Saturday in Indy / Cincinnati Rollergirls

After getting our taxes done and running some errands, Dianne and I drove to Indianapolis for the day. We started out looking around at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Here is Dianne looking at a painting in the European exhibit area. According to their website, it is the fifth largest art museum in the country. It is a huge facility with lots of work on display. Except for special exhibits, there is no charge and parking is free. Definitely worth a stop if you're in the area. We spent a few hours there and didn't see the whole place. I'd like to go back when it's warm and check out the gardens and outdoor sculpture on the grounds.

We drove downtown to catch an early dinner. Downtown was pretty dead on a Saturday except for a few block radius around the Monument Circle area. That was hopping with people! We didn't have too much time to look around, but we saw lots of beautiful buildings driving around.

After eating we went to the Toyota Blue Ribbon Pavilion at the Indiana State Fairgrounds to watch the Cincinnati Rollergirls' Black Sheep team take on the Naptown Roller Girls in the "Lucky Harm" bout. It was the first match of the 2008 season for CRG and I was excited to see them back in action. We were sitting with a small group of CRG fans in the bleachers that included Mama Sac -- Sista Sacralicious' mom. I didn't take many photos, but Jeff and Jason were both there taking photos and Miss Print had a video camera. Look for bout photos and videos from them.

I have to say I was a little worried after the first two jams of the event. The Naptown team came out strong and started out 10-0 over Cincinnati. But that must have been first bout jitters for Cincinnati. After settling down, the CRG team got into their groove. With tough blocking to slow and often times prevent the Naptown jammer from getting through the pack, an amazing effort from the jammers, and some good strategy calls around when to stop the jam, the CRG team chipped away Naptown's early lead and ended up 9 points ahead after the first period.

The second period was all Cincinnati. They started out strong to widen their lead and continued their strategy to shut down almost all Naptown scoring. The CRG blocking was truly a team effort to control the inside line and make it almost impossible for the Naptown jammer to pass. Blu Bayou and Sk8r Kinney were fantastic as pivots and Panterrorize and Juwana Hurt are amazing starting at the back of the pack and moving up when necessary. But all the blockers in between contributed and worked as a team to both shut down the Naptown jammers and help the CRG jammers through the pack. The pack was skating extremely fast which must have been a heck of a workout for the skaters! That speed made the jammer's job all that much harder to get through the pack and then sprint to catch the pack again. Kudos to Sadistic Sadie, Hannah Barbaric, and Roseanne Scarr for their jamming effort. There were quite a few grand slams.

I didn't take many photos since we were sitting back from the track. Here are a couple grainy shots. The first photo below shows CRG skaters (in black and white) Hannah Barbaric wearing the jammer star along with Juwana Hurt and Ruffn' the Passer ahead of the Naptown skaters in red.



This photo shows Sadistic Sadie jamming with Panterrorize blocking in front of a Naptown skater. I like the background of that photo showing coach Pale Rider squatting down in front of the CRG bench.



Naptown was able to score some in the third period, but so did Cincinnati to the extent that they were able to keep their score almost twice that of Naptown. Don't get me wrong -- the Naptown skaters are no slouchers. Naptown was skating hard and fast and there were lots of CRG skaters receiving solid blocks (although I have to say they didn't all look legal :^) ). Most notable for me was the tall Naptown pivot Touretta Lynn. Cincinnati ended with a strong 59 to 32 win over Naptown. Congratulations to the Cincinnati Rollergirls for a great win! It's going to be another exciting season of derby action in the Cincinnati Gardens.

After the match I was able to talk to a couple folks and Dianne got pictures of me with Sk8r Kinney (first pic) and Panterrorize. Sk8r Kinney did an amazing job blocking -- especially for a couple jams when CRG had a couple skaters in the penalty box. She was able to hold back the Naptown jammers for most of the jam by controlling the inside line. A great effort! Panterrorize was the team captain and as always did a great job blocking.

Don't forget the Cincinnati Rollergirls' pre-season party / kickoff event this Saturday at the Cincinnati Gardens. The home opener for the CRG is April 12th. Be there to cheer them on and catch the derby fever.

CRG -- Scars and Stripes

On Saturday evening, Dianne and I went to watch the Cincinnati Rollergirls' Scars and Stripes event at the Cincinnati Gardens. It was a match between the two CRG teams -- the Dames of Destruction and the Full Metal Corsets. Not sure of the exact final score, but the Dames won pretty decisively.

Just by chance, Miss Print's parents ended up sitting next to us along side the track. Her dad was busy taking photos as she predicted. However, Miss Print's mom wasn't covering her eyes. She did shout "that was mean" when Miss Print fell a couple times after some hard blocks. That comment was immediately followed up by "she's so little." I suppose taken together they fall into the eye covering category. Miss Print had some good jams and her parents were proud to see her scoring against the tough Dames team. It was great her folks could see a match in person (and get a break from work at the new house).

The Dames did very well right from the start. Sadistic Sadie was on fire as usual, making jamming look easy and scoring a lot. There's a reason she was asked to join Team Awesome at RollerCon. Roseanne Scarr was doing a lot of jamming for the Dames as well. Not perfect, but I like this picture of Roseanne taken during the warm-ups. The Dames' blockers, led by Panterrorize and Arche Enemy, were tough. Blu showed her skill as a pivot for the Dames.

I thought the Corsets were doing well at the various positions, but things just didn't click together for the whole team. Even though the Corsets fell behind early, they didn't give up and seemed to pick up the pace to stay about 40 points behind the Dames for the rest of the bout. Sadie was doing some taunting of the Corsets and apparent "trash talking" while skating. It's fun for the crowd and I'm sure motivational for the Corsets. Juwana Hurt and Sk8r-Kinney stood out as blockers for the Corsets. And it was good to see Collier Mama back in there skating, at least for a while until she was ejected. I missed what led up to that. EMolition was doing a lot of the jammer work for the Corsets and scoring quite a bit.

Hits and misses from the match? Both a hit and miss was the "half time" entertainment from Dante's Gypsy Circus. They were good, but it ran a bit too long. Other hits -- easy to see names and numbers on the new Corset shirts; the use of spotlights for intros and half time was a good addition; and as always the Rollergirls play to the crowd and that makes it fun. The extra effort -- things like staying for autographs and photos (me with Rocky Balrolla of the Corsets), Morgan Donor tossing out organs, and Sk8 Crime's super soaker are just a few examples. That effort (along with increased publicity) explains why last night's crowd was large! I believe Matt or Private announced there were approximately 1100 people! A minor Miss -- no one skating around with the last jam total score on a white board. Fortunately the announcers were good about reading the jam score -- and the real time scoring helps too.

I posted some photos from the match in a Flickr set you can see here. Plan ahead for their next match at the Gardens on August 25th -- a double header!

Update on 7/24: The jam score was a miss on my part! Thanks to Menace for politely pointing out in her comment that the jam score was on the giant scoreboard over the main floor (when she was really thinking what a goofball, all he had to do was look up!)

Minnesota 121, Cincinnati 140

Last night Dianne and I went to see the Cincinnati Rollergirls take on the Minnesota Garda Belts at the Cincinnati Gardens. As expected, it was a hard hitting battle. But unlike my cousin Brenda's (who lives in Minnesota) prediction on my pre-bout post, The Cincinnati Rollergirls kept the lead from start to finish and defeated the Garda Belts. Check out my photo set from the match here.

The Cincinnati Rollergirls' All-Stars team really did an excellent job as a team. The jammers did get a workout, as the Minnesota blockers made it tough to get through the pack. Sadistic Sadie, shown above with Desicration (Minnesota in green), did a tremendous job jamming. Another big jamming contributor for Cincinnati was EMolition. She is shown here wearing the jammer star with Panterrorize blocking. Just like last month for the Corsets, she had some great jams. There was one jam in the third period, when the score was fairly close, where EMolition scored a lot of points to help seal the victory. I caught this photo as she passed the Cincinnati bench during that jam after easily slipping through the pack. All the jammers, including Sk8 Crime, Roseanne Scarr, and Gummi Lov were working hard and contributed as well and added depth to the Cincinnati team.

It was a tough bout and there was a lot of hard blocking going on. This shot shows Sadie going shoulder to shoulder with the Garda Belt jammer around the turn. I caught this photo just before Panterrorize gave a block to the Minnesota jammer. One reflection of how difficult it was in the pack is this photo of the penalty boards the end of the match. The refs were using this to track minor/major penalties. In general, it's those folks in the pack that were blocking hard that had the most stickers. Just like the last Cincinnati match, I'd say Panterroize, Juwana Hurt, Arche Enemy, and Sk8r-Kinney all stood out. But just like with the jammers, all the pivots and blockers were contributing to make it hard for Minnesota to get through the pack. There were quite a few tumbles to the concrete during the bout. Several folks went down hard including Sk8 Crime, Sadistic Sadie, Ji Spot, and a couple other Garda Belt skaters. Hope there were no serious injuries.

One again, the whole Cincinnati Rollergirl organization made the bout a fun event. Many of those not skating against the Belts were circulating in the crowd, involved with the demo, passing out surveys, or otherwise helping with the event. The half-time prize contest involving the skaters and random people from the crowd was a nice idea. The Minnesota group even brought their team mascot, Tom the Leprechaun who added a little flair. Like last time, the skaters stayed after the event to meet the fans (me pictured here with Sadie) and they also had an after part at the Gardens. At this match, Dianne and I had the honor of sitting trackside on the VIP couch. It was exciting sitting in the "suicide seats" area and it was nice to meet and talk with some more of the group!

Finally, I think the biggest improvement at last night's event was the sound. The announcers were very clear and understandable. Being able to hear easily added a lot to the event.

The Rollergirls must be proud to have won their first match against an out-of-town team -- and to have done it while skating in the Gardens makes it all that much more impressive! Pretty cool! Looking forward to the next match on July 21st.

Red, Black and Blue -- Cincinnati Rollergirls

On Saturday evening, Dianne and I went to the Cincinnati Rollergirls' opening event for the 2007 season: Red, Black, and Blue. It was their first event held at the Cincinnati Gardens. Overall, this event was a quantum leap improvement over their bouts from last year! Their skills have improved a lot -- that made it fun to watch. In addition, they've made many changes that make the event more fun for fans.

The two CRG teams, the Dames of Destruction and the Full Metal Corsets, skated against each other. With Panterrorize and Sadistic Sadie skating for the Dames and several members of the Corsets not skating (notably Collier Mama), I thought it might be a lopsided match. I was wrong. It was a close match the whole way. High scoring too with lots of action. The skaters have really improved a lot!! I know...you've heard that from me before. But they must have worked hard during the off season!

I was struck by how well the pack was structured and how the pack teamwork improved compared to last year. The pivots really were keeping the pack together and the referees were good about not allowing blocks away from the pack. The tight pack made it harder for the jammers to get through, but it was a lot of fun to watch. The pack was doing much better at planning blocks on jammers as well as on opposing blockers to clear the way for a jammer. Foxy and Juwana Hurt for the Corsets and Panterrorize and Arche Enemy for the Dames stood out for me as good blockers. There were also a lot of whips to help the jammers keep up their speed. It was exciting to watch.

The jammers have improved as well. Sadistic Sadie is clearly a strong skater and great jammer, but there are more players now that are challenging her. The photo on the right shows jammers Sadie (in blue) and Sk8Crime (in camo) facing off in one jam. Miss Print had some great jams for the Corsets -- there were at least two where she scored and the Dames jammer had zero. Unlike last year where she might get hung up in the pack, Miss Print was persistent and able to battle through the pack even when blocked. I thought the best new jammer was Tabatha for the Corsets. She is a fast skater that is a great addition to the Corset team. The Corset captains EMolition and Sk8Crime also were good jammers that helped the team stay neck and neck with the Dames. Hopefully with a healthy squad they'll beat the Dames next time.

Finally, it was nice to have relatively few penalties and no brawls. Just good, clean action. It didn't appear anyone was hurt...well, I mean major injury. I'm sure there are a lot of sore skaters today from the hard blocks and falls. But most all of the blocking seemed legal and there weren't any malicious take downs.

On the venue and conduct of the event, the group put a lot of thought into improving the event for the fans. The Gardens is a good choice for their events. Parking is easy and the seats give a good view of the action. Before the start of the bout, the girls gave a demo that briefly explained the pack, the jammers, scoring, and basic blocking. That was a great idea for folks watching for the first time. Other improvements included a nicer event program, light strips making the track boundary easy to see, real time scoring during a jam, and after each jam they had a skater with a whiteboard circle the track to show the individual jam total. That was very nice!

The Rollergirls also go out of the way to involve the crowd. The half time tricycle race for the kids was great. The skaters stayed after the bout to meet fans and sign autographs. Dianne took the photo at the right of me with Miss Print. I noticed she still has a Cincinnati Riots sticker on her helmet (her former team). Also got a photo with Sk8 Crime. Click here to see the Flickr set of photos from the match. We didn't stay for the after party upstairs, but that's another example of the Rollergirls making it fun for all. They also did a lot of PR work before the match. I heard a couple skaters, including Sista Sac, on Friday with Gary Burbank on 700 WLW.

If you haven't been to see the Cincinnati Rollergirls, or went once last year, you have to catch them this season. You'll have a great time. Catch them on June 16th for their match against the Garda Belts from the Minnesota Rollergirls.

Super Roll Sunday II

On Sunday, Dianne and I went to see the Cincinnati Rollergirls’ SRS II (Super Roll Sunday) with Carla and her parents. We had a good time.

Overall, I thought the skaters showed noticeable improvement since the first event. Individually there was a lot of improvement and collectively there was more teamwork evident during the jams. The pace of the action has picked up and the skaters seemed more steady even with an increased amount of jostling and blocking. The pack skaters were making much more of an effort to help their jammers with whips and pushes as well as screening blocks. That made it a lot of fun to watch. There were some hard falls, but it didn’t seem there were as many casualties as at the first event. However, Junk n Trunk took a bad fall and had to be carried off the floor. It looked like the track boundary was a ridge taped to the floor that threw a couple people off balance. I didn’t notice that in Loveland; it seemed like a flat tape boundary there.

The first pairing between the Full Metal Corsets and the Riots was a blow out with the Corsets winning handily. Unfortunate since I was pulling for the Riots. I’m not sure why the Riots had such a hard time since a couple of their jammers (Miss Print and Gummilove ) skated with success in the second match of the day. By the way, you can read Miss Print's take on the match here. One reason the Corsets did well was their blocking. I think it was Collier Mama that was so good at blocking she stalled a couple of the Riot jammers. Incidentally, she has a nice post here and she should be proud. One of the craziest blocks of the match was a block on Bola del Fuego (I think) that pushed her outside when she was going fast on the turn. She went out of bounds, hit the bar on the emergency exit and popped the door open!

The second match between the Bloody Sundaes and the Dames of Destruction was very good. I was cheering for the Dames (by the way, their new logo at left is a huge improvement). They were all tied up at the half. However, in the second half a great effort by Sk8 Crime in one jam and Sadistic Sadie in another put the Dames way ahead. A final jam by Miss Print was icing on the cake for the Dames. The skating in this pairing was fast overall. Both Pantera and Sadistic Sadie did an especially good job zipping around the track and weaving through the pack without losing their momentum.

The event itself seemed better organized and I really appreciated the scoreboard changes. My one wish would be to have the refs show the whiteboard with the jam results to fans as well as the teams and the score table. The sound systems aren’t great and when the emcee talks too quickly, it’s hard to understand.

It was too bad the seats weren’t packed like the first event. The first Bengal game and a Reds home game with them looking for a wildcard spot probably didn’t help. You have a couple more chances to catch the Rollergirls this fall. Don't miss it! Check out their site for ticket info.

PS Sorry for the long post. That’s what you get when I have a 3 hour layover in Salt Lake City.