by Jim Almy
The spokeswoman for the Denver Roller Girls roller derby league, Cassie Beck (Raven Evergore), knows of what she speaks when she compared Denver’s B All-Star team, Bruising Altitude, with the Rat City Rollergirls (RCRG) B All-Stars, Rain of Terror (ROT). She’s skated in both leagues.
Before transferring to Denver last year she had skated with Derby Liberation Front, the home team that won the RCRG Championship this year. She was also part of the RCRG All-Star program.
ROT and Bruising Altitude were the opening bout last Saturday at KeyArena.
“Bruising Altitude is our B team, just as Rain of Terror is Rat’s B team. Our A team, Mile High Club, is ranked within the top 10 in the world. This year, Bruising has defeated the B teams of other big leagues such as Gotham, Angel City, Rocky Mountain Rollergirls; and their only recent loss was to the Texas Rollergirls’ B team. As is the case with Rain of Terror, Bruising is on the level of many A teams,” she offered. “Having skated with both all-star programs, I can tell you that they are very closely matched and this is going to be a great bout!”
However closely matched and whatever level they occupied last Saturday, it was one ROT couldn’t reach. The local team came up short against their Denver sisters, 248-173.
Trailing after the first six jams 50-10, ROT put on a rally that brought them within four of the visitors, 54-50. Ella Whirled (#2010) turned on the crowd with a 14 point effort in jam eight. Short Fuse (#11) added 15 more three jams later while ROT blockers Wreck n Shrew (#24), Endora Finn Rush (#42), Mad ScrapHer (#5150) and MayJa Look (#02) put the clamps on the Bruising Altitude attack.
But those four points were as close as it would get for the rest of the bout. Bruising erected a wall for the rest of the first half behind AnaSassin, WhizBang Weasley and Brutallica while jammers Midge Mayhem and Ova Achieva added to their first half totals. Midge had 26 and Ova had 50 at the half as Bruising led 118-67.
The second half was a more even match. ROT nearly covered Bruising’s 130 second half points with 106 of their own, but the halftime margin was too much to overcome.
Bruising Altixtude Coach Saul Good said that he was happy with the win against, “A very accomplished team (ROT) that played hard and hit hard.”
“I think we’re arguably the best B team in the world. There are a lot of great teams out there and we’re definitely beatable, but when we play together and play our game I would put us up there with any other B team. Several A teams as well. Our strategy is just that, play together and play our game. Good things happen when we do that,” he added.
Cassie Beck may have returned to Denver after a stint in Rat City, but it works both ways. Two former Denver skaters, Jukestapose and Sintripetal Force, are now skating on the Rat City All-Star Team.