Motley Crew slam their way to victory

Motley Crew's Psycho-Licious takes a tumble during the roller derby match on Saturday night.

WHEN two teams named Motley Crew and Hell's Wives come together for a sports match, chances are you're watching a game of roller derby.

The Sportsdrome in Rotorua was turned into a roller derby arena on Saturday night - featuring colourful costumes, skilful footwork, hard hits and of course roller skates.

More than 500 people packed into the Sportsdrome to watch the fixture won by Rotorua's Motley Crew 285-98 against their Northland opponents.

"It was harder than the scoreline reflected," Motley Crew player and coach Layla Robinson, aka Primevil, said.

"We were pretty exhausted by the end of it, and last year we played them and they absolutely thrashed us."

She said most of the sold-out crowd had never seen a game of roller derby before, so they were happy to put on a good show.

"We had 518 people this year, with 60 more seats than we had last year, and that easily sold out," she said. "About 70 per cent of the crowd had not seen a roller derby game before."

The basics of roller derby matches see two teams skate around an oval track with most of the players functioning as blockers.

One player in each team is called a jammer and they try to make their way through the pack - full of blockers - to score points. Meanwhile, the blockers try their best to stop the opposition jammer, while making space for their own jammer to score points.

Robinson said Motley Crew's performance on Saturday was excellent.

"I think it is absolutely our best game by far," she said.

"The crowd was absolutely pumping as well, it was packed out, and that helps being on your home court."

The Sulphur City Steam Rollers, whose top team play under the name Motley Crew, organise the annual event in Rotorua called Slam Rock.

Robinson said her teammates had been putting in a lot of work at trainings leading up to the Slam Rock event on Saturday.

"It is a lifestyle for us, you can't have any other hobbies really. It is work, home, family and roller derby pretty much."

Robinson said one of their standout performers on Saturday was their captain and blocker Kerry Pearson, aka Princess Die, who was awarded the MVP award after the match.

"She is relentless. She will chase the jammer down as hard as she can and she put in some whopping hits."

Motley Crew travel to Hamilton in August for their next match, then play a top side from Auckland in September.

The Sulphur City Steam Rollers were established in 2011 and played their first official match in 2013.