Sunday, August 29, 2010

Another GREAT Derby Daze under our belt!



I am still reeling from the great time that I had this year at Derby Daze! I did not fall once during the Friday night Jam Skate!!! That’s a personal best for me! But I guess I’m here to talk about the bouts, not about my personal achievements, so on to the recaps...

The first bout of the night featured the Lava City Roller Dolls vs. the Atomic City Rollergirls. Having only seen either of these teams play a handful of times, I had no idea what to expect going into this bout. It turned out to be a pretty exciting bout with a number of lead changes. Atomic City started off strong in jam #1 with a 15 – 0 lead. Sukie Smackhouse then grabbed another seven points for Atomic City in jam #2, but two jams later Lava City was making a comeback. The first lead change of the bout came in jam #13 when Dame Deviant managed to gain a one point lead for Lava City. They managed to increase that lead, and went into halftime with a 68 to 52 point advantage over Atomic City.

In jam #23, Atomic City staged a comeback during a power jam situation, coming to within one point of tying the game. They gained the lead during the following jam and held that lead for seven more jams, until Screamin’ Meanie had a power jam for Lava City and again brought the game to within one point of being tied. Dame Deviant got lead jammer and three points in the following jam to gain the lead once again for Lava City. Jam #29 saw the final lead change of the night, which was in favor of Atomic City. There were a lot of timeouts in this bout. More timeouts than a Rainy City bout, believe it or not! That only served to heighten the suspense of this match-up. In the end, Atomic City managed to pull ahead to see a 131 to 100 victory over Lava City.

On to the second bout of the evening…

I’d like to take a moment here to send out a special, albeit sarcastic, thanks to Texine for aiding greatly in getting me cut off from buying alcohol before the start of the second bout, thereby causing me to go the entire bout with no booze. As I was bellying up to the bar before the bout to purchase yet another glass of that Barefoot Vineyard pinot grigio, she skated between me and the bar. I wished her good luck in the bout, and her reply of “man, you look WASTED!” didn’t register too well with the bartender. Add to that the fact that I was seated next to Harmacist, which renders guilt by association, and BAM - no more alcohol for George! Just like that. Really, I wasn’t that wasted! But I digress…

The main featured bout of the night was our Axels of Annihilation vs. Derby Revolution of Bakersfield. I didn’t know too much about Bakersfield, so I was curious to see how this bout was going to turn out and didn’t know what to expect. Jam #1 saw Minstrel Psycho pitted against Ima Blowbya at the jammer line, and also a major penalty by Texine (which I racked up to karma over her getting me cut off from alcohol). The first couple of jams saw a 10 – 0 lead for Bakersfeild, but in jam #4 Viagrrra Falls gave us our lead. That lead would not be compromised for the rest of the evening. Minstrel Psycho and Viagrrra were on fire for our first half! Joyride was amazing and seemed at ease with the fast paced pack that was indicative of this bout. At halftime, AoA had a strong led of 92 to 26.

The second half saw Deva Destruxion, Frisky Sour, and Twat Rocket start off strong. They added immensely to our already hefty point lead. Viagrrra was still on fire in the second half and adding to our point tally also!

Puke on the Flat Track!

Then, in jam #34 I saw something that I haven’t seen since Houston 2008. Derby Revolution’s Tonka Toy took a hit, doubled over, and puked on the flat track! This was a real crowd pleaser, to say the least. Not only did this garnish a collective “oooooooooh” from the crowd, but it served as a conversation topic for the remainder of Derby Daze. It was amazing, and I am advocating Tonka Toy as MVP of this bout based solely upon this incident. After the clean-up, we were just two more jams away from our 186 to 53 AoA victory.


I was lucky enough to get a post-bout comment from Texine regarding the performance of her team. This is what she had to say:

I am immensely proud of the way our team played last night. The majority of us have only been skating together for the last month or two, and finding cohesion with a new group of skaters can be really hard. Last night we came out with our game faces on, ready to have fun, and build on ourselves as a well-oiled machine. I thought it was beautiful how our skaters built and held walls, held the inside line, and were able to adapt strategically to whatever was happening on the track. Next weekend is a two-day tournament in Boise, ID called the Spudtown Knockdown, and our bout last night gave us the confidence to move forward and we have every intention of owning the track from here on out. F'n A, AoA!

So there you have it folks, another great Derby Daze under our belt. I don’t know about you, but I need a vacation to recover!!!

3 comments:

Kill Nye said...

George, I saw you skating on Friday. PMRD is looking for new recruits. :)

Anonymous said...

yeah, George, I saw that too and I was thinking the same thing.

George said...

But, but, but I’m a HORRIBLE skater! Just because I can now skate in an oval without falling down doesn’t mean that I can stay upright when people are trying to hit me. I’m a horrible skater! It’s so much harder than it looks! You guys make it look easy.