NORTH OLMSTEAD, OH -- The Burning River Roller Girls concluded their 2008 intraleague season with Derby 505: Stomp & Circumstance. Burning River runs all of their intraleague games as double-headers, although each game is of only two 20-minute periods, making each game only 40 minutes in length. In the first game of the evening on August 23, it was the 0-4 Rolling Pin-Ups going up against the 1-3 Cleveland Steamers in the game for 3rd place. Back on June 28 the Steamers had defeated the Pin-Ups 61-34, but this night was different as the Pin-Ups rolled out to a quick lead and won the game 78-53 to snatch 3rd place away from the Steamers.

The Pin-Ups built an early 14 point lead after 4 jams, gaining lead jammer in each of those jams. The Steamers were able to get back within 5 points after jam 6, then the Pin-Ups opened the lead again to double digits, leading by 18 at the half. The Pin-Ups had more lead jammers, 8-4, in the half, and they took advantage of that situation.

The Steamers hopes of sailing back into the game in the 2nd half went crashing on the rocks of despair as the Pin-Ups Eva Lucien opened the 2nd half with a 15-0 triple grand slam jam to extend the Pin-Ups lead to 33 points. Late in the period the Steamers cut the lead down to 23 points but time expired and the Pin-Ups had earned a hard skating victory.

Eva Lucien led all scorers in the game with 53 points, equaling her opponents’ total output. Eva also had 9 leads in her 10 jams while wearing the star, and also picked up 5 grand slams. Although Burning River does not announce MVPs of each game, it'd be hard to argue that Eva didn't deserve the honor here. In the 2nd half, the Pin-Ups continued to control lead jammer with an 8-2 edge.

1st Half

Rusty Wheeler interview with Pin-Up high scorer Eva Lucien (2:11)

The Rolling Pin-Ups started Soul Eater at pivot, Candy Snatcher, Dagney Taghurt, and Punk’d Pixie at blockers, and Eva Lucien at jammer. The Cleveland Steamers countered with pivot XRAYTED, blockers Stealth Bomber, Gonnolea, Professor Booty, and jammer Mata Hari. Eva Lucien quickly grabbed lead jammer with Mata Hari about 1/4 lap behind. After Eva scored her 4 points she called the jam, but Mata had scored 2 points of her own. The Pin-Ups led 4-2, and never trailed afterwards.

Hannah Bull jammed for the Pin-Ups in jam 2, and she rang up 3 more points to extend the lead to 7-2. Punk’d Pixie jammed next for the Pin-Ups and she scored an 8-0 grand slam jam win as the Pin-Ups blockers did an excellent job of bottling up the Steamers jammer Primp Daddy in the pack. After 3 jams the score was 15-2 in favor of the Pin-Ups.

Eva Lucien jammed again for the PUs in jam 4, and while she got lead again, her rival jammer Professor Booty was right on her heels, so Eva called off the jam after scoring only 1 point. The PUs Vix Smackey took a hard fall in the pack in this jam but was apparently none the worse for wear. It was then 16-2 for the Pin-Ups.

The Steamers mounted a comeback in the next two jams. In jam 5 Pain Austen got the Steamers 1st lead jammer of the 1st half and went on to score a 5-0 grand slam jam win over Angel N. Shadows. Then in jam 6 Primp Daddy netted a 4-0 jam win and the Steamers had cut the Pin-Ups lead to 16-11. But Eva Lucien got another lead jammer and a 4-0 win for the PUs in jam 7, followed by a 3-0 jam win for the Steamers Pain Austen in jam 8, followed by a 4-0 win for the PUs Punk’d Pixie in jam 9. It was still a 24-14 game for the Pin-Ups.

Jam 10 was easily the most exciting jam of the half. It opened with the Steamers Prof. Booty zooming around the outside of the pack to grab lead jammer. Then she came around to score 4 points but didn’t call the jam, so that allowed the PUs jammer Eva Lucien to also score 4 points. The next scoring lap Booty got another 3 points then got bottled up, so she passed the star to her pivot Mata Hari. Mata made it around for another scoring pass where she picked up 4 points. Of course when the Steamers passed the star they forfeited lead jammer and so couldn’t call off the jam. That meant that Eva Lucien scored a total of 11 points of her own on the jam which ended the jam as an 11-11 stalemate. In the jam Booty harpooned a total of 7 points and Mata 4.

The Pin-Ups extended their then 10 point lead (35-25) to 18 points by the end of the period by shutting out the Steamers in the last three jams of the half, although the very last jam was only 5 seconds long and so didn’t really count. The PUs managed to roll up a 3-0 win in jam 11 for Angel N. Shadows followed by a 5-0 slam win in jam 12 for Eva Lucien. So at the half the Rolling Pin-Ups, aka the “Homicidal Homemakers,” were leading 43-25.

In jam 11, the PUs Hannah Bull received a major penalty for drilling the Steamers jammer Pain Austen into the crowd. Shortly thereafter the PUs Candy Snatcher also belted Pain into the suicide seats and Candy went to join her teammate in the penalty box. Although the Pin-Ups were down a couple of blockers they had nullified any scoring potential by the Steamers jammer in that jam by putting her out of play. They obeyed the principal that it’s mighty hard for a jammer to score when she’s on the floor on her backside. When Hannah Bull came out of the penalty box in jam 12 she managed to get another major penalty and went right back to the box. In that jam 12 the pack got all spread out which made it easier for Eva to score her grand slam.

2nd Half

In their previous games in 2008, the Rolling Pin-Ups were usually in contention at halftime, sometimes even leading the score, only to suffer disastrous letdowns in the 2nd half and thus snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Several Pin-Ups and PU fans worried about that before the game began. Opening the 2nd half, the PUs sent out Eva Lucien against the Steamers Mata Hari in a rematch of the game’s opening jam. Mata was just about to net lead jammer when the PUs Candy Snatcher laid a hard shoulder into Mata. That allowed Eva to sneak through and grab lead jammer instead. Then Mata, in her haste to try to catch Eva, was whistled off to the penalty box for cutting the track.

That left Eva as an unopposed jammer and she made the most of the opportunity by racking up 3 grand slams en route to a huge 15-0 jam win that extended the Pin-Ups lead to 58-25. In that jam, the PUs Hannah Bull was trying to force an opening in the Steamers' leading blocking wall, then instead alertly switched strategy and slowed the rest of the pack to put the Steamers blockers too far in front to legally block and so Eva got an easy pass through them.

The PUs Punk’d Pixie got lead jammer in jam 2, although when Mata Hari came out of the penalty box for the Steamers Mata was the beneficiary of a huge knockdown block of Punk’d by XRAYTED and so Mata was able to win the jam 4-2 for the Steamers in spite of not having the lead. The Pin-Ups added another 10 points to their lead in jams 3 & 4 when Hannah Bull and Eva Lucien rang up back-to-back 5-0 grand slam jam wins. Hannah had to work hard in jam 3 as she was knocked down by Halochic before grabbing the lead, then Hannah later had to absorb a hard shoulder from Halochic. Then Steamers jammer Primp Daddy threw an elbow at Hannah which only effect was to land Primp in the penalty box.

Eva also had to work hard for her slam in jam 4. With the Steamers jammer Primp Daddy starting jam 4 in the penalty box, Eva Lucien got blasted into the infield on her initial pass although she was able to recover and get lead jammer when blocker Prof. Booty was more than 20 feet in front of the pack and so had to let Eva by. When Primp came out of the penalty box she was put on her derriere by the PU’s Vanity Scare, with Vanity being banished to the sin bin. It was announced before the game that Vanity was retiring from derby after this game, and it was nice to see she was skating hard throughout the game. Perhaps she will reconsider her decision? It was then 70-29 for the Pin-Ups with about 12 minutes left to play in the game.

The Steamers decided to raise the pressure in their boilers and try to catch up rather then just sinking slowly into the sunset. Jam 5 saw the Steamers Pain Austen torpedo up the inside to lead jammer and win the jam 9-0 with a grand slam before she was sent to the penalty box which ended the jam because the PUs jammer was already in the box (and you can’t have a jammerless jam-- the rules say so).

In that jam, the PU’s Soul Eater basically tackled Pain, and the refs immediately ejected Soul -- who left the track, and the game, by skating through the crowd and disappearing behind the hockey-style boards that surrounded the rink. That brought the score back to 70-38, still a huge margin for the Pin-Ups. There was an officials’ time-out after that jam with 9:43 left on the clock as the penalty box situation, among other things, had to be sorted out.

The Steamers got another 4-0 jam win in jam 6 when Professor Booty bested Hannah Bull. Booty only had about a 1/3 lap lead over Hannah, but as soon as Booty scored her points she called off the jam. In jam 7, The PU’s Eva Lucien got another lead jammer, but before she could score she got sent to the penalty box. She was soon joined by teammate Dagney Taghurt who had knocked down the Steamers jammer Primp Daddy. Primp took advantage of the Pin-Ups skating short-handed by racking up a 5-0 grand slam jam win. That narrowed the score to 70-47, still a 23 point lead for the Pin-Ups with time running short. The Steamers could still pull it out if they could get a couple more big jams.

The Pin-Ups switched to a defensive mode in the last few jams of the game. Eva Lucien had come out of the penalty box at the end of jam 7, and she jammed again in jam 8, grabbing the lead. Rather than try to pull away from the Steamers jammer Mata Hari, the two jammers were dodging each other. Mata finally pulled away and started scoring, and Eva, instead of calling the jam, calmly threaded her way through the pack to also score before calling the jam off as a 4-4 tie.

In jam 9, it took 45 seconds of precious time for Punk’d Pixie to get lead for the Pin-Ups. Punk’d then spent most of her time trying to block the Steamers jammer Pain Austen. When the two jammers eventually came around to back of the pack, before either could score Punk’d called the jam. In jam 10, Eva Lucien got her 9th lead of her 10 times jamming, and she went on to an anti-climactic 4-2 jam win. The score was 78-53 for the Pin-Ups, and their fans were excited.

The final jam started with only 10 seconds on the game clock, with Punk’d Pixie going up against Primp Daddy. Burning River was not skating under WFTDA 3.1 rules, and so the game ended after the 10 seconds expired. The Rolling Pin-Ups had finally won a game in 2008! And while the Pin-Ups ended up with a 1-4 record as did the Steamers, the Pin-Ups are the 3rd place team due to winning this game.

Afterthoughts

The Rolling Pin-Ups were able to put two halves of good skating for the first time this season, and it showed on the scoreboard. They jumped out to an early lead, and they held it throughout the game. Eva Lucien was the star jammer of he game with 53 points, but the Pin-Ups relied on their defense. As noted above, the Pin-Ups had a 16-6 advantage in lead jammers which enabled the PU jammers to control the game. But it was the Pin-Ups blockers that enabled the PU jammers to get so many leads by containing the Steamers jammers in the pack long enough for the PU jammers to get the lead.

In their 16 jams with the lead, the Pin-Ups outscored the Steamers by 50 points. In the Steamers 6 lead jams, they outscored the Pin-Ups by 25 points. Right there was the 25 point margin of victory for the Pin-Ups, proving anew the importance of controlling the lead jammer battle.

Statistics

The Rolling Pin-Ups Eva Lucien led all scorers with 53 points (in a 40 minute game), jamming 10 times with a phenomenal 9 leads, also scoring 5 grand slams. other PU jammers: Punk’d Pixie (14 points, 7 jams, 4 leads, 1 slam); Hannah Bull (8 pts, 4 jams, 2 leads, 1 slam); Angel N. Shadows (3 pts, 2 jams, 1 lead); Soul Eater (0 pts, 1 jam).

The Cleveland Steamers were led by Pain Austen with 17 points while jamming 6 times with 3 leads and 1 grand slam. Other Steamers jammers: Mata Hari (14 points, 5 jams); Professor Booty (13 pts, 5 jams, 2 leads); Primp Daddy (9 pts, 8 jams, 1 lead, 1 slam).

Burning River does not record offensive or defensive stats, so we can’t tell positively who the top blockers were. I would put a vote in for Hannah Bull of the Pin-Ups and Professor Booty of the Steamers as the top blockers, just based on some of the bigger hits.

Future

Burning River next takes to the track with a travel team away game versus the Dairlyland Dolls in Madison, Wisconsin on Saturday, August 30.

The next Burning River home game has the travel team hosting the Fort Wayne Derby Girls on Saturday, September 13. This is, surprisingly, the first time the BRRG has had a home travel team game. The game is at their BRRG home rink in North Olmstead, Ohio.