Pre-match. This match was supposed to be an early Christmas gift for one of my friends. I purchased the tickets well in advance. And then three hours before the match, my friend sent a text saying she had food poisoning. Oh well, bad for her, but good for another friend who wanted to come. He got to see his first Roller Derby. She was stuck at home -- perhaps running to the bathroom off and on throughout.
Game Summery. The match was close at the half time mark with a 63-59 lead for the Tough Cookies. And then came the third quarter where the Tough Cookies just blew The Swarm out. The blow-out was assisted by the fact that The Swarm kept on getting players ejected from the match.
For the whole match, both teams played what the announcers described as a slow pack, which meant it took the pack about ten seconds to go the five yards or so before the second whistle allowed the jammers to start their runs.
Random Player Notes
Stefcon 1 probably (I'm not a score keeper) scored the most points for the Tough Cookies. For one jam, I do believe she completed three laps on The Swarm.
My compare and contrast between Jammers Gori Spelling and Laguna Beyatch. So my thinking is that Gori Spelling likes to play defense against the opposing jammer before busting through the pack. Laguna Beyatch likes to hang back until she sees an opening. That sometimes puts her at a disadvantage when the opposing jammer is able to breakthrough first. On the other hand, she can close the gap so quickly that the opposing jammer is often only able to score two or three points before having to call off the jam. If you want to protect a lead, Gori Spelling is probably the best jammer to do this. If you're in a power jam, Laguna Beyatch rocks.
There was a moment in the match where Krissy Krash was helping out one of the jammers. She came up behind Slamurai (The Swarm) who promptly dropped. Folks around me were like, "Did you see that? Krissy Krash barely touched that player and she just fell." As she skated towards her bench after the jam, Slamurai looked a bit bemused by her tumble.
More on Krissy Krash. Of course, she was ejected from the game. I've never been to a Tough Cookies match where she wasn't ejected. This was also her last game with Tough Cookies as she will be helping start up a roller derby league in Orange County.
During one jam, Iron Maiven taunted The Swarm fans during a power jam. Hey, in football, isn't that a 15 yard penalty. :-). But whatever, she was taunting The Swarm fans. (FYI: Playful teasing is probably a more appropriate use of words. All in good fun.)
To introduce my friend to the rituals of the derby, we left our places in the stands with a couple minutes left in the match so that we could rush the track once the clock ran down.
Nico Vega played the half time show. That's right, Nico Vega. Short set, but awesome set. A lot of standing on the drum set. The microphone cord getting tangled up with the microphone stand. The Derby Dolls music coordinator being kept on double duty trying to fix the beautiful chaos that results throughout a Nico Vega set.
Note the below photo of Nico Vega is from a Troubadour show and not from the Roller Derby night.
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