Wollongong Illawarra Roller Derby Inc.

Come see the Vipers get their chance at revenge on the vixens

Will the vipers unleash their poisonous sting this time or will the Vixens cunningly secure another victory?
Wear green to support the Vipers and purple to support the Vixens! Be as wacky as you like – at Roller Derby, anything goes!!

Saturday April 30 2011

Doors Open 6pm @ Berkley Stadium, Hooka Creek Rd, Berkley.

Join the Facebook event here.

Buy tickets ONLINE or in person from the following locations:

Meakins Jewellers – 230 Crown St, Wollongong

Oak Flats Rollerskating Rink – 137 Industrial Rd, Oak Flats

Yakuza Tattoo – 297 Crown St, Wollongong

Pierce Express – 71 Burelli St, Wollongong

Tickets – $10 adult, $5 kids (5-12), free for under 5 (+ additional booking fee for online tickets)

Tickets will be more expensive on the door so make sure you get yours early!

Bout 2 of WIRD’s 2011 season. The Vixens took the first game 135 to the Vipers 98. Best of 5 will win the season. Come cheer your team! Vipers are looking to level the score and get on the scoreboard!

The locker room was quiet, only murmurs going round, a steady look, a friendly smile a quiet joke was passed down. The nerves were working overtime, cause this was the first bout night, The VIPERS on the left hand side, The VIXENS on the right. Just then in walked the Zebra team, a sigh of relief was heard to sound, You can’t have a Derby bout, If the “gods” can not be found. All of a sudden the room was filled, with laughs and taunts and swearing, We knew this bout would go ahead, because of the stripes they were wearing. And as we stood up to leave, We all gave a great big cheer, We are all a part of the MIGHTY WIRD, And later we’ll share a beer.

- Written by Down Unda Thunda 2412

So thinking of coming along to the first bout of the season? Awesome can’t wait to see you there!

Thinking that this is out of the ordinary, and you don’t know what to expect?
Here’s the basics:

• A bout is broken down into two thirty minute periods, with each period split into two-minute point-scoring segments called jams. Each team has five players on the track, with two playing special roles while the remaining players are called blockers and make up the pack. The special role is given to the single player who can score points for her team, called the Jammer and marked by a star on her head. The second special role is the Pivot (marked by the stripe in their helmet), the pivot generally controls the speed of the pack
• Wear Green to support the Vipers or Purple to support the Vixens
• Bring your cheering voices
• Food and drink can be purchased at the event, along with range of WIRD Merchandise.

Check out our FAQ’s Flyer so you can be in the know!

The Vipers and The Vixens can’t wait for this weekend’s season opener!

To help get the word out there we had some time in Wollongong Mall.

And Watch out for our new banners around town!

To foster sporting in the Illawarra region Wollongong Illawarra Roller Derby participated in the Festival of Sport Expo. The expo featured a number of sports and activities available in the Illawarra. Demonstartions showed the talents in sports including dancing, gymnastics, Zumba and rounding out the day with Roller Derby mini bout.

Here we can see the WIRDos indulging in some Zumba! (It’s a lot harder on skates!)

WIRD would like to thank The Shellharbour Festival of Sport and the Shellharbour City Council for the event.

Here at WIRD, we are totally focussed on 2011 being our year, so what finer way to kick off our training season than polishing up on derby skills and regaining some fitness lost over the Christmas break? Western Sydney Rollers were kind enough to host a “Derby Booty Camp” last month (January 22) at the Penrith Valley Regional Sports Centre. Derby girls rolled up from across the state, including Sydney, Canberra and Newcastle. Trainers came from further afield including Mark Madden from Brisbane’s Sun State Roller Girls, Vaderella from Adelaide Roller Derby and Kitty Decapitate from Victoria Roller Derby. Workshops offered included “Getting out of Trouble”, “Aggressive Jamming” and “Offensive Play.” It wasn’t just roller girls that were catered for as a huge contingent of refs worked on strategy and rules within their own tailored workshops.
The camp sessions catered for a range of abilities as open, intermediate and advanced classes were offered. I couldn’t attend on Saturday, but registered on Sunday for a wide range of skill-based workshops. WIRD favourite Mark Madden from SSRG ran the first intermediate session of the day, showing us fancy footwork for the pack. It’s always great to learn from someone with such an incredible passion for derby like Mark, who had the class two stepping on skates like derby obsessed cowgirls. Vaderella ran a less intensive (but no less useful) course on ‘Getting Out of Trouble.” She dispensed invaluable advice about getting out of sticky bout situations to intermediate skaters. The skills we learnt, including the derby shimmy, will be immensely useful given that most people attending this session will be bouting for the first time in early 2011. After lunch and free skate, the Western Sydney sun was high in the sky and the temperature was nothing short of scorching. Kitty de Capitate from VRDL ran an intermediate session on hitting and blocking. Kitty won a lot of hearts (including mine) during this session by demonstrating that any derby girl (regardless of height) can actually can-open an opponent without an immediate trip to the penalty box. Whether her teachings bore fruit remains to be seen (Come check out Hitz From the Gong at Croome Rd March 19th and see!)
Overall, the camp was a great success; we learnt new skills, made new friends and raised a bunch of cash for the Queensland flood victims at a charity bout held on Saturday night. WIRD was well represented and we were all left feeling that our newly acquired derby skills will help us rule 2011.

Signed,
Courtney Love Bite #7195