New members set up their first win

Wanganui's roller derby team bounced back from their heavy defeat of a week ago while bouncing a few Taranaki girls off the hard wood of Hawera's TSB Hub on Saturday night.

The River City Rollers defeated the Rumble Bees 242-204, the first win for the six new members of the team who debuted in their heavy loss to the Bay City Rollers in Napier seven days before.

River City made a very good start, getting their jammer away as lead to dictate the scoring in the opening jams, while putting a couple of the home team on the canvas.

They were up 37-21 and looking solid.

Captain Mel-icious Mayhem, aka Melanie McGhie, said the Rumble Bees came back into the contest after halftime to take an eight-point lead.

But her team took advantage of a couple of power jams, with the Taranaki jammer having been sent to the penalty box, to rack up their score and from there they kept the scoreline in their favour.

"It was a good battle.

"We had the advantage in respect of we are an exceptionally fit team."

Being a "tight crew", the heavy loss to Bay City lit a fire under the newcomers, who made sure they were not pushed around this time, McGhie said.

The team will travel to Whakatane on August 31 to take on the local WRDL team as well as the Bay City Rollers again.