Meet some of the newest members of the Skatefast Club just in time to see them skate on 16 February!

LUruk-hai #32

 I started roller derby two years ago in January 2011. I have a friend who had joined Aberdeen’s GCRG league and kept talking about it. I then went to watch Berlin play ARRG back in 2010 and decided to sign up for the next fresh meat!

My derby name is LUruk-hai. I love Lord of the Rings and Uruk-hai’s are cool and bad ass, even if they are the bad guys! I also like that it sounds kind of exotic too.

During the day, my “Clark Kent” persona is spent working for an organisation that supports people with learning disabilities, and I really like it.

This year, I am looking forward to actually bouting and getting more experience. I am also excited about skating with SFC! I like 80s-esque things and the colour yellow (as you will see from my skates).

The main thing I have learnt from roller derby so far is that you shouldn’t compare yourself to others. People are different and work and learn at different paces. So don’t give up if you really want to skate.

Some of the best parts of ARRG are learning derby, the change for keeping fit/doing sport (where as I was quite lazy before!) and all the awesome folk you meet and the great friends you make.

And you may not know, but my husband is ARRG announcer Stephen Tawking.

 

Terrifying Tink #802

Tell me how/why/when you started Roller Derby.
I been kind of aware of it, then a friend tried it and said I would love it; and I did! I started with a brand new league in November 2009.

Why did you choese your derby name?
I am a permanently, filthy child! and a bit scary!

What is your “Clark Kent” persona (or, what do you busy yourself with outside of derby)?
I don’t do much other than derby these days, but my day job is as a research scientist at the University of Dundee, looking for new treatments for Malaria.

 What your goals and what are you looking forwards to this season?
Getting stronger, fitter, harder and gaining better tactical knowledge. I recently transferred to ARRG from a smaller league, partly for the increased physical challenge it would offer, and it’s certainly doing that!

What advice do you have for those thinking about skating or just starting out?
Do it, you’ll surprise yourself!

Finally, what’s the best part of derby and ARRG?
Massive team spirit!

 

Slamboyance #138

I started roller derby at the end of 2011.  I’d been to a few bouts with friends and we all thought it looked amaze and wanted to try it, but I was the only one who ended up giving it a go!

I’ll tell the shortened version of the meaning behind my name!  I’m hoping that one day i can live up to my name and be able to hit hard and have some fancy flamboyant footwork.  Oh, and I’m very partial to a bit of sequin and sparkle!

My goal for home season is to not foul out!  And of course to have lots of fun!

 

Pope #264

I first heard about roller derby a couple of years or so ago. My friend told me that there was this thing we should go to where we’d be taught to skate in the first hour and in the second hour we were to skate around and push people over. I wasn’t particularly keen. After going to see a few bouts and really loving it I decided to sign up, and started Fresh Meat in March 2012. It was a pretty rash decision but I’m really happy I did. And I can confirm that my Fresh Meat training was not at all as my pal had described.

I chose my derby name because I wanted something really really silly. I had a pun-filled couple of months before someone told me to hurry up and pick a name. I sort of regretted it after a while but it’s kind of a part of me and I think I would be confused if my fellow ARRG-ers stopped calling me “Pope”.

This season I most of all want to have fun and to feel like I’m getting better. And hopefully not to spend too much time in the bin (stupid forearms!)

You do need time and serious motivation, but anyone can do derby. When I went to my first FM I had never skated on quads before and I looked terrified. A good friend and great skater said to me “just sort of pretend that you can skate and eventually you will be able to”. I would give that advice to anyone starting out (disclaimer: you do get a lot of very good technical advice too. I just really appreciated this).

Come and see them play on 16 February 2013 at 2pm at Meadowbank! Tickets available for £5 (+booking fee) on eventbrite or for £7 at the door. 

Our last batch of fresh meat are working away learning all their meaty roller derby skills. They are looking great and it won’t be long now till they graduate to fully fledged Meat Balls with  tears of pride and mass applause! This means it is time to announce the next intake onto our amazing fresh meat programme…

The next date for a Fresh Meat session will be…… drumroll please……….the 21st of October 2012!

Roller derby is a full-contact sport played on roller skates which everyone can have fun playing. If you are interested in learning to play roller derby, then please sign up through our contact form here.

If you want to come to a Fresh Meat session, you will have to own the following:

– a pair of quad roller skates
– a helmet
– wrist guards
– elbow pads
– knee pads
– a mouthguard

Our Fresh Meat programme is highly comprehensive, and will take you from your first nervous strides to a full understanding of the sport of roller derby and the skills required to play it. So don’t worry if you have never roller skated before, because we’ll teach you everything you need to know! We cater for people interested in either recreational or competitive skating, so once you have passed through the program you will have to the opportunity to try out to join our bouting corps (tryout dates tbc) or can choose to skate with our recreational team, the Wrecking Balls.

The programme is designed to teach you skating skills while building your core strength gradually in a safe and healthy manner. Our coaches are highly experienced and our first aiders are fully certified, so you are in safe hands! Auld Reekie Roller Girls are a full member league of the Women’s’ Flat Track Derby Association and the UK Roller Derby Association.

So if you’ve always wanted to give roller derby a try, sign up for our Fresh Meat session today!

This May, Auld Reekie Roller Girls travelled with a team of ten to Finland to play  Helsinki Roller Derby and host a day long bootcamp for skaters and officials across the league. It was a challenging but incredibly rewarding experience and one I don’t think any of our skaters are going to forget for a while..

We caught up with Captain Crazylegs to find out a little bit more about the ARRG’s first ever bootcamp and find out some exciting news for skaters closer to home!

What made you decide to hold a bootcamp in Helsinki?

Tigre Force from Helskini suggested it to me – we were really keen to go over and play them in a sanctioned bout to assist them on their WFTDA Apprentice journey, and because they looked like a really fun team to play.  When we started discussing the possibility of visiting them, they suggested we stay an extra day and hold a boot camp there too; there are some up and coming newer skaters in Finland and Helsinki thought this would be a good opportunity to use some of our experience to pass on some training tips.

How did you go about planning the bootcamp?

Oh so many emails!!   Helsinki put together a basic outline schedule (luckily for us!), we just had to come up with coaches & drills to fill them… we had 9 hours to fill, two tracks, one classroom and lunch provided, which was fab!  Ella (Ella Bella Bang Bang – bench coach), Bronx (Bronx Betty – vice captain) and I did lots of planning together and really thought about what people would want from a boot camp and what we could provide – then we just needed to fit it all together so that each participant had a good full day of sessions.  We’re entirely skater coached in ARRG which means most of our A-team skaters regularly coach and all have key areas they do best.  We also had the benefit of Cherry Fury’s extensive reffing experience to run officials sessions alongside the skater sessions.

 How did you travel to Helsinki?

With the usual giddy hilarity – we all booked flights seperately because of work committments etc…so we ended up flying out in pairs or individually – like the wacky races…. it’s impossible to fly direct from Edinburgh so we ended up having this mad dash across Europe – with everyone going via a different country – it was funny seeing Facebook updates from everyone – a few slept in Amsterdam airport, some went via Germany, or London, 3 of us got delayed in Paris for a few hours, had a fight with Air France Customer Service and then arrived with no luggage!

Do you have any favourite memories from the trip?  

Panic texting Tigre from Helsinki on the morning of our bout and asking for 2 complete sets of pads and a pair of size 6 skates for us to borrow otherwise we’d be down to 8 skaters in the bout!  Within 5 minutes I had a lovely “all sorted, we have what you need” text back. The Helsinki girls are truly, truly wonderful.

Was Helsinki different from other away games?

I think this was my most enjoyable ARRG trip ever – and that’s saying something because there have been many good ones! It was just a bit special…maybe because we sent such a small skeleton team on this trip, faced some setbacks, stayed with lovely hosts instead of in hostels, Ella, our bench coach, was pregnant, everyone was looking out for each other, it was just a lovely bonding time through the ups and downs with a lot of laughter.

How do you think the Finnish girls experienced the bootcamp? Did they have fun?

I really hope so – we had so much fun running it – the feedback we got straight afterwards was all very positive; one skater even asked us how long we had been running our boot camp for – that made our day!  Everyone was keen and enthusiastic – the scrimmage at the end was so much fun.  I loved that everyone asked lots of questions too.

 How different was training another league? (Were there any language problems?)

No language problems at all – not even with some of our Scottish accents;  we were all a bit shy about coaching a bunch of strangers who had all paid money for it, but I was so proud of all of my team mates, everyone really put their heart and soul into delivering the best most fun boot camp we could.

What is your favourite drill? 

I learned it courtesy of the Toronto Roller Derby Head Coach and it’s all about re-forming your wall as fast as you can – you work within 20ft and have jammers coming at you from both directions so you have to develop super lightning fast reactions to wall up and hold back the jammers as long as you can within a 20ft space.

What is your advice for any coaches starting out?

I think there are probably much better people to ask advice from! But I always try to have a plan that I’ve thought through properly, with a purpose or tactic to build up to incrementally, like stepping stones. I guess you also need to be adaptable – have spare drills up your sleeves just in case you get more or less skaters than you expect.  I love spending time thinking about a ‘problem’, something that makes things difficult for us as a team, then inventing a drill to solve that problem – my team mates Cider and Zillah are also good at this 🙂

 

What did you learn from leading the bootcamp? 

I learned how team work can translate into other parts of roller derby; I absolutely loved seeing our whole team getting involved in running the boot camp, everyone looked so industrious and smiley on the day!  I also learned that we do have a wealth of skills and knowledge within ARRG that we should probably share more.
Were you nervous?

Of course!!  I felt really responsible for trying to give a huge number of skaters and officials value for money and the feeling that they had learned something new and useful.  No pressure there then!

Your three personal highlights from the Helsinki trip

The amazing Finnish hospitality – I’m still amazed by them putting us all up, feeding us, making us amazing breakfasts, being so generally lovely.

Winning with a team of ten skaters – hardcore, tiring, but very rewarding!

The afterparty – as Cider summed it up “Wow, that escalated quickly, I mean it really got out of hand”.

Is there going to be a bootcamp closer to home in the near future? 

YEAH!! We have been fairly insular in ARRG this past year or so – our league grew and exploded so very fast and unexpectedly that we had to have some huge re-shuffles to give everyone a place and a happy home.   I think that by running this boot camp in Helsinki, we brought back a bit of the old ARRG pioneering, spirit and the feedback from skaters who attended couldn’t have been more positive, which led us to think this might be something skaters in Scotland and ‘up North’  might also enjoy – an intensive day of intermediate training drills with skaters who have years of bouting experience, and tactics talks and even old fashioned league structure chats, refs / officials training and of course a mammoth crazy scrimmage at the end.

ARRG are very excited to announce that we will be hosting a skating and referees bootcamp, ‘The School of ARRG Knocks’ on the 6^th October 2012. Stay tuned for more details but get the date in your diary now!

OPEN Try Outs for ARRG Home Teams!!
Sunday 24th June 2012, 11am – Jack Kane Centre

What does this mean?
If you want to become a member of ARRG, currently Scotland’s first full WFTDA member league and be eligible to play in our exciting home season games, as well as be eligible for our travel team, we are holding open try outs to accept new skaters.

Who can try out?
Anyone who is looking to transfer from another league to ARRG (perhaps you are moving to Edinburgh or near by?)
Anyone who is currently a member of our lovely recreational team – the Wrecking Balls
Anyone who has passed minimum skills but is not currently affiliated to another leagueAll skaters trying out must have passed their WFTDA minimum skills.

Last month, we got some excellent news: one of our long-time referees and excellent ARRG-er all round, Cherry Fury, was awarded her Level 2 WFTDA refereee certification!

As we were so excited to have a WFTDA certified ref in our ranks, we decided to ask Cherry a couple questions about her experiences, her reffing life to date and any of the tips she’s picked up along the way!

When did you join ARRG?

I was at the first meeting in Bannermans, April 2008. I’m the one in the photos with the dodgy pony tail and red scarf, standing next to the pool table. I was completely unaware of the significance and impact that meeting would have on my life.

How did you decide to become a ref?

I like to think officiating found me, but in truth I don’t remember exactly. I knew I wanted to be involved with ARRG, and the wider roller derby world. Officiating appealed more to my neurotic and obsessive tendencies. It also allows me to travel more often than a career in competitive skating would allow, because I’m not limited to one team.

Having said that, I’ll always remember my first public bout as a skating official, thanks to Lincolnshire Bombers. It was the longest bout in history and I had a hard time! Working with Birchingbomb, angri-la, Slice Andice and Fox Sake inspired me to persevere with the challenge. To quote a lovely LRG announcer, I guess I had to “man up, grow a moustache and get on with it”! Thanks Hyps.

What sort of work did it take to become WFTDA certified as a referee?

It takes a lot of work, effort and commitment to earn the WFTDA ref cert. There are no shortcuts for anyone, no matter where in the world they are. Opportunities to crew WFTDA regulation or sanctioned bouts in Europe are becoming more frequent, but officials in the US still have to travel across their state, or even the country, to gain the required evaluations.

It’s true you must collect evaluations, which is a tough and integral part of the process, and skating skills and rules tests are critical, but it’s not as simple as officiating a number of bouts and passing some tests. You get what you put in. Consistency was my priority when working on my application. It took me around 14 months from deciding to work towards it until receiving my certification. Of course I had to travel to crew  applicable evaluated bouts, but I also had to behave like the WFTDA official I wanted to be at every single moment.

You have a level of control over the outcome of the rules and skating tests – they’re hard, but they’re pass or fail. There’s nothing to say a submitted evaluation is a positive one. So you have to treat every bout, every crew meeting and every second you are involved with a bout as if you are being evaluated. It all counts, and is all considered.

We hear you also regularly ref men’s derby – what are the differences
between reffing the two genders?

It’s the same game, same track, same rules for male, female, and co-ed bouts (sometimes extending to boutfit styles!). Every bout I work is a challenge. To me there is no difference. When I stand at the track I don’t see men or women, I see colours and numbers. Everyone has a place in roller derby, and we are lucky to have such diversity in our sport.

What are your derby plans for the future?

Officiating makes me happy, and I’d like to keep doing what makes me happy; working with new leagues, debating the finer points of rules with my peers, and supporting the development of European officiating. I’d like to work towards a culture where completing post-bout evaluations for officials is second nature. I’d like to widen the support offered to all leagues, to increase the understanding that officiating is vital to the sport’s development. I’d like to maybe go further, and ask developing leagues to include recognition of this in their policies, particularly as it applies to team captaincy, referees and NSOs.

Working towards my WFTDA level 3 and maintaining my MRDA official’s patch is a priority. The year between applications is an excellent opportunity to improve my existing skills and learn new ones. Working with other officials and experiencing new challenges is my way of doing this – feedback is like catnip to me.

And of course, travel. I’m very lucky I get to travel, so I’ll be looking forward to Spring Roll, Euro Crash, a weekend with Helsinki Roller derby, trips to Berlin and London. I hope to make the crew for the MRDA champs and the Berlin Tournament in December. I’m very excited about the Men’s European Roller Derby championships in July!

What is your favourite rule?

I have two favourite rules: 2.2.2 and 9.3.1.2. They demonstrate that when officiating we must keep play safe, fair and never impact or impede the game. We do a great job when no-one notices us doing it.

What’s the best thing about being a ref?

Being part of a great crew. Officials are a unique community, and it’s a great experience learning and working with others. We support each other, whether it’s trying to skate better, learning the latest rule updates, or just keeping each other smiling though tough times.

Have you got any top tips for any new refs out there?

Be the official you want to be – at all times. Be consistent. Be open to feedback. There is no perfect bout. Every bout is a learning experience – take the lessons to the next bout one. Keep smiling and let the game come to you.

What is your best ref experience to date?

I’ve been so lucky to be involved in many great events with awesome people. At the Roller Derby World Cup I got to work with some amazing officials. I learned a hell of a lot and it really helped me improve. Last year’s MRDA championships was another benchmark – the level of skating and officiating changed my approach and helped me step up a level.

Thanks to Cherry Fury for all her reffereeing and for answering our questions!

Due to unexpected hall availability we have pushed our next Fresh Meat date up to…last weekend! All our new meat had an excellent time and are now started on their meaty journey, however, this also means that our Fresh Meat intake is once again open!

The next date for a Fresh Meat session will be… Sunday 15 July!

Roller derby is a full-contact sport played on roller skates which everyone can have fun playing. If you are interested in learning to play roller derby, then please sign up through our contact form here.

If you want to come to a Fresh Meat session, you will have to own the following:

– a pair of quad roller skates
– a helmet
– wrist guards
– elbow pads
– knee pads
– a mouthguard

Our Fresh Meat programme is highly comprehensive, and will take you from your first nervous strides to a full understanding of the sport of roller derby and the skills required to play it. So don’t worry if you have never roller skated before, because we’ll teach you everything you need to know! We cater for people interested in either recreational or competitive skating, so once you have passed through the program you will have to the opportunity to try out to join our bouting corps (tryout dates tbc) or can choose to skate with our recreational team, the Wrecking Balls.

The programme is designed to teach you skating skills while building your core strength gradually in a safe and healthy manner. Our coaches are highly experienced and our first aiders are fully certified, so you are in safe hands! Auld Reekie Roller Girls are a full member league of the Women’s’ Flat Track Derby Association and the UK Roller Derby Association.

So if you’ve always wanted to give roller derby a try, sign up for our Fresh Meat session today!

All go at ARRG..

We’ve had such a busy start to 2012 that we’ve not even had time to tell you what we’ve been up to. It’s been quite a rush – here’s a quick roundup of the highlights of our 2012 so far.

Twisted Thistles at Tattoo Freeze

The smoke from Edinburgh’s Hogmanay fireworks barely had time to clear before ARRG’s Twisted Thistles blasted off to Tattoo Freeze. We saw some superb jamming, big hits and great tactical skating as the Thistles triumphed over Leicester’s Dolly Rockit Rollers 100 -60 in the first game of the day.

The action continued with ARRG taking on London Rockin’ Rollers in a close, nail biting game that ended LRR 78 – ARRG 61 and meant we played Glasgow in another nail biter for 3rd/4th place. The final score was GRG 79 – ARRG 76 which placed ARRG 4th overall behind GRG 3rd, CCR 2nd and LRR 1st. Well done ladies!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksdNzaICICw&w=595]

ARRG’s first ever Home Season kicks off

There was hardly time to get over the excitement of Tattoo Freeze before ARRG’s first ever home season game between the Leithal Weapons and the Cherry Bombers at Meadowbank Sports Centre. What a bout! The crowd went wild at the power jams, epic hitting and fantastic shows of athletic action from both teams. We had kazoos, capes, banners that people skated through and the Skatefast Club helping out with some classy announcing. Oh and we revealed our beautiful new merchandise, covered in our new logos.

The final score was Leithal Weapons 179 – Cherry Bombers 171 and looking at the videos and photos from the bout it’s clear that fun was had by all. Looking at the after party footage it’s clear that the fun continued…

Woot – more bouting!

The bouting continued as some of ARRG’s ladies went off to star at Slaughtership Down, an invitational scrimmage hosted by the gorgeous Granite City Roller Girls. The game was great fun and the final score was Woundwort’s Warlocks 163 – 146 Bigwig’s Banshees, with ARRG’s players doing us proud. Even though they were on separate teams, our players (Mallory Powers and Crotch Lightning) were BOTH awarded Best Blocker. Get in!

Can you hear us pumping on the stereo? And blasting on your television?

We’re famous! We’ve been all over the TV and the radio lately and the interview requests haven’t stopped! First we had a mention on Countdown from one of our loyal fans Mark.

Then…our home team captains, Mallory Power, Minnie Riot and Crotch Lightning spent the afternoon at Leith FM talking about our home season and upcoming games and playing their favourite 80s tunes!. You can hear the show here:

[soundcloud url=”http://soundcloud.com/freshair-features/auld-reekie-roller-girls-talk”]

As if radio wasn’t enough, we then got a call from Caroline Henderson at STV! She’d heard about the amazingness that is roller derby and wanted to film ARRG in action (and try on some skates) as we practised at The Crags (our amazing new, old home! ) Much fun ensued and we appeared on the News at 6 on the 21^st Feb. You can catch our appearance on the STV web player at exactly 21 minutes in!

 

Home Season Bout 2: The Skatefast Club VS Leithal Weapons

Affectionately dubbed ‘The Crimpers vs The Seagulls’, our second home bout happened on the 25^th Feb and saw The Skatefast Club take on the home team leader, Leithal Weapons. Smoke filled skateouts, big hair, 80s boutfits, capes, kazoos and the mini Leithal’s mascots all made an appearance before the first jam whistle. We saw amazing offense, cracking jamming and some fancy footwork from the very first until the final whistle. The final score was SFC 116 – 209 LW ensuring that the Leithals will head to the final with two wins under their capes.

Phew… that’s a lot!! What Next?

In just over a week our Twisted Thistles will be trekking down to Birmingham for a game against new WFTDA members, Central City Rollergirls. Yo7u can get more information about the game here.

On the 25^th March you can catch the ARRG Cannon Belles at the Bells Sports Centre in Perth as they take on the Fair City Rollers in Cell Block Tango. It’s only a short drive from Edinburgh so you can get your tickets here!

Following on from that, we have the third game in our inaugural home season. This one will be a serious battle for a place in the final as the Cherry Bombers battle against The Skatefast Club – expect this to be a corker of a bout as both teams have all to play for. Tickets at the link as usual!

And then it’s only a few short weeks until our home season final on the 28^th of April, to see who will be the winner of our first ever home season championship! You won’t want to miss out on tickets for this one!

Hope to see you there! – ARRG xx

Always wanted to play roller derby? Now’s your chance!

Roller derby is a fun and fast full-contact sport played on roller skates and we want YOU to give it a go! If you are interested in learning to play roller derby, then please sign up to our next Fresh Meat session through our contact form here. Our introductory session to the programme will take place on Sunday 22nd April 2012. It may seem like a long way off, but places go fast, so sign up if you’d like a spot reserved!

If you want to attend a training session, you will have to own the following:

• – a pair of quad roller skates
• – a helmet
• – wrist guards
• – elbow pads
• – knee pads
• – a mouthguard

Our Fresh Meat programme is highly comprehensive, and will take you from your first nervous strides to a full understanding of the sport of roller derby and the skills required to play it. So don’t worry if you have never roller skated before, because we’ll teach you everything you need to know! We cater for people interested in either recreational or competitive skating, so once you have passed through the program you will have to the opportunity to try out to join our bouting corps (tryout dates tbc) or can choose to skate with our recreational team, the Wrecking Balls.

The programme is designed to teach you skating skills while building your core strength gradually in a safe and healthy manner. Our coaches are highly experienced and our first aiders are fully certified, so you are in safe hands! Auld Reekie Roller Girls are a full member league of the Women’s’ Flat Track Derby Association and the UK Roller Derby Association.

So if you’ve always wanted to give roller derby a try, sign up for our Fresh Meat session today!

With a shiny new design, fresh content and plenty of opportunities for skaters and fans to connect, our new website is the essential first port-of-call for anyone interested in all things ARRG.

Besides our regularly-updated news section, we’ve got links to upcoming events, information on our bouting teams and officials, and in-depth information on roller derby and its official rules.

You can also find links to our Flickr, Twitter and Facebook pages, and a space for our lovely forum.

What do you think of the new design? Let us know in the comments section!

August is over and with it, two of ARRG’s most well attended games of 2011! The highly-anticipated Fringe bouts this year promised nailbiting action and world-class skating – and they delivered in spades.

The Cannon Belles kicked it off on 6 August with a belter of a bout against Glasgow Roller Girls’ Maiden Grrders. These teams have been well-matched for years and so this reunion made for an extremely challenging game! Both team played their hearts out, with extremely strong jamming from Glasgow’s Grrders, but unfortunately a strong lead caused by power jams in the first half ensured that the Cannon Belles took away the win. The final score was Cannon Belles 126, Maiden Grrders 86.

Awards:
Best Jammer
Glasgow Roller Girls: Jess E Ska
Auld Reekie Roller Girls:  Miss Collie Check

Best Take-Out
Glasgow Roller Girls: Venus Velocity and
Auld Reekie Roller Girls:  Danger Mouth

Most Feared
Glasgow Roller Girls: Lola Bruises
Auld Reekie Roller Girls:  Shootin’ Annie

Sin-Bin Queen
Glasgow Roller Girls: Sykes
Auld Reekie Roller Girls: Queenie Ville

MVP
Glasgow Roller Girls: Fightin’ Torque
Auld Reekie Roller Girls: Lilo & Stitches

The Twisted Thistles followed up on 20 August with a match-up against the Stuttgart Valley Roller Girlz that left the audience breathless and fans white-knuckled. The Thistles took an early lead, but SVRG spent the first half chipping away at the score, finishing the first half just 12 points behind. In one of the closest bouts in recent memory, the teams battled it out in the second half, trading off the lead and rarely letting more than 10 points separate them. As the clock ticked down, Thistles captain Zillah stepped up as jammer in the final play with a score of 93 ARRG, 95 SVRG. She quickly took the lead, slicing through the pack just as the final whistle blew, and for a long minute the whole audience held its breath as the referees conferred. Then it was official – Thistles 94, SVRG 95.

Awards:
Best Takeout:
Tease The Tiger
Crazylegs

Most Feared:
Polly Purgatory
Danger Mouth

Sin-Bin Queen:
Public Enemy
Lucy

Best Jammer:
Blitzkrieg Baby
Lucy

Most Valued Player:
Titty Twista
Zillah

Both bouts featured live boutcasting on Facebook, and the Thistles also took advantage of the webstreaming at Roller Derby UK TV. Fans from as far away as the US and Australia tuned in to follow the action and comment on ARRG’s Facebook page.