Done: Item 60 – Go to a Derby Dolls match

Steph can be blamed for helping me get this done. A couple days ago she sent an email about a few of the Derby Dolls’ upcoming matches and asked who wanted to come along to a special one March 1st. I jumped at the chance (and soon Matt had agreed to come along). The event, called Get Lucky 2008, was held at the Orange County Fairground and was actually three matches in a row.

I would explain how to play roller derby but, really, I have little idea. Someone called a jammer, who has a star on her helmet, tries to make her way through a bunch of other women. This scores points but I’ve got no clue how many. The first round was filled with our making jokes about how the refs determined scoring. There’s penalties for some physical contact but we couldn’t figure out what. Elbowing, butt-checking, and falling down in order to trip someone else all happen on a regular basis. It’s basically women with funky roller derby nicknames (“Dirty Debbie Harry” and “Gory Hilton” are two I can remember) beating each other up while skating around a flat, circular track.

The first match, between the Orange County Huntington Heartbreakers vs the Inland Empire somethings was pretty boring. The OC team creamed them something like 106 to 25. Second match was better (Psycho Ex-Girlfriends vs someone) finished with the green team (not OC) winning by 50 or so. The final match was by far the best. LA’s Tough Cookies (dressed, of course, as slutty girlscouts) barely beat the OC team. It went back and forth with lots of carnage in between.

I really enjoyed myself once I sort of got the hang of it and the momentum picked up. I’ll probably go with Steph if she goes to another match.