Roller Girls host Riot Squad at Ag Centre

April 22, 2016 · 0 Comments

By Brian Lockhart

They wear knee pads, elbow pads, and helmets for a reason.

When the Orangeville Roller girls take on another team in a roller derby match, the pavement isn’t very forgiving, and they routinely have tumbles and falls as the teams battle it out during a match.

The Pulp Affliction team of the Orangeville Roller Girls hosted a match against the Peterborough Riverside Riot Squad on Saturday night, April 16, at the Agricultural Centre in Orangeville.

It was a double header that featured men’s teams from Toronto and Montreal followed by the ladies who took the floor at 8 p.m.

Horning Mills resident Amanda Hardman has been on the team for almost a year.

Roller derby is a sport played on an elongated track where a team member called a jammer scores points by making it all the way around the track, then getting through the pack of other players.

“You’ve got five people on each team – four blockers and a jammer,” Amanda explained. “The mission for the blockers is block that other jammer from passing them. The jammer has to get around the whole track and pass them again. For each person they pass they get points.

:Then there’s penalties. Usually there’s around 14 people on each team and five on the track at one time.”

The roller derby scene is widespread with teams from across North America meeting up for matches.

“Home games we usually have six or seven games. Away games we’ve had four so far this year.”

There’s ‘A’ teams and ‘B’ teams, depending on the experience of the players.

“We play Canadian teams as well as teams in the States,” says Amanda. “Our A team was in Buffalo about a month ago. We play all over. Our team has been in Texas. There’s over 400 teams in the States and Canada. It’s huge.”

Once the match gets underway, there’s a lot of pushing and shoving and holding their ground as the blockers try to get into position on the track. Sometimes the jammer finds an easy way through the pack, other times they hit a wall and try to force their way through the crowd.

The Pulp Affliction and the Orangeville Roller Girl’s other team, Fox Force Five, have several home matches planned for this season.