Image courtesy of ARRG
The penultimate bout of the Auld Reekie Roller Girls Home Season is coming up.
The bout takes place at Meadowbank Sports Centre,London Road,Edinburgh on Saturday the 8th of March.Doors open at 2pm and entry is £7 on the day or £5(plus booking fee) in advance.
Image courtesy of DRG
Dundee Roller Girls’ Silvery Taysers host their first bout of the year against Rainy City Roller Girls’ Tender Hooligans at the DISC Sports Centre,Mains Loan,Dundee on Saturday the 23rd of February.
Entry is £6 on the door, or £5(plus booking fee) in advance.Doors open at 13:30 and the bout will start at 14:00.
More details on the Facebook event page
As some will have noticed,this bout takes place on the same day as GRD play ARRG ,which presents quite a choice to make,whichever one you attend,it’s bound to be a good bout.
Image courtesy of GRD
Glasgow Roller Derby‘s Irn Bruisers take on Auld Reekie Roller Girls’ Twisted Thistles in their first bout of the year.The bout takes place on Saturday the 23th of February at The Arc,Cowcaddens Road,Glasgow.Entry is £6 on the door or £5 in advance.
More details on the Facebook event page.
Auld Reekie Roller Girls present the second bout of this years Home Season,with a match between The Cherry Bombers and The Skatefast Club.
The bout takes place at Meadowbank Sports Centre,London Road,Edinburgh on Saturday the 16th of February.Doors open at 2pm and entry is £7 on the day,or £5(plus booking fee) in advance.
More details at the Facebook event page.
Photography by Man On Gerrard
Latest in a series of end of year interviews, this time it’s the turn of Krusty Thud, Chair of Granite City Roller Girls to look back over the last year and forward to 2013.
Granite City Roller Girls had a less than ideal start to 2012,with the news of the loss of your bouting venue,after nearly a year without a home,are you any closer to finding a new venue in Aberdeen?
It has been a constant struggle. Alternative venues were approached but we’re very limited with venues in Aberdeen as they are generally too small. We’ve had various support and at the moment we’re in talks with other medias outside Aberdeen. If our current plan doesn’t end positively then we’ll seek help from them. I am limited as to what I can say at the moment but I will keep you posted.
Impressively ,the lack of a home venue did not prevent GCRG having a season,albeit an all away one.With the help of Fair City Rollers,you hosted Granite City’s first Intraleague bout in Perth,which featured skaters from every bouting league in the country lending a hand.Were you surprised at the level of support shown by the other Scottish leagues?
I wasn’t surprised but more humbled by the support within Scottish Roller Derby. Slaughtership Down was a fantastic day and FCR were brilliant hosts, the intraleague bout was a cracking way to unite varied talents from various Scottish leagues and give skaters a chance to skate with all levels of skaters. It was also something a little different for spectators.
DRG supported us by inviting us to do a double-header bout with them in November, we had a home for the day 
This meant we could invite Newcastle for a return bout, and as you know it turned out to be one hell of a game! DRG did us proud with all the organising and being so supportive.
With road trips to Lincolnshire and Belfast amongst other places,having a GCRG skater carry the Olympic Torch and one of the most nail-biting bouts of the year against Newcastle Roller Girls to pick from,What have been the team’s highlights for the 2012?
Despite the lack of venue, GCRG did fantastic in 2012 and indeed we have had many a highlight, all difficult to choose from because there were proud moments in all events. Being able to watch Carolyn (Clinically Wasted) carry the Olympic Torch was amazing, we couldn’t be more proud of her and it was well deserved.
Personally I think the Newcastle bout ended 2012 on a huge high for us as it was a 50 point difference last time we played them in Newcastle. And yes – a nail-biter of a finish it certainly was! It proved to us that all the hard work we’ve been putting in is paying off with regards to training and gelling as a team. All members of GCRG are putting in 100% and I am so proud of everyone and their own personal achievements.
GCRG started a rather slick quarterly newsletter in August,how did the idea for that come about and how did you get it up and running?
Lynne (Hugger-naut) came up with the idea and with her past experience of being a journalist and sub-editor, we jumped at the chance. Lynne felt she was unable to commit fully to our Promotions team due to her work and other sporting commitments, so this was her way of helping promote GCRG. Originally it was supposed to be a couple of pages long, but it grew to 8 pages, clearly GCRG have a lot to say! And I am very privileged because I’m allowed a sneak peek before it’s published
She comes up with ideas and with input and help from members she produces a fun and informative newsletter. It’s great for everyone to get involved in with their thoughts and ideas, and it gives an insight to GCRG and roller derby for our newer members and supporters.
Looking to the future,we have the new rule set on the horizon,are you looking forward to the change to no minors and do you think that WFTDA have been successful in streamlining the game for both fans and skaters?
I was a little apprehensive at first but think it will be quite exciting now the rules are out there. With regards to streamlining I think it will work, but I guess that will become apparent in time.
It will be faster game with the elimination of the minors which slowed the game in my eyes. Also it will be a nice challenge for GCRGs referees being bombarded with questions and also the skaters for coming up with some new tactical game plays.
Finally,can you drop any hints about GCRG’s plans for 2013?
We have a few away bouts already in the pipeline, one being Tenerife in September, so we’re very excited about that. It will be a nice holiday too. At this moment in time we are restricted with lack of home venue but regardless of this, we will have plenty of bouts in 2012, watch this space!
Also, we have our next ‘Fresh Meat’ Saturday 26th January 2013. We have a busy Fundraising team getting ideas into motion to help raise money for all our away games, as we don’t have the income from home games, as well as our charity and community events that we’re heavily involved in. There’s never a dull moment for GCRG and we’re always working and training as hard as we can. We never give up, we love this game and will do what we can to keep on playing it!
Image courtesy of Auld Reekie Roller Girls
Auld Reekie Roller Girls kick off the new year with their second Home Season, featuring a bout between the Cherry Bombers and, last seasons winners, the Leithal Weapons.
The action takes place at Meadowbank Sports Centre, London Road, Edinburgh,on Saturday the 19th of January.Doors open at 2pm.Entry is $7 on the day, £5(plus booking fee) for an advance single bout ticket, or there is also the option of a Season ticket, which will allow entry to all Home Season bouts for £15(plus booking fee)
Please note, Season tickets may only be purchased up to the first game.
More info at the Facebook event page.
Tattoo Freeze 2013 will be held on Sunday the 13th of January at The International Centre in Telford.
This years Roller Derby action will be a Sur5al tournament featuring skaters and officials from London Roller Girls, London Rockin’ Rollers, Haunted City Rollergirls, Kent Roller Girls, Hulls Angel Roller Dames, Birmingham Blitz Dames, Lincolnshire Bomber Roller Girls, Leeds Roller Dolls, Royal Windsor Roller Girls, Tiger Bay Brawlers, Romsey Town Roller Billies, Big Bucks High Rollers, Dolly Rockit Rollers, Hellfire Harlots, Crash Test Brummies, Rainy City Roller Girls, Rebellion Rollergirls, Central City Rollergirls and lastly,representing Scotland, will be Glasgow Roller Derby.
In addition to the Derby action,there is of course a wealth of tattoo artists from around the UK and Europe,live music,bmx and skateboard demo’s,body and face painting,ice carving,a tattoo photography competition and graffiti artists.
For more information,have a look at the official website and the Facebook page.
Photogrphy by Claire Brunton of Zenspirations Photography & Design
Next in line for an end of year interview are the Fierce Valley Roller Girls.Fun Ghoul looks back over the last twelve months and forward to the new year.
Fierce Valley Roller Girls have had a pretty busy year,with bouts against Dundee,Belfast and Wirral,plus your first intraleague bout,what are the team’s highlights of the last twelve months?
It’s so hard to pick out highlights when the year has been so amazing! For the Parma Violents it has to be the team development, going from playing very basic roller derby, to developing strategically, being able to assess and react to what’s happening on track, working more coherently as a unit and being able to implement whilst bouting what we practice at training. And, of course, our first win!
For the league it has to be our continuous growth; hosting successful Fresh Meat intakes, fundraising events and raising our profile within the local community. We now have four training sessions per week, targeting four different levels of training, which, even just a year ago, would have been crazy to comprehend.
The personal highlight for me is taking girls who are strapping on skates for the first time in years (or ever in some cases!) and seeing their journey from Bambi-on-ice to roller derby player. Watching our girls skate at both DRG’s hosted Cherry Poppers bout and the Jakey Bite hosted Sur5al Tournament made me feel like a proud parent! It’s been a massive learning curve to learn how to play roller derby and coach it at the same time, but seeing it all fall into place makes all the time and effort worthwhile. Every success of a league-mate is a success for the league, and it makes me so proud to be a part of FVRG!
Oh, and meeting soooooo many amazing people within the derby community!
Picking out two of the years’ games,the first public bout for Fierce Valley was back in February against Dundee Roller Girls.Despite a shaky start,Fierce Valley visibly grew in confidence as the game progressed.As captain for that bout,how did you manage the team’s nerves through their first game?
Hiding my own nerves was the first part! I don’t think I shared with anyone how nervous I was as I wanted to be the essence of calm, control and focus for the team.
I knew that being our first open public bout and our first away bout there would be a lot of nerves, so I just tried my best to pull everyone together, so that no one was alone in their worries. We all travelled through together, which gave us time for a good team pow-wow beforehand, where the team could voice any concerns they had and support each other.
Despite the score of the game, everyone was in really high spirits by half-time, so it didn’t take much motivation to get everyone back on track! I think once the initial fear was overcome, and we realised that we could play this game and that we did know what we were doing, everything fell into place a bit better. Which was all helped too by the DRG girls being so wonderful and inviting, and showing us a brilliant time (on and off track), whilst still giving us the serious pummeling we needed to up our game in the long run!
The last Fierce Valley bout of the year against Wirral Whipiteres was held at home at The Peak in Stirling and resulted in a convincing win for the home team.Everyone wants to win their first home game,but what was it like to actually achieve that and will there be a return match next year?
A dream come true!
Going into it it was hard to say what the outcome was going to be. Being a newer team, like ourselves, there wasn’t a lot of information around about what the Whipiteres were like and how they played, so we just went into as best prepared as we could and played for the win.
I plan the Advanced/Team training, so it was the best possible validation that what we’d been doing at training was working. The best comments to come after the bout were about how we’d really played well together as a team, which we’ve struggled with in the past, and that, for me, was a better outcome than winning, as that team cohesion is really what we’ve been working for.
As for a return match…it’s in the pipeline. I don’t know how much I’m allowed to say about these things so to be on the safe side I’ll play it coy!
Fierce Valley have done a lot of fundraiser and charity events over the last twelve months,how important are these non sporting events to the league and to Roller Derby as a community?
The fundraising events are integral to the running of a successful league. None of what we do is cheap and I don’t envy our Treasurer keeping things in the “black” for us! The fundraising supports what we do in derby, makes bouting possible, means we have t-shirts to sell at bouts, and ensures that our skaters, officials and support crew who travel to bouts aren’t having to do so solely out of their own pocket. If people didn’t support the derby run events then there’d be a lot of sad, very poor skaters out there.
Making them “events” as well is really important to us. If people want to support the league, they should still get something out of it, be it a cake, the chance to win a raffle prize, or a fun night out. And they get the league name out into the community and spread the word of roller derby! They’re also really fun to attend, and often an opportunity for skaters to socialised outside of the parameters of skating, which is always nice.
Looking ahead,the change to no minors is coming up in January,are Fierce Valley looking forward to playing under the new rules and do you think that WFTDA have succeeded with their vision of a streamlined game?
I’m sure the WFTDA aren’t quite at the fully finalised stage with things yet, so we’ll see how it all pans out soon enough.
With regards to game play, I think it’ll make things easier to understand for those new to roller derby, skaters or spectators. I’m not going to miss explaining “taking a knee” to my mum! From a non-derby spectators perspective, the no minor penalties probably won’t have much impact on how the game is watched, skaters still get sent off…my mum still won’t know why most of the time!
For us, it will take a bit of time to get used to things. I know that the WFTDA leagues get to Beta test the new rules sets, but for the wee-er ones like us, we’ve just gotten them, so it’s going to be a rush to get to grips with things and not be racking up those majors in our first bout of 2013. I’m confident that once we get over the initial niggles of it though, it will all fall into place, and we hopefully won’t have too many foul-outs until then!
Lastly, are you able to drop any hints about Fierce Valley’s plans for 2013?
I don’t know what I’m allowed to say yet!
Well we have our first bout of 2013 at home on the 16th February at The Peak in Stirling (get it in the diaries!!) against Preston Roller Girls so watch this space for further details and online ticket sales …here’s the Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/events/114944845342095/ Our first away bout of the year is on the 30th March against Newcastle Roller Girls Whippin Hinnies. Needless to say we are very, very excited about both bouts!
Further on in the year we have some other very exciting bouts in the pipeline, along with our usual smattering of fundraising events, Fresh Meat intakes, and growing the league into being even bigger and better than before!
Photography by Dave McAleavy
Latest in a series of end of year interviews,this time its the turn of Dundee Roller Girl’s Milky to reflect on the last twelve months and look forward to 2013.
Dundee Roller Girls had an excellent season overall,turning in some strong wins, and only losing once to Glasgow Roller Derby’s Maiden Grrders,what have been the highlights of the year for DRG?
We’ve had an amazing year and I think for me, there were two big highlights. Winning our first away bout outside of Scotland against Manchester Roller Derby was incredible. They were the first team we played as Dundee Roller Girls and the first team I captained against. We lost that first time, so securing the win against them on the return bout really showed us how far we’d come in a year and I could not have been more proud as captain. I cried loads. Quite embarrassing. The other highlight would have to be our win against ARRG’s Cannon Belles. Because…y’know…it’s ARRG! We couldn’t have asked for a better atmosphere on the day, they’re an amazing team.
2012 has been in stark contrast to the previous year,where DRG had a single win,how have the team managed to turn that around so spectacularly in such a short space of time?
2011 was a massive year for us, with the dissolve of Dundee Destroyers and the birth of Dundee Roller Girls, we had to entirely re-brand, re-structure, everything. This year, we’ve really hit our stride in terms of organisation, team-cohesion and training. We really focussed on going back to basics and developing as strong a team and as close a team as possible. For me, I think the biggest boost was the introduction of the six-month captaincy. Previously, we’d swapped captains between bouts, but this led to training being a bit disjointed. The long-term captaincy has given us such smooth training, giving captains time to work on the aspects they feel the team needs work, and giving the team time to really grasp new tactics. We’ve also had a lot of new skaters join our bouting team. Their enthusiasm, skill and knowledge brought such an awesome motivation to the team, it’s really boosted us to develop together. I also couldn’t answer this without mentioning a vital addition to the Silvery Tayzers this year – our bench manager Mark McCarthy. I’ve never met anyone who can motivate a team the way he can. We’ve never lost a bout with him on the bench!
Picking up on a couple of the highlight bouts,DRG made a little bit of Scottish Derby history when you hosted the country’s first Co-Ed bout this year.Is Co-Ed something we will be seeing again in Dundee and,more generally,how do you see the future of Co-Ed and Mens Derby in Scotland?
That bout was amazing fun! We’re thinking of making it an annual thing. I think co-ed and men’s roller derby will always be welcome and supported in DRG. We’re really close to the Jakey Bites in particular and they’ve shown us a lot of support over the past year. DRG run co-ed scrims monthly and they really do change the way you skate and the way you think about the game – there’s so many male skaters in Scotland I admire and look to in terms of skating style. I think there’s a huge amount to learn from the different style they bring to derby. The co-ed Su5al tournament run by the Jakey Bites this month was easily one of my favourite roller derby experiences to date so I hope 2013 brings more co-ed! Men’s derby seems to be really taking off in Scotland with local leagues doing fantastic work in such a short space of time. I’m hoping to get to officiate a little more men’s derby – I’ve got a few opportunities already lined up which I’m looking forward to. I’m a big supporter and I’m excited to see how these new teams develop.
The penultimate bout of the season against ARRG’s Cannon Belles was something of a nail biter and surely a contender for bout of the year,resulting in a narrow win for DRG.Given that the last time the two teams met ,the result was a blow out victory for ARRG.How did the team approach the bout,did you go in playing for the win or for damage limitation?
DRG always aim to go into bouts positive. The bout with the Cannon Belles was a strange one – we’d had such a good year up to that point and felt so confident in our team that we really did go in playing for the win, but that felt a bit foreign considering ARRG’s reputation and the incredible calibre of their skaters. We’re very much a second-half team, as was definitely the case on the day! It takes us a little while to really get into the game, but when we do, I think the closeness of our team really comes through and we work together amazingly. Our captains for that bout (Viva La Derby and Spex Offender) are incredible skaters and incredible leaders. They’ve both got so much knowledge and such a good understanding of the game, they couldn’t have prepared us better for that bout. From my point of view, that was the best DRG have ever skated. I think we were all a bit stunned at the end…that was the most nerve-wracking last jam I’ve ever jammed!
On a more personal note,you are one of very few people who skate competitively and also referee in Scotland at the moment,additionally,you are also Chairperson at Dundee Roller Girls.How do you balance skating,reffing and your commitments to the league?
I sort of fell in to officiating when DRG started running our weekly open scrimmages. We often didn’t have enough refs so skaters needed to step in. I realised pretty quickly it was something I wanted to pursue, but wasn’t really sure how to balance it with bouting and training with DRG. I was lucky to have a huge amount of support from our head ref Righteous Oxide when I started really working towards it, and some amazing feedback and wisdom from Cherry Fury set me on the right path! Granite City Roller Girls were awesome and gave me my first opportunity to jam ref their away game in Leicester with the Dolly Rockit Rollers (cheers guys!). The most important part for me of balancing bouting and officiating was to make sure I kept the two entirely separate. I don’t and never will ref for DRG and the only time I take out of training is to ref our scrimmages. Doing that has made it really easy to balance bouting and officiating and to be taken seriously as an official. I think it’s important to draw a line between the two. I can see that as bout schedules get busier, I’ll probably have to make a decision between which it is I’m going to do full-time, but right now, I’m happy doing both. In terms of league commitments, DRG are such a supportive league and we’ve really settled into our organisational structure this year, it’s been a total pleasure to be a part of that. We’re a close-knit team, and I think a lot of our success this year has come down to our amazing committees keeping us running, and our main chairperson Cat. Without her I’d be lost most of the time!
Looking ahead to next year,the new rule set comes into effect in January.What do you think of the changes from a referee’s perspective?
I’m super excited. I think the new rules set is going to un-complicate the game significantly and make it more accessible to spectators. From an officiating view, I spend most of my time jam reffing, so the removal of minor penalties will be fantastic and make our job a wee bit easier! I’m hoping to pick up more pack reffing experienced this year, and I think the new rules set will make the transition more achievable. I’m looking forward to a more straightforward game and can’t wait to ref under the new set.
Lastly,can you tell us anything about DRG’s plans for 2013?
DRG are looking to build upon our success this year. We’ve got an exceptionally busy year planned and have bouts booked with some big names and our first over the water away game in Belfast! We’ve also just had an amazing group of skaters move up the ranks to mins-passed and I can’t wait to see them join the Tayzers and bout with us. Their talent is a bit frightening really, but good motivation to keep improving! 2013 is going to be a huge challenge for us and I’m really excited to think about what we’ll have achieved by this time next year.
Photography by Dave McAleavy.
Track Queens looked fantastic from the footage,how was it to actually be a part of?
An unforgettable weekend – BCRD did Europe proud in organising it, and it was great to see WFTDA representation there to support us too. What great Roller Derby from all of the teams who took part – some real nail-biting action in every single bout. It was as fun as it looked. More so because of all of the hilarious extra’s; the pony invasion, the Helsinki/ARRG ninja v pony fight at half time in the final – that was a grudge match that needed to be fought. In Helsinki this year, my new jumper got ripped off my back and the team needed some retribution, you know? I think we got it. I think they got the message. We’re watching you Turtles.
The first bout against Central City Roller Girls was quite literally heart stopping to watch and really could have went either way.Did you ever doubt ARRG could win one of the hardest fought opening bouts of the tournament?
I never doubted for a minute that we had the ability to win it, but I also thought it would be close fought and really could turn out either way. CCR came into the tournament having had some great wins. I always thought we were strong enough, we just needed to really keep the focus and pull it together. Playing against teams so well matched in skill level means no time for any sort of mental lapse. I’m so proud of the team for keeping it zipped up to the end – there were a few shaky moments, but we didn’t freak out! We’ve been really focussing on the mental angle, we do have a small team of excitable exploding ponies and it is important that everyone on our team is in the game mentally and playing the long game not panicking about every point change or bad jam, we sometimes get too excited or distracted. We’ve added in some pre bout and mid bout ‘activities’ to assist with keeping it together which I think is starting to work for us.
The LRG bout was interesting,as right from the outset it was obvious that it was not going to be a repeat of your previous encounter with them.Do you feel that the closer result this time around shows how far the team has progressed?
Well we wanted to demonstrate that we used the huge beasting last time to improve, which we definitely have I think. Our team has matured and grown really close over the course of this year after some upheaval, so yes I really hope it showed! We took some key lessons from the last game with Brawling and applied them to our training over the past 6 months – strength and stamina was one area; we’ve practically taken over TEBA (The Edinburgh Boxing Academy) lately, their Ultimate Fitness classes for boxing are absolutely mental and amazing. We also switched up our jammer rotation a bit and worked on tighter, faster pack reactions – and just trying to keep it on a level and together – last time we played Brawling they probably had a different game plan too though. It’s also amazing how they manage to keep playing at such a high standard even with some roster changes, we do aspire to that. We wish we could play them once a month. Hopefully we can take a trip down to do some friendly training with them soon.
The Stockholm bout was if anything, more exciting to watch than the first and easily one of the best bouts of the whole tournament,are you disappointed not to have taken the third place after such a close, hard-fought game?
It’s weird, of course we really wanted a medal, but I don’t think the team felt deflated about not getting 3rd place – probably because we felt we played a really good game and had a good tournament with us moving up a place to 4th overall. Stockholm have some fantastic skaters, they are really tough and strong, which always makes for a fun bout – I do find it frustrating to watch the footage when we lost the lead …but again, so much learning opportunity there! It was a close result at the end, and it’s given us confidence that we’re playing at a good level just now and we are all raring to go after the Xmas break and get focussed with pushing ourselves up to the next level. We have a list of things to work on again ready for the next batch of Thistles games.
Taking a broader,European view for a moment,the Track Queens tournament has shown that most of the competing teams are grouped very closely together in terms of ability and skill,how do see European Derby progressing from where it is now?
I think that the more European tournaments we have and the more teams that start travelling a bit further for bouts to get a different perspective on the way the game is being played elsewhere, the better the standard will become. There are so many more teams across Europe who also could have competed confidently at this level and probably would have surprised people too. I think the teams with the drive and commitment to keep pushing will ultimately push through and I’d love to see some massive strong European presence at the national level competitions soon. I think we’re lucky to have so many good leagues in such a relatively small geographical area. It’s exciting how many Euro leagues are becoming WFTDA members too just now. I also have to mention the fantastic level of officiating we saw at Track Queens too – I love seeing dedicated NSO’s/refs and in Europe it’s looking SO good.
Auld Reekie have had an interesting year,the first Home Season and the other big first,organising an ARRG boot camp,then some losses balanced out with very strong performances in two major tournaments,not to mention the ,’this is how we roll’ signature team move.What are your Auld Reekie highlights of the past year?
I honestly would ramble on for hours on this subject because all of the things you mentioned have been huge achievements, especially the rolling around in dirt 
It’s definitely been the year of the tournament, and a good fun filled one at that. But to keep it short – personally it’s been having Cider voted in as Thistles Vice Captain – she brings her unique style to the role and it fits just perfectly with us as a team – she never fails to make me laugh even when I’m stressed or tired and I’m enjoying the Captain role even more because of this. Also she looks so good with a Moustache. Things that make me smile a lot just now are the Thistles being just the best bunch of women a person could ever meet and the whole of ARRG pulling together to make our huge league ambitions into realities, I can’t actually put into words how this makes me feel, I seem to cry a lot more these days from happiness and pride in people than from anything else – ARRG has turned me into an emotional softy.
Looking forward to next year,can you tell us anything about ARRG’s plans for 2013?
I cannot breathe with the excitement of it – we’ll definitely be taking the Thistles to America!! More to be announced on that soon!!
So um, probablly a few fund raisers to do as well!!! We’d love to do another Boot Camp if we can find the time, because we had so much fun – maybe School of ARRG Knocks “even ARRG’er”?! We have a couple of exciting festival bouts planned for August – we may just get a re-match with Stockholm yeah! We have a whole batch of exciting new bouters showcasing their stuff at our home season kicking off on 19th January (cheap season tickets on sale now) and we have 3 whole fresh meat intakes planned, the first in February 2013 (email newskaters@arrg.co.uk to get your name down). For once, I can’t wait to get Xmas out of the way!
Finally,the new rule set, are you looking forward to getting to grips with it and do you think WFTDA have succeeded in streamlining the sport for fans and skaters alike?
Oh yes – I really like it. I always found minors really frustrating and think they interrupted the game /slowed it down excessively in relation to the impact they had. Time will tell how it changes the game I guess, we’ve already seen some changes emerging, being a WFTDA member league, we had a good head start to plan for this, as we get to vote on them and see draft versions of the new rules – we’ve been using an hour every week over the last few months for some preparatory exploration of how the changes ‘would’ feel, and we’ve had a mock bout with GRD to try it out already and help our Scottish WFTDA affiliated officials plan for it. We also planned our home season to be the time and place where we test the rule set out fully in public before we start our travel team bouts. In terms of the slow game/fast game, the faster game is always more fun to play 
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Ramblings of a Fierce Valley Roller Girl
