Angels ascend to Derby heaven...by a whisker
By Andrew Bennett
Derby fans had plenty to be hoarse about as they staggered out of the Rossland Arena on Sept. 11 after narrowly winning what was arguably the fiercest and closest derby bout the West Kootenay Women’s Roller Derby League has ever seen.
Hometown Gnarlie’s Angels fans were out in force in rock star red and with fire in the belly, but they were almost outdone by a massive contingent of true blue supporters chanting feverishly for Salmo’s Babes of Brutality. When the old foes faced off, the structural integrity of the arena’s new roof was distinctly threatened by cowbells and hoopla.
“The place was nuts,” said Coach Vegas of the Angels. “I’ve never seen that much excitement in one place in Rossland. We were pretty lucky it all went our way right at the end. We were pretty lit up.”
Luck may have played a role, but steely nerves, cunning strategy, and the blood, sweat, and tears of three two-hour practices a week all season long greased the wheels for the searing season finale between the top Kootenay teams.
From the outset, the Angels were trailing the Babes.
“Eighty per cent of the game, we were feeling pretty demoralized,” Coach Vegas recalled. Part of the problem was the penalty box packed with Angels.
Blockers in particular were under the scrutiny of a very experienced crew of refs brought in especially for the game, most of them from Edmonton.
“I got a little upset a few times, but then simmered down when I saw the rationale and thought about it,” Vegas said. “They don’t miss a lot; they’re pretty on it.”
Derby teams depend on blockers to stop the opposing jammer and let through their own. The more times a jammer circles the pack of blockers, the more points the team earns, but both blockers and jammers can get penalties.
At first the Angels were caught blocking too far from the pack or while facing in the wrong direction. Short blockers on the track, the Babes managed to ring up hefty leads, particularly under the jammership of the indomitable Beretta Lynch, who took a number of key lead jams.
In the final seconds of the first period, the Angels’ captain, Canuck Norris, managed to snag the lead jam and kept rolling up points during the overtime allowed by the two minute lead jam limit.
Although Norris’s sprint roughly tied the teams in the 80s, the second period was marked by super-pumped Salmo exuberance as the Babes bumped up over 100, leaving the Angels in their dust.
With 15 seconds left on the clock, and trailing well behind the Babes, Coach Vegas had to yell, jump, and wildly wave his hands to get the referees’ attention to call a time out. He was finally noticed and the Angels came together for a final pep talk.
Back on the track, Canuck Norris blitzed through pack to take lead jam status. Moments later, Babe jammer Beretta Lynch was sent to the box for a back block.
“That changed history,” Coach Vegas recalled. “That changed the whole game.”
Unable to accumulate points with their jammer in the box, the clock ran out on the Babes and Norris kept cycling the pack, racking up points in her two minute jam until the game was won.
Please check out this gallery for action-packed shots of the evening’s bone-crunching festivities.
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