Richter City Roller Derby

I was coerced into trying something new last night. A friend had sneakily asked if I was free on Saturday night before explaining what she had in mind. After she confirmed I was free, she said we were going to Richter City Roller Derby. Hmm. Now, I understand that roller derby is all the rage at the moment - just log in to Twitter on a Saturday night and see how many times the #RCRD hashtag appears. I have a couple of friends who took up skating because of this movie. I'd heard that one of them was even becoming very good but it really wasn't my thing. I said no and was appropriately chastised.

I told my sweetie what I'd done; he was even less impressed than my friend! Then we discovered that one of our friends was due to make her big roller derby debut that night. Surely we had to go along and support the fabulous Tart N Skates? And so it was all on: Comic Slams vs last year's champions, Smash Malice.

As with most spectator sports, I've been to one bout now so can consider myself an expert in it. (You see? I even called it a bout, not a match or game.) I know that each bout has two 30 minute halves and they are made up of a series of 2-minute jams. I know what a jammer is, a pivot (although I still haven't quite worked out what this one does) and blockers. You can tell them apart because a jammer wears a star on her helmet whereas a pivot has a stripe. See, I've learned so much! And then they move - fast! We eventually caught on to the point scoring but the sheer speed of some of the jammers made it really challenging to keep up. Don't ask me about penalties; it was all too fast for us to keep track of!

I sat through the bout wondering what my roller derby name would be. The girls all have such kick-ass, theatrical names with costumes to match: Scary Maclary, Venom de Plume, Gin & Toxic, Jem Molition and Suffer Jet. Who could I be? Possibly Caffeinator or Psycho Baker? I found a roller derby name generator that anointed me as Apocalypso BigBlocker. You heard it here first.

And so I am a roller derby virgin no more! Who else has been bitten by the roller derby bug? What's your roller derby name?