Being involved in derby - part 1: Officially Official

Being involved in derby
Roller derby can take over your life. It can and with me it pretty much has. In the first place I am a skater, but I do a lot of stuff in and around derby that doesn't have to do with playing directly. That's why I want to talk about the other ways that I am involved in derby and what I take from it. This is the first one, all about being official.

Picture by Christopher Yarrow

When I started Roller Derby I had no idea what this game was all about. Seeing how derby was still pretty new in Europe and we were the first league in our country there was not a lot of derby around to go and see and learn from. The first time I went to even see a bout after I started was 9 months later in Berlin. Not really around the corner, cause it's a decent 6 hour drive from Amsterdam to Berlin.
But even when I did get to watch bouts live or online, I didn't necessarily understand all of what was going on in the game. Especially cause I seem to have a little "condition" called "hooliganism". Whenever I get to watch a bout I turn in to a total hooligan and scream my lungs out. Which is all fine and dandy, and maybe fun for the teams playing, but it doesn't leave a lot of room for focusing on the game and whats going on.
The other thing was, that in our first year we were focusing mostly on skating skills and basic derby skills and we weren't scrimmaging yet. When you haven't played a scrimmage yet (or worked a bout for that matter) you don't really have that "feel" yet for the game. You don't feel the excitement you feel right before the first whistle, you don't feel the pain shooting through your body when you get a great hit, you don't feel your body working hard and you definitely don't get the same feel for the game as when you play. 

So what can you do to get more of a feel for the game when you cannot play yet? When you are still fresh meat, or even when a certain injury makes it that you cannot play.
I found that a good way was by being a part of the game. And not as the hooligan, but as an official.

The first time I ever worked a bout as a Non Skating Official (NSO) was in November 2010 in Stuttgart; Stuttgart Valley Rollergirls vs Go Go Gent Roller Girls. I had the position of outside white board and had no idea what I was doing. I of course had read about what I was supposed to be doing, but I had no idea what it would mean to be a part of the officials crew. I understood, of course, that I wasn't supposed to cheer. And I was supposed to be impartial. But I didn't really understand what it meant until I was working that very first bout.

Being part of an officials crew, means that even though you are impartial and not supporting one team, you are supporting roller derby it self in the highest way possible. Cause you are making sure this game can be played the  way the girls want to play it. 

For me, being a skater (first and foremost), this made a huge impression. Realizing how important our officials are for our game. 

But it did more then just give me respect for officials. It gave me that feel for the game, without being able to play. 

I was part of the action. And because of officials role, I for once got to focus on all going on, cause I had to keep my "hooliganism" in check. 

And it was a great experience. 

After this first time I went on to NSO the first German Meisterschaft: Roll DMC.

That's when I got a real feel of what it meant to be a part of team No-Fun.... It's so much FUN! I don't mean to say that officials secretly have a lot of fun and don't take their jobs seriously. Cause I think they take their jobs very seriously. But I did also see the "other side" of the officials. The side that they do not show on track. And that is a very fun side. 



The officials crew for Roll DMC
Picture by Michael Wittig

 

Accept for feeling like a part of the game, getting more of that feel for the game and gaining more respect and understanding for officials I also noticed something else. 

As I started working more and different NSO positions I felt like my understanding of the game and the rules improved immensely. And I am not saying that the only way of getting this understanding is by officiating. But I sure do think it helped me a whole bunch. There are several reasons why. First of all because in officials meetings and during the games you hear all about how refs call certain penalties and why. Another reason is that refs love to discuss rules. All.the.time. And even though I might not be the best rules nerd in the world and I will probably zone out after 30+ minutes of rules discussion, I do think I have picked up quite a lot of the years by hanging out with officials.

Also just the NSO jobs it self teach you a lot about how the game has been set up, how it works, as NSO's are there to make sure the game runs smoothly. And even though everybody (should) reads the rules, I still see that many people don't understand all the rules when it comes to the penalty box and jammers. Also being able to fill out all that paperwork and knowing what says what, where and why, makes it a lot easier to understand the stats book and to analyze it.

Now 2,5 years after I started NSO'ing, I've been playing bouts as a skater for 2 years, but I still love to NSO. I don't do it super often, as derby takes over you life enough as it is with "just" being a skater. 

But I do try and NSO at tournaments and a bout every now and again. 

And I still feel I learn something new every time. 

Last month I was working the Men's European Roller Derby Championships and in my very first bout I was working the penalty box and all ready learned something new. The blockers and jammer of one of the teams were super communicative while in the box. As in when their jammer had lead but there were several of their blockers in the box, the blockers would communicate to their jammer (every time he lapped the box) what their time was, so he would keep going until their box was empty. And therefore they could start the next jam with a empty box. 

I am sure this sounds like peanuts or basic stuff for some. But it was kind of an eye opener for me. As we have never really did it that way. Of course we try to empty out our box, but never like that. It was a very confident and "in control" way of running the game. And it was good to see. I am not sure I would have noticed the same thing or as quickly if I would have been in the audience. But because I was working the box, and the blockers kept asking every few seconds what their time was I noticed a lot quicker why they were asking, what their strategy was behind it. 

 

So yeah the conclusion of this blog post is that I love NSO'ing. For several reasons:

• You get to be part of the game and get a feel for the game more then when you are in the audience. 
• You get to be part of the funnest team no-fun there is
• You get to facilitate the BEST sport in the world
• You learn so much more about the rules and the way stuff is called
• (a lot of times) I learn more about game play then while screaming my lungs off in the audience 

 - Furrrocious

I love it when a plan comes together...

As most leagues that have been around for a while know is that it's not easy to organize a bout. Like winning a bout, it takes a team to make it into a success!

One day before our very first home bout and the first ever live Roller Derby bout in the Netherlands, I'm getting a happy kind of nervous and super freaking excited. As president of our league I cannot be anything more then so incredibly proud of our league and all the people involved making sure this is going to be an event of epic proportions to never forget.
And to give all our girls the credit they deserve I want to dedicate this blog to all the members of our great league that have put so much effort in to this.

There is so much work that goes into planning and organizing a home bout. And in our league we have a committee structure, so all the different committees have been responsible for different tasks.
If I look at how things went a year (or so) ago, there were only a handful of committees really active and functioning properly. If it would come down to organizing something it would usually come down to just a few people working their asses off. This time this was not the case at all!
All the different people in the committees have really taken on their tasks and made sure they were done they way that should be.
Of course certain committees had a lot more work then others. But still the work load of the organization as a whole has really been spread out over all these different people of our great league.
And this just makes this day before our big day so much more relaxed.
Knowing that everything is taken care of.

They say it takes a village to raise a child. Well let me tell you, it takes a derby community to hold a bout!
No less then 100 people are involved in some way to make sure that this bout will be a success.
From skaters to Refs and NSO's. From Medics to Security. From Volunteers to Photographers. So many different people are involved. And we all know and realize we would not be able to play this great sport of ours without all these people.
You can have 100 skaters if you want, but without an officials crew you can't have a bout.
And without all our volunteers we as skaters would have to work the register, the merch table and all those other jobs and skate too. Which would be pretty stressful to say the least.
I guess I don't just want to dedicate my blog today to all members of our league, but to EVERYBODY involved in making this happen. Without all of you there wouldn't be Roller Derby!



I cannot begin to state or name all the people that have been involved in working so hard to make this happen, because it's so many of us. But I can state a few things that I am very impressed with.

Our design committee.... Oh my gosh. They have worked miracles with everything that needed to be designed for the bout. Starting with our bout poster, which is just amazing. They took the theme and made sure it all comes together in every little aspect, from the passes for the volunteers to the decorations. In one word: Incredible.

The PR and communications committee worked really well together in making sure the world knows we are here and having this bout. On the website, Facebook and twitter we have been more then visable! And this was also due to all our members, friends and family reposting everything! Thanks for that.
This past week they also showed it's not impossible to work the media to your benefit. On Tuesday night we were featured on national television at BNN - De week van filemon.




(View it here online - starts around 14.55).












And on Thursday two of our members were featured on a radio show.

But also a very important (and a lot of times forgotten) committee like the finance committee has worked miracles. Keeping track of our budget and pre bout ticket sales. Don't forget all the work involved with the ticket sales... Lists that need checking and updating and making sure people that pay through bank accounts actually pay, and kicking their asses if they don't. A lot of work!! But it was worth it, because to top it off on Monday at midnight we closed our pre sale for the bout, with 425 tickets sold!! With 500 tickets available this is pretty impressive for our first hone bout.


As I said it's to much to name. So I won't go on. But I am just so proud of everybody! I can't even believe the day is almost there....I just love it when a plan comes together!!

- Furrrocious

Back on track...

Holymoly its been a while since my last blog!
It's bad but the blog has just not been on my priority list with everything going on.
However I am back now, and I will try to get back on track with blogging.

So much has happened since my last blog. I will do my best to update you a little.

ADD's Monthly Mixed Scrimmages
The Amsterdam Derby Dames have started organizing monthly mixed scrimmage open to all. The first few weren't that crowed, but they have turned out to be super busy and successful! The last two mixed scrimmages there were at least 7/8 different leagues present from all over Holland.
It's been a great experience to skate with all of these different skaters from all these different leagues. You learn so much from skating with different people. I think it has also been a very good learning experience for all the different Dutch Leagues. We, as a country, are so new to Roller Derby and all the leagues are dealing with not always having enough players to scrimmage. These monthly scrimmages give everybody a chance to scrimmage on a full size track with a full officials crew.
Which is another reason why these monthly scrimmages are so amazing. The officials get an opportunity to practice reffing and nso'ing at a full scrimmage. As some refs skate for leagues that don't have weekly scrimmages. So they don't always get the chance to practice. This way everybody wins!
Here are a few pictures of the mixed scrimmages we've had.

Mixed scrimmage 7-1-2012  (picture by Kees Rijken)

 

Captains talking (Picture by Wolf Schouten)

Team Black mixed scrimmage 4-2-2012 (picture by Dennis Stempher)

Megabyte going for Vegan! (picture by Wolf Schouten)

Our girl Jamakaze had the best Derby bruise ever!

Cork City Firebirds vs Amsterdam Derby Dames
So after our first amazing bout against the Devil Dolls Essen, we played our second bout against the Cork City Firebirds in Cork, Ireland. Oh my...how can I explain how freaking awesome it was... It was mind blowing! First of all to pick up 16 derby girls and putting them in a plane, is pretty much an experience all together. :p  We did a ref dance in the boarding area, but except for that I guess we behaved pretty well!
Unfortunately when we arrived in Cork my bag wasn't there. Luckily I brought my skates and all my gear except my helmet and knee gaskets on the plain with me. So when we got to Cork I had to go shopping for a bout outfit (which was also in my bag that they conveniently left in A'dam) and some knee gaskets. I could luckily borrow a helmet from the Firebirds.
The bout it self was amazing! It was super exciting and there was not one dull moment. We didn't know much about CCF before we played them, as they play in Ireland, it wasn't like we had been able to skate together before. This was a very new and exciting experience. We lost with a pretty big loss. But we kept fighting till the end and to be honest I didn't realize we were as behind as we were cause the game was so exciting!!

Poster of the bout

The Cork ladies were the greatest hosts. They made sure were taken care off and all had the sweeties hosts to stay with. At the after party the girls introduced us to Thigh Wrestling and I LOVED that!! I pretty much kicked everybody's ass at thigh wrestling, so I had a great sense of accomplishment at the end of the day! :p
I also got voted best blocker by the Cork girls, which made me feel very special! Especially because I know we have a lot of amazing blockers and I wouldn't say I am the best one. But the other team decides. So I'll take the complement. :)
Here are some pictures of our Cork adventure:

Skate out
Photography by Marcin Lewandowski at soundofphotography.com

 

 

 

My wonderful derby wifey was our Bench Coach
Photography by Marcin Lewandowski at soundofphotography.com

Vix rocking as Jammer
Photography by Marcin Lewandowski at soundofphotography.com

Me and Crow Jane right after the Bout! <3
Photography by Marcin Lewandowski at soundofphotography.com

 

Derby hurts...
If you have been following me on my blog for a while you will know I have been hurting a lot while skating. Well they finally found out what the problem was. After more then two years of 'not knowing' they finally figured it out: Chronic Compartment Syndrome. 
I could try and explain it in my own words, but this website does a great job:

a tough tissued called a fascia surrounds the different muscle groups. This fascia is a small compartment that holds the muscles, blood vessels and nerves. It has limited flexibility so if the muscle swells beyond the fascia's ability to stretch it puts pressure is felt on the nerves and blood vessels in the small space. If swelling continues blood flow to the muscles will decrease, nerves get compressed and it can cause numbness or tingling in the feet and lower legs.

 So basically this is what had been causing me all this pain. And kept me from skating to my full potential.
In December I finally got tested for it, which they do by letting you run and then poke needles in to your muscles, very enjoyable...let me tell you...
But it turned out the pressure values were very high, and therefore and operation would probably be useful.
On the 17th of January it was my turn. I got operated on both the side of my leg and the front on both legs.
It looked pretty horrible at first when they were done.

In the hospital after my surgery

Right after my surgery I had to start walking, to make sure the fascia wouldn't stick back together.
It was really painful at first, and I was so incredibly slow. The day after my surgery I had to start a training schedule that they normally give to Military people who have this surgery.
It basically said I had to walk three times a day for 30 min for four weeks, and then start a running schedule were I will be running 3 times a day for 30 min. I am starting running this Tuesday. I have not ran for more then to catch a train or something since High School, so I am not looking forward to it. But my friend Asa Spades will be coming over tomorrow to show me how its done. We will see how it goes....

  This is what the wounds looked like after a few days. It was very tricky for me though, as the wounds on the outside were so small, but the incisions they made on the inside were over the whole length of my lower leg, on two sides! But because the outside was so small I couldnt always understand why I would hurt so much all over. :p
Luckily I have had a great surgeon who was very helpful in answering my questions when I had them.

After only 2,5 weeks I was back on skates and skated a scrimmage with NO PAIN!!! It was amazing!!
I think I might have been almost as excited as I was when I played our first bout.
I even jammed and got Lead Jammer, and I called it scoring three points before the other jammer could score any. I was so proud of myself. Before my surgery I wasnt able to keep up with the intense skating that comes with Jamming. And all though I am no where near a great jammer, I would love to keep trying and maybe one day I'll get good at it!

Getting lead jammer is the best feeling in the world!! :)   (picture by Branko Colin)

 I am one of the lucky ones though... I realize this every day. Being able to be back on skates after a surgery in such a short time is amazing.
My wifey Lola Rock 'n' Rolla has been injured since the bout in August. She finally found out what it was months later, that she has ripped her posterior cruciate ligament and they will have to operate on it. They will take a piece of something (cant remember what...) from her upper leg and make a new ligament for her knee. Which is a really intense surgery, she wont be able to walk for a long time, then will have to learn how to walk again and she wont be able to skate for 9-12 months. When you are as derby crazed as Lola is, and working your ass off for two and half years, this is pretty much hell. But then again, when she gets back on her skates I know she will kick some ass!! And in the mean time we will make sure to train her for our bench team so she will still be part of the amazing team of ours. 


Another one of our skaters got injured, Nasty Moves, while playing a mixed scrimmage with merby players at a One Love Roller Dolls Bootcamp. She has broken her leg, and wont be skating for a while either. 
She needed to get surgery too. Her recovery time wont be as crazy as Lola's, but it still blows when you have to keep your leg up all the time and can't hardly walk. 
ADD has had some surgery filled months in the beginning of this year.
January: Me  February: Nasty  March: Lola 
Boy oh boy, it better not be a trend for this year...




First home bout (ADD vs RGA)
But there are also up sides on Derby for ADD. We will be playing our very first home bout, and the very first Roller Derby bout in Holland, on the 25th of February. 
We are so freaking excited about this!! We will be playing against the lovely Roller Girls of the Apocalypse (Kaiserslautern, Germany).   
Our locations committee found an amazing hall, the Apollo Hall in Amsterdam, its a hall mostly used for basketball, and is four basketball fields long and has a wooden floor. Amazing... 
It did however cause some concern, when we test the floor we noticed our pads were leaving some serious markings. Luckily we were able to put together a group of our girls for a temp sewing committee that tested different fabrics until they found the right one to use. And then made covers for all of us. Awesomeness! Thanks to Minnie Misschief, Red Peril and all others that helped put this together!

Our crew at work with the covers.  (picture by Dennis Stempher)

It's so great to see the whole league pull together to put this home bout together and pull this off. We have one coordinator Vix Vendetta making sure all the committees are doing what they should be doing. And our head ref Belle Anger is pulling together the officials crew for the bout.
I am so very proud of all our girls putting the time and energy in to make this all work. And so very happy with all the officials coming in to make sure this will be a fair and awesome bout. They will be coming from as far as Malmo Sweden! That's pretty amazing!! 


So on Saturday the 25th of February 2012 at 17.00 I hope to see you all at the Apollohal in Amsterdam for Hollands first ever live Roller Derby Bout. 
You can get your tickets on our website. Let us know you will be coming on our FB event. 

AmsterBAM!!

I cannot wait to finally be able to show all my friends and family what I have been working for all this time. Of course we all ready played before. But not in Holland. So only my brother and my mom have been able to watch me play. 
I hope everybody will be able to make it out and watch and cheer for us!! 



That's all for now!


- Furrrocious

WOW!!!!! First bout madness

It took me a while to get my thoughts together and start writing this blog. Because to be honest the feeling I had last Saturday was incredibly overwhelming, to say the least....

Saturday 13th of August 2011 
The day the first team of the Amsterdam Derby Dames played their very first bout!
10 am the ADD gathered around at a train station in Amsterdam to travel together by a large coach bus to Essen, Germany. Where we would play our first bout against the Devil Dolls Essen (Ruhrpott Roller Girls).
The bus ride over was fun, some of us were nervous, but mostly everybody was just very excited!!

It's hard to explain, but most of us have been working over a year to get to this point. And the feeling of finally making it there.... is just indescribable.

After the three hour drive (with a little detour here and there...) we made is to the Eisssporthalle in Essen.
When we got there Ruhrpott Roller Girls where working hard on getting the place in order for the bout, setting up the dressing rooms, laying the track, etc. They did a great job in getting the place ready for a great night.

The Supporters bus!! - Picture by Grumpy Crump

Around 5 the bus arrived with our very own supporters showed up! Girls from our own league, friends from our girls and people from several other leagues took the bus we arranged and came to support us.
Other people came by car, and all with all, there were people from 8 other Dutch Roller Derby leagues, and a whole bunch of friends and family to cheer us on! My brother and mother also made the drive out, and it was great to see them there.




We warmed up together and got to get used to the floor, which of course we never skated on before.

Warm up with Kim Wilde - Picture by Blauwe Bil 

The floor was great, my new skates felt good, my ankles weren't hurting, and my broken little toe wasn't bothering me while skating. So I felt as ready as I ever would for our very first bout.
Although everybody seemed excited and the team spirit was definitely there, I think we all were starting to feel the pre-bout jitters right before we had to skate out.
For the team skate out we picked a really cool song. Unfortunately we couldn't really hear it at all... We also couldn't really hear Puppi (announcer for the Rotterdam Death Row Honeys) call out our names, luckily she was awesome enough to run with us and call out our names, so we knew it was out time to show our selves :)

Puppi running with us - picture by Kristian Sunder

Acting all cool! :p - Picture by Blauwe Bil

I was crazy, our skate out wasn't necessarily very spectacular or anything, with the music not being heard and all. But having the crowd going wild when we did something as little as skate out, was amazing! It filled me up with the warm fuzzy exciting feeling that I guess is so very normal for your first bout! :)
It was just great. When we were taking a knee for the Devil Dolls Skate out, I saw my wifey's friends in the stands holding up 'Lola' signs and then I saw it, my mom and my brother holding up a banner, just for me! It was so great to see all this support, by our friends and family and our derby friends from all these other Dutch leagues.

We started the bout with our 'power line', which consisted of me, Abs of Steel, San Solo, Monstah Megs, Vegan Vengeance (jammer).
I was in the penalty box before I could say "Roller Derby", which to be honest bummed me out more then you can imagine. But when I got back into the game I played the best I could, we ALL did!

I did a several things I am proud of, like hits or certain strategies that worked out, and the feeling of pulling of a great legal hit or having your line pull off a strategy is just the greatest feeling in the world. I would come back to the bench after the jam just completely SICKED!!! :)

The emotions also ran high on the bench, sometimes by frustration (luckily not because of people getting badly hurt), but also because of crazy exciting jams, like Armorkillo's 38 point jam!!!


The bout was amazing... I have no idea how to describe it... there was action, strategic, great hits and blocks  and fast jammers...

It was simply amazing! So I will just post some pictures here, so you can see for your self how great it was.

DD vs ADD - Slideshow Creator

Pictures in the slide show are made by Kristian Sunder (black and white pictures), Blauwe Bil (color pictures) and Grumpy Crump (color pictures). Thanks to all three!



After the final whistle blew, ADD blew up too! We were all so happy, proud and ecstatic!!! We did it!! And we didn't suck (yeah, that's for you Eliza ;)
We worked our asses off for the passed two years and it showed off!
The feeling I had at that very moment, I will never forget....
And therefore I would like to take this opportunity to thank some people, who, without them, we wouldn't have made it this far.

First of all I would like to thank the founder of ADD and of Dutch Roller Derby; Limpin' Lily. Without you, there would be no ADD. And therefore we are all in debt to you for eternity. But next to that, I also would like to thank you for all the blood, sweat and tears you have put into making this happen, taking your dream and making it into reality. I personally would like to thank you for letting my cry out on your shoulder every time I was hurting or frustrated, and for being in the board together and making stuff happen. And finally for being the great person you are, you ROCK!!!

Second, I would like to thank our coach Hurricane Hayles. Since you have joined ADD we have improved so much! You have a way of motivating us to push ourselves to the very best we can! And I would like to thank you for that. Also I cannot wait for you to give birth to that baby so we can finally skate together!!!

San Solo, 'captain oh captain', you've done a great job in leading this team to our own personal victory, to do the best we can!! And we did, we worked hard and kicked ass, thanks to you!!!

There are a lot more people I would like to thank, but if I write it all down, you will all stop reading, cause it's just to many people, so I am just going to list them, and make it easy for all of you! :)
Lola Rock 'n' Rolla (love you wifey!), Vegan Vengeance, Eliza Do-damage, Armorkillo, Sweet 'n' Sinister, Dirty Job, Mayatollah, Abs of Steel, Monstah Megs, Nasty Moves, Kim Wilde, Minnie Mischief, Nina, Crumpy Grump, Fembot 3000, Jamakaze, Irizzz, Cherry Poppins and all the other great ADD members, ChefX, DI Die, and the rest of the Devil Dolls Essen, Major Madness, Riff Reff, Crank Skice, Pixie Spankalot and the rest of the great ref crew and all the NSO's!

Okay, I'll stop now  :)  I just cannot show enough of my gratitude. It takes so much more then 14 players on two teams to play a bout.... Roller Derby is so much more then just girls in cute outfits skating around. It's a group effort of amazing dedicated, slightly crazy, wonderful people! And I am so happy to be a part of this.


- Furrrocious

Roll DMC - What a day!!

Friday
After spending a almost a week in Berlin, my fellow ADD ladies arrived on Friday. After some hang out time, it was registration time at the Berlin Bombshells practice space.



After declaring that we take full responsibility if we break our legs or get paralyzed and more stuff like that, the officials meeting started.
Riff Reff (Stuttgart) and Dr. No-No (Berlin) did a great job at organizing the officials side of Roll DMC. The refs and NSO's were split up in three teams, Treptow, NeuKölln and Kreuzburg. Each team worked two bouts and for the finals the head refs created one team with all the 'best' refs and NSO's from the whole day.
After the meeting it was time to socialize and with a group of officials we had a bite to eat at this great restaurant.

Seeing how we needed to be at the Arena the next day at 10 am it seemed wise not to go out and party. But my wifey Lola Rock 'n' Rolla had her birthday coming up on saturday so we went to the bar to be able to toast on her b-day at midnight. After that we went straight back to the hostel, so we wouldn't be tempted into partying more then we should!


Saturday - The BIG day
It was a crazy morning, after not sleeping to much, due to excitement for the big day , a lovely but snoring roommate, some roommates that weren't NSO'ing the next day and did go out for drinks, and these awesome derby girls from Rotterdam and Utrecht that I had placed in a room above ours (....) and enjoyed partying a lot, I went on a quest to find my derby wife, Lola rock 'n' Rolla a birthday cake at 8.30 am in berlin...
It was crazy, but I managed. :) After all surprising her for her birthday, me, Vegan Vengeance, Limpin' lily and Belle Anger set off to the Arena.
Once there we had another officials meeting, and starting getting ready for the first bout!




The first bout was between the Stuttgart Valley Roller Girls All stars and Rollergirls and friends.
It was also the first bout that I was NSO'ing. It was great being a part of this exciting event and even though my NSO job as outside whiteboard isn't the most important job on the earth, it still felt great to be a part of it all.
The officials teams are so important to the game and you learn so much about it by NSO'ing. I would definitely advice each derby girl to do this. Although the most annoying thing about being a Non Skating Official, is the Non Skating part. Man oh man, how it is torture to see everybody skate! I wanted nothing more then to skate myself. But I will skate a bout, one day....

The bouts lasted 2 x 20 min, and to be honest they were over before I knew it. I was working together with a great team.
On the referee team we had:
Matt the knife - inside pack #1 + Head Ref (Leeds)
Dr. No-No - Inside pack ref #2 (Berlin)
TestosteRon Jeremy - Jammer ref #1 (Helsinki)
Crank Skice - Jammer ref #2 (Barock city)
Joe Rout - Outside pack ref #1 (Stockholm)
Fluke Skywalker - Outside pack ref #2 (Stockholm)
Zäpp VänDäle - Outside pack ref #3 (Hamburg)

On the NSO team:
Nena - score keeper #1 (Berlin)
Maelstrom - score keeper #2 (Paris)
Rosa DeLux - Penalty tracker #1 (Berlin)
Brute el Peste - Penalty tracker #2 (Paris)
Ma'am Phizz - Penalty board (Stuttgart)
Mary ME - Jam timer (Berlin)
Mojo jojo - Penalty timer Jammer / box supervisor
Ms. High-handed - Penalty timer blocker #1(Berlin)
Christina Agapitou - Penalty timer blocker #2 (Berlin)
Cosmic ReAction - Outside Whiteboard #1 (Stuttgart)
And me Furrrocious - Outside whiteboard #2

You can see we had a pretty international group, and it was great working with so many derby refs and nso's from all over Europe!
As an Outside whiteboard you write up the penalties the outside pack refs report and communicate them to the inside to the penalty trackers.
So I was most in touch during the game with the outside pack refs, especially with Joe Rout and Fluke Skywalker both from Stokholm. And even though they didn't have to much to report to me, we had a good time working together. It was a great team to work with in general, the communication was good and there was great team work.

I am not going to give you all a recap on every bout, because first of all, I am not a derby expert (yet), and second I was working during a lot of them, so I had a different look on the game. But I will advice you all to go see them at: http://justin.tv/eurorollerderby/b/275532878
You'll love the commentary, it's Swede hurt (and Mad Maloony) and she actually says during the final:
"NSO's out there in the world, you know we love you guys, you are very important to all of us!"
Thanks for saying that Swede!


The whole officials team:



Photo by Michael Wittig

I said earlier how frustrating it was not to be able to skate. Well I found out after the first bout how annoying it was to not be able to Scream and Shoot during other bouts... Being an official is all about being impartial. So even when you are not working you can not cheer on other teams. And even though I am actually impartial about the teams in Germany. There are just sometimes that you want to scream at an awesome block or whatever, and I love doing that. I really become a little hooligan! :p But I couldn't.....

So after NSO'ing two bouts and watching a couple more, it was time for the bout for third and fourth place, between Devil Dolls Essen and Hanse Connection for the last bout.
And Essen won!! Number 3 of Germany, a great score I would say. One of the Essen girls, Lola Brentt formally know as Gina Gasolina is one of the most awesome Derby girls I know! And is actually Dutch! :) Here she is as a Jammer skating her but off!!



Photo by Michael Wittig

The finals were, as expected, between Stuttgart Valley Roller Girls All Stars and the Berlin bombshells.
After the game between the dolls and hanse the head refs picked the refs and nso's that would be working the final bout. All of us Amsterdam Derby Dames NSO's wanted to work it, and were very happy to hear we all got picked! So me and Vegan did the outside whiteboard and Belle Anger served as a penalty tracker and Limpin' lily as a score keeper.

It was a crazy bout!!! The place was packed and there were 'camps' for both teams cheering as loud as they could. It was just amazing!!



Photo by Michael Wittig

As the bout started it was very clear that these two teams were equally good and it would be a close one.
The teams both showed some really beautiful Roller Derby, great hits, blocks, whips and very fast and skilled Jammers!
As an NSO I was a lot busier at this bout. More penalties were caught by the outside pack refs, which was good cause there was some much going on.
I was standing at turn one, and had a great view at the Pivot line, so I saw the start of every jam. It was great!



Photo by Michael Wittig

It was really hard to hear the outside pack refs sometimes, because the Stuttgart fans were right behind me and screaming their heads off!! It was so loud and wild, really amazing to see and experience how big Roller Derby can be in Europe.




In the end, it was down to the last jam which would decide who was going to be Germany's first Champion. As the score keepers were giving the score keeper the final jam's score, the crowd went completely crazy! As Berlin got their points first, they seemed to have won, so their fans went wild. But then Stuttgart's points came in and they got four points more then Berlin. Setting the finale score to 124-128.
The crowed went mad, and then the Derby love was showed, by the final laps, where the crowed stands around the track and skaters high five everybody around the track. I love that. It such a nice interaction between skaters and the audience.
Then the Berlin bombshells as organizers of this great event, gave out Thank you buttons to refs and NSO's and medals to the teams.
It was just a great bout, a amazing championship, an awesome day all together!! And I am so glad I was lucky enough to be a part of it.

One of the nice benefits about Roller Derby bouts/events is that derby girls know how to throw a party. And the after party was great! It was at another part of the arena and there where bands playing and it was just a great way of hanging out with other derby girls from all over Europe!



This is me and my Derby wife Lola Rock 'n' Rolla and my brand new intentional Derby wife Vegas (Stuttgart). These great ladies, both had their birthdays during this day!

Again thanks to the Berlin Bomshells for organizing this great event, thanks to Dr. No-No an Riff Reff for organizing the officials side of the championship, you did a great job! And thanks of course to all those derby girls playing their asses off and the last thanks goes out to the officials team, it was a pleasure meeting all of you and working together!

- Furrrocious



Ps: Pictures of the bout that you see here, came from the Berlin Bomshells Facebook - for more great pictures, check them out on their profile.