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With the holiday season in full swing, there’s not much going on in the all-volunteer derby world, so we’re going with an abbreviated version of the roundup to cover the last two weeks of 2007.

The only bout we’re aware of is Saturday, December 29th, when the Kalamazoo Kamikazes head south to play the Naptown Roller Girls in Indianapolis. MavTV has the Heartland Havoc semifinal between Gotham Girls Roller Derby and the Detroit Derby Girls at 11pm EST tonight, and the grudge match between Detroit and the Carolina Rollergirls one week from tonight.

And, that’s all we’ve got! From all of us at DNN to all of you, have a happy and safe holiday weekend!

Update:  At least two more bouts are happenning tonight:  the San Joaquin Valley Vixens host the Sac City Rollers, and the Tampa Bay Derby Darlins are putting on an intraleague exhibition.

Here’s an item of interest for anyone with a derby alias: Arizona Roller Derby’s Paige Burner, the driving force and registrar extraordinaire behind the International Rollegirls’ Master Roster, posted a notice to roller_girls yesterday warning of the list’s upcoming major purge of inactive names.

While names have been dropped from the list on a piecemeal basis over time since its inception, this is the first substantial cleanup. Coming off the 11,059 name list will be 516 names released by the registering leagues as “no longer active.”

Here’s the text of the notice:

The following names will be deleted from the roster this week.

1. If your name is on here and it should not be, you need to let me know ASAP (masterroster@gmail.com)

2. Remember, if you are a league hopper, it is not my responsibility to keep track of your ass. If you don’t want to get deleted LET ME KNOW WHEN YOU MOVE!!!!

3. If there is a name on here that you want make sure your league wrangler grabs it before someone else does.

Paige has maintained the name registry almost singlehandedly since taking it over from its originator, Texas Rollergirls‘ Hydra. We checked in with Paige via email to catch up on the state of the registry. Read on for that interview, along with the full list of names scheduled for deletion if their claimants aren’t heard from:

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s what’s happening this weekend in derby:

Events:

• Sharing Different HeartBEATS, Saturday, Birmingham, AL: Tragic City Rollers host several southeastern derby leagues in an event to benefit a young girl’s heart replacement surgery.
• Second Annual Picnic Scrimmage, Saturday, Las Vegas, NV: Sin City Rollers host an all-day pickup scrimmage at West Flamingo Park, from noon until the last skater falls.

On TV:

• Heartland Havoc Semifinal (taped 8/19/2007): Carolina Rollergirls vs. Windy City Rollers (MavTV, 11pm Sat, 1:30 am Sun, Noon and 5pm Mon)

Interleague bouts:

Saturday:

• (u) Steel City Derby Demons @ (25) Ohio Roller Girls
• San Diego Derby Dolls @ Treasure Valley Rollergirls
• Sioux Falls Roller Dollz @ No Coast Derby Girls
• Coos County Roller Girls @ Sonoma County Roller Derby

Sunday:

• Rollergirls of Southern Indiana @ Rollergirls of Central Kentucky

Intraleague bouts:

Saturday:

• Big Easy Roller Girls: Marginy Antoinettes vs. StoryVillians, Confederacy of Punches vs. Crescent Wrenches

To have your bout or event included in the DNN Weekly Roundup, email events@derbynewsnetwork.com with the details. Send final scores to scores@derbynewsnetwork.com.

FRANKLIN, WI — Despite tepid first halves of play, Milwaukee’s Brewcity Bruisers wrapped up their season semi-finals in dramatic fashion. League cellar dwellers the Shevil Knevils marked their first victory in two seasons of play, holding off a final jam push from the powerhouse Rushin’ Rollettes 73-72. In the other semi, the Crazy Eights avenged an earlier season loss to Maiden Milwaukee with a 61-55 win.

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With media coverage of modern roller derby on the uptick lately, we at DNN thought it would be interesting track the trend of “by day/by night” (over)usage.

The good news:

• New Hampshire’s Skate Free or Die Roller Girls were featured in the Nashua Telegraph, on the heels of a similarly original article a couple months back in the New Hampshire Union Leader.
• The Tulsa World gave a good plug to the Green Country Roller Girls‘ recent charity event.
• LA CityZine recapped the LA Derby Dolls season championship.
• The OC Rollergirls had an interesting interview in the LA BrooWaha.
• Memphis Roller Derby gets a good rundown in the Memphis Sport blog.

The BD/BN news:

• The Minnesota Daily’s perceptive preview of the Minnesota RollerGirls‘ recent interleague doubleheader was blemished by a half-step into the formula, as Johnny Zebra points out in this post’s comments.
• The Modesto Bee pretty much phoned it in on the Port City Rollergirls.

So, with a score of six moderately creative articles against just one “by day/by night” job, it was a good week in derby coverage. You can be sure that we at DNN will keep a vigilant eye on this pressing issue!

Edit:  Make that five to two.  Doh.

WATERBURY, CT — On December 9, 2007, the CT RollerGirls of Connecticut introduced themselves to the interleague WFTDA scene, rolling out their inaugural “Stepford Sabotage” All-Star roster in a victory over the visiting Long Island Roller Rebels.

Connecticut hosted a well-paced, highly organized, and well-reffed affair, overseen by a mixed crew from Long Island, Connecticut, Garden State, Washington D.C., and Gotham. The bout featured the debut of ‘Dead End Cupcake,’ the Sabotage’s smiling knife-wielding homebody (aka former CT RollerGirl Dead End Allie), along with a ceremonial first-jam whistle from a local marine, on duty to guard the booty for the evening’s charity beneficiary, Toys for Tots.

Long Island brought a short roster of only eleven skaters, sorely missing interleague veterans MadDonna and Butterscotch Cripple (now skating out of Philly). The roster was slashed further when Long Island lost Trixie Timebomb in the first period to a knee injury. To make up for the difference, Long Island’s star jammer C-Roll bouted seemingly without any rest whatsover, toeing the jammer line in exactly half of the bout’s thirty-eight jams, along with an additional receipt of the star during her handful of turns at pivot.

The Sabotage displayed a much deeper jamming lineup, earning points from six different jammers in the first period alone, beginning with captain Pearl Jammer. The seven head-to-head matchups between Pearl and C-Roll were a treat to watch, as these two skaters are strikingly similar in size, style, and speed.

Read the rest of this entry »

ST. PAUL, MN — #22-ranked Charm City bounced back impressively from their recent big loss to Portland, going up against #11-ranked Minnesota and pulling out a 73-69 upset victory.

Charm City would get out of the gate slow. After a opening 4-3 jam that saw Charm City’s Flo Shizzle grab lead but still finish the jam a point shy of Minnesota’s Lizzy the Axe, they ran into some unexpected trouble when jammer Cherrylicious broke her skate early in the following jam. The jam was called at 0-0, and Flo Shizzle would get shut out twice in the next two jams by Jawbreaker and Susie Smashbox, putting the home team up 11-3 early in the half. Charm City seemed to wake up a bit at that point, firing back with a 20-5 run over the next four jams that gave them a 23-16 lead with about 16 minutes left in the half, but at that point they suddenly started finding it a lot harder to get points on the board.

Both Flo Shizzle and Lady Quebeaum picked up their fourth minors as jammers late in the period, giving Minnesota some opportunities to work unopposed at the jammer line, but the Charm City defense stepped up strong. In the four jams where Charm City had Flo or Quebeaum in the box for part of the time, the score was an impressive Minnesota 1, Charm City 1. Still, though, Charm City’s scoring troubles would eventually cost them the lead, and the period ended with the scoreboard favoring the home team, 32-28.

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DETROIT, MI — While it wasn’t quite a case of “old age and treachery overcoming youth and skill,” the superior experience of the Detroit Pistoffs enabled them to easily defeat the D-Funk Allstars 102-59 in the Drill Hall at the Masonic Temple in Detroit, Michigan. Going into the game, the Pistoffs roster featured 11 players with a total of 94 derby games of experience, while D-Funk had only 10 players on wheels with a total of 29 games of experience. And 14 of those experience-games belonged to team captain Black Eyed Skeez.

The Allstars had to borrow Kat Von D’Stroya from the Pistolwhippers just to have 10 players for the game, as they were missing Juicy Contusion and Tiny Ninja due to injuries, and assistant captain Cat’s Meow is on maternity leave. The Allstars were also hard hit in the off season when they lost four experienced skaters to other teams. The Allstars had five rookies (Eight Mile Rose, Fatal Femme, Polly Fester, Roxanna Hardplace, Seoul Slayer) in their lineup compared to only two “fresh meat” (Beaver Fever, Violet-N-Deed) for the Pistoffs.

But derby is derby, and teams must compete with what they have. That being said, the D-Funk Allstars made a good accounting of themselves in the game’s opening period.

Read the rest of this entry »

Three weeks after a sobering 126-37 trouncing at the hands of #15th-ranked Rose City, Baltimore’s Charm City Roller Girls (#22) try to turn their fortunes around against a yet higher-ranked opponent. This Saturday, they’ll be heading up into the cold, cold north to take on 11th-ranked Minnesota.

Minnesota has played numerous recent bouts with their local teams taking on squads from other leagues (including Duke City, Denver, No Coast and Cincinnati), but their most recent WFTDA all-star matchup was a 112-84 away loss to Kansas City on September 15 (just two weeks before Kansas City rose to the #1 spot by winning the WFTDA national tournament in Austin.)

Charm City won’t be seeing that same team, though. This particular bout is a WFTDA doubleheader, with Minnesota taking a unique approach by fielding two all-star teams — Team Aqua and Team Army. Arizona Roller Derby does battle with Team Army, while Charm City goes up against Team Aqua. Team Aqua will be keyed by the notorious Jawbreaker, a powerful blocker who can also do damage from the jam line, and captain Rumblebee. Vuedoo Prodigy, who showed some memorable cuts as a jammer in August’s Heartland Havoc loss to Detroit, will also be representing Team Aqua for Minnesota. Minnesota has two skaters who are on both the Team Aqua and Team Army rosters — Jawbreaker and Lizzy the Axe.

The East Coast visitors will be bringing a slightly different crew than the one that faced Rose City last month, and a slightly deeper one too — Charm City fielded only 12 skaters in that bout but brings the full 14 this time out. Rookie prodigies Stormin’ Mormon and the bruising Holly Go Hardly make their debut as Charm City All-Stars, and Lady Quebeaum and Shevil Knievel, stalwarts of last year’s all-stars, return to the yellow and gold. Quebeaum, who suffered a broken leg during a March practice, has made an impressively quick recovery to her old form, and will be joining team co-captain Mibbs Breakin’ Ribs to provide some hard hitting in the pack. And once again, Charm City brings their marquee jammer combo of Joy Collision and Dolly Rocket, with more potential scoring weapons including Flo Shizzle, Cherrylicious and Pistol Whip.

UPDATE: Charm City manages to score an upset in a very closely matched bout, 73-69 (full recap to come).

HBomb 15 // Frau ScienTITs 23 // Angelfire C2 // Rumblebee 4×4 // Candi Pain 666 // Scootaloo FU // Barbie Brawl 007 // The Bone Setter 138 // Lizzy the Axe 41 // Jawbreaker 86 // Vuedoo Prodigy LXIX // Suzie Smashbox 91 // Harmony Killerbruise 75 // Ann E. Briated 9

Joy Collision 747 // Mibbs Breakin’ Ribs 1010 // Dolly Rocket 6 // Stormin’ Mormon 68 // Coach Ballbricker 13 // Flo Shizzle 24/7 // Reckless Ndangerment 116 // Pistol Whip .44 // Lady Quebeaum 34 // Shevil Knievel 1 // Rosie the Rioter 100% // Cherrylicious NC17 // Holly Go Hardly 415 // Pixie Rocket 69