Dead End Derby Christchurch Rollergirls do battle

Dead End Derby Christchurch Rollergirls do battle at home and away.

Over the weekend, Dead End Derby’s Living Dead Rollers travelled to Tauranga to compete in “War of the Wheels 2017”, whilst at home, recent graduates played their first game in a Christchurch derby against Otautahi Roller Derby League.

Mount Militia Derby Crew hosted the two-day tournament for the first time, bringing together 8 teams from across New Zealand. The Living Dead Rollers played 3 games over the weekend, first up on Saturday was Pirate City Rollers Broadside Brawlers from Auckland who had a 191-164 win. Next was Sulphur City Steam Rollers out of Rotorua, with LDR winning 164-155. Finally on Sunday morning at 8am, Mount Militia Derby Crew, B Company took out a 208-101 win. A handful of LDR players then jumped straight back on the track to play a 4th game to make up numbers for the Space Invaders. Living Dead Rollers finished 3rd in their pool.

According to team captain, Gorey Taylor (Michelle Morrow) “The whole team played their absolute hearts out giving their stranger and faster, opposition a run for their money. This is the first time that LDR have lost a game since 2015. Our bench coach awards go to Daisy Rascal (Colleen Facoory) and Kimikazi (Kim Wheeler) for the bout against Pirate City Rollers Broadside Brawlers, Dee Generate (Genna Scadden) and Fatal Artraction (Anna Kitchingman) against Sulphur City and SchizJophrenic (Jo Bensemann) and Teeny Tiny (Shannon Shave) against Mount Militia Derby Crew. A special mention to Notorious F.A.T, 2 Feral 2 Furious and Dan for benching LDR over an exhausting yet fun weekend.”

On Sunday evening at Cowles Stadium, Dead End Derby’s most recent graduates played their first game against new and experienced players of the rival Christchurch league, Otautahi Roller Derby League. In fact, two players Absolut Kaos (Gemma Thompson) and Snarly Quinn (Jen Hastie) just graduated the week before. The bout was incredibly close and hard fought, with lots of penalties given to both teams who had players foul out during the course of the game. Such was the passion of each team, determined to take a win. Ultimately, the discipline and determination of the Dead End Derby girls paid off.

Team Captain, Goo Goo (Caryn Mullinger) explained; “Our team gelled incredibly well and I was really proud of how well we played and to come away with a win was a fantastic result. It was marvellous to have friends and family there to cheer us on in our first game. I can’t wait for the next opportunity to play.”

Dead End Derby Christchurch Rollergirls will next play at home in a themed exhibition bout “Punks and Pin-ups” on Friday 21st July at 7:00pm at Cowles Stadium. The bout will include players from All Stars and Living Dead Rollers. If you are inspired to follow in the skates of recent graduates, the latest round of Freshmeat has just started so contact us now for details https://www.facebook.com/deadendderby/ or email dedfreshmeat@gmail.com. A junior roller derby team is also being established for girls aged 8-1
Dead End Derby was established in late 2007 and has been going strong ever since, wiith both our A & B teams performing in the top 10 in the New Zealand rankings.

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