Second Wind started the second half with Rose Feratu in the penalty box and a power jam for the speedy Uber Alice, who added another nine points to her team’s lead. AliSin Chains, Norma Lee Wright, and Bork Bork Bork teamed up to support Kola Loka for a 14 point jam with 23 minutes remaining. Much of the rest of the second half showed a jam-by-jam battle with blockers on both teams keeping jammers to single digits, with Second Wind steadily gaining ground. Breakout jams by Zoe Trocious brought Second Wind within five points with just under eight minutes remaining. But a double penalty for Kola Loka for an illegal procedure and insubordination left Second Wind jammerless for nearly two minutes, allowing The Contenders to pull away in the final minutes for the final 130-124 score.

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.

Sports Illustrated

Chicago Fan’s Guide

The crowds at these roller derby events are not overly large, but what they lack in capacity, they more than make up for in fervor. Many paint their faces or wear skull masks in support of their favorite teams. Players are accessible for autographs before and after matches, but be aware that many stay in character.

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 Gapers Block

There Can Only Be One (2010 Champ, That Is)

This year's batch of Rollers came back from the last season leaner and meaner than ever before; the league as a whole upped the ante, practicing harder, smarter, and more often, and it definitely shows.

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 Chicago Now

Windy City Rollers Rock the House!

You still have time to catch the Windy City Rollers, as they'll host their Home Season Championship on June 5th as they battle for the Ivy Cup.  Tix can be purchased online for $20 and if you want to really get up and close you can get track tix for $35.

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The two teams spent the first 14 minutes in a defensive war, with the Fury setting the tone early. In the fifth jam, Sargentina put consecutive big hits on Crossers Donna Party and Sassy Squash; when Ska Face was sent to the box on a major, with help from Jackie Daniels and Go-Go Hatchet, Sargentina orchestrated a fierce penalty kill on Party’s powerjam. She would finish the game with an eye-popping 30 offensive/defensive actions and be just the second blocker this season to win HOWCOOL.COM Player-of-the-Game honors.

The Fury gave the Crossers a bit of their own medicine, winning the slow-down game that the Crossers used to grind down the Manics in February. The two teams started the 11th jam with the Crossers up just 12-9. Loka finally broke it open with a nine point jam against full-strength blocking, and teammate Ska Face followed with two grand slams in the 12th. Indy Cent picked up nine of her 23 points in the 14th, and two jams later Julia Rosenwinkel stormed out of the box with :55 left in the jam, leaving Adore and Red Zeppelin in her wake on the way to nine points.  Down just 37-33 with 2:15 left in the half, the Fury took lead jam on the last two rounds. Daniels ended the half on what has become her signature in this first WCR season since transferring from Grand Raggedy—the four-point hit-and-quit.

After half-time, despite some inspired play by Crosser blocker Karmageddon and Pivot/Jammer Nina Millimeter, the game never felt close. The Fury built a 34-point lead midway through the second half by controlling the pack; Hatchet, Adore, and Sargentina engineered walls of white up front, and Fury jammers Loka and Daniels played physical off the line against the Crossers’ leading scorer, Julia Rosenwinkel. The Crosser Captain, who seemed to wring just about everything possible from her injury-plagued team this season, went pointless on four of her last six jams against withering defense. Loka doubled Rosenwinkel in points, 41-19 to lead all WCR jammers at the end of the season with 273 points.

The Fury—with six top-shelf All-Stars on the roster—simply out-muscled the Crossers down the stretch and won pulling away. In a respectful gesture to players who saw little game play all year, Rosenwinkel emptied the Crosser bench in the last three jams; Tina Flay, Apple Hackintosh, Abbey, and Joanie Utah got a chance to absorb some hits from the Fury, who never let off the gas.

These two teams will line up for the third time this season and all the marbles on Championship Saturday, June 5^th. Think this one is all sewn up?  Just ask the Manic Attackers, who needed every second of their game to squeak past the winless Hell’s Belles on Saturday. In roller derby, anything can happen and probably will. See you there.

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! The Fury stormed into Chicago’s UIC Pavilion on Saturday night aboard a 3-game winning streak. The orange crush devastated Hell’s Belles by 97 in February, jumping past 100 points in the third jam of the second half, and conventional wisdom expected the Belles to collapse like a Louisiana levee in this game, too.   But Belle captains Shocka Conduit and Hermione Danger changed up the game plan; 6 of the least experienced Belles who dressed for the game played in a minimal amount of jams, and the Belles came at the Fury hard with 3 jammers in heavy rotation.   The teams’ two veteran captains squared off in the game’s last jam with the Belles well within striking distance, but when it was over the Fury had iced a 125-110 win and a place in the Ivy King Cup championship game on June 5th. 

 Danger--playing her first game since an injury sidelined her for the April bout--took advantage of a major penalty on the Fury jammer in the third, pushing the Belles to their biggest lead of the season, 21-0. Fury jammers took the next four lead jams, however, including Kola Loka’s ten-point run in the seventh.  After that, Conduit, Danger, and second-year stand-out Deb Autry jammed exclusively for the Belles, and the three of them kept team red in it until the last jam of the half.  With just 30 seconds left, and up by just 12, Tori Adore and Ivy Sedation  held up Danger, allowing Fury jammer Ska Face to bolt around the outside and into the lead. The Belles were caught in perhaps the biggest pack mismatch of the game, and when Danger was sent off for cutting the track, Ska Face cut up Belle blocking for 15 points to put the Fury up 69-45 at the half. 

 Kids from School of Rock, Chicago, took over jamming at halftime, rocking an appreciative crowd with early MTV hits. As one astute observer pointed out, it may have been the first time in roller derby history that Mötley Crüe and Skid Row have been heard back-to-back at a bout. School of Rock played several sets with varying line-ups, prompting really painful-looking air guitar from some, uh, well-meaning skaters.

 Hell’s Belles put up 10 points in the first two jams of the second half, and the two teams traded punches until two huge jams on either side of an Official time out.  Loka scored 20 of her 68 total in the seventh as Sonya Mouthshut, Dee Monica, and Tori Adore opened big splits.  Then in the eighth, with the Fury penalty box packed full, Deb Autry put up 17 of her 42, cutting the Fury lead to 22.  Autry benefitted from Fury penalties on her two biggest jams by scoring 2 ghosts points in each.
 
The Belles fell into penalty trouble midway through the second half; Ska, Loka, and Jackie Daniels sliced and diced their way to a 115-73 lead with 14 minutes left. Shocka Conduit rallied the Belles with a 20-point twelfth that may have been the most interesting jam of the night. Ska Face was sent off for cutting the track, but missed the box twice, extending the Belle advantage. Conduit put a highlight reel move on Ivy Sedation and then coaxed Take-Out Box outside the engagement zone before allowing her a hit, leaching another major out of the Fury. The two teams scored just 16 points over the next 8 minutes. With Pominatrix, Bloody Elle, and Mya Ssault playing over their heads in the pack, the Belles scored 12 of those and might have had more save stout defensive play from the Fury’s Adore, Sedation, and Sargentina, who the fans voted blocker of the game. Those three, along with Dee Monica and Mouthshut, picked up for three Fury veterans who did not dress for the game—Go-Go Hatchet, Juana Rumbel, and Red Zeppelin.

 Down 12 with 55 seconds to go, the Belles looked like believers; their pack was at full strength.  Conduit, with 3 minors, called her own number to jam against Loka for the game. When Conduit cut the track in an effort to take lead jam, Loka floated around behind the pack, killing the game clock and much of the jam clock, forcing Conduit to exit the box and race up behind her before calling it. 

 This was the game Belles fans had been waiting for. In the last minute a roster full of rookies, many of whom sacrificed precious playing time for the chance to see the team within striking distance at the end, sat on the edge of their seats with All-Star on All-Star for the win. But as has been the case so often this season, there was just too much Kola Loka, who walked away with HOWCOOL.COM Player-of-the-Game honors. 

 The Fury will finish the regular season on May 22nd against the Double Crossers in a preview of the Ivy King Cup Championship game. The Belles, likely feeling closer than they have all year to their first win, will close the season against the Manic Attackers.

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.

NBC Chicago

Hairbanger's Bash

Check out The Windy City Rollers as The Manic Attackers take on Hell's Belles, and the Double Crossers face off against the Fury at the UIC Pavilion. If you haven't checked out professional women's roller derby, it's time to get familiar.

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UPchicago

Chicago's Windy City Rollers

The sport has changed as much as the world has since then, transforming from a gimmicky side-show race to a full-contact sport consisting of teams of trained and organized athletes.

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Chicagoist

Windy City Rollers Wow the Crowd in Bout Three

The good weather and growing popularity of the Rollers was reflected in the crowd, one of the largest to see the Rollers at UIC Pavilion, overflowing from a full bottom level and well into the upper deck.

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