Banditas vs LRD – Whip Its
On Saturday I was at North Bridge Leisure Centre as the Bandita’s photographer. They played Leeds Roller Dolls Whip Its in a very close game. Whip Its were first to score, but from then the lead changed with just about every other jam. Faye Tality got knocked down – not seen that before! It was hard work for both teams. Whip Its were only playing with 11 skaters (14 is the usual count) so they had extra work to do. There were a few hard hits, but it was a pretty clean game.
I started this roller derby malarkey about 14 months ago. I’ve only bouted once due to injury and so I’ve ended up photographing the sport. I felt, on Saturday, that I was very much part of the community. There were people there that I knew. Obviously I know the Banditas, but there were friends over from Hull too. The bloke from Taut let me have a go with his rather nice 85mm lens. Jupe was skating for LRD, so Andy was there to support her. I recognised one of the LRD A team players. A handful of my Dead bros were there too.
Also spectating, for his second time, was a neighbour. I recognise him from the commute, we say hello. Last time he brought his daughter to a bout (as they were back then) we had a chat, though they left at half time as she had found it too loud. This time they’d brought some ear protectors for her :-) We spoke again; he said that he felt that roller derby provided good role models for his daughter (I estimate that she’s six). That made me feel rather pleased/proud.
The second half was a tough as the first. I saw Ninja Nina pass the star – it must have been hard work! It looked like Leeds would win but in the end the Banditas clinched it 138 to 129.
Training
After the rain of Saturday, Sunday was sunny and warm (yeah, it rained later, what do expect?!). I got to Whitcliffe a little after 2pm and couldn’t persuade Phil to take part in an off skate warm up, so I did it myself :-)
It was hot in the hall. After the usual stretching we kicked off with an exercise that I came up with a bit ago (yeah me!) before starting the session proper. It wasn’t long before we were all rather sweaty! I felt that the stuff we were doing shouldn’t have been such hard work, but it was.
We did a load of agility stuff, toe stop dancing, which I’ve been nervous about in the past. There was plenty of opportunity to play the jammer role too, which I do enjoy. Then we broke Bilb – a fall caused him to twist his knee. The other one. Not good :-/
I finished my litre of water and was pleased that I’d brought extra with me. Towards the end of the session I stopped twice to catch my breath – obviously need to push the aerobic exercise during the week!
I closed off the weekend playing Battlefield with Elliot :-)