On Saturday we held a FinestImaginary stall at ‘Viva La Bash’, a roller derby bout between the Leeds Roller Dolls and the Birmingham Blitz Dames. I’ve never seen a roller derby before, heard about them of course (what with Whip It and that), but didn’t exactly know what the hell went on.
After trying to figure out the rules by reading wikipedia I felt even more confused o.O so I figured it’d just make sense on the day. The derby was held at the Leeds university sports centre, and alongside my stall was another fellow crafter (who has had stalls at other events we’ve done, too), a skate stall and a merchandise stall.. AND there was a tuck shop, so me and Adam drank cherryade and ate sweeties all afternoon. Wired.
(That’s my friend ‘Magic 8 Brawl’ in the sparkly pants, I tend to know her as Jude though)
Roller derby is mad fun, with a bunch of girls wearing hot pants, skates and helmets who just kinda bash each other over… neat ;) Honestly, though, it looks like a brutal game, and pretty knackering, I would try and explain the rules but I’ll probably get them wrong… suffice to say the aim of the game is for one ‘jammer’ from each team to try get through a pack of blockers as they all skate around the track. There’s a bunch of other stuff to do with hip tapping, pivots, lead jammers etc etc which you kinda pick up as you watch.
If I had any spare time right now I’d be half tempted to go to the Fresh Meat session for the LRD’s in May, alas with training for this here run, things hotting up for FinestImaginary and generally trying to not kill myself, I can’t fit it in. Maybe you can though?
There’s also a good article about here on Culture Vulture
(Images above from John Ford)
