Smash you very much

So I went up to Newy to watch the opening match of the season between the Fort Smashleys and Harbour Hellcats (I'm hoping to finish the write up after this post). Here's a funny fact. I've lived in Sydney all my life BUT I've been to more Newy bouts than I've been to ALL bouts I've gone to in the Sydney area. Plus I think it's probably a sign I've been to too many of their bouts when I go line up to get my media pass while lining up in the general admission line and I haven't even opened my mouth but they already know who I am and give me a media release form :)

I sat and watched the bout with Big Kahuna and had an amazing time. It was great chatting with him about all things derby, he's a funny bugger so I had a few laughs too. It was also great hearing his insights during the bout and picked up a few new things in terms of strategy. Hopefully I'll get to watch a bout with him again in the future.

I also had two of my team mates come up to watch a Newy bout for the first time with Hayley and Keiryn making the trip up. It was funny hearing Keiryn's reaction about being slightly worried coming up against them as they play more physical than SRDL. I know I'd get slaughtered by Newy on the track but fuck it I can't wait to come up against them one day and then have a beer with them afterwards!

As for the bout itself it will go down as one of my all time favourite bouts. Neither side had a 14 player squad due to injuries so the bout got scrappy as tiredness kicked in but I was equally amazed and excited at the same time by the fitness and determination that both sides showed to got right up until the final whistle. I swear just when I thought I couldn't love them anymore they go and surprise me again. Read my write up when it gets uploaded there's heaps of other goodies I'll mention about the night. I'll give you one more nugget of info guess who jammed multiple times at the bout, yep Jilla! I haven't seen her jam since the very first bout I ever went to in October 2010 and it was an awesome sight to behold. (Pics courtesy of the Nav Man). When I grow up I want to be as good as her!

AND an amazing shot of her leaving blockers in her wake!

So I have an open invitation to train with Newy but I'll cash that in when my skating improves. I'm working on another thing. I've talked Newy up to my team mates and we've already had other leagues scrimmage and train with us so along with our head trainer Lola I'm trying to get Newy to come and scrimmage with us some time this year *cough* hopefully one of the skaters coming down would be Jilla :) *cough*

As for me after seemingly progressing the last few weeks I felt like I stagnated last week at training on both nights. I knew the progress wasn't going to last forever so I'll deal with that so that the progress can kickstart again. I'm officially ruled out of bouting in our first intraleague bout in May/June. I need to be a Corporal level 2 for at least 8 weeks before I can attempt the Sergeants test and I'm a Corporal level 1 with less than 3 weeks before the exam. Watching the scrimmage last night which had members from CCRG and SRDL in it too I *knew* that if I was in that scrimmage I wouldn't have survived so I'm not up to that level. So here's my master plan. I've had enough of talking about my derby dreams. Talk is cheap and I want to do my 'talking' on the track instead of writing about it. I flirted with it before Christmas last year but I'm officially calling it quits with this blog starting tonight. I'm putting all my focus into training to make sure I'm bouting this year. I'll stick with the RDAU write up's only because I learn more about the game by doing them. I'll update my progress as status updates on my Facebook page but that's about it.

To the people that have read this and the friend's that I've made from this blog SMASH YOU VERY MUCH and hopefully see you on the derby track sometime soon!

Sylv aka Lisbeth Slammed-her.