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.