Co-Ed!

Swamp City Roller Rats are hosting the first ever Co-Ed bout, right in their home-town Palmerston North.

Swamp City will be playing a team of their seasoned skaters, along with their first male skater - Sonic Doom.
Sonic joined the league at the start of 2013 and has brought along a strong skating enthusiasm coupled with a determined athleticism  - he's definitely a skater to watch this weekend.

They are matching up against Hawkes Bay Roller Derby - New Zealand's premier Co-Ed league to bring a full-length, full-contact, co-ed Roller Derby Bout.

Swamp City are interested in supporting the development of male Roller Derby in the region. If you are a guy  who's keen on getting involved, don't hesitate to contact us on facebook or our website:

https://www.facebook.com/swampcityrollerrats
http://www.swampcityrollerrats.co.nz

What do you think about guys playing Roller Derby? Co-ed bouts? Leave us a comment!

Images supplied by Sandy Carter Photography.

The Plague vs. Rumblebees 20/04/2013

Last weekend Swamp City Roller Rats team, "The Plague" took the win over Taranaki Roller Corps "Rumble bees" 368-29.

This massive score disparity was some-what unexpected as almost one year ago The Plague took a much smaller win of 155-63. However a look over the Rumble Bees line-up displayed a much different team - with half the team being fresh-meat graduates or first season rookies compared to The Plague made up of players mostly in their second and third competitive seasons. Regardless of the score, Swamp players noted the grit shown by their opposition, with many skaters showing good potential and the all-important trait of a successful derby girl - never giving up.

All in all, it was a great game to play and watch. The following interview with TRC's captain, Bomb, really sums up the spirit of the day.

1. Overall what did you enjoy most?

We all enjoyed the humour and jokes shared between both teams on the line.

2. What was a 'YES!' moment for you/or your team?

When F Hoff just got out of the pack and for once did not get caught

3. What goals have you got for 2013?

To bring all of our new girls up to a competent bouting level

4. What did you take away from the game?

We tried to take Underage Rage but she didn't want to be paid in Tui

5. Who was a memorable player from the plague/why?

Underage Rage by far.  Her speed and agility was totally annoying

6. Did you really hire a limo to road-trip in? 

No - but next time we will be coming in a vehicle that goes from 0 - 100km in less than half an hour

Uhhh best roadtrip ever?

No - but the best road trip ever was when we last came to Palmy and almost got kicked out of our accommodation at 4.30am

 Photo's courtesy of Sandy Carter Photography.

The Plague Open Season with Victory

Swamp City Rollers Rats kicked off their 2013 season with a 196-72 win against the Bay City Rollers.

The Plague bench held a different line-up from the end of last season, noticeably with Blue Blaze, Missy Tero and Blossom Rocket all absent with relative new-comers in those spots.

Both teams presented solid defensive walls on the first jam with both jammers fighting to emerge. Sunflash from SCRR grabbed the lead jammer status but was quickly followed by Angel Rage from BCR forcing her to call if off - snatching two points to zero.

The Plague settled into rhythm of strong defence and a focus on recycling the BCR jammers. Plague jammers then pulled in high scoring passes; including two 14 point jams from Underage Rage and a half-time score of 108 – 18. SCRR players all commented on the strength of the rolling four-wall of their opponents with some jammers struggling to initial pass.

The second half continued with a  dynamic of strong defensive walls; once again leaving both teams jammers working hard to score points. SCRR’s blockers began to make use of strong hits and their fast turns to keep the BCR jammers stuck in the pack resulting in 30 unanswered points.

BCR had a resurgence when SCRR gave away several power jams where Krash Bambi Kute made her presence known as a strong BCR jammer scoring two swift 10 point jams. Blockers Happy Kilmore and Porterhouse Skate made an impact in with decisive hits to clear paths for their jammers.  

However Underage Rage brought it home for SCRR with an impressive 24 point power -jam, where fluid team-work and offensive play from SCRR blockers allowed Rage to run down almost a full two-minute jam of scoring passes.

All images provided courtesy of Sandy Carter Photography

More Derby Action: 

SCRR’s Poison Ivies have their first 2013 game this weekend in Levin against the Whenua Fatales and The Plague face off against the Taranaki Roller Corps “Rumblebees” on the 20^th April in Palmerston North. 

Swamp City Roller Rats "The Poison Ivies" vs. Whenua Fatales 

The Poison Ivies and Whenua Fatales have battled it out before but this event is a bit more than ordinary as it marks the Whenua Fatales Roller Derby Leagues first Open-Bout. We are honoured to be skating out in their première home bout. 

Come along and support your team - plus it's a dress-up game which is always a good time.

We wanna see all the best Poison Ivy costumes okay?  

Going in Alone - FoxyPop's tale of Derby Discovery

FoxyPop - Swamp City Roller Rats freshmeat coach, player, and general master of cute explains her journey into Roller Derby

Like many roller derby skaters, I can remember exactly when I first heard about this strange sport Roller Derby. On the 18th of July, 2011, I was browsing Facebook and stumbled upon a status advertising a new "freshmeat course".


It was quite possibly the first status update I'd seen from Steph, A.K.A. Firefly Spirit, a nice lady I'd met in my first year of Uni (in some class I barely remember). I didn't know what derby was, but some google-aided snooping quickly answered that and tah-dah, I was interested. I proceeded to bombard Firefly with questions - when, where, could I see this in action? I was scared to commit without seeing it. After all, this was a sport. That means exercise, competition and commitment. The horror!


Turns out prospective freshies (and goodness, how novel I found it that newbies were referred to as "fresh meat") were allowed to go and watch the first league training of every month. So on the 7th of August, I toddled along to LeisurePlex by my lone-sum and finally got to see what roller derby training looked like. There was a lot of squatting and people skating in lines. The lanky guy, (Yes, GUY, what was this?!), who inevitbly ended up at the back of these lines stood out, as did the glittery "Disco Dan" printed on the back of his shirt. Oh yeah, this looked pretty cool.


Now, I hadn't planned to go alone - my sister bailed on me - but it's one of the best things I've ever done. Because, alone, I am an easy sell. When I go shopping by myself and a salesperson actually does their job, I'll walk out with far more than I had planned on. Add to this the fact that Nine Inch Diff, relentless pseudo-saleswoman-of-derby, had made it her job to talk to anyone and everyone watching the training that night. I didn't stand a chance.

"Come along tomorrow night." She said. "You'll be fine" she said. 

Actually, I don't remember most of what she said as I was rather distracted when she pulled up her pant leg and showed me her injured knee in all it's swollen glory. I realised that getting injured was an unavoidable part of Roller Derby. A sensible version of me would have politely excused myself and never looked back. I've never broken a bone in my life - injury is not something I deal with well. Instead, I went home to rave to my partner about how great this weird new sport looked and how a suspected crazy woman had wiggled her kneecap around in a most unnerving fashion.


Diff had kindly offered me the use of one of her sons' helmets for the first night. The revelation that this woman had children and played a full contact sport was a curve ball I hadn't expected. Later I'd come to feel very stupid when I discovered most of the skater girls I'd seen the previous night were also mothers. Goodness knows what I was expecting they did outside of derby, but it certainly wasn't mothering stuff.

I showed up on the night of August 8th to put on quad skates since the first time my age had hit double digits. I was alone, I was scared. I might even have sat in the corner by myself had it not been for Firefly's enthusiasm and Diff's craziness.

Enthusiasm and craziness. That's a pretty good summation of the aspects of derby I took up first.

Once I got on the track, I had to be enthusiastic about myself, I couldn't dwell on how bad I felt when I fell over. The one time I did I spent the next week regretting the little pity-party I'd thrown myself. It seems ridiculous now, to think I was worried about falling over. The floor and I have a much healthier relationship these days.

The craziness came naturally. You can't be entirely sane if you think a dorky little bambi-on-skates is going to knock over a veteran like Psych-lone Bola... but I kept trying!

I might have been all nervous and alone at the start, but I'm happy to say that I'm part of a team now. Part of a community of really crazy, amazing people. I couldn't be more proud of myself for making the effort, both to improve my skating and derby-centric skills as well at to make friends and integrate myself into the league. I hope every future league member gets to feel like this, it's pretty awesome. 

Still nervous though, these people hit hard!

- FoxyPop #62

Images courtesy of Sandy Carter Photography 

www.sandycarterphoto.co.nz 

In The Eyes of The Crowd

After being introduced to the world of derby in January this year, it took me almost another full year to go and see my first game! I blame it on university work taking over my life, because living in Christchurch sure gave me plenty of opportunities to see some derby action with two leagues – Dead End Derby and Otautahi Roller Derby – having plenty of bouts during the year on their home turf. But I am glad that the first game I saw was Swamp City Roller Rats season final, with my best friend Jessie – AKA Sunflash – in the ranks.

To be honest, I was nervous and excited at the same time about watching derby! Sunflash had taken me out skating a couple of times at the start of the year whenever I came home, and being a longboarder myself I love anything on wheels! Throughout the year I literally studied the Wikipedia entry on roller derby in order to understand the game, and whenever I caught up with Sunflash, I would ask her to explain certain parts of the game that I didn’t quite understand (and I could never get her to shut up about derby either!).

I was surprised at how easily I began to understand the game as I watched which is probably thanks to my enthusiastic research of the game.

 I found myself explaining the game to my friend I had dragged along. I absolutely loved every minute of it; the speed, agility and manoeuvrability of the players was amazing to watch (I may have developed a bit of a girl-crush on some of the players, their skill is incredible!).

Although roller derby is a growing sport in New Zealand, I believe it is limited knowledge of the game is something that I think puts a lot of people off going to watch bouts. Many people believe it to be a violent, novelty game, and are not enticed to watch what they think is a game of women beating up one another on wheels. Watching my first game opened my eyes to the incredible amount of skill that these women have. Although there is a fun, novelty element to the game, it is an incredibly serious sport that is so intense to watch.

So from a relatively new spectator of the sport to those of you who are considering going to watch some derby action in the New Year – don’t be afraid to embrace it! You may find yourself falling in love with this action-filled sport, and perhaps wanting to don a pair of skates as well…

Contributor: Alison Grant

Wonder what it’s like to be a jammer? Sunflash reflects on her first season as Jammer in the SCRR Plague.

A year ago, I watched a triple header bout in Palmerston North. It was three hours of total enthralment on my part. Half my friends ditched me before the final to go bar-hopping but there I stayed, on the edge of my seat cheering for a team I didn't know, playing a game I’d never seen.  I vividly remember sitting in the stands thinking, “I wanna play Roller Derby”. Six months later, I was.

2012 has taken me through an absolute whirl-wind romance with Roller Derby. I've developed from Fresh-Meat to A-Team jammer and loved every second of it. I've been a sports-person my entire life but nothing I have done comes close to the exhilaration of jamming in roller derby.  

Jamming is high speed, high contact, brutal, gut-wrenching action. Playing as a jammer feels like a risky job. I know my team is depending on me to make good decisions and score those dang points!  Jamming is a brain-game where I find my biggest competitor is my own mind. If I ever think, “I just can’t get through”, then I know that Jam is probably wasted on me. The greatest jammer attribute is the ability to never, ever give up. That would be my advice to you. Work on your self-talk. Get to know your mind and strive to change any negative thinking. You’ll be amazing at what you can do if you wash away all the “can’t” business.

During the tournament I learnt a valuable lesson about Jamming – it isn’t just about me. Of course jammers need to have good acceleration, fitness, agility, and strength but when it all comes down to it, without my pack – I get no-where. The tournament was such a great experience because I played so many games so close together, I could really compare when plays worked well and when they didn’t. I remember one game in particular my pack was being really offensive – and giving me amazing whips. I don’t think I’ve ever been lead jammer so many times. I love jamming and seeing first-hand when a blocker does something spectacular to help you through. I often spend a whole lap just cheering in my mind for one of my amazing team-mates!

2012 has been a crazy adventure of just learning how to stay on my skates. I’ve fallen in deep, deep love with Roller Derby and I can’t wait to see what next season brings for me and for my team. My goals include getting lower all the time, developing better manoeuvrability and inspiring more people in SCRR to jam!

Love.Fury.Roller Derby.

 Sunflash xox 

Photos courtesy of our sponsor Sandy Carter Photography - http://www.sandycarterphoto.co.nz/