New Wheeled Order: Year One

Twelve months, fourteen games. A year ago today, Manchester Roller Derby’s New Wheeled Order skated out to face Tyne & Fear in our first ever bout. Now that the season’s over, what better time to indulge in a little nostalgia and take a look back at the wins, losses and lessons learned over the year.

And what a year it’s been...

17th December 2011
Mistletoe & Grime: Home to Tyne and Fear

Okay, so we were a team then. Just. The twelve-man roster that took on Tyne and Fear included some very fresh legs (and shiny skates) and for some reason, the Order’s own Crash Matt was skating for the opposition...

Final score: T&F 206 - 113 NWO

9th June
Home to The Jakey Bites

Around six months behind us, the Jakeys paid us the honour of traveling from all over Scotland to play us in their first bout. With some great skaters - and three of Tyne and Fear  making guest appearances - the Jakeys played an aggressive game, but we’d been working to strengthen our walls since that first loss, and the Scots jammers struggled to break through.

Final score: NWO 272 - 103 TJB

Mens European Roller Derby Championships
Birmingham, July 28th/29th

Two days of derby, with seven teams playing each other in half-hour bouts to earn a top-four spot and continue through to the second day. A half-hour bout sounds easy, but the pace of each game was frantic from the first whistle, and staying focussed and energised was as important as the tactics.

Wins against the Crash Test Brummies, Tyne and Fear and (with a decisive points difference) The Inhuman League, saw the Order go through to day 2 in third place, finishing fourth overall due to a loss in the second of two painfully close games with The Expendables.

Photo by Shirlaine Forrest

The team voted our “game of the tournament” as the second bout with the Toulouse Quad Guards, proving that in roller derby, it’s not always about the win; sometimes it’s about setting a goal and achieving it. Despite the loss, taking so many points off the Quad Guards was a huge achievement for us, and every skater shares the pride in that result.

11th August/15th September
Talk Derby To Me: Away to The Inhuman League
Home to Lincolnshire Rolling Thunder

Two games coming close after the tournament taught us a lesson in the need to stay flexible in your tactics. Our strong defensive approach had been successful to that point, but facing teams playing “old-school” merby, with strong individual play and committed assists, saw us struggling to reform our walls and take control of the game. We took what we learned in both games back to training, and spent the next two months drilling a new style of play for us; our defence is still strong, but now so is our offence...

Final scores: TIL 148 - NWO 138 / LRT 170 - NWO 135

17th November
Shock the UK! Home to the New York Shock Exchange

Photo by Shirlaine Forrest

This game had been in the planning for nearly a year, and was worth the wait. Playing to one of the biggest and most supportive crowds either team had experienced, the game played out as many had expected, with the NYSE taking a convincing win, but again we set ourselves a goal and we achieved it. Never mind our points, the NYSE jammers had to fight for every single one of theirs, and we never gave them a second to relax, keeping the pressure at 100% right to the final whistle.

Final score: NYSE 266 - 59 NWO

2nd December
Away to the Crash Test Brummies

We could have ended the year with an upset, with a frantic first half of aggressive play by the Brummies who - as at the European Championships - forced us to play their game up to the half way point, seeing us in the changing rooms with a two-point deficit. It was a more focussed, calmer and more controlled New Wheeled Order that returned to the track for the second period, taking the lead, and then the game, by keeping tight hold on their jammers, assisting ours through the Brummie walls, and keeping - as far as we could - an empty penalty bin.

Final score: NWO 236 - 123 CTBs

So that was our first year as a bouting team, and if you think that was a big year, you have no idea what we have in store for 2013. We’re coming back bigger, stronger, faster, and with our most ambitious goals yet.

Every skater in the Order would like to thank all of our fans for the love and support we’ve experienced at each game.

Happy Christmas.

Photo by Shirlaine Forrest