Mitten Kittens Victorious at Fall Brawl

Posted on November 29, 2007

Nov. 26, 2007 - AK-40oz.

Michigan’s Finest attended the first ever Fall Brawl this Saturday and took home the sterling silver! The tournament saw the first of the Kittens in official bout play, and they came with the ferocity there were shades of when they faced the Windy City Rollers. Featuring a mixed all-star lineup (Grand Raggidy: Dot Matrix, Jackie Daniels, Bette Mangler, Vindicator, Lil Ha Ha, and Lindsay Blowhan/Detroit: Cookie Rumble, Bikini Killer, Vega Vendetta, Devil Kitty, Kat Von D Stroya, and “The Phenom” Racer McChaseHer) the Kittens pounced on the opposition right out of the bag.

Facing the Rockford Rage travel team the Kittens jumped ahead and took the first round 74-7 with a well-rounded assault from primary jammers Racer, Jackie and Dot. In the second round the kittens faced off against Cincinnatti Rollergirls, new members of WFTDA. Cincinnati bested the Ft. Wayne Flying Squirrel squad and looked to be one of the top contenders of the tournament. Cincinnati’s big blockers and hard-hitting defense, with speedy jammer Sadistic Sadie, batted the Kittens back and forth. With the clock winding down, Cincinnati had managed to wear down the Kittens and take the lead. Having faced penalty trouble, they called a timeout, the fired up and came out furiously with the big cats.

With under 1 minute remaining, the Cincinnati girls had the lead again by two and Cookie, Bikini, Dot and Jackie lined up with Racer looking to grab at least enough points to send the bout into overtime. Thanks to some fantastic teamwork and the game breaking jamming of McChaseHer they caught 4 points before time was up, and advanced to the finals. Cincinnati took third in the tournament and definitely made an impression on everyone on the tourney as a team to watch for.

After the nerve-wracking last minute victory the Kittens started the Championship against hosts Ft. Wayne’s Bomb Squad travel team with a barrage of hitting and a strong jammer rotation to take an early lead and try to get some quick points before Ft. Wayne could make adjustments. Having played 2 bouts already the Mitten Kitten skaters seemed more confident and comfortable working with their nemesisters from across the Great Lakes State, and played incredibly strong together. The Bomb Squad had beaten the Hammer City girls of Hamilton Ontario and the Rebelles from Grand Rapids, both great showings for the Ft.Wayne team. They fought hard to the end, but the Kittens had figured out their rhythm and struck hard and early and never let up. The final saw the Kittens with 98 and the Bomb Squad with 16, and with wins over two tough, young WFTDA teams the Kittens emerged victorious as the first ever Fall Brawl Champions!

Though we don’t know when the Kittens will strike next, both Grand Rapids and Detroit will feature bouts with most of the tournament’s skaters. This Friday (Nov 30th) Kittens and Blue Collar Broads Jackie Daniels, Dot Matrix, Bette Mangler, Mira Maheiney, Lindsay Blowhan and Lil Ha Ha will face off against fierce rivals The Roustabout Rollers and MK assister extraordinare, The Vindicator. www.gr-rollergirls.com

Captain Cookie Rumble, Devil Kitty, Vega Vendetta, Bikini Killer and the rest of the Detroit Pistoffs kick off their intra-league season against the D-Funk All Stars and Kittens Black Eyed Skeez and Polly Fester (MVP vs Windy City) on December 8th at the Masonic Temple in Detroit. www.detroitderbygirls.com

2008 DDG Season Opener: Devil’s Night Dames 151 vs. Pistolwhippers 138

Posted on November 13, 2007

– November 10, 2007
– Masonic Temple, Detroit, MI
– by Rusty Wheeler

In a rematch of the two teams who battled for the 2007 Detroit Derby Girls championship, the runners-up of 2007, the Devil’s Night Dames, outscored last season’s champs, the Pistolwhippers, to win a wild shootout by a 151-138 score. Last season’s Rookie of the Year, Racer McChaseHer, led the way for the Dames by scoring 78 points, breaking her old league record of most points in a game. Also for the Dames, Vicious Vixen, who previously skated for the D-Funk Allstars, tallied 44 points and played very determinedly on defense, punishing many Whippers with devastating hits. Vicious had played 14 previous games overall with the DDG, and had only scored six points on five jams. A fine effort was wasted for the Whippers by their assistant captain, Killbox, who jammed to the tune of 63 points, her personal best and putting her over the 400 points career mark. It was also the 5th best tally by any DDG jammer in any game. Killbox also delivered many hard hits in the game, proving again why she is one of the best two-way players in the DDG.

While the game featured many hard hits, it also saw most lead jammers declining to call off jams after they had scored to prevent the other team’s jammer from scoring. Instead, the lead jammers almost always went around for another pass. And in spite of some fast-skating packs, the jammers were absolutely whizzing around the track at a frightful pace and would catch the pack to rack up more points.

The very first jam of the game set the tone of what was to come. The Whippers’ Killbox matched up against the Dames’ Rock Candy, and the jam was scored 7-7. Then it was the Dames’ Racer McChaseHer besting Del Bomber 9-4, with a grand slam, in jam 2 to give the Dames a 16-11 lead. Del was the lead jammer, but didn’t call the jam. In the 4th jam, the Dames’ Vicious Vixen, in her first jam of the game, outscored Kat Von D’Stroya 12-4 with two grand slams. Vicious did finally call off the jam when she was floored by a vicious hit by the Whippers Holly Crap. That gave the Dames a 31-18 lead. In jam 7, Killbox got tossed in the box with a major penalty for wiping out the Dames jammer Dire Skates on a large hit, but it allowed the Dames Honey Suckit to get lead jammer and score a 4-0 jam. After 12 jams total, the 1st period ended in favor of the Dames, 49-40.

The second period was even more high-scoring than the first. In spite of the Dames using the slogan “burn it down!,” it was the Whippers who were on fire to start the period. In the 1st jam, the Dames lost their lead jammer, Lady Macdeath, to the box, so the Whippers’ Honey Suckit then proceeded to rack up a 16-0 jam, with three grand slams. Honey adroitly didn’t call the jam with the opposition being jammerless, but skated hard for the full two minutes, even passing on the inside right at the very end of the jam to score a couple of more points. That put the Whippers in front for the first time in the game, 56-49. The 2nd jam was Killbox vs. Racer again, and that jam was a 12-12 affair. But then instead of burnin’ it down, the Dames put out the Whippers fire in the next three jams, outscoring the Whippers 11-0 to regain the lead at 72-68. Vicious Vixen pulled off another outstanding jam for the Dames in jam 6, outscoring Diesel Doll 13-0 with two grand slams, to make it 85-73 in favor of the Dames. But the Whippers weren’t through. Killbox scored a 10-0 jam over Racer in jam 8 when Racer went to the box, cutting the Dames lead to 85-84. Jam 9 saw the Whippers’ Diesel Doll outscore Vicious Vixen 7-4 to put the Whippers back in front 91-89. Unfortunately for the Whippers, Diesel was sent to the box immediately after the jam, as apparently she had picked up a 4th minor penalty. In the ensuing 10th jam of the 2nd period, the Whippers were sans jammer and the Dames’ Rock Candy scored a 3-0 jam to once again flop the score to the Dames favor, 92-91. Then Racer McChaseHer once again raced to a 9-0 jam in jam 11 to give the Dames the lead, 101-91. There was one final jam in the period, but with only 30 seconds on the clock there was no scoring to close the period with the Dames holding a 10 point lead.

The 3rd period started off a bit more defensively than the first two periods. In the first four jams of the period the Dames added 15 points to the Whippers 9, and then in jam 5 the Dames’ Lady Macdeath pulled herself off the track, and skated slowly around the track towards her team’s bench while she was holding her left shoulder. When she got to her bench and took a knee, the refs quickly called off the jam and the EMTs got to work on Lady. Eventually Lady had her left shoulder wrapped in elastic bandages and she was wheeled off for a trip to hospital for an appointment with a doctor. It was reported after the game that Lady did indeed suffer a broken collarbone. It should be pointed out that the Detroit derby scene does an excellent job at handling injuries, and skater safety is almost of paramount importance. After the injury was attended to, it was reported that the Dames’ Racer McChaseHer had racked up another 5-0 jam on that jam, making the score 121-100 for the Dames. After the somewhat lengthy delay for Lady’s injury, Racer skated two more consecutive jams, scoring zero and nine points in them. After seven jams of the 3rd period, the Dames led it 130-104. The crowd seemed to lose a little enthusiasm at that time, although the Dames fans still displayed their “Sink the Pink” signs (pink being the uniform colors of the Whippers). But yet the Whippers were not through. Skating as befitting the 2007 league champs, Honey outscored Vicious 9-1 in jam 8 and Killbox bested Vicious 5-0 in jam 9 to cut the Dames lead to 131-118. Then Racer appeared to ice the game for the Dames in jam 10, outscoring Del Bomber 12-8 to make it 143-126 for the Dames with only a few minutes remaining in the 3rd period. But again the Whippers countered in jam 11, with Killbox going 12-1 over Vicious to make the game 144-138 in favor of the Dames. Now the Whippers fans were frantic with anticipation, whilst the Dames fans were in danger of falling off the edges of their seats. Just enough time for one final jam, and the Dames did indeed hold on as they sent out Racer McChaseHer, and Racer easily outscored the Whippers’ Cassie Corridor 7-0 to salt away the game for the Dames, 151-138. On that final jam, Racer broke her own league record of 75 points in a single game which she had set in her very first game in the DDG, finishing the night with 78 points. That final jam also put her over 600 career points (counting both regular league and travel team points), the first DDG skater to attain that mark.

Scoring by period: Dames 49-52-50 (151); Whippers 40-51-47 (138).

Jammer stats (unofficial): Dames: Racer McChaseHer (78 points, 15 jams, 8 leads, 3 slams); Vicious Vixen (44 points, 10 jams, 3 leads, 5 slams); Rock Candy (24 points, 8 jams, 5 leads, 1 slam); Dire Skates (5 points, 2 jams); Lady Macdeath (0 points, 1 jam, 1 lead). Whippers: Killbox (63 points, 10 jams, 6 leads, 2 slams); Honey Suckit (43 points, 14 jams, 7 leads, 5 slams); Diesel Doll (12 points, 3 jams, 1 lead); Del Bomber (12 points, 4 jams, 1 lead); Kat Von D’Stroya (4 points, 1 jam); Cassie Corridor (4 points, 3 jams, 1 lead).

The next Detroit Derby Girls home game is Saturday, December 8, featuring the Detroit Pistoffs vs. the D-Funk Allstars. The action takes place in the Drill Hall at the Masonic Temple, 500 Temple St, Detroit, MI. Tickets are $12 in advance, $15 at the door. Note the new time for all DDG games: Doors open at 6:00 pm, games start at 7:00 pm. Check the website at <http://www.detroitderbygirls.com/> for the latest info about the Detroit Derby Girls games and appearances.

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