Our C Team, the Bet Lynch Mob, recently had their first game as a newly replenished team against North Cheshire Victory Rollers. BLM skater Rampant Ratchet gives us the low-down on her first game at The Thunderdome.
So, the first game for the all-new Bet Lynch Mob (BLM) – exciting times! The game didn’t start till the afternoon – that meant a whole morning of trying to stay cool and calm and collected! I had done all I could – rested from my usual exercise routine, eaten correctly and stayed hydrated. There wasn’t anything else I could do but wait. Checking up on my teammates I found that we were all nervous, but super excited. Win or lose, we were all just happy to be playing together!
So to The Thunderdome! Thanks to a double header with the Tender Hooligans playing after BLM, there was a large crowd – which did little for everyone’s nerves! I had butterflies for sure, but I was doing my best to use them for strength and concentrate on my team. We all got ready and got ourselves warmed up – all our training was about to be put to the test!
I was placed on the 2nd jam and made one of the main Jammers along with River Slam. I didn’t expect to be made Jammer (the past few weeks I’ve been off-skates after hurting my elbow, and before that I hadn’t made the jamming impact I had wanted to in front of people) this all made me determined to do my best – if even more scared!
The game started, first jam over for line one, and then I was up as Jammer for my line. I said hi to the other jammer (I figured I would try to stay calm and maybe distract them with small talk and a little humour) it seemed to work! I got lead and scored points for my team, the crowd cheered me – best feeling ever! I called the jam and got back to the bench. One good jam doesn’t win a game, but everyone was pleased and it bolstered my confidence.
My derby wife Melon was also amazing on track and I was so proud. And then before I knew it the first half was over and we were ahead 110 vs 68! The team were all doing so well! But there was another half to go and we had a lot of penalties (but none for me!).
After a good team talk we got stuck into the 2nd half. First jam for me and I got hit out. I picked myself up and skated back on, but a sneaky NCVR blocker got behind me and I was sent to the bin for a cut track – doh! Back on and determined to make amends – only to go crashing into the back of a NCVR blocker and be sent off again for a back block – I felt so silly! But there was no time for self-pity and beating myself up about it, my team needed a jammer on track and not in the box. I sat my 30 seconds and refocused. When I got back on track I managed to score a few points, but a hard lesson learnt in staying focused. The second half carried on, and BLM maintained and extended our lead.
Game finally ended BLM 243 vs NCVR 123 – We WON!!!! I looked around at 13 other tired, sweaty girls and I was so so proud to share the track with these amazing ladies – I just can’t wait to do it again!
Rampant Ratchet is one of our graduates from our New Skater programme. If you’d like to give roller derby a try for yourself, just come along to one our New Skater sessions every Monday night at The Thunderdome!
