Field Theory by Hadyn Green

Roller derby is a tricky sport. See, there are sports where appearance and costume are a significant part - like synchronised swimming, dressage, figure skating, even to the point where appearance is included in the scoring.

Roller derby, on the other hand, doesn't give points for appearance, but make-up and costume are a vital part of the sport. And I would suggest that roller derby wouldn't be anywhere near as thrilling if the players were dressed in indentical shorts and t-shirts, like a netball team.

Because the glamorous physical appearance of roller derby teams is an integral part of the sport, it's very much open for discussion.

Most of the American leagues have boring unis with tattoos, make up and body paint there to make sure you can pick out individuals (because the numbers are too hard to see). Focussing on it as a main point of the sport is as silly as writing whole posts on uniforms.

Hey Hadyn
the website says "parental guidance is advised". My daughter is 7 and wants to go. is 7 too young? she quite happily has sat near the yellow fever zone at the phoenix since she was 4.
sorry if that's a dumb question....

Edward: If she can cope with a little bit of language (mostly from Hadyn, it has to be said) and the occasional offensive sign, taunting showboating, and chicks in corsets, she'll be fine.

Their juniors are 7-17yrs. I bet there are a few ex-Brownies & ex-Girl Guides who wished this was around in their day.

Hope you took her Edward, put it this way, there are plenty of kids there younger than seven, and there were last year, when it was advertised as R18.

If she can cope with yellow fever she can cope with Roller Derby. I'm not a football regular, but I think my daughter has heard more offensive things at the couple of football matches she's been to - "Smeltzie, ya fucking homo" - than at Derby - "I wanna ravage Ms Savage". (I know the football comments are not indicative of the game or most of the fans).

Last night was a great first bout of the year, huge, some excellent first appearances, some great matchups, enough to and fro on the scoreboard, and - possibly best - an eventual crushing of Smash Malice.

Also, we saw little blue penguins on the way to the game, and some random science teachers releasing a tissue paper and cotton wool soaked in meths hot air balloon off the waterfront afterwards. Brilliant.

Megan, Tim
Yes, we went along and had a great time. My little girl wants to go again and this time get dressed up for it. She wavered throughout the bout as to who she was supporting (tended to be whoever was on a, erm, roll). She even posted on it this morning on her rather new blog.....
http://chrissie124.blogspot.com/

And probably take along our own food as well I suspect - the one thing which let the event down was the service (and maybe the rather extended halftime but i suspect that was only a problem for the young ones in attendance). In a line only 8 deep, it took almost 15 minutes to get served.

No doubt we'll see some pictures from Jed or Mike soon?

Saturday's tournament was top notch as usual, let down only by a mild case of battery fail, and forgetting to pack the spares.

I guess it is a photogenic sport, but mlr's photos blow me away every time.

I'll be writing up my review later today, but yeah BIG night.

Edward, I'm glad you decided to take your daughter and I'm happy she had a good time. There seemed to be quite a few kids of about 5-10, and in the states some of the leagues have junior teams, where kids play low contact derby. I also sent her blog link to the Richter City girls so she might get some comments from them.

And probably take along our own food as well I suspect - the one thing which let the event down was the service (and maybe the rather extended halftime but i suspect that was only a problem for the young ones in attendance).

Yeah, the rather large crowd look everyone by surprise.

Cheers Ben. But yes, it is an extremely photogenic sport. Possibly the most photogenic sport: it's hard to not get a good shot. This time round I actually managed to capture a few falls, which I don't think I really managed last year. The teams battled harder this year? At least, that's the way it seemed to me looking through the lens.

And I couldn't believe that crowd, especially when Hadyn announced to the masses inside at 7.30pm that there would be a delay in starting because there were still 800 people queued outside. Awesome.

Yeah, the rather large crowd look everyone by surprise.

I thought as much. And I should say in that vein well done to whoever decided to delay the start. Other sports would have just ploughed on and left people disappointed. Next time we'll buy tickets online - was only a non-functioning printer that meant I didn't this time.

Although I agree that there has not been enough emphasis on how tactical and skilful the sport is. I would argue that publicity highlighting on the more sensational aspects of the sport is probably a large reason for the huge turnout on Saturday, if that meant some of those new spectators were as impressed as I was by the skill and tactics of the game then that has to be good.