Blue Ridge Roller Girls report: BRRG dominates with incredible display of teamwork. On skates. At full speed.

Here’s the report, and photos, from correspondent Bill Rhodes:

If the last bout was Sibling Rivalry with little sisters from Johnson City, then this one was Sibling Rivalry with the big sisters, The Carolina Bootleggers (CRC), from Raleigh. And just like the little sisters from that state north of us, the big sisters had to take the long ride home without the thrill of victory. The final in front of 2,200 enthusiastic fans at the civic center was 136 for Blue Ridge, 83 for Carolina.

For months, I have been hearing from various skaters on BRRG that this was going to be a disaster of epic badness. I guess they had time to get ready. From the opening whistle, Blue Ridge dominated the action in jam after jam racking up more points, and even several shut outs.

As the announcer said at some point, “Does not matter how many points you score in derby, if the other team is scoring more.”

BRRG seemed to be on top of the game in this bout. Time and time again, the jammers, Mazel Tov Cocktail, Grafik Illuskater, PoisonSue Smac, and Drag’N SlayHer out maneuvered and out scored the CRG jammers. But it was beyond that. The blockers and pivots kept the pack together, kept the CRC offense down, and just kept hammering them. It was an incredible display of teamwork. On skates. At top speed.

They will need that and more for the next bout on July 31 when they host the Texas Hellmarys at the Civic Center. If CRG is the big sister, the Hellmarys are the mothers and aunts of modern roller derby. This could be an entirely different monster, but one which a win could put Asheville and BRRG on the roller derby map.

Let’s back up to, oh, 1999 or so. There was no roller derby anywhere. It had been, off and on, played in various places and under various rules with various success. A movie or two was made, it was on TV–it became kind of like pro wrestling–a big draw, but mostly show.

A few skaters in Texas wanted to change this. As time crept toward the official-start-date of 2003, they worked to make roller derby a real sport, run “for the skaters, by the skaters.”

Now, 7 years on there are 5 teams in Austin. Nearly 300 nation-wide. And more forming all the time. One of those teams is our own BRRG, and the bout with the Hellmarys will be almost like an initiation test.

Win or lose next month, this will be the one bout you will want to see.

If roller skating is a pastime your child is interested in taking up, see this list of best roller skates.

Check out castaspark’s flickr photo set of the bout here.