KRG PROFILE – ROXY #42

September 27, 2016 kentrollergirls Leave a comment

Name: Roxy

Number: 42

Story behind the name & number: 42 is my lucky number, the ultimate answer.

Jammer or Blocker?: BLAMMER! I’m learning to love taking a star pass.

Favourite derby move: Drive and flick. A lateral sweep and a booty block in one. I also invented my own twerking style booty block that I call The Miley Cyrus

Derby role model: I love V Diva’s strength…one day I would like to be that kind of pivot.

Why roller derby?: Because you can’t legally hit people in Badminton.

How did you get involved with KRG?: I watched LA Ink giving someone a derby tattoo and was too chicken to get some ink, but thought “hey, I could play that game it looks mental!“

What goes through your mind before a game?: where can I get a Burrito when we are done here?

Your favourite derby moment so far?: of course, winning our British Champs division this year (and being in a hot tub with Texas’ player FiFi Nomenon at Rollercon 2015)

Your favourite WFTDA team to watch?: Goffum for defence, Crime City for Curly Haar’s jamming.

What’s your day job?: NHS Cancer Screening Manager

What do you like to do off the track?: I play netball and do the occasional Park Run.

How has roller derby impacted your life?: I’ve met some awesome people especially when I’ve travelled and played in Europe and the USA. Basically it stops me from staying in the house watching Extreme Couponing or other such shows

Recreational League

KRG Recreational league open day – October 23rd 2016

September 18, 2016 kentrollergirls Leave a comment

Come along and find out more about the amazing world of roller derby with Kent Roller Girls!
Our open day is the perfect opportunity for you to meet the team and discover what roller derby is all about. We are looking for both skaters and referees to join KRG, and also volunteers to help us run our games and events.

The event is free and everyone is welcome! No tickets are required – just join the event page on Facebook to keep up to date with all the info.

We can lend you nearly all the kit you need, you just need to bring along a mouthguard on the day (as no-one wants to use a second hand mouthguard!).

The schedule will be as follows:
4:30-5pm – Arrivals, sign in and kit up
5-6pm – Beginner skate session (18+ only)
6-7pm – Derby chat & meet the team (with cake!)
7-8pm – Main league scrimmage viewing (optional). A chance for you to watch our main league play some roller derby.

If you get the bug you are welcome to join our recreational team at training on Sunday each week. You’ll be given full training and can either join ‘just for fun’ or work towards becoming a fully fledged member of Kent Roller Girls!

British Champs 2016, Games

British Championships Tier 3 playoffs

September 17, 2016 kentrollergirls Leave a comment

We are super proud to announce that, last weekend, we secured our promotion to Division 2 of the British Roller Derby Championships for next year, following our playoff match against Norfolk on Saturday 10th September.

To recap, we won all 5 of our divisional matches in this year’s championships against Cornwall, Devon, Surrey, Plymouth and Bath, so we needed one victory at playoffs to secure our promotion. Held in Newark, playoffs involved 8 teams from across the country (South, East, West and North groups) playing to win the title of Tier 3 champion for 2016.

The Norfolk Brawds were very co-ordinated in their attack and showed strong offence skills from the start to create opportunities for their jammers to get points on the board and were leading by over 30 points at half time.

However, your beloved Kent staged a remarkable comeback, which began in the first 2 minutes of the second half by drawing a penalty which sent the Norfolk Jammer to the box for 30 seconds.

This gave us a chance to start scoring unhindered and boosted the teams confidence to help wipe away the deficit and then go on to stage a stunning revival and finish the game victorious at 154-138.

Team Captain Jennapocalypse said “I’m so proud KRG is going to be a division 2 team next year. We sat down last year after coming 3^rd and decided we wanted to make it playoffs.”

“After missing out on a spot in the 2015 playoffs the team were so focussed and driven that we ended up finishing first in our division, getting to playoffs, and then, winning our promotion match. We really smashed both our expectations and our opponents.”

We played two more games in a knock out round of the tournament, but our winning streak was not to continue with 2 losses on the Sunday, first against Wirral, who were 15 places higher up the rankings (Final score 73-130) and the overall champions on the day, Swansea ranked 22^nd (Final score 123-223).

However, it was still an amazing weekend for the team, with such close scores boosting our end of year position on the Flat Track Stats ranking table ahead of our move up to the next tier of play in Division 2.

Feeling inspired? If you’re a female over 18 who wants to learn the game and how to skate, we are holding an open day on 23^rd October at the Bay Arena in Herne Bay – see our Facebook event for details.

KRG Profile

KRG PROFILE – Tenacious #2305

August 20, 2016 kentrollergirls Leave a comment

Name: Tenacious.

Number: 2305

Story behind the name & number: My name was chosen by my dear friend Heather Clark and my number is the day and month of my birthday.

Jammer or Blocker?: Mainly Jammer!!! I don’t mind pivoting sometimes.

Favourite derby move: One foot transition.

Derby role model: Rose Smith! (aka former KRG coach and skater extraordinaire Rosa Lethal)

Why roller derby?: It’s fast and I love skating!

How did i get involved with Kent Roller Girls?: I was looking for a skating group and found Kent Roller Girls and discovered Roller Derby.

What goes through your mind before a game?: It’s always about the eating and drinking before a game. Oh, and the floor!!! My big worry!!

Your favourite derby moment so far?: my first ever game taking lead Jammer every single jam.

Your favourite WFTDA team to watch?: probably Rose City & Victoria

What’s your day job?: Cafe supervisor & barista at #cafe1809 in Hildenborough (http://cafe1809.co.uk)

What do you like to do off the track?: cycle fast!!

And finally, how has roller derby impacted your life?: Roller Derby saved my life!

(photo by rollerderbyphotography.co.uk)

British Champs 2016, Games

British Champs Tier 3 – Games 4 & 5

July 25, 2016 kentrollergirls Leave a comment

Kent Roller Girls’ last 2 British Championship games were just 2 weeks apart, with KRG vs Plymouth City Roller Derby on July 3rd followed by KRG vs Cornwall Roller Derby in the Championship Tier 3 South final on July 17th. These last two games would determine, firstly, whether the league would be heading to playoffs, and secondly, whether they would be heading there as champions.

Game 4 – vs Plymouth City Roller Derby:

Kent looked strong from the outset, racking up points before Plymouth managed to get any on the board. Plymouth were determined but only managed 13 to Kent’s 158 by half-time.

Despite being the first to score after the half-time break, Plymouth continued to be dominated by Kent as our jammers Tenacious and Foxygen carried on the scoring streak. The game finished with Kent on 277 to Plymouth’s 35. Despite the large differential both teams agreed that it was a great game.

This win put Kent at the top of the Tier 3 table and guaranteed us our place at the promotion playoffs in September.

Game 5 – vs Cornwall Roller Derby

After wins against Plymouth, Bath, Surrey and North Devon both teams entered this game undefeated and having secured places at the promotion playoffs in September. The game was expected to be incredibly tight with only two places between the teams in the UK rankings.

Cornwall scored first after the whistle, finishing the first jam 2-1. Cornwall had clearly done their homework as they earmarked our jammer, Tenacious, who has impressed in every game this season with her ducking and weaving style, and held her to no points in the second jam. Despite Cornwall’s best efforts, we picked up momentum, adding a few points in each jam. An impressive showing from Bionic Bessie racked up 14 points in one jam as our blockers held Cornwall’s jammer to zero. Kent finished the first half up 101-39.

The beginning of the second half brought danger for Kent as Cornwall took advantage of fatigue, gaining 20 points to our 5. Thankfully, after a strategic time out from bench coach Rosa Lethal, we found our second wind. Cornwall continued to fight but we proved too strong for them as they continued their momentum to finish 160-95.

We are incredibly proud of what our team have achieved this Champs season, winning all 5 of our games and taking the trophy for 2016. All our skaters have stayed true to our ethos of Hustle, Unite, Commit and have really given their all over the past 5 months. We can’t wait to head to playoffs in September to see what next year holds for us!!

But you don’t have to wait that long to see us play again; we have a open mixed scrimmage coming up on August 20th as part of Herne Bay Festival. The game is at our home ground, the Bay Arena, and is free to enter. The teams will be made up of skaters from across the South East and is looking to be a great game. More details can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1709493202658414/

Photos courtesy of Elissa Morton & Gabriel Monteregge (KRG vs PCRD) & Paul Delooze / http://www.rollerderbyphotography.co.uk (KRG vs CRD)

British Champs 2016, Games, Home Games

BRITISH CHAMPS TIER 3 – KENT ROLLER GIRLS VS SURREY ROLLER GIRLS

May 26, 2016 kentrollergirls Leave a comment

Kent Roller Girls welcomed Surrey to the Herne Bay Arena this weekend for our third game in Tier 3 South of the British Roller Derby Championships.

13246259_1706132509661103_3763465313254185663_o

The county match-up was our toughest game yet in the tournament, but our preparation showed with the KRG being the first to score, taking the lead to 17-0 after the first few jams.

There was some impressive footwork from our jammers Tenacious, Vikispeedia, Bionic Bessi and Foxygen, as they juked and ducked around Surrey’s defensive blocking players. Likewise, while Surrey’s jammers put up a fantastic show of power and speed, our blockers slowed them down with a solid wall of skaters. By halftime we had a 134-56 lead. Both teams fought a hard fight in the second half but our tenacity paid off, taking the win 247-100. KRG captain, Jennapocalypse, said “I couldn’t be prouder. We have been working really hard and it shows. We came together as a team and it was that that won us the game.”

13248382_1706134282994259_468356528518912866_o

After Cornwall’s solid 219-108 win over North Devon’s Grin N’ Barum earlier that day, we needed to win by 25 points to stay top of the division’s table. This decisive win leaves us equal on points with second place Cornwall, both having won 3 games, but ahead by 121 on score differential. We are fighting Cornwall for the top spot in the table and, in turn, promotion to division 2, so we can’t afford to relax for a minute!

On 3 July we face off against Plymouth at Surrey’s home venue in Guildford in our next champs game, then later that month we face the formidable Cornwall in our last game of the tournament.

13237783_10154817642598776_1526418518306538296_n

Charity, Collection, Fundraising

KRG skate a marathon!!!

May 25, 2016 kentrollergirls Leave a comment

On May 29th members of Kent Roller Girls will be skating a marathon at the South Coast Roll in aid of Canterbury Food Bank.

10353550_689499517784043_5808150111753554902_n

The South Coast Roll is an annual event held at Goodwood race track in West Sussex. Those aiming to skate a full marathon (that’s 26 miles!!) need to complete 11 laps of the undulating track, whatever the weather. Last year saw our skaters battling strong winds and rain so we’re hoping that things improve on that front this time round!

marathon

If you’d like to support the team just go to our Just Giving crowdfunding page. The food bank (registered charity no. 1153791) is an excellent cause and any amount that you can donate is greatly appreciated and goes towards helping them support low income families and individuals across the Canterbury district.

https://crowdfunding.justgiving.com/kentrollergirls

Competitive roller derby team based in Kent