I finally went to the much anticipated match of The London Roller Girls up in Seven Sisters and it was more amazing than i could have hoped for. Two teams, the Ultraviolent Femmes and the Suffrajets stepped up to the skate ring to battle it out, clad in sexy outfits, adorned with tatoos, smoky eyes, colourful hair, fishnets and of course roller skates, knee pads, elbow pads and helmets. the rules, in short, are as follows: in each game (of 5 minutes or so), 5 or so members from each team make a pack, who skate round together. one jammer from each team follows behind at about 20 paces. the jammers have to catch up and fight their way through the jostling pack, and get round the ring and through the pack a second time - racking up a point for each member of the opposite team they pass. that's the simple version - not allowing for wolves, gazelles, penalties and some serious violence and wipe outs. it's exhilarating to watch - so exciting. funky retro pop plays throughout, the numerous referees are real characters, as are the announcers and two sexy scoregirls. everyone has rocking names - Duncan Disorderly and Vin Dictive as referees, Bette Noir as announcer, the Bexorcist, Vagablonde and Rose Hypnol amongst the roller girls. Girl of the match for me was Grievous Bodily Charm - Suffra Jets team captain, a feisty red head who took something of a a calamitous tumble but braved it onto the court for the final team high fiving of the crowd.
I have subsequently totally been fantasising about what my name would be were i to take it up... am thinking Fever Bitch, Annabelle Lecter, Harm Her Sutra or Gossip Hurl. Tricky.
No comments:
Post a Comment