Last Saturday the Canberra Roller Derby League (CRDL) hosted its third Carnival of Carnage. This rite of passage demo bout is a friends and family only affair for the League’s most recent drafts to show their stuff before taking to the flat track publicly as the newest players for local teams the Brindabelters, Red Bellied Black Hearts, Black ‘n’ Blue Belles, and Surly Griffins.
Many of the CRDL darlings we’ve come to admire were there. Proceedings were MCed by the lovely Bullseye Bettie and Dee Nature. Peachy Keen and Dr Hell made guest appearances as outside pack refs. Enthusiastically benching for the Candy Caners was unstoppable-force-of-nature The DutchAss. And almost matching the sparkle of the Hot Jammer Donuts gold sequined mini-skirts and purple skate covers with her gold boots was that teams’ benchie, Bambi von Smasher.
With team names paying homage to preceding Carnivals of Carnage, both the Candy Caners and the Hot Jammer Donuts looked ready to bring it as the starting whistle blew. The Donuts took an early lead thanks to solid jams by AnneThrax, Blitz, B Afraid, and Rainbow Spite. Assists from B Afraid, Posie La Threat and McSmack, strong pivoting and aggressive jamming by AnneThrax, as well as a 9 point jam by the impressive Blitz, saw the Donuts leading by 10 points at half time.
During the 15 minutes break both teams set their minds to win, but underdogs the Candy Caners wanted it more. Caner jammers FaunaCat, Kitten Caboodle and Angry Panda worked hard to put points on the board. FaunaCat quickly racked up points, cleanly slipping past the pack on the outside every time. Star blockers Dalai Slam’er and The Cleaver created Donut carnage in the pack. What they lacked in technique they more than made up for with passion, and after seven turns in the bin each, they were both ejected from the game.
The best stacks of the bout included Rainbow Spite flying through the air and taking out FaunaCat thanks to an illegal block by The Cleaver; pack tussle resulting in an awkward-looking Cleaver sandwiched between McSmack and the floor; and a three-way pile up involving B Afraid, Highway2Mel and Angry Panda.
At 22 minutes left on the clock the board read 45 all. Both teams worked hard but ten minutes later the Caners had a 12 point lead thanks to more offensive jamming and blocking, and at the final whistle their lead had stretched to 101 to 75.
Next time we see these players in action they’ll be fighting it out for their team to become CRDL season champions. The first match of the new season will be on Saturday 11 September, and I hear tickets will be on sale soon. I can’t wait!
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