By Jim Almy
The offense that the Sockit Wenches poured on in their March 28 win over Portland’s Guns N Rollers, 205-137, just never quite showed up last Saturday when they played Grave Danger in the Rat City Rollergirls Grudge Match at KeyArena.
Grave Danger, winner of three straight League Championships, would not be skating for a fourth this year and took out their frustration on the Wenches, winning the Grudge Match 250-143.
Both teams were liberal with jamming assignments, each using eight of their 14 players at one time or another as jammers.
The bout began as a low scoring affair. Grave Danger’s Aalto Ego (#43) and Trouble Dutch (#2468) traded effective blocking with the Sockit Wenches’ Belle Tolls (#4) and Kitty Kabooty (#524). Jammers weren’t making many passes. In the eighth jam Grave Danger blocker Tempura Tantrum (#99) and Sockit Wenches jammer Izzie Does It (#3) engaged in a lengthy two-step in which Tantrum kept Izzie fully in check until the pack had to be re-formed. Izzie Does It picked up eight points in that jam.
Things opened up in the tenth jam. That’s when Nehi Nightmare (#48) took advantage of a power jam, her size and speed to pile up 19 points and put Grave Danger ahead 53-25. You can’t block what you can’t see and Nehi Nightmare made sure she was invisible to the Wenches. She led all scorers in the bout with 56.
For the next two jams, with Wenches jammer Devilynne Syde (#666) spending most of her time in the penalty box, Grave Danger switched from the mini to the mighty. Following Mayja Look (#02), Trouble Dutch and D’evil’D Meggs (#88), who opened huge passing lanes for her, jammer K. Beezy (#187) scored 15 and 13 in those two jams. If the openings weren’t there for her she just muscled her way through the Wenches line.
By then, about halfway through the first half, it was Grave Danger ahead 81-38. Maybe the most interesting story for the rest of the half was Carmen Getsome (#12) self-penalizing herself. That led to a halt in the action while the refs sorted out her status. When Carmen Getsome realized that she hadn’t been called for a foul and didn’t need to be in the sin bin she just returned to the action. That brought the flurry of whistles that stopped play. Turns out that, once you’re in the penalty box, you’re under the control of that official and can’t leave the box without their okay. Immaterial if you didn’t have to be there. When play finally resumed Carmen still had to sit out her full 30 seconds.
Grave Danger Coach Vito Ramon praised blockers Aalto Ego, Patience Grasshopper (#46) and Jerrica Kallio (#33) for stepping up and holding their positions after key blocker K. Beezy (#187) had been hit so hard in the chest that she temporarily lost her voice. Grasshopper was also a scoring force for Grave Danger, picking up 27 points in just two jams in the second half. Kallio was selected Most Valuable Player after the bout by the Sockit Wenches.
Coach Ramon said that his jammers were getting free so often because, “We noted that the Sockit Wenches lined up with an open slot to the outside and we were able to beat them on the outside. Often on the second pass we could still take advantage of the outside.”
In addition to Nehi Nightmare’s 56 points Grave Danger scoring was evenly passed around. Mayja Look had 18, Carmen Getsome, 52, K. Beezy, 40, Jerrica Kallio, 26, Patience Grasshopper, 31, unshine (#52), 19 and D’evil’D Meggs, 8.
Izzie Does It led the Sockit Wenches with 38. Short Fuse (#11) had 19, Penny Racer (#2), 20, Annyong (#21), 25, Belle Tolls, 3, Sister Slaughter (#480), 1, Devilynne Syde, 13, and Rawkhell SqWelch, (#761), 24.
For tickets to the next bout at KeyArena on 5/10 go to ticketmaster.com