The Auld Reekie Roller Girls pleased to announce that our limited edition Auld Reekie Roller Girls fundraising merch will be going on sale very soon, and is available for pre-order now! This special line of merch has been designed to raise money needed to send the Twisted Thistles to ECDX in Philadelphia! All proceeds will be going to the ARRG Travel Fund.
You can place your pre-orders in our super snazzy online shop.
There are a few important things to note: all of the online sales are pre-orders and orders need to be made by 15th April. We will then make the merch to order and post it, and you should receive it between 22nd and 26th April.
This merch will also be available to buy at bouts, starting with Anarchy III in Guildford/London on 27th and 28th April, the Thistles vs Hotwheels bout in Huddersfield on 4th May, and the Belles vs Vienna bout at Meadowbank on 18th May.
This is special limited edition merchandise that ARRG are selling to raise funds for ECDX, and once it’s gone it’s gone. Hence if you don’t want to chance your luck and leave empty-handed, pre-order your Party ARRG! merch now!
Auld Reekie’s all-star travel team, the Twisted Thistles, have been invited to take part in the East Coast Derby Extravaganza (ECDX) roller derby tournament in Philadelphia, USA, from 28 to 30 June 2013.
This year marks the seventh year of ECDX and will feature ARRG battling it out with the best teams from America, Canada and the UK, in what is one of the biggest events in the derby world. ECDX’13 will be three days filled with 50 bouts happening simultaneously across three rinks, drawing in more than 1,000 skaters and 200+ referees.
As Scotland’s first team to become recognised by WFTDA, Auld Reekie Roller Girls have always worked hard and competed at the highest level and it doesn’t get much higher than bouting with the big girls at ECDX. Fresh from placing fourth in Europe at the Track Queens Tournament in Berlin in November, the Twisted Thistles are guaranteed to be fighting fit and ready to take on the best that Philly’s got to offer.
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!
ARRG's Twisted Thistles in Helsinki. Courtesy of Marko Niemela
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 🙂
Ciderella dodges around a Helsinki player. Courtesy of Marko Niemela.
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 6th October 2012. Stay tuned for more details but get the date in your diary now!
It has been all hands on deck since the last ARRG roundup, so let’s catch you up on the latest.
On 25 March, the Cannon Belles went to Perth to play the Fair City Rollers‘ Fear Maidens. Despite the exceptionally nice Scottish weather, ARRG fans were many and the atmosphere was lovely. The Belles played a strong game, and though the Maidens fought hard, the final score ended up 324 to 65 for the Belles.
Photo courtesy of Thomas Mathieson
Home Season Draws to a close
Shortly after, the Cherry Bombers played against the Skatefast Club to find the opponent for the Leithal Weapons in the final of ARRG’s first home season. We saw formidable skating from both sides, but the Skatefast Club won with 186 to 155. What a great bout!
The final then consisted of a delectable double header. The Cherry Bombers started the evening by playing GRG’s Hell’s Belles, and both sides showed excellent sportswomanship. The final score was 214 to 38 for the Hell’s Belles.
And, finally, it was time for the Skatefast Club to play the Leithal Weapons. The bout was spectacular and had the audience at the edge of their seats more than once. In the end the Leithal Weapons were victorious, despite a skate malfunction from Leithal’s jammer, Admiral Attackbar. The final score was Leithal Weapons 159, and Skatefast Club 126.
Photo courtesy of Thomas Mathieson
The after party was just as memorable as the first home season it celebrated, not least thanks to our hosts at Elbow.
The Home Season awards, voted for by all three teams, went to :
Admiral Attackbar: Best Jammer
Alma Geddon: Best Blocker
Stefanie Skinner: MVP
Eurocrash
Photo courtesy of Steve Newton
Unfortunately, The Skatefast Club’s Crazylegs missed out on the season final fun, but showed her support in a yellow outfit while playing as part of the European All-Stars Invitational Team at ‘Anarchy: Euro Crash‘ in London. The event saw a team made up of the best skaters around Europe, including skaters from Stockholm Roller Derby, Glasgow Roller Derby, Bear City Roller Girls and Stuttgart Vallery Roller Girls.
Crazylegs said about the weekend: ‚‘it was an enjoyable, tough hard fought bout and a pleasure to skate with so many skaters from Euro teams‘.
COWABUNGArrg!
Photo courtesy of Marko Niemela
Next on the busy ARRG schedule was an away game against Helsinki Roller Derby‘s All-Star Ninja Turtles. The Twisted Thistles travelled to Helsinki en masse to bout and followed it up by running a boot camp for members of HRD the next day.This was a huge benchmark for the team, as it was the first bootcamp ARRG have ever run, and to great success. The Helsinki girls were massively welcoming and gave us lots of lovely feedback from the weekend, which included a day of of drills, covering agility, packwork, strategy, and a scrimmage.
Watch this space for more news about ARRG bootcamps closer to home!
London Calling!
On 19 May the Thistles were on the road again, this time heading south to London to play the Suffra Jets. The game was great to watch – and the Suffra Jets came away with the win. The final score clocked in at 221 – 103 to the Suffra Jets. However, the weekend was far from over. The Thistles took it easy at the afterparty, because the next day, they played in a WFTDA sanctioned closed-door bout against London’s all star travel team, London Brawling. Brawling, a mighty opponent, fielded their strongest lineup, but ARRG fought for every point and the score ended up 667-18 to Brawling. Though the score differential may have been record breaking, the Thistles rose to the challenge and used the game as a chance to learn and grow as a team. We can’t wait to play them again!
Photo Courtesy of Steve Newton
The Belles bout Kent
Just the weekend after, the Cannon Belles played the Kent Roller Girls. The bout was excellent to watch as the scoreline stayed tight throughout the game, but in the end, the Belles came out on top with a win of 216-150.
Awards for ARRG were:
Best Blocker: Bint Imperial
Best Jammer: Lilo & Stitches
MVP: Circuit Breaker
Photo courtesy of Thomas Mathieson
10 to go to Berlin!
This weekend, the Thistles are on the road yet again, travelling to Berlin for a WFTDA sanctioned game on 16 June. The short roster will see a number of newer skaters make their debut, but we are sure they will fit right in and give the Berlin Bombshells all they’ve got!
This won’t be the last time we see Berlin this year, however, as the Twisted Thistles have been accepted to attend the first ever WFTDA sanctioned tournament for European WFTDA teams this November in Berlin. We’ll keep you abreast of any developments with this, but for now, the dates are 16-18 November 2012.
Last but not least…
As always, ARRG will be at the Fringe Festival this year! Catch the Twisted Thistles playing Cardiff’s Tiger Bay Brawlers on 4 August, and witness the Cannon Belles taking on the Dublin Roller Girls on 18 August. Watch this space for more information and to find out where you can find tickets to these unmissable bouts.
Are you addicted to ARRG and want to know the latest first? Then follow us on Twitter or Facebook and always be the first to know! You can find us on Facebook at facebook.com/auldreekierollergirls and on Twitter at @AuldReekieRG.
Fancy photographing our bouts? Just drop us on an email here.
It is exciting derby times we live in! Don’t miss any of it! – ARRG xx
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!
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.
Velosidy and Admiral Attackbar by Rick Stirling
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:
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 21st 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 25th 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.
Bint Imperial and Minnie Riot by Rick Stirling
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 25th 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 28th 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!
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
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
Juicy Lucy
Best Jammer:
Blitzkrieg Baby
Juicy 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.
