On March 16th the Girls and Boy of the Birmingham Blitz Derby Dames invited the Midlands to ‘Support Your Local Rollergirls!’. We kicked off our inaugral season with a League Launch Party to introduce the team and teach the public a little bit more about the revival of this amazing sport. Decked out in army netting, BB*DD banners and balloons, Birmingham’s Barfly was the venue for the party that promised beer, bands and babes with bruises, and the Dames welcomed over 250 partygoers into the bar! Together with music from female-fronted bands The Mobsters and Dragster, and Roller Derby footage playing on the projection screen, we aimed to not only entertain but educate the audience in one of the night’s main highlights; ‘What the hell is Roller Derby anyway?!’

Introduced by league referee, Chet Wisconsin, and our founder member, Iva Issues (aka Bee Bentley), a scaled down version of the team performed a slow motion Derby demo.

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Playing as lone Jammer, Magic Minx braoke through a pack of blockers, lapping the pack to break through once again and start scoring points. On her second journey through the pack she was taken down by a vicious elbow from Violet Attack, setting a spark to the catfight touch paper. Chet waded in to break up the brawl, worrying only about the safety of his can of lager, and Iva called for the penalty wheel. This gave the brawlers a chance to settle their dispute in a more ladylike manner…in this case, a pillow fight!

Armed with cushions, Violet Attack and Magic Minx steeled themselves to stay on their skates whist bashing each other to bits. It was almost like an episode of Gladiators, except with fishnets, short skirts and pillows instead of sweaty lycra and Pugel sticks. The rest of us hung back, jeering and yelling as they tried to smack each other off their wheels, all piling on for the fight when they both eventually fell.

Throughout the night we all skated round the club, selling raffle tickets, cakes from the bake stall, and even badges, displayed on team shirts that the partygoers could literally ‘pick’ from. All the raffle prizes were donated by the Dames’ much thanked sponsors and due to their generosity the girls could give away prizes that screamed roller derby; namely tattoos, piercings and alcohol!
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For weeks before the the party we’d all been working hard to do as much promotional work as possible, both for the party and for the League as a whole. We have appeared on local news, BBC Midlands Today, not only creating awareness of the League and the sport, but also giving a tutorial on how the game is played. Some of the girls have also been interviewed about their Derby experiences for BBC Radio WM, and yet more have been out to Kerrang Radio to give Tim Shaw a taste of his own medicine.

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We’d also been out for a few hair-raising street skating ventures to sell our event to the club-goers of Birmingham city centre! As a league we really want to make Roller Derby as popular here in the UK as it is in the USA and Canada, and so far all the work we’ve done has been really positively received! The Party inspired a lot more girls to join practices and we’re still seeking out new members!


For more information and to sign up to the mailing list, please send an email to info@blitzdames.com and visit our website (http://www.blitzdames.com) or myspace (http://www.myspace.com/blitzdames) where the details of our weekly practices are displayed, but please let us know if you plan to attend.