Since vacationing to New York with family, I am having a tough time attempting to catch up with my blogging. So this is what you get… a quick snapshot of what actually happened a week and a half ago.

On the last weekend of June, my weekend plans were sent into a spiral spin… Friday night, I wasn’t feeling well so I crashed around 9:00 pm, leaving Roger to enjoy Tan Sister Radio and Scarlet Symphony at the Ken Club. At least one of us could represent.

Saturday, we headed up to LA at 11 am for the first banked track tournament since roller derby’s revival in 2002. The tournament was set up with an A bracket and a B bracket of 3 teams each. The LA Derby Dolls (Ri-ettes), Texas Roller Derby (TXRD), and Team Awesome were in the A bracket, while LA Derby Dolls (Golden Girls), OC Rollergirls and the San Diego Derby Dolls.

I wasn’t skating this tournament (as I have little practice on the banked track), so I offered to manage on Saturday. The tournament was set up over two days. On Saturday, each team would play a 30-minute game (two 15-minute halves) with the other teams in their respective brackets. On Sunday, there would be two games: (1) first and second place team in the A bracket and (2) the third place team in the A bracket versus the first place team in the B bracket.

After the upset last month against the LA Derby Dolls, I thought that making it to Sunday was nearly impossible. So I made plans to go to the Del Mar Fair (yes, it’s true name) to see the Demolition Derby. I love derby of all kinds!

To my surprise, as well as to the surprise of nearly everyone at the tournament, San Diego Derby Dolls ruled over the B bracket Saturday. First with a crushing victory over Orange County, then in a vicious battle against LA Derby Dolls’ Golden Girls.

So hastily, I made the decision to return on Sunday to help with the game. I did drive up and back on both days. What it would take to fill my Mini Cooper’s tank is about half of what it would cost to get a hotel room for the night. Plus, their is something to be said for wearing clean underwear and sleeping in your own bed.

I would love to recap the gory details of each of the games, but I would like to eventually get caught up with the rest of my life and blog so I will leave it to the ones who have already covered the insanity.

Derby News Network – covered the tournament, play-by-play with commentary (archived for your enjoyment) and summerized the aftermath including an official statement by the head ref regarding the issues with the rules.

Los Anjealous – an LA blogger who conducts semi play-by-play of every LA bout as well as this tournament (Here is part 2)

LADD’s flickr photostream

End the end, I will say this… the rules were written by a doosh (his words, not mine) there by causing much controversy and confusion. The crowd was chanting “bullsh*t” at one point in the tournament. But despite the turmoil, those who attended this tournament can attest to witnessing some of the most amazing derby that they have every seen – nail biting endings, blocks that make you cringe, strategic plays that seemed impossible to execute – this weekend had it all.

This Saturday’s games were incredible. The first bout at 6pm was San Diego’s Hard Corps matched against Montreal’s All-Stars. The second bout at 7pm (which I skated in) was San Diego Derby Doll All-Stars against Sac City Rollers.

From the start, I thought that both of San Diego’s teams were going to take a win. Some of the reasons are as follows:

Montreal was only able to bring out 11 of their players
Both Montreal and Sac City were wearing the brightest colors ever imaginable (neon green and bright orange respectively). Bright colors equals easier to see.
The hype was low. Although there was not much video footage to base a feeling off of, neither of their teams hit the radar as being super hard or one to watch for.

I really didn’t get to watch much of the first game, but from what I did see, Montreal was playing a very tight game. Closing holes if there were any, holding back players with strategic timing and Hard Corps just couldn’t seem to get it together quick enough. By the time they realized what was happening in any given play, it was really too late to react. The score ended up being 101 to 68. Sadly, a blow out.

After watching this happen, I started to rethink the Sac City game. I did not want to underestimate them and have another blowout to recover from. I did not want to go there. I wanted to win.

As we were warming up, I started sizing up their players. Who was skating with a decent stride. Who was working together. What were they doing to warm up – varying speed, stretching, discussing strategy. To each their own, but you can learn a bit about players when you just take a few moments to watch them skate. I noticed that many of the skaters from Sac City were agile on their feet and had a good stride. None of them were particularly large in size, no big walls.

The first couple of jams took me by surprise, we shut them down consistently until the score was about 20 to 0. It felt good. We were holding the front, keeping them where we wanted them. about halfway through the first half, we were starting to tire and it was beginning to show. They started to take over the front of the pack more, but we still were in the lead. At halftime we were leading, but only by 11 points (still within reach).

We took a few breaths, gathered our thoughts and went back in to play. The second half was good. The energy remained high and both teams were scoring evenly. Although at this point, we felt we had control… but Sac City was always close behind. In the end the score was 58 to 42, still pretty close.

Some of my favorite moments of the games were:

When Ruthless knocked out one of the outside pack refs and skated off with him on the floor.
Steely was lead jammer and had lapped the pack and waited til the other jammer was nearing the back of the pack before calling it off to waste some time since we were ahead. Note to other jammers, when you see this happening to you speed the hell up, don’t slow down. You are only wasting time.

The after party at Padre Gold, the American Legion bar down the road was a riot. The night was full of chanting Canadians, shots of Jager or tequila, karaoke fools and an insane arm wrestling derby girls. You really should think about being there next time.

After blowout after blowout, the San Diego Derby Dolls Allstars finally win a bout against Arizona Roller Derby (AZRD) in town from Phoenix, AZ. From the beginning of the season which started in February, the SDDD Allstars have been matched against some of the best skaters in the country… Blood and Thunder Training Camp Allstars, Angel City Derby Girls (ACDG)Team Awesome and banked-track, sister league LA Derby Dolls. If you are not hip with these teams, all you have to know is that their skaters are phenomenal, the best of the best.

That being said, I was nervous when I had heard that AZRD was coming to play. This is a team that beat Rat City Rollergirls from Seattle (who we are scheduled to play this year). Again that may not mean much to you non-roller derby savvy folk, but again top of the top. I mentally prepared for a blowout, yet again.

After the first few jams I was slightly surprised that we were in the lead. We have been here before, can’t get too excited. I still had to put forth everything. By the end of the first half were I jammed for 5 seconds before the buzzer, we were at 33 while AZRD was only at 13.

The second half was rough on me. I was the jammer (the one who scores points) in the first jam of the second half. That apparently brought all of the wind out of me and my focus. Luckily the rest of my team kept it going. One of the girls from AZRD came flying into San Diego’s bench from a hit to the face by one of our girls. She was a bit dizzy as she got up… she seemed to be doing ok later as I joined her after I fell on one of my knees during the game. I have previous knee problems… I hate to take chances when it acts up. The final score was 38-51… AZRD-SDDD.

Sadly I have no pictures of this momentous occasion yet, but will post later. This was definitely a rare win these days but always fun and always exciting. If you are bored Saturday, June 7, come watch derby!