Detroit 179 vs Grand Raggidy 35

Posted on May 5, 2009

by Rusty Wheeler
Grandville, MI
May 2, 2009

The Detroit Derby Girls made it four wins in a row over the Grand Raggidy Roller Girls, but unlike the last time these two teams played, where Detroit squeaked out a 94-82 victory, this time Detroit thrashed Grand Raggidy 179-35. Detroit dominated the game in every way, and it made for a long night for the hosts and fans of Grand Raggidy.

Rather then recap this game jam by jam as is my usual fashion, I will instead write more in generalities due to the game’s lopsided nature.

1st Half

Perhaps the highlight of the game from the Grand Raggidy standpoint was the game’s opening jam which Jackie Daniels won for the home squad 3-0 to give GR an early lead. In jam 2 Sarah Hipel (formerly known as Killbox) got a 2-0 win for Detroit, and that was the last jam that saw Grand Raggidy leading on the scoreboard. In jam 3, Detroit’s boo d. livers put up a 13-0 win with a grand slam, followed by DDG’s Sista Slitchya winning jam 4 by 8-0 with a slam, and suddenly it was 23-3 for the DDG. It was off to the races for the rest of the night. Detroit outscored Grand Raggidy 77-12 in the 1st half with DDG scoring 7 grand slams. Lead jammers were evenly distributed at 10 apiece, but Detroit’s defense only allowed GR to score 5 points in those 10 jams in which GR had lead jammer.

The game was marred in jam 11 when Roxanna Hardplace was injured. I didn’t see what occurred, but the referees called off the scoreless jam when Roxanna was down on both knees on the floor outside the track and in front of the penalty boxes. After a somewhat lengthy delay in which the EMTs attended to Roxanna, she was able to walk off the floor with minimal assistance on her way to get further medical attention for what appeared to be a left shoulder injury. Both teams then received ample time to warm up again after taking a knee for the injury time. When the injury occurred, Detroit was leading it 39-7. It was looking like a repeat of the Minnesota-Grand Raggidy game of a week earlier, although Detroit never let up, and Grand Raggidy was not able to mount a comeback this time.

There was also an interesting ploy in the last jam of the 1st half. Many times blockers will line up deliberately with a skate in front of the blocker start line in order to get called for their 4th minor penalty so they can go to the penalty box early in a jam and “get it over with.” But for this jam, DDG’s Sarah Hipel instead lined up behind the jammers. That way when the jam started she was called for illegal procedure (or would it be a false start?), which was her 4th minor. But instead of having to skate all the way around the track to the penalty box from the usual blocker start line, from where she lined up behind the jammer start line she could skate directly to the box without having to pass Go, and also without presumably collecting $200. No doubt there will be a future WFTDA rule to prevent such shenanigans! By the way, this game was played under WFTDA 3.1 rules.

2nd Half

Detroit continued the pressure in the 2nd half, starting out by winning the 1st three jams by 4-2, 9-5, and 3-1 scores. Detroit scored more points in the 2nd half (102) than in the 1st, and both teams were still whacking each other pretty good. Grand Raggidy’s Jackie Daniels appeared to get roughed up a couple of times in the half. In jam 15, Jackie got knocked down in the pack and a teammate fell heavily on top of her. Play was stopped, and Jackie looked a bit shaken. Another time Jackie skated around holding her hand to her face after it appeared she caught either a finger or an elbow in her eye. Since I was recording stats I couldn’t note all of the big hits by both teams, but there were many. The hitting continued until about jam 17 (out of 19 in the half) when both teams reverted to just cruising around the track like they were at an open skate. There was no scoring in the last two jams of the game.

Detroit particularly dominated the lead jammer stats in the 2nd half, getting lead in the first 15 jams in the half, and 16 overall. Grand Raggidy were only able to get lead in 3 of the half’s last four jams.

Afterthoughts

What to say about this game, except it was sort of uncomfortable watching Detroit pound Grand Raggidy. Many skaters on both teams are friends, but in spite of that, both teams skated hard and didn’t hold back on the hitting until the very end. Grand Raggidy seems to have gotten disorganized ever since the Fall Brawl in Ft. Wayne in 2008 where they lost to an upstart Arch Rivals squad.

Grand Raggidy was once again without star jammer Mira Maheiney who has had to at least temporarily withdraw from derby due to life circumstances. I’m sure she would be welcomed back, if and when she can return to derby. I don’t believe GR has recovered from losing experienced blockers Javelin, Battleaxe, and Letha Venom to the nearby Killamazoo Derby Darlins when that league was formed in Kalamazoo a couple of years ago. Those three players lived closer to Kalamazoo than Grand Rapids, and so they decided to skate nearer to home. They do make up a deadly blocking trio, not to mention that Javelin and Letha are also quite effective jammers. One could also throw in Terrorhawk as an effective blocker that went from GR to Kzoo.

Bette Mangler was unavailable for this game for Grand Raggidy, and that also hurt as she is a blocker who likes to hit people. And I kept forgetting to ask where Angie Warhaul is as she’s not listed on the GR team web pages any more. Another good blocker that is missed.

This game was the 2nd game of a double-header between the two cities, and Grand Raggidy had to use several players in both games, in particular Disarmin’ Darlin, Keisha Mei Ash, Lindsay Blowhan, Lucy Morals, Shutter Speed, and Tone Loco. Having just skated 60 minutes versus the Motor City Disassembly Line and then having to skate another 60 against the Detroit Derby Girls All-Stars has got to be tiring!

Statistics

Detroit was led by boo d. livers with 50 points in 11 jams with 8 leads and 3 grand slams. Other Detroit jammers: Kat Von D’Stroya (43 points, 9 jams, 6 leads, 4 slams); Sarah Hipel (35 pts, 9 jams, 5 leads, 3 slams); Sista Slitchya (31 pts, 8 jams, 4 leads, 3 slams); Racer McChaseHer (20 pts, 2 jams, 2 leads, 2 slams); Elle McFearsome (0 pts, 1 jam, 1 lead).

Grand Raggidy was paced by Dot Matrix’s 12 points in 11 jams with 4 leads and GR’s only grand slam. Other scorers: Viva La Boom (11 pts, 8 jams, 3 leads); Jackie Daniels (8 pts, 13 jams, 4 leads); Hot New Girl (4 pts, 8 jams, 2 leads).

Don’t have any blocking stats, although Roxanna Hardplace of DDG was awarded MVP of the game.

Future

The Detroit Derby Girls All Stars next skate at Seattle on June 6.

The Grand Raggidy Roller Girls next travel to Cincinnati on May 30.

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