In what is believed to be the first meeting between a Women’s Flat Track Derby Association team and an Old School Derby Association team, the Grand Raggidy G-Rap B-Sides (WFTDA) rolled to a 102-66 victory over the Kalamazoo Kamikazes Danger Dames (OSDA), playing under WFTDA rules. The “G-Rap B-Sides” team was made up of skaters who are not on the official Grand Raggidy travel team, but they showed they can skate against non-league opposition and more than hold their own.
The game started off with Viva La Boom jamming for G-Rap vs. Lady Hawk for K’zoo, and it was a 4-4 jam. On the 2nd jam K’zoo’s captain, The Brixton Bomb, gave K’zoo a 7-4 lead. G-Rap’s Preacher’s Brat was injured during the jam and was on all fours on the edge of the track, but the refs didn’t call off the jam. After that jam the Brat was escorted off the track to safety. In the 4th jam of the 1st period, the Danger Dames’ Charisnakov upped the K’zoo lead to 12-6. The mostly partisan home crowd was loving it, but then G-Rap put their feet down and took control of the rest of the period, getting lead jammer in nine of the last 10 jams of the period. They would outscore K’zoo 33-9 in those jams, including a highly impressive effort by G-Rap’s Viva La Boom who scored a 12-2 jam with two Grand Slams in jam 12. Viva was helped by the fact that The Brixton Bomb went to the penalty box in jam 12 and so K’zoo was skating sans jammer. Viva could have cut the jam early, but alertly let it run the full two minutes in order to score as many points as possible. The G-Rap jammers skated very shrewdly in the 1st period, getting lead jammer, scoring points, and then calling off the jam before K’zoo’s jammer could get into the pack to try to score. As the period came to an end, G-Rap was starting to build a significant lead, 39-21.
Kalamazoo jammer Lady Hawk leads G-Rap’s Viva La Boom out of the pack. Photo credit: Karen McGettigan
The 2nd period was a very defensive period, with a significant and remarkable exception on jam 6: the B-Sides Racey Wreck’Hell scoring a triple Grand Slam to outscore the Danger Dames 15-0. The Danger Dames suffered on that jam because they lost their jammer, Lady Hawk, to the penalty box, along with one of their best blockers, Letha Venom (as a transfer from Grand Raggidy’s Everyday Rebelles to Kalamazoo, Letha was one of the more experienced skaters on the track for K’zoo.) There were a few big hits as highlights of the period. Just as K’zoo’s Lady Hawk was calling off jam #2, G-Rap’s Crazy Beyond Carin’ drilled Lady into the K’zoo bench. In jam #4, K’zoo’s Ka-POW-Ski wiped out the G-Rap jammer Lucy St. Smear twice, the second time sending Lucy into the K’zoo bench. Through the period, G-Rap got lead jammer in only four of the jams, K’zoo got lead in 8 jams, but G-Rap still held the scoring edge in the period, 38 to 14, to increase their lead in the match to 77-35 after two periods. The B-Sides did not score in nine of the 16 jams in the 2nd, and K’zoo was held scoreless in 11 of the jams.
Kalamazoo tried to mount a comeback at the start of the 3rd period. K’zoo’s Lady Hawk skated a 4-4 jam vs. G-Rap’s Viva La Boom. The Brixton Bomb followed up with a 1-0 jam for K’zoo. Then in the third jam, G-Rap’s Gwen Stepoffme got lead jammer, but just before she was going to call off the then scoreless jam, she got banished to the sin bin. That allowed K’zoo’s Letha Venom to score an 11-0 jam, with two Grand Slams for good measure. The score at that point was 81-51 in favor of G-Rap, and the crowd was sensing that if Kalamazoo could only pull off a few more jams like that one that the Danger Dames could claw their way back into the game. Kalamazoo had the momentum and the edge in play in the 3rd period, but they couldn’t overcome G-Rap’s big lead. In the last final nine jams of the 3rd period and the game, K’zoo managed to score just 15 points to G-Rap’s 21. Most of the jams were skated defensively, with one team getting lead but then getting passed by the other jammer and so the lead jammer would call off the jam. (They were playing with WFTDA rules so the lead jammer maintained that status regardless of track position.) Letha Venom had another huge block on G-Rap’s jammer Gwen Stepoffme in jam #10, and then Letha gave a nice whip to her own jammer Lily St. Smear. Lily went on to a 4-0 jam in that jam. Both teams skated hard right to the last jam. In the second to last jam, Lady Hawk got lead jammer but was wiped out by G-Rap’s Crazy Beyond Carin’. Kalamazoo was able to claim a moral victory for the third period, winning it 31-25, but the final score stood at G-Rap 102, Kalamazoo 66.
Photo credit: Karen McGettigan
Leading jammer in the game was G-Rap’s Viva La Boom, scoring 49 points in 12 jams, earning 7 leads, scoring 2 Grand Slams, and was also the highest plus/minus jammer for either team with a plus 29 for the game. Other G-Rap jammers were: Racey Wreck’Hell (34 pts, 13 jams, 7 leads, 3 Grand Slams, +23); Gwen Stepoffme (18 pts, 11 jams, 5 leads, -5); Lein Hit (1 pt, 2 jams, -4); and Lucy Morals (0 pts, 3 jams, -3).
On the home team’s bench, leading jammer for the Danger Dames was Lady Hawk with 19 points in 9 jams, earning 4 leads, and was -13 as a jammer. Other DD jammers were: Letha Venom (17 pts, 7 jams, 2 leads, 2 Grand Slams, +11); Brixton Bomb (11 pts, 8 jams, 3 leads, -10); Lily St. Smear (10 pts, 8 jams, 3 leads, -11); and Charisnakov (9 pts, 10 jams, 4 leads, -13).
Announcing at the bout was ably handled by Grand Raggidy’s Niagara Balls and Jackie Daniels, with special guest announcer Val Capone from the Windy City Rollers. Val wore a fake moustache in honor of Robert Goulet who had recently passed away. It should be noted that Val’s fake ‘stache looked more realistic than the fake ‘stache that Niagara Balls usually wears at bouts!
Grand Raggidy next sends their “A” travel squad, ranked #25 in WFTDA, out to Las Vegas, NV, for a November 10 rematch against the #17th-ranked Sin City Neanderdolls. Grand Raggidy notched a significant upset by winning the first meeting 115-52 on October 13. Grand Raggidy’s next home game is on November 30 at the Deltaplex in Grand Rapids, MI, featuring the Blue Collar Broads vs. the Roustabout Rollers.
Kalamazoo next skates against the Naptown Roller Girls in Indianapolis, IN, on December 29. Their next home game is January 26, 2008 vs. the Stateline Roller Derby Divas from northwestern Illinois. The January 26 game is once again at RollerWorld just west of Kalamazoo, MI.
Roller derby action returns to “the Zoo” (Kalamazoo, MI, that is) on Saturday, January 26 when the Kalamazoo Kamikaze Danger Dames host the Stateline Derby Divas from the Rockford, IL and Beloit, WI areas. The game will be contested at Rollerworld at 7291 Stadium Drive in Kalamazoo, with doors at 6:30, and game at 7:00 pm.