May the 4th be With You Bout Recap
In the opening home game of our season, our Star Wars themed bout held on – you guessed it – May 4th, our two home teams the Dead Ringers and Los Bandidas Locas faced off. There was a large turnout at the arena and it was great to see all our fans out there in force supporting our teams. Particularly to those who went in Star Wars costumes – you know who you are! The game started with a strong lead for the Dead Ringers at 50-4. Some great jams by the Big BopHer and HB really racked up the points fast on the Ringers side. But the Bandidas weren’t going to take it lying down and managed to claw some hard earned points in the first few jams of the period. This really set the tone for the game to come. For some of the Bandidas it was only their second, even first game, so it was a tough fight against the more experienced Ringers. Some strong jamming by Banana of the Bandidas saw the points increase as the period came to a close. By half time the score was 154-89 to the Dead Ringers. The second period started strong for the Bandidas with some more points scored quickly, but the Ringers’ jammers kept racking up the points too. The score quickly escalated to 176-102 to the Ringers but by then you could see the Bandidas jammers were getting tired. The Ringers’ blockers were taking no prisoners and the Bandidas were having a tough time on track. But they kept getting back up and that’s what counts in roller derby! The second half really showed the camaraderie between the two teams, who do after all play together under the one league. It was great to see some dancing on the line from both teams as they waited for play to start. But the score started to get away from the Bandidas as they visited the penalty box during the second period more frequently, giving the Ringers the chance they needed to really amp up the point differential. The final score was a strong 305-126 to the Dead Ringers. We also raised $240 for Laing House in memory of Rehteah Parsons, as well as collecting several boxes of food donations to Parker St Food Bank. Thank you to all of our supporters who’ve helped make this possible! What a great start to our 2013 home season! You can view photos of the bout, courtesy of Richard Lafortune at http://www.flickr.com/riclaf/sets Main photo also courtesy of Richard Lafortune.
