WFTDA Preview: Montreal @ Tucson & Arizona

By Justice Feelgood Marshall, Last updated Fri Feb 19 2010 2:08pm

TUCSON, AZ -- A week after hosting Charm City at home, the ladies of Montreal take a trip deep into the American southwest to take on two of the oldest teams in modern derby, Tucson and Arizona. While both bouts will be WFTDA sanctioned, Saturday night's Tucson / Montreal game is open to the public while Sunday's Arizona / Montreal clash is not.

For Montreal, it's the second leg of a very busy start to their season, following their 159-57 loss to Charm City last weekend. Two weeks after this trip, they'll be taking an East Coast swing that'll put them up against Suburbia, DC and Connecticut on consecutive nights.

The Montreal roster is slightly altered from the 14 they put up against Charm City. They'll be without zippy, slippery jammer Iron Wench, who tied with Georgia W. Tush for the points lead against CCRG, and also without tough blocker Trash 'n' Smash, deemed by border authorities to be too dangerous to enter the country. Smack Daddy is another travel team mainstay who won't be making the trip. In their places, though, Montreal gets back jammer / blockers No Holds Bard and Wrath Poutine, along with Beals on Wheels.

As the second and third modern derby leagues to form in the wake of the Texas Rollergirls, both Arizona and Tucson have a lot of derby history behind them, but both teams have experienced a lot of turnover since their early days and aren't quite the national forces they were in the early days of the sport.

Tucson hosted and finished second in both 2006 and 2007's Dust Devil tournaments, but was knocked out early in the 2008 and 2009 Western Regional tournaments. In 2009, they went 2-4 on the year with wins over Arizona and Pikes Peak.

This year, they've got one game under their belts, narrowly defeating Pikes Peak again 135-127 on January 30th -- a much closer bout than their 185-91 spanking of PPDD at Regionals. Tucson still has a few extremely experienced players on their roster, notably Deadlock Doe Holliday and Helen Wheels, and they've got a considerable all-around threat in Sami Automatic.

Arizona finished third in the 2006 Dust Devil and barely missed the 2007 Nationals when they were surprised in the 2007 Western Regional by eventual 2007 champs Kansas City, but they haven't had much success since then. They've had no WFTDA sanctioned action in the last 10 months -- their last WFTDA bout was a 95-82 defeat of Sin City in April 2009. Previous to that, they'd dropped 8 in a row going all the way back to May 2008, and have missed the Western Regionals in both 2008 and 2009. (They did, however, pick up a non-WFTDA win against OC, 112-64, in June 2009.)

Given Arizona's relative quiet in the last year, this roster is something of a question mark, split about evenly between established vets and relatively new additions. Deez Nutz and Rayna Rage are experienced tough blockers, and Gratuitous Violet, little sister of Gotham star Fisti Cuffs, has proven herself to be a resilient jammer in previous action.

Cheese Grater 289 // Lady J 86 // Georgia W. Tush 40oz // No Holds Bard 2x4 // Karla Shnikov AK47 // Jess Bandit 8 // Beals on Wheels 89 // Wrath Poutine 30 // Ewan Wotarmy 7734 // Rae Volver 38 // Lyn-dah Kicks 75 // Lil Mama 1/2 // Beater Pan-Tease 1-976

Bianka Trohl 11 // Deadlock Doe Holliday 333 // Helen Wheels 67 // Kamanda 242 // Metal Maiden 1980 // Myna N. Possession 18 // Nokka Ho Down 187 // Pinky McLovin 3 / Pixie Axe 33 // Polly Graf 7 // Sami Automatic 22 // Sassy Sue 62 // Sunni Sideup 217 // Venus Dynamite 29

Book 'em Betty 5 // Certified Lunachick 106 // Deez Nutz 56 // Domiskatrix 09 // Family Jules 010 // Gratuitous Violet 142 // Hacker 2Pieces 2PCS // Loca Lena 10/6 // Messy Missy 57 // Pardon My French 11 // Rayna Rage 3 // Rum Noxious 71 // Vixen Tequilla 333 // Yellow Fever 108