Ahh Saturday, that almost deserves its own post. If Friday was about celebrating my birthday with my family, Saturday was about using a bout as an excuse to celebrate my birthday with some of my derby friend's. Newy hosted a double header with their Harpies side opening the night with a bout against CCRG before the main event which saw the Dames take on Perth's West Coast Evils side in the battle of the East coast vs West coast. I headed over to Cass at the merch stand who was holding out a black Dames shirt for me. I told her I had one, don't know why I did because I was actually wearing it. I unfolded it to reveal the Dames shirt signed by the entire team who were bouting that night including AJ. HOLY SHIT! I basically bear hugged Cass for the awesome birthday present. It was such a lovely gesture by her and to all the Dames who signed it. I especially loved the extra touch by Kell to draw a gun at the end of her derby number, Licence to Kell 007, geddit? ;) Special thanks to Nav who took a pic of Cass and I with the shirt after the bout.
I confess I have a soft spot for the Central Coast guys. I've gotten to know them pretty well thanks to all the HARD and CCRG bouts and player fill in's over the past year. As much as I love them I was always going to be backing the Newy team. The likes of Drop Bear and Tox were having absolute blinders with their blocking work. My MVP went to Massive Package, it was the best I've seen her bout to date. Given the fact she comes up to my knees it's easy to see how she can get swallowed up in a pack. Gritting her teeth she took on opposing skaters and forced her way through, not even a shoulder to the face by a backwards blocking skater could stop her. Amazing performance.
CCRG came out firing in the second half as they fought to close the gap, they certainly had all the momentum. When KiKi wasn't being naughty and 'resting' in the penalty box she was just awesome to watch. Her positional blocking was holding back the Harpies jammers time and time again and her track awareness was impeccible as you could actually see her track a jammers progress through the pack and KiKi would make her way through the pack and strike at the front of the pack to stop the Harpies jammer's progress. CCRG called off the final jam too late as they JUST pulled up too short to allow the Harpies to pull off a nail biting win.
I had a few Newy people come up and wish me happy birthday when all of a sudden Tantrum comes up and starts giving me a lap dance while singing Happy Birthday to me haha. I've never been given a lap dance before so I did what I do best, I sat there blushing, thinking what the fuck am I supposed to do? :D I think I thanked her but I may have still been in a state of shock haha. I was still red in the face from blushing when Bermuda decided to give me a lap dance, ohh lordy all this attention haha. Bermuda and Tantrum must have been tag teaming because Tantrum decided to give me another lap dance. I swear it was really hot in the venue and it had absolutely nothing to do with all my blushing :P
I was chatting with Cass when all of a sudden people around me started cheering. I was looking around to see what happened only to be told by Valfreya that Mal gave me a birthday shoutout. Dammit I completely missed it :( The Dames had their skate out which had the whole making it rain theme to it then they completely topped it with a couple of them dishing out Dames dollars to the crowd Grand Theft Auto style. I still don't like skateouts but that was ace combining derby with Grand theft auto. Glitter saw to it that I didn't miss out on Dames dollars by waking up to me and shoving some down my shirt haha. I really felt like I was in a real life Grand theft auto situation minus the car chases and shootouts :)
I've discovered a while back that these end of year Dames bouts take year's off my life. I'm still recovering from that nail biting loss against Adelaide a couple of year's back. this bout was no different. I'd never seen Perth bout so I had no idea what to expect. Understandably both sides were testing the waters for the first few jams and for the most part the bout was fairly even. There was one particular player for Perth who stood out. I think it was Annie Thingoes, the number on the back of her shirt was one big blur because I swear I have never seen anyone skate that fast in my life. Not only was she agile as hell getting through the pack and fast but it was like there was jets on the bottom of her skates because when she put her foot down it was like someone pressed the fast forward button. AMAZING.
There was some great walls by both sides, quite a few penalties, lots of engaging plays but neither side could deliver the knock out blow to take a huge lead. It was great and nerve wracking to watch. Some other players that stood out for me: Dangerass, a player that more than lives up to her derby name. It's like her arse is a magnet for opposing players, once they get caught behind her they ain't getting past her unless she lets them. Her positional blocking is some of the best I've seen. Yes, as always I fangirled over Jilla's blocking. At first the Perth guys did nothing to nullify her backwards blocking so she had an absolute field day stopping their jammers time and time again. It wasn't until the second half when they started double and even triple teaming her to stop her from getting to their jammer. Reggie's blocking was once again crazy good. I know I haven't mentioned her much in my blog in the past but for a while now I've noticed how effective her blocking is especially at ERRD and in this bout. She sweeps up at the back really well. Kell, I wish I could get her to see what I see watching from the sidelines. She's unsure if she's had a good game or not and I have to assure her she has. She'd be one of the first names on my team. She keeps her wall of players in a tight wall, can put people on their arse if needed or positional block the hell out of them.
The end of the bout was certainly 'interesting'. With only a few jams left and the Dames in the lead, Jilla went to transition and backwards block a player when she fell and didn't get back up. It was easy to see she was in pain because I've never seen her stay down. It was at that moment that I stopped caring about the bout, I was worried about Jilla's condition, some things are more important than a bout result. I wasn't watching the bout but apparently there were some amazing jams I missed out on watching. When it looked as though she hadn't broken her ankle I managed to watch the last jam. It was another nail biter but a well deserved win for the Dames.
It was onto the after party and I decided to use that as an excuse to have birthday drinks with some of my newy friend's. Can you believe it I was actually being social and talking to people, I know right! It was nice to relax and have a few laughs or so I thought, Tantrum came back for round two (or was that three?). I think I was in danger of becoming permanently red faced from all my blushing haha. It's times like this that I wish my social skills were more advanced than what they currently are. Later on I was standing up and chatting with Cass and co when Tantrum started twerking me, I looked over to Jilla with a look on my face that clearly said WTF do I do? HELP ME!!!! Jilla helped me by sitting there and laughing at me. Thanks Jilla! :P I love these crazy guys, they're a great tonic for my shyness. Not only that but everything they did for me that night was such an honour considering I'm not actually an official member of their league. Some of them said I'm an honourary member which suits me just fine because I guess you can say I'm unofficially a member of my two favourite leagues :D
Sunday I was still 'high' from the previous night. Not only that the Erradicators were training on the court next to us in preperation for their bout. So much awesome talent but as much as it would have been great to just sit and watch them, I had my own training to worry about. The training committee had planned for those of us not scrimmaging against the Erradicators to have our own little scrimmage which would have been my first since my knee injury in April so I was super excited about that but alas not enough people turned up so no scrimmage for the rest of us :( I also managed to break a 'curse'. The last two times I picked up a knee injury I was working one on one with Cherry during a drill. I'm happy to report that Cherry and I worked together and I didn't pick up an injury YAY! I know we're friend's but I still have to pinch myself from time to time that I get to train with her on a regular basis. She also provides me with good tips on how to improve my form. Also working with someone as experienced as her constantly challenges me.
Our 'kazi's took on the erradicators in scrimmage. That was a shit load of fun to watch. It was also the first time I'd ever seen NRDL players take on my league. No surprise which team I went for (like that was ever in doubt) and it was fun to engage in some banter with Jilla who was benching for the Erradicators. I was happy with how my guys performed, they had some good little wins against the more experienced Erradicator skaters. Overall I'd call that a pretty awesome weekend both on and off skates!
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