photo by Gil Leora

UPDATED! OK, so it wasn’t quite like Joe Louis knocking Max Schmeling cold in 124 second at Yankee Stadium in 1938, but if you were late getting back to your seat at the start of the Double Crossers-Fury match-up this past Saturday night at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago, you missed the fight. The Fury turned out the lights on the Crossers, 128-51, and the damage was done early. The Fury lost to the Manics in January and the Crossers beat the Manics last month by nearly identical scores; conventional wisdom figured these two teams to take it to the wire. But this game had one lead change—at just about 124 seconds in. By the third jam, already up 12-2, the Fury’s Dee Monica catapulted Jackie Daniels into the clear with a textbook whip and The Fury was off and running. Orange jammers pounded the Crossers in the first half with a devastating combination: Ska Face put up 24 of her 34 points in her first five jams; Daniels, who went on to be named Player of the Game, scored points on every jam; 2008 WCR MVP Kola Loka, who scored 41 total points, racked up 15 late in the half by floating past a pair of Crosser blockers—one of the moments of penalty trouble for the Silent Assassins, who actually had fewer total minutes in the box. 

 Crosser Pivot Norma Lee Wright ignited fans in black in the fourteenth jam by yanking co-captain Julia Rosenwinkel to lead jammer status; Georgia on Yer Behind shut down Ska, and Julia Rosenwinkel bullied her way around for four points. When the jam ended, Daniels’ Roller-blue Minx quads flashed on the jumbotron as part of the “Guess the Gear” fan participation game. Before a fan could name her, Daniels was the lead jammer, circling the pack and scoring 9 points. It was that sort of night for the Crossers. The Fury took lead jam twelve times and scored points on thirteen of eighteen jams on the way to an 85-14 halftime lead. 

 The Crossers began the second half with what appeared to be greater commitment to the slow-down game that they used effectively against the Manics. Indycent and Julia Rosenwinkel each had solid jams in the second half; Rosenwinkel scored 23 of her 31 points after intermission, with 13 coming on a pretty thirteenth jam in which she registered two grand slams and picked up deft blocking by Nina Millimeter, Sassy Squash, and Georgia on Yer Behind. Those three skaters hung tough, accounting for 54 of the Crossers’ 77 defensive actions. 

 But the Fury often dominated the pack; Tori Adore, Sargentina, and Red Zeppelin (skating this bout as Brick Fonzo), slammed the door repeatedly on Crosser jammers. The Fury lost focus in the second half, running up the majority of their 112 penalties and outscoring the Crossers by just 3 points in the last thirty minutes.  So, how dominant was the Fury? The Crossers scored just 11 points all night when the Fury was at full strength.

 And “full strength” appears to be how the Fury intends to play this season, mindful of the importance of point spread if there is a tie at the top of the standings at season’s end. In the lead by 80 points with minutes left, Big Orange made few adjustments to the rotation.

 The WCR league season lurches forward again in just two weeks, featuring a complete Fury team against the unpredictable Manic Attackers, both at 2-1. These two teams put on a speed skating clinic when they met to open the season. The Manics won that game by 18, but the Fury is pulling no punches.  Joe Louis has nothing on these ladies.