Get Quizical with Bath Roller Derby Girls!

In less than a year BRDG have gone from being but a sparkle in their founders' eyes to a fully fledged Roller Derby league, with a sold out Fresh Meat course and almost 50 regular skaters.

The next stage: public bouting! We want to bring Bath the very best in live roller derby - but full contact sport + public bouting = massive insurance bill...
So... support your local roller derby team! Join us at the first of many BRDG fundraisers, a pub quiz at our beloved Hobgoblin :D

It's a general knowledge quiz and open to everyone (although we can't guarantee that we won't slip one or two derby questions in there!) Prizes for the best teams, names, attitudes etc!

£3 per person to enter, max team of 6.

7.30pm kick off (late-comers will face the wrath of our best blockers.)
The Hobgoblin, 47 St James Parade, Bath

It's a Monday night so we promise we won't let things run too late ;)

Tiger Bay Brawlers Bootcamp

Wheelia Smith: "Oh my god, this is like, the derby equivalent of David Beckham coming to coach…"

A big week for Bath Roller Derby Girls! With a brand new intake of Fresh Meat starting and our second ever scrimmage on the horizon, we thought we'd get some derby mojo behind us. What better way than a Saturday bootcamp with Tiger Bay Brawlers' Kid Block and Boba Fettish?

Having seen the damage that Cardiff's top team recently did in the European Skate Odyssey tournament (and at least half of us totally fan-girling at their combined mad skills), we were excited to learn as much as we could cram in. And it was a LOT! Kid and Boba gave us an invaluable session of skills, drills and training tips that will push our gameplay to new places… full heads and sore legs have never felt so good!

A massive thank you to the lovely Kid Block and Boba Fettish, and also to Tiger Bay Brawlers for letting us borrow them for an excellent day of bootcamp greatness.

Photo: Xixi Stomp
Words: Steg

That time we met Devon Clotted Screamers

On Saturday the Clotted Screamers kindly invited BRDG to Barnstaple, where we braved derby-girl infested waters in the most adorable beach-themed training drill, skated with our eyes closed and, oh yeah, had our first ever scrimmage…

After an early start, we reached the Screamers with a mixture of fear and fire in our bellies. The obvious antidote? NEW SCRIM KIT! The lovely Conway the Barbarian risked life and limb as 13 excited derby girls rushed to get their hands on The Shirts - (I may or may not have headed the charge) - but seeing everyone in yellow was a pretty magical moment.

Screamer's coach Mumbles gave us a great workout - from agility circuits (ALL the toestops!) to blind pacelines (lots of shouting, some falling, moderate panicking), Mumbles pushed us hard, and made sure everyone gave it their best.

As for the Devon Clotted Screamers - they are are officially wonderful! Not only were they the friendliest team we could have hoped to meet, they even baked us Screamers cakes with tiny milkmaids on. Tiny milkmaids! We can't wait to meet them again in Bath for more skatey, milkmaidey fun.

And finally, THE SCRIMMAGE. With no tracked scoring, every jam was to play for - there was hitting, falling, penalties, and even a few power jams. Both teams worked hard; it was great to see everyone improving and strategising, even within the short game time.

This is us, scrimmaging with the Screamers. See how badass everyone looks.

Of course, no game is complete without zebras: As well as Devon's pair, Bath's Jenna'Ral Yum Yum and Smasha Cake did a great job reffing for the first time - and skating twice as far as everyone else. A big thank you to everyone from both leagues who NSO'd (including first timers Smashing Thumpkins and Tinker Hell), Daphne Du'Warrior for being a kick-ass bench manager, and the lovely Scarlett O'Harma for the photos.

With no final score it's hard to know how we fared in our first proper scrim, but suffice to say there were some great moments from both teams. Bruises, blisters and all, I've never felt so proud to be a Bath Roller Derby Girl.

Finally, big derby love to coaches Petra Bomb and Mumbles for organising the whole thing, and giving us a reason to work our derby asses off doing what we love.

Words: Steg

Photos: Scarlett O'Harma

Bath Roller Derby Training Montage!

Best way to get bout-ready quickly? Yeah, that'll be a TRAINING MONTAGE.

Join Bath Roller Derby Girls as they and their rippling muscles tackle Sunday morning training head on... 25 in 5! Agility drills! Circuit training! The can-can!

Like what you see? Remember we're recruiting - drop us a line, we'd love to hear from you and get you signed up for Fresh Meat training at the end of May.

The Best Vests in the West

At some point, we were gonna need to get ourselves all dolled up in some matching gear and make ourselves look like a team. In other words, we needed a KIT! We had the awesome logo, the colour scheme...now to choose the ultimate colour combination! With various ideas thrown around: blue tops? yellow socks? blue shorts? yellow leggings (well, those didn't go down so well) we decided to go with the combo which would make us least resemble Bananaman.

Combination chosen (yellow tops with our teal logo), spreadsheet compiled, off went our order to Roller Derby City. One bank holiday weekend later and...voila!

Excitement ensued when the folk at Roller Derby City posted a sneaky preview of our tops in the making on their facebook page. Then followed more hysteria when RDC posted an image of our very own Smashing Thumpkins' new scrim top as their Name of the Day online!

Enough teasing already!! We wanted our tops in the flesh! And sure enough our eagerly awaited tops winged their way to us just in time for our first ever scrimmage against the Devon Clotted Screamers. But more on that to follow...

Words: Lazy Susan
Photos: Roller Derby City

WE ARE RECRUITING! 

Yes, we are now opening our doors again and offering a 10-week beginners course. It'll be on Thursday evenings, starting 30th May, in which we will teach you how to safely fall, stop, skate, and what roller derby involves. We have limited spare kit to lend for the first two sessions, however you will need your own kit (quad skates, helmet, wrist/elbow/kneepads, mouthguard) after that. Sessions will be 2 hours long and cost £5.
Get in touch for more details and to register: bathrollerderbygirls@gmail.com
www.facebook.com/BathRollerDerbyGirls
Check out the facebook event for more details or email us: https://www.facebook.com/events/
We can’t wait to meet you and share our love for our sport!!
Over 18s only. Please register in advance!!

Guest Coaching Session from Severn Roller Torrent

Our coaches work darn hard in sharing their derby wisdom and training us up to be the next Kamikaze Kittens (a girl can dream). So we thought we'd give them a break one Sunday. Guest coaching is a big thing in Roller Derby so we spread the word that we're a new league looking for some outsider training!

Enter Severn Roller Torrent. Four of their most formidable skaters travelled down to us all the way from Gloucester one April Sunday to cram as much derby into our two hour training slot as possible!

First an intense thirty minute endurance drill. After catching our breath it was onto an hour of pack work and blocking skills. Lastly, thirty minutes working on jammer techniques. After all this we were ready for a good s-t-r-e-t-c-h and said our goodbyes. We were so worn out we didn't even remember to take any pictures! Any excuse to invite the girls back again!

Thanks to Miss Havislam, Jedi Mistress, Voodoo Ray for coming down :D

Words: Lazy Susan