An Interview with… Raven from Into The Nitemare

In every community, there are some individuals who, through dint of energy, enthusiasm or engagement, quickly become linchpins of activity. In Scottish Roller Derby, arguably the newest such persons are Raven and her husband Titan, co-owners of the Into The Nitemare skate store.

In addition to running the store, Raven has also been very much involved with Bairn City Rollers (who she skates for), but has also made inroads into tournament planning and even a little team creation of her own. I caught up with her at the Into The Nitemare base to talk about her discovery of roller derby, the newly revealed Team Nitemare, and other facets of her involvement in Roller Derby.

Monthly Diary of a League: Fierce Valley in May: Brawny Tyler

Just in time for Eurovision on Saturday, this month’s diary from Fierce Valley Roller Girls is by UK-entry-namesake, Brawny Tyler!

Brawny jamming v Preston , in FVRG’s second public bout. (Photo: Claire “ChaosFaerie” Brunton/zenspirations photography)

What first attracted you to Roller Derby?

My sister Meadhbh started with Belfast Roller Derby in August 2011 and wouldn’t stop talking about it. I went to see her bout in an intra league game in November, despite being totally baffled by the rules, I loved it. She told me about Fierce Valley and with a bit of encouragement I got in contact and I haven’t looked back.

Who are your derby heroes?

Have to say my sister, eh Sylvia Wrath. She really is though, I’m so proud of how far she’s come with roller derby, now being Captain of the Banshees. I got the chance to scrim with her but I’m not sure I’d want to play against her!

Derby names are an important aspect of the sport, especially when you’re starting out. How did you choose your name, and how does it reflect your personality on track?

It was a nightmare choosing a name, I struggled to find something I thought was good enough. Some things I thought were hilarious, flopped when I told other people… Brawny Tyler just popped into my head one day; I do love a good power ballad, particularly Total Eclipse of the Heart. I’m a little ashamed of her most recent song for Eurovision though, she’s letting the side down.

What was your biggest initial difficulty?

Fear, particularly of falling and hurting myself. As my confidence grew though, the fear subsided, or at least the drive to get better started to override the fear. That and a pair of padded shorts.

Lots of roller girls find it hard not to spread the word about their new sport. How have you been spreading the word?

Because derby has taken over my life I always feel the need to tell people about it. Recently the trainer taking my gym induction, I talked her in to contacting FVRG about Fresh Meat.

What’s the most important thing you’ve learnt/ done this month?

Embracing and being more positive about the new WFTDA mins. At first it was a bit daunting but at least it’s forced me to focus on certain skills like transitions. After picking up some good tips at the GRD bootcamp I’m sure I’ll get it…eventually!

What were the most difficult and the best things?

I’m finding it hard getting used to being split up as we prepare for the intra-league, it feels strange to be pitting myself against people who have been team mates. It is all in good spirit though and I’m really looking forward to it. Ask me next week though and I’ll probably say climbing Ben Nevis!

What’s new for the Fierce Valley this month?

 Our Intraleague bout, Revenge Of The Fallen, is very soon. Deceptiquads Vs Autoblocks; watch out for shiney leggings. It’s really exciting because we have enough skaters for two teams, it’s great to see FVRG growing!

Nasty Nessies 1 Year Later: Nat-orious Red

Continuing our new series looking back at the Nasty Nessies monthly diarists from the past year to see how 12 months of experience has changed them, we come to the most strikingly coiffed member of the league, Nat-orious Red!

Nat-orious Red, Santa, and Irn Bruzer at the Nessies’ Christmas skate.

It’s been more than a year since you became one of the first Nasty Nessies.  Looking back at yourself then, with your worries about being clumsy and falling, what advice would you give your earlier self?

I would tell myself to remember that its roller derby and everyone falls thats why we are sooo well padded, i am actually impressed though that i never was as clumsy as i thought i would be, i can skate better than i can walk!!

Now you’ve been skating and absorbing Derby for longer, have you picked up any Derby heroes along the way?

I am going to say yes and they are both my closest team members, Bee-Yatch and Irn Bruzer just because they have both been there since the beginning and through all the hard work and struggling to recruit they are still just as committed to the league and if it wasn’t for them I’m not sure the nessie’s would still be around.

A year ago, you were focussing on endurance, and aiming for your 25/5. What are your current challenges, as a mins-passed skater with much more experience?

The biggest challenge since passing mins is keeping team moral up whilst recruiting for newbies so we have a big enough team to bout soon! Bee-yatch and myself do have our first bout on saturday which we are really excited about but at same time we are sad our first game isn’t as Nessie’s with all our lovely members.

Starting out, the Nessies got some help from the derby community, with Granite City running the first bootcamp to push your skills up. Now you’re in a position to pay it back, what have you been adding to the derby community?

Our training committee traveled  to shetland in december to do a bootcamp for the lovely shetland roller derby, it was a great day and the all the team were such fast learners they picked everything up really fast and were such lovely hosts.  We are looking forward to them passing their mins and visiting us!

What’re your plans for the future? The Nessies have been tight-lipped about their plans for the next year…

As for the Nessie’s in the future… You’ll just have to stay tuned. (Ed: In fact, a little birdie tells us that the Nessies will be appearing somewhere sooner rather than later…)

Monthly Diary of a League: Fierce Valley in February: Wiggy Stardust

This month’s diary from Fierce Valley comes from the talented Wiggy Stardust, just after the Parma Violents’ first bout of the year, against Preston Roller Girls.

Wiggy Stardust at Fierce Valley’s first public home bout (versus Wirral Whipiteres).

What first attracted you to Roller Derby?

I have Slayherella (GCRG) and Monkey Wench (FVRG) and their facebook status updates to thank for this one, their devotion to the sport was very clear and it had me intrigued. I was really interested in finding a team sport, and liked the idea of getting back into some quads, so following a conversation with my nephew I signed up for fresh meat with FVRG. I was hooked from then.

Who are your derby heroes?

In my early days of fresh meat it was all the trainers and helpers who were patient with me giving me hints, tips and wee confidence boosts, they are my hero’s, without them I would not be skating now. They made such a difference. Frocky Horror has a particular grace on skates and I envied her crossovers so much, the fact she spent so much time helping me to achieve a crossover was helpful. My heroes remain the same, the skaters around me who each week show determination and patience, both in teaching me and learning the drills.

Derby names are an important aspect of the sport, especially when
you’re starting out. How did you choose your name, and how does it reflect your personality on track?

My name ‘Wiggy Stardust’, has had a wee journey. The nickname ‘Wiggy’ has been with me since my high school days when some comical teenage boys decided that I must be wearing a wig. No matter how hard they pulled the hair remained, as did the nickname. I struggled to find a derby name and an alterego so decided to make the most of what I already I. The ‘Stardust’ part was popularly voted for by my friends through facebook and I liked it as my head is so often staring up at the stars. The final vote was made at my first scrim when my team mates agreed on ‘Wiggy Stardust’ over the runner up name ‘Wiggy Pop’

 

What was your biggest initial difficulty?

See above – Cross overs. I really struggled with them. I read blog after blog and asked advice from so many different people. I even took to walking up and downstairs side aways so that I could cross my legs over into a lunge. Eventually it was just repetition, walking with my skates on and lunging round in circles in my kitchen, in my living room, in my garden. I was determined and practice got me there. I did let out a wee cheer when I achieved my first cross over on track.

Lots of roller girls find it hard not to spread the word about their new sport. How have you been spreading the word?

Facebook led me to roller derby and helps me to spread its word. I also talk a lot about derby with my non-derby friends and family, I now have self imposed limits as to how long I talk about derby when I catch up with them. Although I do sneak it back into conversation by talking about fitness.

I think I am achieving something in getting the word out there, even my 99 year old Gran has donned my skate helmet in an attempt to learn more. Although I have asked for her not to be shown videos of roller derby as she might have something to say.

What’s the most important thing you’ve learnt/ done this month?

Remembering to stay focused on what the goal is, whether that be on a personal level or for the team. I have also realised that there is only the one of me and sometimes you just have to say ‘No’. I want to add that I have just played my third bout representing FVRG in the bout against Preston Roller Girls, the feeling coming off at the last Jam and looking up to the score board, I just wanted to cry with happiness. That was an amazing feeling.

What were the most difficult and the best things?

The most difficult has been balancing derby life with non derby life. It is not easy and I am not sure I will ever get it right. Thankfully I have a very supportive and understanding family and an equally as awesome derby family, and I guess that is the best thing too.

What’s new for the Fierce Valley this month?

In February we had a home bout against Preston Roller Girls. They were awesome to play against. At the end of March we are bouting away to Newcastle Roller Girls Whipping Whinnies.

An Interview With Krusty Thud:GCRG’s 2012

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!

An Interview With Fun Ghoul:FVRG’s 2012

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!

An Interview With Milky:DRG’s 2012

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.

An Interview with Chemikill Hazard: GRD’s 2012

Continuing the blog’s series of reviews of the year from Scotland’s many Roller Derby leagues, we asked Glasgow Roller Derby’s officially voted Best Veteran Blocker, and Irn Bruisers co-captain, Chemikill Hazard, about their past 12 months, and their plans for the future.

Chemikill Hazard (and others) looking out for Rogue Runner during Chaos on The Clyde.

It’s been a busy year for Glasgow Roller Derby, starting with Tattoo Freeze, and incorporating the rebrand from Glasgow Roller Girls, a lot of European Derby bouts, a showing of “Derby, Baby”, hosting Scotland’s first international Derby tournament, a Home Teams season, and of course, competing at Europe’s first WFTDA certified tournament, Track Queens. Before we talk about the year individually, what’s been your favourite moment out of all of this?

This whole year has been amazing, so just picking one favourite moment is really hard, I think if we had managed to do a 5 tiered pyramid at our awards night that could have been it but, alas, that didn’t quite work so I guess it would probably be the Chaos On The Clyde tournament. There was a lot of stress and preparation leading up to this (and during it) from everyone in the league but we pulled it off, and we won.

Obviously, it’s been a very good year for you personally, Captaining GRD in international tournaments, winning MVP Blocker at Track Queens, and MVP and Best Blocker from your fellow skaters at GRD, and appearing in “Derby Baby!”.

Yeah, for me 2012 has been an amazing year: I felt really lucky to have had all the opportunities that I have (embarrassing as they may have been; seeing yourself on screen infront of a packed room of people) and still a bit in shock at winning MVP for Track Queens. I think this could well be one of those years that I reminisce about to my grandchildren, so many good things have happened.

The Irn Bruisers have had a very busy schedule this year, beginning with Tattoo Freeze down in Telford in January, where you played Central City for the first time this year, nearly beating them (97-77), in a close single-period bout. Capping off the year, the Bruisers played CCR again in your final bout in Track Queens in Berlin, winning rather more handily (149:208). Is this a testament to GRD’s improvement over the year, or merely to the fact that the Bruisers have always been a strong second-period team?

I think the Bruisers have definitely improved a lot this year in terms of tactics, strategy team cohesion and skating ability but , yes, the Bruisers still appear to be a second half team, though we are working on the first half, so you never know what could have happened in January if we had had that extra 30 minutes.

Of the other teams you played more than once this year, Stockholm, Crime City and Gent, all noticeably improved by the second time you faced them (all at Track Queens). Since GRD had had a really good year up to this point (you’re still, by some rankings, the 2nd ranked league in the UK), how do you think this reflects on the improvement in European Derby in the past year?

When you talk to the girls from those leagues you can see their fire, they are hungry for Derby and they are putting their all into it. It is amazing to have seen games like Berlin v Gent and how far they have come. I think 2013 will be a very exciting year for European Derby and hopefully with more teams pushing themselves and the gap between teams tightening we can only make each other better.
The Maiden Grrders have also had a good year, winning all but two of their bouts, and positioning themselves as potentially the third best team in Scotland with wins over Dundee and Granite City. Would you like to see the Maidens play more European Derby next year? 

Hopefully the Maidens will get more chances to play some European Derby next year, the limiting factor is mainly the cost required for a team to bring both their A and B team across. Saying that though there are some amazing teams in the UK:  teams who were under the radar a year ago are now giving established teams a run for their money so there should be plenty of challengers at home as well

Of course, GRD also hosted their own tournament this summer: the first ever European Roller Derby tournament held in Scotland. How was the experience of co-captaining the team to victory in this kind of event? 

Generally I tend to block out bad memories and only concentrate on the good ones so Chaos was amazing… but it was hard at times too: deciding who to put on rosters and having to tell people they can’t play a game: it is not one of my strong points as a Captain. The team were amazing though and they made things easy for us: we played as team and enjoyed being a team and I’m really proud of them all.

The rest of the league was also so supportive of this event, lots of people put in hours and hours of work behind the scenes to make it so successful. We also had financial help from our sponsors to help pull this event off and Glasgow Sports Council who provided us with funding

As for Chaos 2: well the Kelvinhall are shutting down next year for renovation so we will be losing it as both our bouting and training space. Ideally we would have liked to have had all travel team games there and Home Teams in the Arc but it looks like that is off the cards now. Hopefully we will be able to secure another location but if anyone wants to offer us a warehouse, sports hall, any building large enough for a Derby track then don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Track Queens, of course, has to be mentioned, as the first WFTDA Sanctioned Derby tournament in Europe. This is now, including your time with All Ireland Roller Derby for the World Cup last year, your 4th big semi-endurance style tournament in the past 12 months. What’ve you learned about conditioning and mental endurance for this kind of event, that you didn’t know before the World Cup?

When I played in the World Cup I was still at the point in my Derby career where I would be so nervous that I couldn’t eat for at least a day before a game, given that the world cup was over 4 days this kind of sucked and I pretty much starved myself. Luckily now I don’t get as nervous so I’m all about eating the right food at the right time, making sure I have enough energy to last the tournament. As for physically in the lead up to the tournament I was trying my best to improve my cardio as it is one of my weakest areas. Mentally it is very draining: I think this is one thing we need to work on more as a team and individually, it is really hard to go straight into another game from a loss and still remain focused and positive.

There’s also been a lot of local outreach from Glasgow Roller Derby this year, as always, with gig nights, the Johnny 7, Blingo!, a showing of Derby Baby!, and the opening of the National Museum of Roller Derby’s first exhibition. How important do you think this kind of non-sport involvement is to Roller Derby as a community?

I think it’s a great thing in Roller Derby to see teams all over the world give back to the community. Every year GRD chooses a charity where we donate the money from the raffles at our bouts and I think it’s great that we can be involved and help out in some way

We also love to hear back from our fans and have them involved in our Roller Derby community on how we can improve things;  this year we had some issues with our ticketing system and we are working on a way to make it better and easier for the fans.

For our fundraisers I think it is really good to have a range of events outside the sport where the team can bond, hang out and meet other people, be it refs, fans, NSO’s skaters from other leagues. Derby is still a very tight knit community and great things can come from networking and great friends can be made. Aside from that, it is good to give GRD publicity and for fundraising as 2012 has been an expensive year and 2013 is shaping up to be the same.

Glasgow Roller Derby became a full WFTDA member league early this year. Has this changed how you feel about your status as a skater, or the emphasis the team places on picking opponents? How long before GRD rank in the realm of teams who can compete at regionals?

It has changed the types of opponents we look at, if we want to become ranked in the WFTDA rankings then we need to make sure we play enough sanctioned bouts and so other WFTDA teams certainly have that appeal. I would love to see us at regionals but as seen at Track Queens there will be a lot of tough competition in Europe for the spots. Hopefully we will remain up there among them.

Finally, as is now traditional in the past month: are you looking forward to bouting under the new WFTDA rules next season?

Oh yes, we’ve scrimmaged under it a few times and so far it’s been really good. I’m really looking forward to the new tactics and game play that will be introduced, so I can sit down and work out some counter strategies and counter counter strategies.

With such an exciting past year, can you hint at what GRD has in store for 2013?

Our main focus this year will be on a couple of big tournaments so watch this space for more details

Monthly Diary of a League: Fierce Valley in December: Lila de Thrash

If you’re snowed in tomorrow, at least you can read this latest diary entry from Fierce Valley‘s Lila de Thrash!

Lila de Thrash, centring the wall against Wirral Whipiteres, last month. (Credit: Laura MacDonald)

What first attracted you to Roller Derby?
I first heard about Roller Derby through my friend and now derby wife, Bobbie Bang Bang. She and her sister Ella Bella Bang Bang had started training with ARRG and said I should come along. I went to my first session and loved it. That was in 2008 (I think :/)

Who are your derby heroes?
Gosh! There are so many! All the girls I used to train with at ARRG and of course my wife Bobbie Bang Bang, who I wouldn’t have found derby without.

Derby names are an important aspect of the sport, especially whenyou’re starting out. How did you choose your name, and how does it reflect your personality on track?
Haha My boyfriend wanted me to call myself Janey Rotten Crotch but I didn’t fancy that being called out at a bout, lol( also found it was taken on twoevils). I wanted my name to sound a little like my first name so I would respond to it when shouted at and also something that would inspire fear into the hearts if my opponents, haha, and I thought Lila de Thrash fit the bill.

What was your biggest initial difficulty?
Oh god! Not falling on my ass! I fell a couple of times and really hurt my tailbone. Couldn’t sit on a hard surface for months! Glad to say I have learned the art of the knee fall…

Lots of roller girls find it hard not to spread the word about their new sport. How have you been spreading the word?
I find word of mouth is the best way to do this. My work colleagues must be sick of me going on about skating.

What’s the most important thing you’ve learnt/ done this month?
The most important thing I’ve done was play in For Whom The Skate Rolls. I’ve been working hard to make the bouting team since having my daughter in March. I was off on maternity leave for almost a year from skating. It was amazing to bout again, instead of just watching

What were the most difficult and the best things?
I think the most difficult thing is continuing to make practice while being back at work and having a family and making time for me and my partner. Good thing my partner supports me in my obsession even if he doesn’t want to participate, lol. The best thing has to be skating with my Fierceys in a bout for the first time. It was awesome and we were Fierce!

What’s new for the Fierce Valley this month?
It’s going to be a busy month we have our Christmas Craft emporium on Saturday 8th at the Masonic Hall in Falkirk. It’s the league’s AGM on the 13th, think some of us are taking part in the Jakey [Bites]‘s Sur5al Coed tournament and we are having our own wee roller disco on the 21st. Full of festive cheer!

An Interview With: the Roller Grrrls team.

Perhaps one sign that you’ve arrived as a sport is having works of fiction made about you. If that’s the case, then Roller Derby has certainly made it, through the forthcoming Roller Grrrls comic series, which has had much support and publicity over the past year.

After the official launch of the Roller Grrrls Sketchbook at Glasgow Roller Derby‘s Chaos on the Clyde tournament, Gary Erskine, Anna Malady and the rest of the team have had a very busy few months with promotion and touring the various comics events around the world. We caught up with them via email to talk about the project, derby, and comics in general…

The Roller Grrrls Sketchbook: Available now!

Gary, you’ve been doing line-art for comics for about 24 years now; since your start in Marvel + 2000AD, there’s quite a lot of the “traditional” SF + superhero work in your back catalogue, but also less conventional work. Do you have a preference for a particular genre, and how do you (and the others) feel about the popular pigeon-holing of comics as “SF+capes”?

[Gary Erskine]I love comics as a medium. The genres I work with are just that, and I like working with them all. Each one gives me a new challenge.
Future sci-fi nonsense allows a completely free canvas to design a new world environment and the characters within that (the Irons:Hybrids work for Madefire has a Blade Runner vibe about it) Working on Roller Grrrls offers new challenges, as a contemporary story requires a similar attention to detail since EVERYONE will recognise the settings and people within the story. Another new project I am working on with my former studio colleague Dominic Regan is a horror/western. That also requires an approach and attention to detail to ensure that the setting helps the story.

How did the three of you get into Roller Derby? Obviously, you know Glasgow Roller Derby well, but what was your first encounter?

[Anna Malady] I remember seeing reports of Roller Derby in Glasgow from 4 years ago. Unfortunately it took another 2 years for either Gary or I to get to a live Bout. This was courtesy of some friends (Turbulinz and Bruisedog) who posted a Bout poster up on Facebook. I remember being confused for the majority of the time, but still coming away hoarse from shouting. It was exhilarating and just fantastic!
Gary joined me at the afterparty that night and we were hooked by not just the sport but the community spirit, the personalities, individuality, and colour. The whole atmosphere and pure community spirit of the sport gets into your blood and lifts you to believe in yourself. That may come across a bit new age, but for us, and many people we talk to its fact, so I don’t apologise for sounding like a hippy!

Gary and I then asked Yel to colour our project as Gary had worked with her in the past and we’re both massively impressed with her work. She is a talented colourist who has worked on quite a few projects with Gary including The Irons:Hybrids motion comic published by Madefire. Her colourist credits of note include The Only Good Dalek (BBC books, 2010), Need for Speed; The Run (EA Games/Firebrand, 2011) and she is currently working on the ongoing graphic novel series Hero; 9-5 for Markosia. You can see more of her work at
http://yelzamor.carbonmade.com/projects/

[Gary] We were both fans of the sport following it online but were never able to attend a bout due to travelling and convention commitments. Our first bout proved an exhilarating experience and encouraged/convinced both Anna and I that a comic book series about the sport and characters within that would be a similarly exciting project to work on.

Anna, how did you get into the comic book scene?

[Anna] My first introduction to the whole world of comics was exiting a lift into the lobby of a convention hotel and seeing 4 stormtroopers explaining to 2 firemen how the imperial guard were stuck in the next lift and they needed out to do their guest appearance. The next morning Star Fox (in full costume) was complaining to the bewildered front desk staff that there was no hot water in her room and that afternoon there was a showdown between a squad of Stormtoopers and a bronze Dalek. I mean, how could you not love this scene?!

Probably the most popularly distributed preview from Roller Grrrls.

There are some obvious life models for some of the Roller Grrrls character studies (especially for anyone who knows Glasgow Roller Derby’s skaters and announcers), but the majority have no single origin. Roughly, how much of real personalities went into the comic as a whole (as opposed to the other influences, such as Helles Belles)?

[Anna] Many of the characters are collages of real people. A body build from here, a tattoo from there, a hair style or colour from someone else. A couple of characters are drawn from real people, close friends who got us into Roller Derby in the first place. They know who they are. Being close friends they also know that it’s their image we are borrowing, not their characters or lives.

Important to emphasise is that none of the character traits, personalities or story arcs are from real life. HOWEVER, we’ve been amazed how often we find that fiction has unwittingly reflected someone’s reality. We were seriously worried about it for a while. It seemed that, as we got to know the girls from the awesome Glasgow Roller Derby, and got round to discussing our project with them (often, although not always, after a few drinks at the afterparties) that someone in the team had been through the experiences we were writing about. Then as we got to know the UK Derby community we found out that quite a few girls had experienced a rough journey to get where they are and realised that these are people who
1) aren’t afraid to live a full life, and
2) are in general happy to talk about it and share their experience, especially if by doing so they can help others living through the same challenges.
We realised that of course we were going to come across people with experience of what we’d written. So we stopped worrying.

But finally I would like to re-emphasise that the Roller Grrrls are totally fictitious and the situations they find themselves in, and their reactions, are totally made up!

[Gary] See above!

As roller derby can be a very fast paced game, I guess you do most of your reference work against photography, but some of the panels are from perspectives you can’t have had a reference for (the big “downed skater” view, for example). Can you guys talk a little about the process of constructing a page, and if there are particular challenges for sporting/action vs more sedentary scenes.

[Gary] There are certain considerations regarding the representation of any fast sport in an illustrated format. With some experience of storyboarding and animatics for game trailers there are visual tricks available to help keep the frantic and exciting energy of roller derby in a static/frozen image. Drawing the characters in layers with a separate background allows me to put on a motion blur for each parallax layer to help show the speed of the foreground figures and the blurring of other team members (and the crowd) in the background.
It is a similar effect to the slow shutter speed on a camera. Forced perspectives and POV shots also help give an immediacy to the action and provide new shots for the bout action. I also particularly want to show shots from ‘in pack’ which would be near impossible to do in a real life bout. The comic format allows new opportunities to show some exciting possibilities of how the sport can be seen (in an illustrated format).

Another trick we are toying with is to use motion effects and transitions (testing with Powerpoint initially) to create actual movement and subtle animation for a possible Roller Grrrls trailer. If successful then we may well have a digital release with bout action that moves on the page/screen. Watch this space!

I assume this is the first “wholly self-supported” comic project the three of you have worked on? How’s the experience of the indie comic project compare to previous work?

[Gary]My own previous experience in the industry has always been on the creative side, so this new publishing (and distribution) venture has been both exciting and scary for both of us and fairly new territory.
Having said that we have had a lot of very good (and much appreciated) advice from Jessica Ali of Inside Line and Vic Croughan of Lead Jammer magazines. They have been especially helpful and generous with us and we really couldn’t have got to this stage as quickly or comfortably without their help. Jessica was kind enough to recommend the printer to us (possibly the single most important decision for us!) and we can’t thank her enough and Vic was offering indispensable advice for InDesign. Without those two key points we would not have our Roller Grrrls Sketchbook printed.

It’s easy to compare Roller Grrrls with other “slice of life” comics, like the Hernandez’ Love and Rockets (or even Strangers in Paradise, before it got all Gritty). Do you think this is a valid comparison? – I notice that both came from an initially SF setting (albeit pre-design in RG’s case) which went away as the concept solidified.

[Gary]Roller Grrrls is very definitely inspired by Love and Rockets first and Strangers in Paradise also serves as an influence. There is little else out there that we would consider similar to what we are wanting to do (although some super hero team books do also have ‘slice of life’ storylines in between the predictable battles and villians) The Helles Belles project was something we wanted to work on a few years ago when we were living in Germany and was an all-female sci-fi adventure that unfortunately turned into Firefly (which we had never seen) The similarities were obvious and added to the work involved to design a new world environment kind of killed the project for us. We both still felt that female teams and characters were desperately under-valued and presented in mainstream books or worse still, shown in over-sexualised forms. I then considered a Rollerball reboot for Rebellion with the girls replacing Jonathan and the Houston team but the initial response from a couple of writers I approached was lukewarm and it stalled again. A casual chat with Mhairi one night about what needed to change with the ensemble story coincided with that fateful invitation to the GRD bout.

Why not write the story in a contemporary setting instead and the ideas and references (Love and Rockets/Strangers in Paradise) literally flowed out over dinner. I quickly decided on the name Roller Grrrls as I liked the association with the Riot Grrrls movement and the rest as they say is history.

Reading the little “pocket bio” strips you did to introduce the characters, each of them has a fairly distinctive “trait” – from the cultural barriers of the Hindu student roller girls, and the clear drama of the pregnant “ex” derby girl with the difficult home life through to contrasts between “tame” librarianship and active derby playing. With a large ensemble cast, each with a potentially complex personal plotline, how are you planning on balancing the comic? Are we going to see character-specific issues, or something more interwoven?

[Anna]Just as real life is a tangle of relationships and stories this is what we want to do with RG. Obviously it will have to be oversimplified and the time frames will be shortened. There is also an obvious balance to be struck between putting too much into a single issue and not enough.
We obviously think we’ve struck that balance, I guess we’ll really find out when we start to get feedback from the fans.

[Gary] Redacted!

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The Roller Grrrls Sketchbook is available to buy now, with the Roller Grrrls comic proper due sometime next year. All images in this post are, of course, copyright Roller Grrls