Happy New Year from MRD!

I can't believe it's 2012 already and MRD is into its third calendar year. We've been pretty busy since our last post with another two bouts under our belts for the Check'er Broads (away against Severn Roller Torrent and home against Croydon Roller Derby). Our men's team, New Wheeled Order, played their first full home bout against Tyne and Fear at Mistletoe and Grime and showed just how far they've come. We now have a second women's team, the Phoenix Furies, who will be debuting soon - watch this space! If this wasn't exciting enough, 2012 is shaping up to be a busy year with the Check'er Broads' first bout of the year less than a month away.

2011 has been such an exciting year for us at MRD. Personally I realised my dream of playing roller derby in Manchester in front of friends and family and have enjoyed every second on the track with with my team mates immensely. I'm seeing plenty of updates on Facebook, Twitter and the like from newer members of MRD who have been well and truly bitten by the derby bug and who have brought new and exciting ideas to the table as well as seeing just how much this league means to those who've worked tirelessly since its inception in 2010 to make it into the wonderful creature it now is.

We've got plans for our new intakes as well as we find ourselves in high demand and it's lovely to see so many teams blossoming all over the world as derby takes hold. There was a sterling representation from MRD on the online chat whilst the first Roller Derby World Cup was being streamed and the enthusiasm our members have never ceases to amaze me.

Now we're in the very futuristic-sounding 2012 (where's my hoverboard?) with new skaters, much bouting fun and a new website ahead, we're all making plans to improve ourselves and strengthen our teams so watch out world!

I will leave you with one of my favourite photos of the year, taken by our wonderful photographer, Shirlaine Forrest.

Copyright Shirlaine Forrest 2011

Wishing you all a very happy, bashy 2012!

- Nyte Owl

Move on up

MRD have been skating a long and bumpy road lately. It's not cool to moan, but as any fledgling team, group or organisation will know, often the way that things begin is not the way they can continue.  Sometimes introducing any sort of change can be the biggest challenge of all.

Bearing this in mind there has been a LOT of change in the MRD camp this year. As the club began to grow the members of MRD expressed a desire for decision-making to be more democratic and fair. We ran polls, allowing people to nominate themselves for project manager positions within the club (e.g. Treasurer, PR, Bouts manager... to name but a few) and we also voted in an overall president of the club.

We recently voted on whether we should move training venues, from The Arcadia in Levenshulme to The Sporting Edge in Openshaw. It was a difficult decision as the club was founded at The Arcadia, but 87% of the votes were in favour of the move and it meant we could have our own space in an already fully-functional environment whilst remaining centrally located. So we're now settling into our new venue!

We remain as inclusive as we have always been but we are currently putting in place ways to make skating with MRD safer, fairer and more encouraging for skaters both new and old. Setting up a junior roller derby club requires skaters and coaches to be safeguarded, whatever their age. This is something we're looking to set up with help from the owners of Sporting Edge. We're also fine-tuning our training sessions to make sure they fully cater to the needs of all ability levels - there'll be an announcement soon about our next run of the Mega Heroes 12-week course for new skaters.

Our future bouts have now been planned up until the end of 2012, meaning we will soon have an actual bouts calendar for everyone to plan their weekends around :P On top of all this and more, we are trying to get a brand spanking new website designed and up and running! The current website was knocked up in under two weeks to promote our first bout Wonderbrawl and has been long overdue a re-design. We now also have a fantastic sponsor in the form of Extreme Largeness and an official team photographer in the ever lovely Shirlaine Forrest. So much work is going on behind the scenes it is unreal!

The main aim of all this hard work is for us to be more organised, fairer and stronger than ever before - and although it has been a tough road so far I reckon we can pull it off. We *are* MRD after all.

Derby love to you all - it's our love of this mad sport that keeps us trying to make MRD the best it can be.
- Kate Push

"Action and reaction, ebb and flow, trial and error, change - this is the rhythm of living. Out of our over-confidence, fear; out of our fear, clearer vision, fresh hope. And out of hope, progress." - Bruce Barton

Copyright - Shirlaine Forrest

MRD have a new home!

Manchester Roller Derby are proud to announce that we have a brand spanking new home at Sporting Edge in Openshaw.

Watch this space for info on open scrimmages - we'll be starting them up again for anyone past minimum skills as soon as we're all settled in.  And look out for an announcement of our next Zero to Hero programme coming shortly!

We also have a new website address at www.manchesterrollerderby.co.uk, so head on over and show us some love.  Keep your eyes peeled as things will be changing on our website very soon (and very much for the better!)

MRD v GCRG - A road trip to Aberdeen

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.

A Jolly Holislay

As our lovely Kate Push said below, we've had a pretty busy few weeks in MRD Land - what with marathons, bouts, getting a new amazing bunch of Heroes... we were all in definite need of a holiday. This was obviously misheard and we were packed off to Grantham to play in Jolly HoliSlay, hosted by the Lincolnshire Bombers. 

Our car full of roller girls, NSOs and chauffeur took the scenic route, allowing for a quick viewing of the crooked spire in Chesterfield and making it seem like we were off on our hols across the rolling hills. It was a double-header so we got to watch Lincolnshire's B team, The Damebusters, take on Newcastle's B team, the Whippin' Hinnies, in the first game of the day.  All the while our girls were mentally preparing themselves to take on the Bombshell Bruisers under the guidance of our captain for the day, Suffra-Jett and our bench and line-up managers Gwai-Lo and Darth Sebious.

I think it's fair to say that this was one of the more challenging bouts MRD have played and the team knew that we needed to be at the top of our game. I was sub for the game and usually this means feeling a tiny bit sad when you don't get to play though still thrilled to be watching and cheering on our team. This time, I was genuinely happy not to play as it was SUCH an awesome and nail-biting game to watch. I was really pleased to be able to take a step back and realise just how much we've grown as a team over the last few months and was immensely proud of our ladies.

From the first whistle it was clear this was to be a very physical game. Lincolnshire have some very good, very hard hitters but MRD started as we meant to go on with some tough blocking from our side. In the first jam, Fale took out two blockers single handedly, not even flinching and leaving two bemused girls on the floor. G-Whizz made the most of a power jam bringing the score to MRD 8 LBRG 12, before our box filled up and LBRG did exactly the same. Helli Chopper and Catfight Candy did some top notch jamming for LBRG, widening the score gap slightly, although Psycho-Sis soon put a stop to that doing an excellent job of holding Candy up whilst Vic Tori Bee ripped through the pack to pull back some points for MRD.

Our PollyKiller got a power jam and soon we were back up to 52 against their 72 points. A combination of power jams and totally on-the-ball blocking saw the half time score being settle at LBRG 80 - 73 MRD. SEVEN POINTS! The Bombshell Bruisers were not going to make it easy for us to score points but we really made the most of every opportunity to do so.

The score grew to MRD 109 - 115 LBRG and it was still anyone's game. I was starting to feel a tiny bit glad not to be playing as the hits came in hard and fast. LBRG's Diss Continued certainly caused our jammers some problems but we fought until the final whistle. The end score was MRD 128 - 145 LBRG but we were really pleased with our performance and with having held our own against a team as good as Lincolnshire.

A huge thanks to the Bombers for being wonderful hosts (even providing us with goodie bags in the dressing room) and for giving us a good game. Thanks as always to the refs, especially our very own SkaBarella who did a fantastic job of head reffing the NRG-LBRG bout.

We've got a busy few months coming up. Bout-wise we've a team of MRD-ers taking part in the UK's first co-ed bout in Sheffield on 17th September, the same day that an MRD contingent will be heading out to the seaside for Skatemania - an outdoor roller derby tournament.  Before all that is our fundraiser, MuRDer in the Dark, to get us up to Aberdeen at the end of the month for a much-anticipated bout against the Granite City Roller Girls. It's certainly an exciting time to be part of this wonderful thing we call derby!

See you on the track!

Nyte Owl

Photos courtesy of me and my husband, Danny (RoswellJam Photography)

MuRDer in the DARK - An MRD fundraiser

I must apologise - it's been deathly quiet around here of late... but then again, we've been super busy!

Little bit late I know, but Carry on Jamming scores went a little like this: Manchester Roller Derby 115 - 108 Newcastle Roller Girls, Campers 112 - 69 Cruisers. It was a great day, if super sweltering - but we mustn't grumble when we actually get nice weather and it was so lovely to meet the lasses of NRG's Whippin' Hinnies.

Happy Campers and Cruisers! (photo: Jason Ruffell)

What a strange bunch... (photo: Shirlaine Forrest)

Last Saturday we bouted in Grantham against Lincolnshire Bombers' established travel team, The Bombshell Bruisers - and did ourselves proud! It was a close game, with only seven points in it at half-time and the final score settled at LBRG 145 - 128 MRD. I was so proud of how the team really came together and it was a massively enjoyable game. Big thanks to LBRG for being fantastic hosts.

LBRG meet MRD (photo: Paul Needham)

COMING UP...

We're hosting a fundraiser!

Friday 2nd September <-- Get this date in your diaries (actually, it's less than two weeks away... just make sure you're there!)

We're hosting a fundraiser to try and physically get us to Aberdeen to play the mighty Granite City Roller Girls at the end of September.

Not only will we have some of Manchester's finest bands in the form of Bisonhammer and Dangerous Aces, but the amazing Upside Down Ladies will also be showing off their pole dancing skills.

Come and try our very own cocktail 'Rink Splash', watch some awesome bands, marvel at flexible ladies, get to know some skaters and throw on your glad rags for a chance to win a prize.

The dress theme is 1940s/film noir. So guys - don your spats, braces and fedoras, and dolls - work those big curls, red lips and sultry dresses

Doors open at 7pm, first band at 8pm. £4 entry @ Base Bar, 42 Charles Street, Manchester, M1 7DB (near the BBC building on Oxford Road and where Po Na Na used to be).

VERY EXCITED!


See you all there :)
- Kate Push

Meet the Mega Heroes!