Derby Does Canberra: an Introduction to Roller Derby

The sounds of the contest rises to a fever pitch – the roar of the crowd joins the simultaneous stomping of feet on the wooden floor, the thuds of body ramming into body and those bodies hitting the hard gymnasium floor. The combatants have names like ‘Dr Hell’, ‘Chitty Chitty Bam Slam’, ‘Trixie Dynamite’ and ‘The Cleaver’.  And no, I’m not watching this spectacle at a ‘WWF’ wrestling match; rather, I’m at a fast paced gladiatorial rink, where roller skates and fishnet stockings mix with the hard hits and body slams. While the street outside belies all this with a beige suburban Canberra façade, inside the Southern Cross Area in Tuggeranong an enthralling contest is underway: the green machine – the ‘Surly Griffins’ are playing the reigning Canberra Roller Derby Champions, the ‘Black ‘n’ Blue Belles’. Two tough, athletic, all-female roller derby teams putting their bodies on the line in the first match of the Canberra Roller Derby League season 2011.

Roller Derby is developing a cult following all over the world. In Canberra and other cities around Australia support for the sport is passionate and growing. The arena I’m sitting in seems to me to be sold out. When I travelled to Melbourne to watch a bout, we lined up for over an hour before we could into the packed arena – indeed, in Melbourne, they’ve had to move to a larger ground (the Melbourne Showgrounds Grand Pavilion) in order to meet the demand for seats.

While Roller Derby is in some ways a very recent phenomenon – the modern version started in the US in 2000 and coming to Australia in 2006 – the sport has gone through several incarnations over the past century. The term ‘roller derby’ was used for the first time in 1922, but back then it was merely a roller-skating endurance race (I should not say ‘merely’ – some of these races lasted 24 hours). In the 40s and 50s, after some advice from the great sports writer Damon Runyon, the game was tweaked to include a points system and set team positions (the rules of the modern game are boxed below). Mixed sex teams were also introduced – and in order to attract bigger audiences – competition started to include exaggerated collisions and hits, and the results of each game became pre-determined according to a script. In the 60s and 70s the roller derby stars were also given ‘stage’ names much like wrestlers in the ‘WWF’ (one of the few things that survives this era in the modern game is the use of stage names for the players). In the 80s and 90s, roller derby hit a low point as it pushed this circus side-show type approach with gimmicks like alligator pits in the middles of a sloped rink.

The revival of Roller Derby into a legitimate sport didn’t come around until 2000, when a group of women in Texas eschewed the theatrics and staging of the old ‘roller-derby’ and focused on building derby as a women-only, grass-roots, independent sporting movement with a focus on athleticism. They rejected the notion that Roller Derby could only be interesting if it were staged (where the women were used as a ‘sexy’ gimmick) and turned it into a proper sporting contest. Now don’t get me wrong, in the modern version of the game there is still a lot of showmanship on display at your average match. At the Canberra and Melbourne bouts I saw warrior face-paint, fishnets, hotpants, oversized Mad Max shoulder pads and an often risqué punk / Goth aesthetic. There is no doubt that Roller Derby is a visual feast as well as an exciting sporting contest, and it is easy to see why it is growing in popularity.

The crowd that comes out in support of these fixtures is an interesting anthropological grouping. While the Melbourne match I saw (Toxic Avengers v the Dead Ringer Rosies) was excellent – the action fast-paced, the contestants brilliant athletes, the pseudonyms hilarious – what I didn’t like so much about the game was the self-consciously cool crowd. Quite frankly, down south they that have too many hipsters: a high a proportion of skinny-jean wearing, anemic, too-cool-to- pick-a-side-and-scream-inarticulate-support, sanguine inner-city urbanites. Fucking hipsters. But not in Canberra – this crowd was friendly but passionate, with a diverse range of Goths, alternatives, families, enthusiastic first-timers and roller derby aficionados, and nary a hipster in sight.

The Canberra league even has a floor-side 18+ ‘suicide zone’ seating area located right at the edge of the playing arena. Now I didn’t see any headlong, ringside crashes into the audience this evening, but they are certainly known to occur. Injuries too, are common in the sport – the most frequent being ankle and wrist sprains, with the occasional concussion and broken bone thrown in. No theatrics anymore in roller derby – all the hits are real.

But back to the action – this night the underdogs – the ‘Surly Griffins’ really took it to the ‘Black and Blue Belles’. The Griffins hit hard, and I mean really hard. Many of the Belles found themselves sprawling off the track and onto the unforgiving floor after a big hit from a Surly Griffin. And where the defence was rock-solid the offense also held their own. One of the Griffin’s Jammers in particular – ‘Amykazee’ – put on a dominating performance, slicing through the Belle defence with ease and racking up the points for the Griffins. However, it was a close contest, every time it looked like the Griffins were building an unassailable lead, the Belles would strike back. One Jam in particular nearly turned the game after the diminutive Belle Captain ‘Shortstop’ – who stands around a foot shorter and half the size of the average player -showed huge heart in picking herself up off the floor after being smashed to the ground on several occasions and putting on a bravura performance by scoring close to 20 points in a single Jam (which, from what I could gather from the announcers, was close to a league record).

While the contest hard, the atmosphere in the stadium was positive and upbeat. Daughters saw their mums; husbands and girlfriends saw their partners in action. I liked in particular the section in the stands reserved for the families of the player, where some of the player’s husbands were wearing shirts saying ‘property of (skater’s name)’.

In the end, the Griffins triumphed in a close contest 150 -132. The close skill levels of the teams, and the talent on display during the game bodes well for the fans in the upcoming season.  

 

The Rules: A roller derby takes place on a circuit track, on which players usually travel counterclockwise. The two teams each send five players onto the track— one jammer (scorer), three blockers (defense), and one pivot. Two start lines are marked on the track: a jammer line, and 30 feet ahead of that, a pivot line. The pivots stand behind the pivot line and all blockers line up behind them in any order they choose. The eight pivots and blockers together are called the pack. A jam is a 2-minute period during which the jammers attempt to score points. After passing the pack the first time, jammers earn one point each time they pass an opposing pivot/blocker. Pivot/blockers attempt to assist their jammer through and out of the pack while simultaneously stopping the opposing jammer from exiting the pack. The first jammer to legally pass all pivots and blockers once the jam begins wins the status of lead jammer for the remainder of the jam. The lead jammer can decide to end the jam at any time before the 2 minutes are up. To impede the progress of the opposing team's jammer, players may block using body parts above the mid-thigh, excluding forearms, hands, and head. At the end of each jam, there is a 30 second break, during which time teams may replace players or switch positions. Each game consists of two 30-minute periods. Major penalties are awarded for illegal or dangerous conduct eg: kicking, tripping or pushing from behind, and see the player sent to the penalty box for 1 minute. If a player receives 7 major penalties in one game they will be ejected. Minor penalties are awarded for illegal play causing only minor impact with other skaters. They are recorded, if a player has 4 they are sent to the penalty box to serve a major penalty.