The Cincinnati Rollergirls’ second home double-header of 2014 ended much like the first, with a win for the Violent Lambs and a loss for the Black Sheep. Tank has a recap.

The second home game of the season for the Cincinnati Rollergirls was their annual Heroes night, which honors active duty and veteran U.S. military and first responders. It has also become a night where the skaters and the fans dress up as their favorite superheroes. The current CRG roster reminds me a lot of Giant-Size X-Men I, a comic which saw a merging of the original team and a number of new members. Cincinnati continues to try and figure out who will be their Storm, Colossus and Wolverine. This bout really started to give us an insight on whom those future heroes might be.

Cincinnati Violent Lambs vs. Gem City Rollergirls Purple Reign

The first game pitted the Cincinnati Violent Lambs against I-75 rival, the Gem City Rollergirls of Dayton, with the Lambs taking the win 202-192 after an exciting back-and-forth match-up. Generally we see the Lambs taking on other leagues’ B teams, but this bout was against Gem City’s A squad, Purple Reign. From the jump, this game was a lot of fun, as the teams turned out to be evenly matched. Gem City has grown a lot in terms of strategy since the last time I saw them play and they were consistently forming walls and working together. A number of the Gem City blockers were bigger then the CRG players, and they used that to their advantage to take up valuable real estate on the track and concentrate on the Lambs’ jammers. They also took advantage of any power jams that CRG gave them, which helped them to create leads through out the game; luckily for the Lambs, the new 30-second penalties are not the crippling back-breakers the old 1 minute power jams were.
Both teams concentrated on each other’s jammers in this game (I am going to be writing this sentence a lot this season), which made things interesting to watch. Having Annie Tomical and Cherry Choke on the roster was a big help defensively in terms of athletic ability. I, Caramba! looked great in this bout and earned herself an MVP blocker award in the process, and Poppy Chulo continues to flourish in this new system with emphasis on creating walls – every time she flew by me, she seemed to have at least one fellow Lamb beside her. One area where the pack is lacking, though, is knocking out the other team’s jammers to force track cuts. There were a number of times in this bout where those opportunities were there, but the Lambs stuck to their conservative wall defense.
There is an old roller derby saying that goes “all the glamour goes to the jammer,” but in this one you can’t help but talk about the jammers. Tru D. Vicious, Hot Slice, Imma TattooHer, Jenocide and Skunna Hurt have become quite the jammer corps for the Lambs. With the game changing to a style that routinely pits one jammer against four opposing blockers, it’s now more important then ever to have point scorers that are more Swiss army knife then one-trick pony, meaning you have to be able to power through packs, use your skate skills to work through tight spots, and be able to kick on the after-burners at a split second notice. None of these jammers are the complete package yet, but they’re all getting there.
Jenocide was a blast to watch in this game, as she bashed her way through packs. Hot Slice’s scrappiness and speed are still her calling card, and her footwork is improving as well, which allows her to get out of some sticky situations. Skunna Hurt continues to demonstrate what the next generation of skaters will look like. She is so calm in the pack while jamming, I sometimes wonder if she is listening to Belle and Sebastian on little, invisible head phones. She works level to level to get through packs and its like watching someone play Frogger as she takes her time, moving from one blocker to the next, always going forward. Imma Tattooher and Tru D. Vicious are both athletic specimens and can slice through packs in a matter of seconds. Tru D. is starting to routinely hit apex jumps, which are some of the most exciting moments in derby. I’ll talk about their cons later in the article (they are the same ones that are facing the Sheep’s jammers) but overall I am very impressed with what Lambs’ jammers are bringing to the line with them.
Watch the entire game here:

Cincinnati Black Sheep vs. NH Roller Derby Skate Free or Die All-Stars

The Sheep game featured some highlights but also some “oh, they really need to work on that” moments – evidenced by New Hampshire’s 217-94 win. Let’s start out with the good. The new wall system is working, and many players are benefiting from it. Jungle Lacy has been extremely impressive in this new system. Jungle has never been a big hitter but has always used her lateral movement to box in opposing players. Now with her teammates concentrating on making walls, she is more valuable to have on the track then ever before. La Bruja and Kitten Kicker (MVP Sheep Blocker in this game), continue to improve as well. The two of them have shown they can not only create walls but also track down opposing jammers to force them out of bounds. If they keep developing and with Nuk’em playing at such a high level, things should be looking up soon.
The Black Sheep’s jammer rotation is starting to come together as well. In the second half, they trimmed things down to Wheezy, Sailor Scary, Ruthless Chris and Sprint Julep. Wheezy has only been back for a short time, but her multiple years of playing other WFTDA A teams really shows. She understands what tool is needed for every situation she encounters and can do it all in terms of playing a power or speed game. Scary as a jammer is one of the best ideas the coaching staff has had so far this season. She has always been a dominating player who uses her size to her advantage and she is a skater who has the brawn and strength to beat an opposing team four on one. This is the best I have seen Ruthless Chris look this year, as she was able to find holes in the defense and exploit them. She has had troubles breaking through walls this year, but in this game there were times when I would see her get stuck, back off and get a running start to attack the wall from another angle. Sprint is also learning how to be a one-woman army and not to expect back up from her own pack to get her through.
There were times in this game in which the Sheep were highly competitive and even times when it appeared that they had a chance to over take the lead. On the flip side, there were long periods of time when they couldn’t buy a point. CRG has always hung their hats on “defense wins championships,” but you still have to help your jammer. There were multiple instances in this game where the Sheep jammers could have used a helping hand from their pack players. – a whip, a push, or even having one of their blockers drop off the opposing jammer and come help their own.
As far as New Hampshire goes, Chicana really stood out to me. I was very impressed by her jamming and what she was able to do with her foot work. There were many times in which she was able to dance around Sheep blockers in one on one match ups.
And speaking of the jammers, the other problem is that the Sheep jammers are still ending up in the box. A lot of this has to do with being over aggressive because they have to do anything they can to get through the other team’s wall or sometimes all of their skaters. Back blocks and track cuts are still happening (the same can be said for some of the Lambs jammers as well). While power jammers don’t gut a team like they used to, they can still really hurt you if your jammers are taking more than one trip to the box per jam. As the season continues, the Sheep need to figure out how to get more points, which is easier said then done.
Watch the entire game here:

Even thought the Sheep still haven’t put up a win this season, I am seeing steady improvement out of this team game to game. This is definitely not the same squad that took on Demolition City earlier this year in terms of what they are currently able to do on the track. A positive sign of progress came during a hangover game on Sunday between the Lambs and Naptown’s Warning Belles. The Lambs lost by a matter of four points as opposed to losing to them by 161 points just a few weeks ago. Keep hanging in there, Flock faithful; good things are around the bend.
-Tank