It was another derby double-header
in Morristown last night. The NJRD All Stars on their home rink faced off
against the Hellrazors visiting from
Kendall Park NJ. Also on the bill were the JDRB
(Jersey Boys Roller Derby) vs. Harm City Havoc visiting from Baltimore.
Both bouts provided excitement.
The ladies’ teams were up first.
The All Stars showed strength from
the get-go with Maulin Rouge and Miss USAHole putting points on the board in
the first few jams. Maulin expanded the
early lead with multi-pass power jam. All
Star blocking was both firm and shrewd, often involving the tactic of
breaking the pack to get their jammer through. The Hellrazors were good at forming walls to slow or stop All Stars jammers. A Bomb, a formidable
jammer for the Hellrazors, always has
been good at exploiting any holes in a defense; she struggled to find them last
night, but find them she did. Rarely unpressured by an All Stars jammer on her heels, she would secure a few points and
call the jam. Other Hellrazors
jammers, notably Thiza Glory and Jenn-a-Go-Go, did the same in an effort to
chip at the All Stars lead. At
halftime the scoreboard read 72-47 in favor of All Stars – a competitive spread and a relatively low overall score,
which is a tribute to the blockers.
In the second half the Hellrazors pushed to overcome the All Stars lead. Defenses stiffened with
Bitty Boom Boom and Rosa Ruckus delivering well-timed hits for the All Stars and Clara Form and Lethal Holloway
doing the same for the Hellrazors. The
pattern of the first half reasserted itself in the second, however. Maulin
Rouge had the most successful single jam, adding more than 20 points. Miss
USAHole added the final points of the game for the All Stars. The final score was a convincing win of 219-76 in favor of All Stars. MVPs: #44 Maulin Rouge (jammer) & #12 Shannanigunz (blocker)
for All Stars; #26x2 Thiza Glory (jammer)
& #MAD31 Lethal Holloway (blocker) for Hellrazors.
The men were up next, and provided
a nail-biter from start to finish. Blocking on both sides was fierce, and it
was several jams before either team added more than a few points to the
scoreboard. Thereon out, the lead see-sawed between the Jersey Boys and Havoc.
Whenever one side would pull ahead, as when Robert Brawlson added 10 points in
a single jam, the other would take it back, in this case by Warren T. Voider
and Gearhead, only for Papi Chuleta to tip the numbers the other way. Blocking
remained tough. The main difference between men’s and women’s roller derby is
that men, by dint of their generally larger size, hit the floor harder (p=mv); skaters on both teams did just
that, repeatedly and obviously painfully. The first half ended with an 87-73
lead for Jersey, but there wasn’t the
slightest reason for Jersey to feel
secure.
The intensity increased in
the second half. Bear, Robert Brawlson, and Scooter McGoot added points for
Jersey, while Sin Diesel, Voider, and Gearhead did the same for Havoc. Havoc retook the lead which again teetered back and forth. With two
minutes remaing the score was tied at 136-136. In the final jam with five
seconds on the clock the score was 142-139. Brawlson broke through as lead
jammer for Jersey and called the jam after five seconds, securing the win for Jersey Boys. Few bouts have more tense
finishes than that.
Fancy footwork but
Gene doesn’t show he can take a hit
No comments:
Post a Comment