health&beauty
of two teams, or ‘packs’, skating around an oval track and helping their ‘jammer’, the team’s sole scorer, score points. The jammer weaves her way through the ravenous pack during a series of two- minute segments. The sport’s humble origins date back to the
early 1920s, when the words ‘roller derby’ were used by the Chicago Tribune to describe “multi-day, fl at-track roller skating races”. The sport has since wavered between a total collapse and an absolute boom. In recent years, roller derby leagues have been popping up all around the world.
ROLL CALL
g3 goes cruisin’ for a bruisin’
Women everywhere are embracing an exhilarating new sporting trend. Tanya Oleskowicz talks roller derby.
Who would ever have guessed that pigtails and make-up could mix with knee pads and bruises? Just one glance at a Fenris Flyer and suddenly you’ll be convinced: she’ll remove her mouth guard and inform you that one of the very few places where an accumulation of black and blues might just complement a woman’s top is at the roller derby track… then she’ll skate off to continue kicking arse. The Fenris Flyers, an exclusively female roller
derby team and members of the Croydon Roller Derby League, identify themselves as “a bunch
Knock ’em dead in g3’s pick of the derby essentials
with it roll
All gear available from
www.kickflipboards.com
£114.95
www.habitat.co.uk
£14.95
www.heals.co.uk
£24.95
www.scented
candleshop.com
The
Fenris Flyers
Roller derby teams such as the Fenris Flyers,
The London Roller Girls
of chicks on wheels that can bring a whole heap of kick ass to the sport”. Zooming around an elliptical track and “jamming” (using shoulders and hips to knock one another to the ground), women’s roller derby teams truly know how to ensure that their opponents will be aching well into the evening. Sound a bit aggressive? Well, it is – roller derby has often been likened to sports such as hockey and boxing. While it may seem to the inexperienced
spectator that a roller derby match could just be an aggressive free-for-all, the sport actually adheres to a strict set of rules. Elbowing, for instance, is illegal, and there are ways in which passing another player are counted as illegal and will not score points. Basically, the game consists
the Bedford Bandits and the Birmingham Blitz Derby Dames are just three of the many creatively named teams seeing a rise in membership across the UK. With intimidating aliases like ‘Union Jack-U-Up’ (from the Blitz Dames), ‘Northern Knockout’ (from the Sheffi eld Steel Roller Girls), derby girls are a force only to be very cautiously reckoned with. You have been warned…
useful links Bedford Bandits
www.myspace.com/bedfordbandits
Birmingham Blitz Derby Dames
www.blitzdames.com Brighton Roller Derby
www.myspace.com/brighton_roller_derby Fenris Flyers
www.myspace.com/fenris_flyers Leeds Roller Dolls
www.myspace.com/leedsderbydolls London Roller Girls
www.
londonrollergirls.com 107
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