helped by the BnB jammers, Pinup Pussycat and Haterade, spending quality time in the penalty box during those jams. That cut the BnB lead to 37 points at 90-53, but that was as close as GC would get the rest of the way. Haterade then came out of the box at the start of jam 7 and got lead and a 4-0 jam win for BnB.

GC’s Punk Monkey edged BnB’s Shelter Skelter with a 4-3 win in jam 8, the jam featuring a demonstration of the WFTDA 4.0 rules when both jammers were sent off at the same time, raced each other to the penalty box, both sitting down at almost the same time, and then both getting sent back out on the track after sitting for only about one second each. For now, they have to hold the derby record for shortest simultaneous penalties served. Also, in jam 8, GC discovered they could actually block, with GC’s Thor A. Xena scoring two big knockdowns on Shelter.

Jam 9 saw another of the “totally split packs” whilst BnB’s beka rekanize was on her way to getting lead and a 10-0 win with two slams. Pinup Pussycat defeated GC’s Pamazon 4-2 in jam 10, then BnB’s Haterade scored another 10-0 win with two slams in jam 11. BnB’s Petal to the Metal was doing a particularly nice job blocking GC’s jammer, Punk Monkey, in that jam.

Glass City started to get their blocking together a bit in the final 8 jams of the game as BnB only outscored GC by an 18-16 margin in those jams. GC’s Thor A. Xena had her head on a swivel in jam 14 and saw and knocked down BnB’s jammer beka rekanize which allowed GC’s Satan’s Little Helper to steal the jam 2-0 in spite of BnB having led jammer. Jam 15 was scoreless. BnB’s Haterade had the lead in that jam, but was taking some serious abuse from Pamazon, including four solid hits, and so called off the jam to avoid more punishment. BnB’s Pinup Pussycat won jam 16 by 7-4, but called off the jam after dodging an attempted big hit from Pamazon, deciding no doubt that discretion is the better part of valor. And GC’s No-Holds Barbie had a nice offensive block in jam 17 when GC’s Satan won it 4-0.

Afterthoughts

All in all, though, the GC gals started the better blocking too late, and BnB had too big of a lead at that point. But every league has to start out by getting experience skating against other leagues somewhere, and Glass City got some of that experience in this game. BnB was able to get more experience for their “B” team skaters, and no doubt they worked on some things during the game.

The Black-n-Bluegrass Roller Girls have a nice facility at the Florence Fundome. It is a regular roller skating rink with a nice wooden floor, and is air-conditioned. The only negative I would say was that most of the fans had to sit too far away in bleachers or at tables in the food concession area. I would have liked to have seen more chairs set up as “suicide” seating or to let fans sit on the floor near the track! If you get a chance to check out a game in Florence, do it!

One problem in the game was that BnB’s helmet covers in the 1st half featured dark blue stars or stripes on a black background. From where I was sitting taking stats it was almost impossible to see any markings on the covers. They were definitely not “high contrast” as called for in the WFTDA 4.0 rules! The GCR skaters said you also couldn’t see the markings from on the track. The refs made the BnB skaters use different covers in the 2nd half. I thought the refs shouldn’t have even let BnB start the game with those covers. Here’s a thought: If I were a ref, and a team showed up with covers that were not high contrast, and if they didn’t have other covers available, I would have the teams switch covers, so that would negate any advantage of one team trying to use low-contrast covers.

One last thing… I love the water tower in town with the “Florence Y’all” painted on it!

Statistics

The game’s leading scorer was Black-N-Bluegrass’s Haterade with 39 points while jamming 9 times with 5 leads and 5 grand slams. Shelter Skelter scored 36 points in 8 jams with 2 leads and 2 slams. Other scorers were Pinup Pussycat (29 pts, 7 jams, 4 leads, 3 slams); beka rekanize (21 pts, 6 jams, 5 leads, 3 slams); Honey Bunny (14 pts, 4 jams, 2 leads).

Glass City had a couple of solid jammers in Satan’s Little Helper with 34 points in 10 jams with 6 leads and 1 grand slam, and Punk Monkey with 30 points in 11 jams with 4 leads and 1 slam. Other GC jammers were: Pamazon (6 pts, 4 jams, 1 lead); Vod-Killah (5 pts, 4 jams, 1 lead, 1 slam); Sally Seam Rip-Her (0 pts, 3 jams, 1 lead); No-Holds Barbie (0 pts, 2 jams); Han Rolo (0 pts, 1 jam).

Defensively, GC’s Thor A. Xena had 9 blocks and 12 assists (or 21 “actions” as we like to call them in Detroit), followed by Pamazon with 13 actions and Tonya Pavement with 7 actions.

Black-n-Bluegrass was led defensively by Florence Nite-n-Hell with 16 actions (11 blocks and 5 assists), then Natural Disaster with 11, Petal to the Metal and Red Emma each with 9, and Pinup Pussycat and Skinnie Minnie each with 8 actions.

BnB had more defensive actions overall, 82-33, but Glass City had more offensive actions, 46-6. Generally speaking, the BnB jammers didn’t need much offensive help as GC’s blockers weren’t looking to block those jammers much, while GC’s jammers needed quite a bit of help to get through the packs. It was good that GC was at least looking out for their own jammers!

Future

Black-n-Bluegrass next host the Blue Ridge Rollergirls of Asheville, NC, on June 13 before venturing to play the Killamazoo Derby Darlins in Kalamazoo, MI, on June 20. Glass City next plays in Akron, OH, on June 20 versus the Rubber City Rollergirls.

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