A Night at the Roller Derby

The Queen City Roller Girls had their first bout of the season on Saturday. You may go wait, Buffalo has a roller derby team? Yes we have a 3 team league with a 4th team in the works. This was the beginning of the 2nd season. I became aware of this league because a friend of mine was on the Nickel City Knockouts, I have even have a team shirt to show my support. They had several bouts last winter and early spring and I attended most of them, and actually became a fan. So thought why not go to this one.

Well me and the Girlfriend, who to my surprise was happy to attend this and excited. I always think people will look at you weird and go no, I'm not going to that. But we headed up to North Tonawanda to the Rainbow Rink on Oliver st. Which is a good size for this event.

The place would quickly fill up

We took our seats in the endzone area, where I think theres a good view of everything. Should have closer if I knew how many people would show up. I honestly didn't want a girl diving into me. I have a girlfriend and shes the only lady that can fall into my lap. So we waited for the bout to start.

They are giving a couch away at every bout


The teams come out together to warm up


It gets dark in there and hard to take pictures.


The Jammers take their place waiting for the whistle

The crowd at the event was really into it, many not knowing whats going on, like the guys behind me who kept asking about the rules, but were really into it. It was a close hard bout for the first two periods. With the Devil Dollies taking the early lead, but the Knockouts finding the right jammers and closing the gap and taking the lead. Red Fox and Tuesday Hula were skating very well to keep for the Dollies in the match. While it took a while for Dewey Decimator and SuperNova to really get going. The longer the match went, the tighter it got and more the crowd got into it. Official timeouts and an injury slowed things down a bit. But gave time for people to get more beer. The beer probably helped things.

The knockouts coach going over strategy in how not to lose.

The best part of the bout was watching my girlfriend get into it, and remark if she were an undergrad she would totally own this rink. Knowing her competitiveness and how shes athletic there is no doubt she would. I'm super happy she enjoyed herself, because I would love to take her again. Well the during the third, Sweets, who is a dirty player, got tossed out for shoving Tuesday Hula in the crowd. But it didn't stop the Knockouts from building a lead. They held a 16 point lead going into the last 2 minutes, where Red Fox decided to kick ass and take names and cut the lead to 3 points.

The jammers line up for the last jam of the night.

Where the Dollies lined up Her Ass Her and the Knockouts came out with Sissy Sparkles. Where I went to myself, mmm, game over Knockouts. As expected Sissy Sparkles held on to the lead and the knockouts won their first bout ever. (Went 0-4 last year) It was a great bout, close, hard fought, plenty of great hits and skating. The crowd was huge and probably made a ton of new derby fans. Really its a good time on a Saturday night.

Next bout February 2nd the "Mardi Brawl" Tickets $10 in advance $15 at the door.