As a child/teenager I loved watching the Roller Derby on TV. This involved American women’s teams of roller skaters trying to knock each other out of the ring to get through the mob and score. The teams had fantastic names and the women and their costumes and makeup was something I always wanted to emulate. As close as I ever got was roller skating at the Woodville St Claire Roller Skating Rink and the “Apple cart” race was about as wild as it got for me. So when I had the chance to attend a Roller Derby match with a friend in Adelaide recently I jumped at the opportunity and was not disappointed.
The Adelaide league has four teams at the moment , although I can see that growing quickly as the popularity soars amongst the women of Adelaide. On the night I attended it was the “Salty Dolls’ versus the “Wild Hearses” and as I just happened to be wearing purple, which was the colour of the “Wild Hearses”, it was inevitable that I barrack for them.
There was an entertaining piece of theatre at the beginning as both teams put on an introductory show. The “Wild Hearses” came out with cowboy hats on and guns ablazing and acted out a mock gunfight with the sheriffs.
The “Salty Dolls” appeared with very scary looking white masks on their faces which completely changed the look of the girls from innocent sailor girls to ghostly almost Japanese-like puppets.
Then it was “game on” and after two 30 minute halves of bumping and jostling the “Wild Hearses” emerged the victors, much to our delight.The whole evening had a great friendly atmosphere and the audience consisted of people from all walks of life.
Next time I am going to take a folding chair and buy my ticket on-line. And after seeing the bumping and knocking that went on during the derby I have decided that I may have left my run to join a team a bit late!
I think there could be a few stories in there!
