The Fright Before Xmas - Roller Derby

On the 3 December 2011 at 6pm, “The FRIGHT before Xmas” Roller Derby was held at the TSB Arena in Wellington.

The first thing that caught my eye was the reasonably long line outside for people to purchase tickets. There is the option of pre-purchasing tickets from www.undertheradar.co.nz which I would recommend to anyone thinking of going to the Roller Derby.

The curtain raiser was the Wellington based team RCRD Convicts against the Hamilton based team Hellmilton Roller Ghouls Raggedy Angst. The main game was the Wellington based team the RCRD All Stars against the Christchurch team Dead End Derby All Stars. In both games the Wellington teams won.

Being new to the Roller Derby scene, it was a great experience. The programme explains the basics of the game so without fully understanding the game anyone can enjoy watching.

The only downside to the night was during the three intervals the wait seemed to feel quite long due to no form of entertainment, and that the main event started approximately 45 minutes later than indicated on the programme. During the interval between the two games there was a 5.7 earthquake that shook the building. In the half time during the main game raffle prizes were drawn, money raised from the raffle tickets that were purchased went towards supporting the local teams.

The Roller Derby sport is not a sport for the faint hearted. There is a lot of pushing, shoving and falling over which all adds to the excitement of the game....most of the time someone was in the penalty box for some form of penalty.

Each team has their own theme and colours. The costumes are particularly interesting and each player seemed to have something on their costume which helped the audience to identify players as the games do move quite quickly. The players and officials all have nick-names that play on their team theme.

I would recommend the Roller Derby for those who enjoy getting behind a team and dressing up to support them  It was a fun night out and overall an enjoyable experience.


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