Chicago held a commanding lead throughout the first half, ferrying points onto the scoreboard through the likes of Beth Amphetamine scoring five quick points in the 2nd jam and a handful of other one-pass jams from Shocka Conduit. Boston’s own Killary Clinton was able to gain Lead Jammer and put her team on the board with six points giving her team the lead with a score of 6-5 in the 3rd jam.  Varla Vendetta answered quickly by taking advantage of an Illegal Procedure by Massacre jammer Claire D. Way and racked up a monster 20-point jam through, in part, the hitting of Jackie Daniels, and the score was set 25-6 in favor of WCR.  The flip side of Jackie Daniels’ tenacity landed her a trip to the sin bin, the first of a handful that would later plague the Rollers.  Both Lil’ Paine and Sugar Hits from the Massacre were tirelessly attempting to add to their team’s lead but were stopped short by excellent blocking from deadly accurate sniper Hoosier Mama, and other blockers Sargentina, Jackie Daniels and Blossom Bruiso.  Blossom Bruiso and Sargentina proved to be an excellent 1-2 combination blow landing merciless hit after hit and also landing in the penalty box.  Their hitting made way for Jackie Daniels, who stepped in to jam and scored four points in the 8^th jam.  Claire D. Way showed off some acrobatic skills by jumping over a wall of WCR blockers and was able to beat Beth Amphetamine to Lead Jammer status, netting three points for Boston and leaving the score at 38-9 in the 10^th jam.  With 6:45 left in the first half, Sugar Hits from the Massacre got Lead Jammer and a Grand Slam and the score was 63-24.  Chicago went to the locker room at half-time with a 76-29 lead showing that they weren’t going to let this game peter out easily.

The second half proved to be a different story, though, and Boston came out from half-time looking as though they had just studied hours of WCR bout footage, evidenced in their amped-up defensive playing. The first jam started with Varla Vendetta facing off against Claire D. Way.  Varla Vendetta went to the box with a Multi-Player Block major penalty and Claire D. Way took full advantage of the power jam, putting up an impressive 19 points for the Boston Massacre.  Though Boston’s blockers were working hard to hold their own in the pack, penalties against WCR are what allowed the Massacre to move closer to evening up the scoreboard. Both teams were fighting back and forth with their jammers scoring quick, one-pass jams with Boston blockers trying to stand up to the relentless assault of the WCR blockers.  Hoosier Mama kept the heat turned up on Boston and was able to help Shocka Conduit through the pack, getting WCR over the century mark and setting the score at 101-53.  This didn’t slow the Massacre, though, and with 17:45 left on the clock, Killary Clinton put up a monster 24-point jam while Athena DeCrime was sent to the penalty box.  Even with all of the penalties, Beth Amphetamine was able to bring the crowd back into the bout with every lap on the track and every point scored, and the crowd was on its feet.  At 13:30 left, the score was only 30 points apart at 110-80.  Shocka Conduit faced off against Sugar Hits in the 11^th jam and put another quick four points on the board.

With the hits coming relentlessly and the penalty minutes adding up, Boston inched their way closer and closer up the scoreboard.  Sugar Hits, Killary Clinton and Claire D. Way were mounting a comeback via one-pass jams and a couple big multiple pass jams that racked up 35 points in total and gave the crowd even more reason to step in and voice their feelings.  With 2:41 left to go, Claire D. Way lined up against Beth Amphetamine and got Lead Jammer.  Beth Amphetamine was sent to the penalty box with a major penalty and the crowd began to boo the opposing team and yell “Defense!”  Claire D. Way came off the track on a major Elbow penalty after tallying nine points for her team and setting the score at 121-115 in favor of the WCR.

Boston’s jammers were able to brave a vicious salvo of hits issued by a tiring WCR team and pull to just within six points before the final buzzer sounded.   Though the Boston bench tried hard to marginalize the WCR lead, it was sheer grit and determination that kept the Windy City Rollers All-Stars alive.

The Windy City Rollers All-Stars face off next against the Rocky Mountain Rollergirls at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago on August 21st, 2010. A win against Rocky Mountain could raise WCR up significantly in the national standings and set the tone for an interesting WFTDA championship to be held in Chicago in November.

Kola then teamed up with Beth Amp to race the 2000 meter relay, where they dusted the competition and took home a gold medal.

Retired Manic Attacker Mimi Me-Ow also raced in the national championship, making it into the finals in two of her three division races.

Congratulations to Kola and Beth Amp on their excellent showing! Also, don't forget that you can catch Beth in action this summer during the WCR All-Stars season; the next game is on July 31 at UIC Pavilion.

By Thomas Gerbasi

Four bouts between The Gotham Girls Roller Derby All-Stars and the Windy City Rollers All-Stars.

Four wins for Gotham.

Yet as the fifth meeting between the teams Derby News Network ranks #1 (Gotham) and #9 (Windy City) approaches this Friday evening at the East Coast Derby Extravaganza in Philadelphia, Gotham isn’t counting on a cakewalk. Instead, team captain Bonnie Thunders recalls a valuable lesson taught to her team in Raleigh, North Carolina last September.

“You have to keep perspective,” she said. “We had a really good example of how that happened when Philly beat us at Easterns last year. We always expect a tough fight from Philly, but we really had dominated them pretty intensely for most of the games that we played in the past, and it was kind of a surprise that we lost to them. So I think that’s always a good reference point to keep going back to, to remember that anything can happen at any time.”

Before Gotham lost to Philadelphia 90-89 in the 2009 Eastern Regional Championship, they had won 18 consecutive bouts, including a 2008 victory over Windy City that netted them a National Championship. As Thunders admits, “at times it’s hard to keep perspective when you just keep winning and winning.”

At the same time, Windy City was looking for the magic formula to climb over the Gotham hurdle. The Midwest standouts dropped bouts to the New Yorkers at the first East Coast Extravaganza in 2007, in the East Regional finals in 2007 and 2008, and then in the WFTDA Nationals. Ask Windy City co-captain Beth Amphetamine the first thing that pops into her head when the name “Gotham Girls Roller Derby” comes up, and she laughs.

“The first thing that comes to mind for me would be a growl,” she said. “They always beat us. We’ve played them four times in big games, and they’ve won every time. But we always look forward to playing them because we really, really want to win the game.”

And if she and her cohorts have their way, this Friday will be the night that they get it done, and make a statement to the rest of the WFTDA that this is their year.  And this year, for the first time, the Gotham/Windy rivalry will be commemorated with the Skyline Cup, a new perpetual trophy jointly commissioned specifically this year by both teams to reward the winner of this big-city rivalry.

“There are a few leagues around the country that have been consistently in the national tournament for the last few years – us, Gotham, Texas, Seattle – and I think all of us share a friendly rivalry with each other,” said Beth. “Gotham has been able to be on top for quite some time, and I’m sure they’ll remain a really competitive team into the future, but we think that we have been as well, and none of the games [against them] have been huge blowouts as far as I can remember. So going into this game we have a lot more confidence, and we have a lot of new players who don’t have that sense of history, which is probably a good thing in this case (Laughs). But we want to maintain Windy City’s reputation as a top contender, regardless of who we’re playing, and we want to make sure we’re respected around the country as a formidable opponent.”

Given their performances over the last few years, that’s a given, but since 2009, when the WFTDA expanded into four divisions from two, Windy City has turned into a true juggernaut as they’ve dominated the North Central region, where they’re currently the top-ranked team. This season has seen All-Star team victories over North Star (159-59) and Madison (115-104), and they’ve been firing on all cylinders despite having to work in some new faces into the rotation.

“Probably similar to what Gotham has set up; we had to set up a training machine,” explains Beth. “There are some players on Gotham that have been around from the beginning, but they’ve also had new players on their All-Stars and you would never know. And it’s the same thing with Windy City. We try to have a pretty seamless training program where you move through the team levels until you get to the All-Stars, and it’s a league-wide effort.”

“We have some very talented jammers,” she continues. “Varla Vendetta is a legend around the country as a pivot and jammer. You should also look out for Jackie Daniels, who just transferred to us from Grand Raggidy this year and who is a famous player in her own right. And then we’ve got a whole bunch of vets – Shocka Conduit, me, and Hoosier Mama – who have been around for a very, very long time. So we’ve got a lot of experience on this team, we’ve got a lot of very, very fast talented girls and it’s going to be fun.”

But then there’s Gotham, with an imposing lineup that can strike fear into any team and that can hurt you from anywhere on the track. Whether it’s jammers Bonnie Thunders, Suzy Hotrod, or Em Dash racing through the pack, Beyonsláy sending opposing jammers into the VIP seats, or Fisti Cuffs, Ana Bollocks, Kandy Kakes, and Ginger Snap holding down the fort in the middle, Gotham is number one in the country for a reason, and after opening up their 2010 schedule with a 201-75 defeat of Charm City in April, they don’t look like they’re slowing down. In fact, with some new blood on board in the forms of transfer Swede Hurt, rookie B-Zerk, Montreal import OMG WTF, and returning all-star Carmen Monoxide, the team just keeps getting stronger.

“We have new skaters on the team, and it’s always challenging to integrate new people, but we still have our really big core of girls that have been skating together for a long time,” said Thunders. “Everybody has made some really great improvements on the team and integrated pretty well. We had some big holes to fill when we lost Polly Gone and Barbara Ambush last year, and everybody stepped up their game. You’ll see Carmen Monoxide as a regular on our roster now, so she’s really stepped up, and Swede will playing this weekend as well.  Then we’ve got lots of other skaters that aren’t on the roster, but are new to the team, and they’re pushing really hard to creep up there.  I think it’s really good for the old-timers, and it keeps us working hard because we know there’s somebody who wants to steal our spot.”

Thunders, GGRD’s 2009 Jammer of the Year, was the one who led the way for Gotham in their last victory over Windy City, scoring 48 points and earning tournament MVP honors.  It’s clear that the Midwest standouts must keep an eye on her, but as Beth Amphetamine points out, respect and fear are two different things, and her team fears no one.

“We tell [the newcomers] some stuff, especially with players like Bonnie,” she said. “I was talking to one of our blockers the other day -- a really talented blocker -- and this is her first year on the All-Stars, and I was, like, ‘don’t try to hit Bonnie, because it’s not gonna work, she’s gonna go away.’ (Laughs) We want our people to never underestimate any of the Gotham players -- but don’t be too scared of them.”

And Thunders is well aware that just as in the previous four meetings, nothing comes easy when you’re playing Windy City.

“Overall they’re a pretty strong team, a pretty hard hitting team, and what we always find with them is that it’s kinda like a brute battle,” she said. “They’ve lost a lot of key skaters since last year, so it’s gonna be interesting to see how the rest of the team steps it up. But they gained a transfer from Grand Raggidy, Jackie Daniels. She was in ‘Whip It,’ and she’s a famous face in roller derby and someone to look out for. They also have some old vets who’ve been around for a long time. Varla Vendetta is excellent and she’s a small, scrappy jammer who’s always really challenging to have to stop. Those are two people I’ve definitely got my eyes on.”

More importantly, the eyes of the derby world will be on Friday’s headline bout at the East Coast Derby Extravaganza to see what may just be a precursor to a possible championship match down the line. That’s just fine with the two opposing captains.

“I think that it will be an exciting game,” said Beth Amphetamine. “Both Windy City and Gotham play an interesting, very fast and loose kind of style. What I like about the way we both play is that we’re not one of those west region teams that stands still and builds a little wall across the track and is boring for everybody to watch. This should be a fast-paced game; you’re gonna see some really talented jammers going crazy on the track and some fast, hard-hitting blockers. It’s gonna be exciting.”

“Last year, we didn’t do as well as we were expected to, and I think there’s a lot of vengeance built up for this year because we want to win and we want to get it back,” added Bonnie Thunders. “I think that everybody’s really prepared to put in the extra practice and do the off-skates work and make it happen for us because we’ve got something to prove now.”

Watch the #1 GGRD All-Stars and #9 WCR All-Stars battle for the Skyline Cup at 7:30pm Eastern Time on Friday, June 25^th, on the Derby News Network at www.derbynewsnetwork.com/live.

On Saturday, June 26^th, the GGRD All-Stars take on #13 Boston at 6:30pm Eastern, while Windy City battles #7 Philly at 8:30pm.  Both bouts will also be streamed at www.derbynewsnetwork.com/live.

Thomas Gerbasi is the Editorial Director for Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and Senior Editor for BoxingScene.com His work has also been published in ESPN.com, YahooSports.com, UFC Magazine, the Boston Herald, MSN Canada, Inked, the Village Voice, and Metro New York.

Metromix

Windy City Rollers

The Manic Attackers take on Hell’s Belles, and the Double Crossers face the Fury at this professional women’s roller derby league competition. The Revelettes go-go troupe performs. Doors open at 5 p.m. The first 300 attendees receive a keychain.

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Peter Coffinail

Tour de Pain: A Stroll Through the Roller Derby Community

Flying around somewhere in the ozone is the thought that women’s sports isn’t going to play second fiddle to a man’s world any more... In the capable hands of the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association or WFTDA, Roller Derby in the United States is on the rise and fulfilling the role as a validated women’s sport.

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ChiIL Mama

Windy City Rollers Fun: Sagezilla and Du-Jay Go VIP for May Day

The kids had fun with the masked manic, and Mya Ssault still gamely smiled and posed for pixs after getting smashed in the face.

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Gapers Block

Windy City Rollers: Double Crossers, Fury Win

The Windy City Rollers bout last Saturday, May 1 at the UIC Pavilion was notable--not merely for the high-paced, tight games, but because the winning teams will go on to compete in the Ivy King Cup Championship game on June 5th.

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Chicagoist

Windy City Rollers Battle It Out in Bout Five

There's one more bout to go on May 22 which features a rising Belles team looking to finish the season on a winning note against the Manic Attackers and a preview of the championship bout when the Double Crossers and Fury face off.

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Chicago Now

Gettin' Derby. A Night with the Windy City Rollers!

At first glance, it seems like there isn't an exceptional amount of strategy to the sport. Just a bunch of fierce chicks, skating in circles, knocking one another down... Beneath the glitter and tattoos and fishnets, there are well thought out plays, endurance and a bit more athleticism than one might assume.

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photo by Gil Leora

UPDATED! When the last drop of sweat had been dropped Saturday night at the UIC Pavilion in Chicago, the Double Crossers had earned a spot in the Windy City Rollers Ivy King Cup Championship game on June 5th. With several key veterans off skates and three blockers playing over 85% of the jams, the Crossers thumped the defending champion Manic Attackers, 121-91. 

 The Double Crossers showed up intending to finish off the Manics and avoid a second-place bottle-neck heading into the last game of the season on May 22nd. With a win, the Manics' route to the championship game would be blocked only the winless Hell’s Belles. The Manics jumped out to an 8-0 lead on slick-looking jams by Beth Amphetamine and Ruth Enasia, but the Crossers crept back to tie the score at 8 in the eighth. In the tenth, Manic jammer Wreck N Shrew was playing tight defense on her Crosser counterpart, Julia Rosenwinkel, when first one and then two Manics were sent to the box. Rosenwinkel cut loose for a grand slam and 4 more before calling it. The Crossers went on a 19-5 run over the next four jams despite some stalwart penalty-killing effort by Amphetamine in the fourteenth.  Di Richmond, in her third season as a Windy City Roller, had more than double the number of offensive and defensive actions, 38, than the second most effective Manic blocker. Increasingly agile in traffic, Richmond shows an ability to move from offense to defense and back again on consecutive strides.  Manic fans have not forgotten Malice in Chains just yet, but Richmond has become the Manic to watch in the pack.

 With the Crossers up 38-13 going into the fifteenth and the crowd growing quiet, Richmond clamped down Crosser jammer Donna Party, allowing Wreck to register a grand slam; Party joined two Crosser blockers in the box and Wreck put up 15 more before the whistle blew four times. Wreck scored 38 points on thirteen jams to lead all Manic scorers, picking up the slack for Zoe Trocious, who was ill over the past couple of weeks and played only sparingly as a blocker in the second half. The Manics cut the Crosser lead to 38-37 in the sixteenth on an athletic jam by Amphetamine, but clogged the penalty box on the next jam, handing Rosenwinkel, the league’s leading scorer, a free pass. The six-year veteran put up 19 before calling it off, and the Crossers went to halftime up 57-39.    

 While the Manics seemed to lose this one in the penalty box, racking up 62% of the bout’s majors and 42 team minutes, the Crossers played with typically astute pack awareness, anchored by three players who never seemed to leave the track--Georgia on Yer Behind, Karmageddon, and Norma Lee Wright. It was Reina Chaos, however, who had a career game, with a remarkable +71 points on 31 jams as a blocker. Rosenwinkel exploited Manic penalties when she could, but she was consistently strong against full-strength blocking as well. She scored  67 total points, taking lead on thirteen of seventeen jams and giving up just 15 points to the opposing jammer. 

 The Manics held the Crossers scoreless for five consecutive jams early in the second half, but they couldn’t make a significant dent in the lead. Playing short-handed much of the second half, the Manics gave up ghost points in 17 jams. Ruth Enasia milked the most out of a power jam in the fifteenth, pulling the Manics to within 10. The Manics filled the box again in the nineteenth, however, and Indy Cent iced the win with a fifteen-point jam.

 In the last regular-season game of 2010 on May 22nd, the Manic Attackers will face a Hell’s Belles team that appears to be catching fire just as the season flames out. The Manics will be looking to avoid following a championship season with a losing record, while the Belles hope to dodge a winless season. The Double Crossers look forward to meeting the Fury, pitting Rosenwinkel against Super Freak Kola Loka. Less than 10 points separate these two jammers at the top of the league scoring standings, and both teams are 4-1. Each is assured a place in the championship game, but there are too many chips on the table at the end of the regular season for either team to check.

Gozamos

The Devil in Derby Skates

Outfitted in The Fury’s brass knuckle-logoed orange and black uniform, Juanna Rumbel stands tall in her skates and is proud to be a derby girl. “There are very few sports that are geared towards women. It’s a game that we basically made up the rules to, we founded most of the leagues, (and) we play most of the games..."

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The Chicago Maroon

Derby girls roll with the punches

The modern roller derby is, at its core, “by the skaters, for the skaters,” with a DIY ethic... The idea has spread like wildfire and with it a subculture that is quickly becoming mainstream.

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Chicago Now

Windy City Rollers Rock the House!

Saturday night the Windy City Rollers hosted two bouts, the first featured the Fury -vs- Manic Attackers and a final score of 110 to 81.  The second bout with the ladies in red, Hells Bells fought the Double Crossers to a score of 139 to 75.

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photo by Gil Leora

UPDATED! 

This past bout marked the beginning of the second half of the Windy City Rollers home-league season. The Fury lined up against the Manic Attackers at the UIC Pavilion looking to avenge an opening-day loss in which Ruth Enasia ran wild. Since January, however, The Fury has risen like a supercell on a hot Kansas afternoon, and when it was all over, the Fury had all but blown out dreams of a Manic return to the championship, 110-85.

 The Manics looked like they might give the Fury a game, jumping out to a quick 8-point lead after two jams and sustaining at least a ten-point advantage across much of the first fifteen minutes. Beth Amphetamine leveraged a penalty on Go-Go Hatchet in the sixth jam and split Tori Adore and Sonya Mouthshut on her way to seven points. In the eleventh, she put up 8 more when Jackie Daniels was sent off for cutting the track. 
 
Unable to spring the dangerous Kola Loka early on, the Fury lined up for the fourteenth jam down two skaters and looking for a spark. It came in the form of a fifteen-point jam by Ska Face, who was able to exploit a cutting the track major on Beth Amphetamine. The Fury seized momentum, mounting a 36-0 run over a seven-minute span late in the half behind superior offensive blocking led by Tori Adore. The Fury finished the game with five players in double-digit offensive actions. Most impressive might have been third-year player Ivy Sedation, who made the most of her 9 jams with eleven assists. Hatchet, Sargentina, and Red Zeppelin repeatedly slammed the door on Manic jammers before the lightning bolts gave the star to Amy Nonamey for first time this season; she too failed to score.

The Manics seemed to get untracked in the seventeenth. Di Richmond, who anchored Manic defense all night along with pivot Rose Feratu, held up Ska Face, allowing Enasia to pick up lead jammer. Wreck N Shrew laminated Jackie Daniels and Mo Vengeance supplied a well-practiced whip to propel Enasia to two of the jam’s six points. The two teams went to the locker rooms with the Fury up 59-39.

 Fans seemed to find the half-time circus act as enjoyable as the unfolding bout. Macha--a remarkably durable pair of young women who might just as well be called “Who Needs Weights?”--cleaned and jerked each other for several minutes to an appreciative crowd. As one skater put it afterward, “Doing lunges is hard enough without some girl crawling up your back.”

 The two teams traded penalty trouble early in the second half, and while the Fury didn’t look particularly explosive, they held the Manics scoreless on 8 of the first twelve jams to generate a thirty-nine point lead with 11:35 left in the game. Ska Face rang up another ten in the fourteenth jam, slipping around Beth Amphetamine for the final points. Amphetamine played valiantly in this game as a blocker, and Ruth Enasia scored 14 of her 34 total on the next to last jam of the game, leaving the final score closer than second-half play indicated. 

 The Fury are now tied at 3-1 with the Double Crossers at the top of the standings. The Fury look to increase their all important points-for total in a tune-up against the winless Hell’s Belles on May 1st before facing the Crossers on May 22nd. Interleague-transfer jammers Ska Face (45) and the remarkably fluid Jackie Daniels (25) have partnered with Fury veteran Kola Loka (35) to form an awesome threesome; the three scored 105 of the Fury’s 110 points. Ska Face collected HOWCOOL.COM Player of the Game Honors and sounded at game’s end like the Fury intends to keep pushing their three-game winning streak. The announcer, Mouthpiece, asked her if the team would go all the way to the championship. “It’s already done,” she said.

Gozamos

Talk Derby to Me

Derby girls are fighters. More often than not, a night at the derby comes with a lesson. Just like a clichéd sports movie (minus the bad soundtrack), scrappy underdogs will come from behind to win it all and the tiniest girl on the team is often the unlikely hero.

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WhyGo Chicago

Things to Do in Chicago in April

Spring is one of the best times to visit Chicago, as right about now is when Chicagoans begin to emerge from their winter cocoons and pack their social calendars with the many wonderful events that take place in the city in warmer months.

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ChicagoNow

Roller Derby Trivia

[Roller derby was invented] right here in Chicago. After gaining popularity in the 1930s, the sport temporarily died out until around 2000 when it was revived in Austin, Texas. The sport came back to Chicago in 2004 when the Windy City Rollers were founded.

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