HITTING THE WALL: River City Rollers jammer Carla Mason, aka Carnage, tries to breach the blockers of the Kapiti Coast team at Jubilee Stadium on Saturday.PHOTOS/BEVAN CONLEY
HITTING THE WALL: River City Rollers jammer Carla Mason, aka Carnage, tries to breach the blockers of the Kapiti Coast team at Jubilee Stadium on Saturday.PHOTOS/BEVAN CONLEY
The new-look River City Rollers were back in business with a 194-141 victory over the Kapiti Coast Derby Collective (KCDC) in front of a healthy crowd at Jubilee Stadium on Saturday evening.
The hosting squad consisted of six original Rollers and eight newcomers who came in through the "Fresh Meat"programme last year, having their first competitive match aside from their graduation game.
"In the past six weeks, we gave them an intense training of roller derby," said coach Mel McGhie aka Mel-icious Mayhem.
The Rollers showed early on they had adjusted to the new rules where players can swap the cap of the "jammer" - the skater who tries to break away and score points by lapping the opposition - during the actual jam in progress.
However, KCDC, who like the home team were made up of a handful of veterans and their own Fresh Meat, would close the gap to 67-60 by halftime.
"We got ahead at the start and then just a couple of power jams in their favour brought the score back up," said McGhie.
The Rollers reasserted their momentum to take the comfortable victory in front of what McGhie called a "generous" crowd, many of whom had also come to watch the 24 young club members who took part in the junior derby beforehand.
The Rollers have another Fresh Meat camp at The Rink on Hatrick St on Tuesday, and are offering a free skate from 7pm-9pm for anybody wanting to learn to skate.
