Dolly Mixtures vs. Bruisin Banditas Cherry Popper Bout, February 2012



Blog entry By Emily Cartwright

My first opportunity to bout came when I'd been skating for about 5 months, and was on my way home from watching some of our girls join a mixed team in Birmingham. Cunningly waiting until I was all fired up from watching that game - which was such a nail biter! - Ken'tush This rang me up to ask if I wanted to join girls from a few teams in Yorkshire for a 'cherry popper' bout in two weeks time. I think my initial response was 'Er....', whilst in my head thinking 'no way!'. I felt a LONG way from being able to take part in a full bout. But I had to make a decision there and then, and after a lot of persuasion I gave an extremely tentative '...ok then...' and it was settled. I was immediately the most nervous I have ever been in my entire life, and despite the bout being two weeks away already the adrenalin was thumping around my body.

I took to skates quite quicky and had been getting steadily better every week, but I'd only taken part in one scrimmage, my rules knowledge was kind of fluffy, and you could knock me over with the tiniest nudge! The best part of training with a team is the other members, and the Imposters are amazing. I was well and truely galvanized over the next 3 sessions, not just in my skating skills and rules knowledge but also so many words of encouragement that I really needed. And gradually my nerves started to turn to excitement! That said, the day before the bout I was a quivering wreck, and didnt get much sleep.

The venue was the North Bridge Leisure Centre in Halifax, and to my relief it was a closed-door bout, so very few spectators to embarass myself in front of. Also playing from the Imposters were Doodlebug and Suewe-Cydoll, and I was immensly glad of the familiar faces. But all the other girls I met as people gradually arrived were very welcoming, and by the sounds of it just as nervous as me! Doodle, Sue and me were joining other newbies from Leeds Roller Dolls and Wakey Wheeled Cats, and we christened ourselves 'The Dolly Mixtures' for the bout!

It was only when we got our skates on and started warming up on the track that my tension started to ease and I had an outlet for some of the adrenalin. Our bench manager had put me down to be first jammer, and after initially thinking 'holy crap' I actually got pretty psyched up for it! But there was some confusion when the first whistle blew, and we were on the track too late, so were sent straight off again!! Thankfully after that the game started to go much smoother and we were rattling through the jams.

The whole thing passed in a bit of a blur, and every time I got on track I thought I was going to hurl, faint or forget how to skate...but I didnt! I got lead jammer twice and sent off once, and thats pretty much all I remember. At half time I ate a pack of fruit pastels in 5 seconds flat and the break was over far too quickly. I didnt realise before how much difference it makes to know your team members - in the first half we were a bit all over the place, but in the second half we had got used to each other and really started to pull together. Everyone felt the second half was much more successful and I have to admit that the time passed much quicker. We lost by about 100 points - our opponents the Bruisin Banditas were really tight, controlled and skilled, a really strong team who had been training together for a long time, and this showed.

Immediately after the bout I have to admit that first and foremost what I felt was relief! I am not a competitive person, so it takes a lot mentally for me to put myself out there and go for it. But when we got home and I could actually reflect on the whole experience, I felt really proud. There are so many things that you learn about the game, your team and your own skating, when you bout that you dont get through training. It's fast, intense and confusing for a beginner, but I came away from it with all these things going around my head about what was REALLY good, what was a complete fail, and much more understanding about the whole game.

Overall though, the best thing about it was meeting so many girls who are all so NICE! On track, your opponents are the scariest people on the planet. But once its over you really get why everyone is there - to have a damn good time!