Rollers rise exponentially awesome

Eve Jeffery

In a mammoth double header, the Bay Rollers took on the 2012 champions Northern Rivers Roller Derby from Lismore, while the Tweed Valley Rollers did battle with their southern sisters from Coffs Coast Roller Derby.

Last year’s top of the table team, the Northern Rivers Roller Derby, got a bit more than they bargained for at Ewingsdale on Saturday night, when the Byron Bay derby team gave them a roll for their money.

Exploiting their ever increasing cohesiveness, The Bay Rollers dogged the Lismore team and kept nipping at the wheels of their skates the entire match.

Fortune moved in the girls from the south’s favour and a couple of power jams late in the match saw the NRRD skate away with a clear victory, but it was still the most exciting Bay Rollers match to grace the boards of the Byron Bay Regional Sports and Cultural Complex thus far. I’d say the Lismore girls will have to have a serious rethink of their strategy for the next clash because if the Bay continue to improve at this exponential rate, they will be looking down at all comers in the not too distant future. The final score was NRRD 173 to TBR 121.

In a double header that saw the Tweed Valley Rollers with just eight skaters take on the Coffs Coast Derby Dolls, punters were treated to a tight fight whose score seemed to get narrower and narrower the further along the game went. Both sides displayed excellent skating and in what was truly an edge of the seat finale, TVR on 223 just tipped CCDD on 205.

The twin bouts were a winner on all levels. ‘Double headers are great for people to come and watch because there are four different styles of roller derby skills and strategy on display’, says Freeky Peeky, president of The Bay Rollers. ‘It doesn’t matter if you’ve never watched roller derby before because it’s such an entertaining sport and it doesn’t take long to work out.’

Roller derby is the fastest growing women’s sport in Australia with over 80 leagues across the country. A fast paced game played on roller skaters, players using their bodies to put effective blocks on the opposition while assisting their own team members. This is a great sport with plenty of action. All of the teams have Facebook pages, so visit them there for more information.