Earlier this year, MRD went 'up North' to play Dundee Roller Girls. The journey was fraught with an obscenely early start and heavy snow but we had an amazing time up there and Dundee's Silvery Tazers were lovely hosts. That said, the journey there and back in the same day was something we all swore we'd never do again. Then we got ourselves a bout with the Granite City Roller Girls' Northern Fights in Aberdeen. Aberdeen. That's even further away than Dundee! So of course we said we'd do it but this time with sensible travel arrangements involving a two-night stay. Much more civilised.
Our MRD team was a little depleted as Pinky Fingaz got the lurgy a few days before but off we headed to Aberdeen in a vehicular mishmash of two minibuses, a car, trains and planes. Somehow we all made it there in time for brunch before the bout. I have to confess that I got very excited when we arrived at the bout venue, the Beach Leisure Centre, as it was by the sea, which always gets me giddy, but it was soon time to focus on the bout.
Captained by Vic Tori Bee, MRD took a lead initially, getting ahead by 13-1 after a couple of jams but Granite City started fighting back immediately, getting the score to 19-MRD GCRG-16 by 10 minutes in. GCRG's Fight Cub caused our jammers some problems but MRD pulled away to lead 44 to 28 after some high-scoring jams from Vic Tori Bee and Scary Wollstonecraft. It was a close game throughout with some hard hits on both sides. MRD had some newer players who held their own on the track and I think surprised some of the opposition. The half time score was MRD 62 - 55 GCRG with both teams having it all to play for in the second half.
Granite City came out fighting in the second half and took the lead by 77-70 after some big jams and seemed to be hitting harder. A 17 point jam from Scary took us ahead again to 115 - 105 and we were all trying very hard to stay calm. Usually from the bench I'm not taking any notice of the scores but this was as tense and as close a game as I've ever seen and the last few jams were nailbiters. The last jam just meant us getting lead jammer and calling it, which we did in style and left us with a winning score of 124 to 121. Phew.
Massive thanks to Granite City for hosting the bout, feeding us afterwards (why does playing derby make pizza so much more tasty?) and for putting some of our team up in their lovely homes. On a personal level, I probably enjoyed this bout more than any other and was so glad we took our time with travel meaning that we got chance to have a look round the beautiful Granite City. I also found out why no one local drinks Irn Bru on tap and have learnt a valuable lesson. I've also learned that driving 14 hours for a roller derby match is perfectly acceptable, providing it's not in one day.
