After some months of anticipation, we finally attended the
C-Max Roller Derby League last weekend in the South of Jozi. Think short skirts, fishnet stockings, mean grins, falling, speed, bumping...and some more falling.
Roller derby is fast becoming a popular sport and sub-culture in South Africa. I stumbled across an article in the
Marie Claire and it seems like so much fun, so I decided to buy a couple of tickets and drag the husband and some friends over to the Turffontein racetrack area.
Here are the rules according to Wikipedia: Roller derby is played by two teams of five members simultaneously skating counterclockwise on a circuit track. Each team designates a scoring player (the "jammer"); the other four members are "blockers." One blocker can be designated as a "pivot"—a blocker allowed to become a jammer in the course of play.The jammer wears a helmet cover bearing two stars; the pivot wears a striped cover; the remaining members' helmets are uncovered.
The teams for the night were The Raging Whoremones and The Thundering Hellcats. In the first round (which lasted for about 30 minutes), it looked like The Thundering Hellcats were going to make a clean sweep but The Raging Whoremones made a HUGE comeback in the final minutes.
Most players in these leagues skate under pseudonyms, also called "derby names" or "skater names". I particularly liked the following names: Crazy de Melker, Kraken, Leo Slayer, Mel Ultramal, and Whiplash-Her.
This was such a fun evening. It was another one of our little "adventures" that turned out really great.
