Tuesday 28 May 2013

May Derby Madness

May is usually the start of spring, the start of warm weather, and here in the Nation's Capital, the month when the Ottawa leagues start their home bouting seasons, and this year was no different.

The Capital City Derby Dolls started off their season on the 3rd of May with a match against the Ithaca Blue Stockings at Jack Charon Arena, in Kanata. The game was a one sided affair, during which the Dolly Rogers dominated in a 217 to 64 victory.

And this past weekend, on the 25th of May, the Rideau Valley Roller Girls hosted their season home opener with a Double Header at the Barbara Ann Scott Arena, in Nepean. The first bout of the night saw the Slaughter Daughters overpowered the Kingston Derby Girl's Disloyalists by a score of 328 to 87. The second bout saw a local derby derby (the second one pronounced darby, and refers to a match against two teams from the same city) as the Riot Squad hosted the CCDD Dolly Rogers. This was an incredibly tight game, with the lead changing hands several times over the course of the two halves. In the end, the Dolly Rogers managed to squeak out a 161 to 131 victory over the Riot Squad. Don't let that 30 point gap fool you. Going into the last two jams of the night, there was only a 7 point difference in the scores, and both teams were on fire. Either could have won the game, and it came down to which jammer spent less time in the penalty box.

Coming up next month, CCDD have a game this upcoming Saturday, June 1st, against Forest City Derby Girls' Timber Rollers. The bout takes place at Barbara Ann Scott arena, in Nepean. For more information, you can check out their website, or visit their Facebook page.

On the 22nd of June, RVRG host another Double Header extravaganza as Toronto Roller Derby is coming down to visit, and bringing along a couple of their teams. The first bout of the night will have the Riot Squad take on the Smoke City Bettys, followed by the Slaughter Daughters against the Gore Gore Girls, a rematch from their first game at this year's Beast of the East tournament held last month in Montreal. The Slaughter Daughters were victorious in that game, the first of many that eventually saw them hailed as this year's Beast of the East champions.

Also starting next month, Ottawa Roller Derby is holding their summer Crash 101 course, a 9 week introductory class for Roller Derby beginners. More information can be found at their website.

The next episode of the Ottawa Derbycast podcast, and the first for this year, should be ready by the end of the week. Look for it to be posted sometime Friday.

Tuesday 26 February 2013

First Bout Of The New Season

Months of waiting has passed, and time has finally arrived for the first official home game of the 2013 bouting season (okay, there was a black and white bout at Carleton last weekend, but that was an intra-league event, rather than a full bout).

Montreal Roller Derby's Sexpos make their way to our Nation's Capital this weekend to face off against the Rideau Valley Roller Girls' travel team, the Vixens. Well, they actually travel to Rockland, about 10-15 minutes past the easternmost edge of the city proper, but that's close enough for this to qualify as a home game. The bout takes place at Jean Marc Lalonde Arena (1523 DuParc Ave. Rockland, ON), with the game starting at 7:00pm

Tickets are $10 available at the door, with kids 10 and under allowed in for free
For those that want to ensure seats will be available, tickets can also be purchased at Neon Skates Ottawa (285 St. Patrick St. in the market) or online

For more information, as always, please refer to their event page on Facebook

Thursday 14 February 2013

Welcome To A New Bouting Season

Greetings, dear readers (and listeners to our podcast).

It is now 2013, and with the start of a new year, there is a whole new season of Derby to anticipate. And, to aide you in planning out your derby viewing summer, we would like to provide you with a handy list of all upcoming home games, broken down by month. As we are very early into the season, not all of the bouts have been finalized, but as new information is released by the leagues, the list will be updated, so make sure you check back often.

Please note that there are a variety of away games and tournaments that each of the leagues will take part in, and these will be covered in individual blog postings throughout the year, but this list only covers the games taking place here in Ottawa (and in nearby Kingston). 

This year, Ottawa Derbycast will be on location at each home game in Ottawa (and as many of the non-concurrent home games in Kingston as we are able to attend), with recorder in hand to interview the team captains. Look for podcasts to be released at the end of each month, reviewing highlights from the home games.

February 23 - Rideau Valley Roller Girls' Black vs White

March 2 - RVRG's Vixens vs. Montreal Sexpos (Montreal, QC)

May 4 - The Capital City Derby Dolls vs Ithaca Blue Stockings (Ithaca NY)

May 4 - Double Header
             Kingston Derby Girls' Skateful Dead vs KDG's Rogue Warriors
             KDG's Disloyalists vs Royal City Roller Girls' Brute-Leggers (Guelph, ON)

May 25 - Double Header
              RVRG's Slaughter Daughters vs. TBA
              RVRG's Riot Squad vs. CCDD

June 1 - CCDD vs Forest City Derby Girls (London ON)

June 8 - KDG's Rogue Warriors vs Area 705 (Peterborough, ON)

June 22 - Double Header
             Slaughter Daughters vs. Queen City Knockouts (Buffalo, NY)
             Riot Squad vs. Forest City Derby Girls (London ON)

July 6 - CCDD vs KDG's Disloyalists (Kingston ON)

July 13 - KDG's Disloyalists vs  Port City Roller Derby (Oswego NY)
Formerly the Oz Rollergirls but they've changed their name to Port City now, you can read about it
here: http://www.ozrollergirls.org/a-seasons-end-is-a-new-beginning/.

July 20 - Double Header
           RVRG's Slaughter Daughters vs. TBA
           RVRG's Riot Squad vs. Kingston Disloyalists (Kingston ON)

August 10 - CCDD vs Port City Roller Derby (Oswego NY)

August 10 - KDG's Skateful Dead vs Renegade Derby Dames' Bombshell Battalion (Alliston, ON)

August 17 - Double Header
           RVRG's Slaughter Daughters vs. RVRG's Riot Squad
           Men’s Slaughter Squad vs. TBA

September 7 - CCDD vs Crown City Rollerz (Cortland NY)

September 7 - Double Header
            KDG's Skateful Dead vs KDG's Rogue Warriors
            KDG's Disloyalists vs Forest City Derby Girls (London, ON)


Friday 17 August 2012

Upcoming Weekend Events

This is another big week for Roller Derby here in the Nation's Capital, as the Rideau Valley Roller Girls put on another of their famous double header events, one of which will be the first Mens Roller Derby match to be played in Ontario. Also, the Capital City Derby Dolls unveil their new official B team. More information coming right up.

RVRG's last home bout of the 2012 season takes place this Saturday, August 18th. The Brewer Brouhaha starts with the Slaughter Squad, Ottawa's first and only Men's Roller Derby team playing against Montreal's Mont Royales, followed by RVRG's own Riot Squad taking on CCDD's Dolly Rogers.
The event takes place at Brewer Arena, 210 Hopewell Ave, right across from the Carleton University campus. Doors open at 6.
For more information, please check out the event's Facebook page.

Also taking part this weekend, CCDD's new house team, the Dollinquents, travel to Kingston to take on Kingston Derby Girl's new team, the Skateful Dead. The Dollinquents name has been used the last two years for the team sent to Fresh and Furious tournament that the GTA Rollergirls put on every summer in Toronto to showcase the years new crop of fresh meat. And when it came time to name their new house team, it was the clear favourite. For those of you living in the Kingston area, or who are interested in travelling down to catch the action, more information can again be found on the event's Facebook page.

While we're at it, can I just say that I hate Facebook, and their stupid forced Timeline? Who thought this was a good idea? Sorry, rant over. Lets have another great Derby weekend.

Friday 20 July 2012

Quick Update

It has been several months since I’ve put up a blog posting (or a podcast, come to think of it), so here’s a short write-up about what’s been going on.

The last two months have been incredibly busy, derby wise, with most weekends being taken up by either home or away matches. Some of you may know that in addition to running Ottawa Derbycast, I also take care of all of the home announcing duties for the Capital City Derby Dolls. This year I’ve somehow managed to do the announcing at all of their away games as well, not to mention covering every bout of the Too Fresh Too Furious tournament in Toronto last weekend (in the main hall, at least), and this several bouts for this upcoming weekend’s RDAC Eastern Championship tournament.

All in all, there have been a ton of games (7 weekends out of 10, with only 2 of them being home games). With so many games being played out of town, it has been impossible to attend any of the Rideau Valley Roller Girls’ bouts this year or any of the events that Ottawa Roller Derby has put on, and I’m worried that the posting is going to become too one sided. This venue is not meant as CCDD advertising, but is supposed to be an unbiased coverage for all roller derby in Ottawa. With that in mind, we're looking for additional people to help cover the events that I am unable to personally attend. Anyone interested in writing up a review of a past or upcoming event, please let me know and we'll add you to the list of blog writers, and get your writing out to our followers

With that out of the way, here are some derby events that are coming up over the next two weeks.
This weekend, July 21st, the Rideau Valley Roller Girls are hosting the Four-Wheel Fury double header at the Barbara Ann Scott Arena (2250 Torquay Ave). The Slaughter Daughters will be taking on the Venus Fly Tramps from Kitchener’s Tri-City Roller Girls, while the Riot Squad will face off against Kingston Roller Derby’s Disloyalists. The doors open at 6, and tickets are only $15 at the door. More information can be found at the event’s Facebook page.

Next weekend, July 28th, Ottawa Roller Derby is throwing another of their fabulous Roller Discos. The event takes place at Brewer Arena (210 Hopewell Avenue, right across Bronson from Carleton University). Doors open at 7pm, and its only $5 to get in. And if you don’t own a pair of skates, there will be some available for rental for a mere $10 charge. Again, check out their Facebook page for further information.

Last, but not least, the Capital City Derby Dolls travel to Guelph, ON this weekend to take part in this year’s Roller Derby Association of Canada’s Eastern Championships. This is a new setup for the old Canadian Women’s Roller Derby Association that ran last year’s Blood Spill on the Hill event. This year, RDAC are running regional championship tournaments in the West, Central, Eastern, and Atlantic regions, with the top two teams from each region travelling to a final 8 team tournament that will take place early next spring to crown the Canadian Roller Derby champions. Other teams included in the tournament are the Forest City Roller Girls (last year’s champions), the Royal City Roller Girls, GTA Rollergirls, Toronto Roller Derby, Renegade Derby Dames, and the Nickel City Rollergirls.      

Thursday 10 May 2012

May News Update

Hello derby fans.

The first weekend of May has come and gone, and along with it came an incredibly exciting bout in Kanata where the Capital City Derby Dolls' travel team, the Dolly Rogers, battled against Les Duchesses from Roller Derby Quebec.
For those of you who were lucky enough to watch it, you witnessed a tough, physical battle between the squads, who were meeting for the first time. These were two very evenly matched teams, and the lead changed hands several times throughout the bout, coming down to a 1 point difference in the scoreline at the end of the match.
The final result was shrouded in a bit of scandal and controversy, as the scoreboard showed the Doll ahead 109 to 104 at the start of the last jam of the evening, and Les Duchesses were only able to pick up 4 points, leaving them losing the game by 1 point. There was a quick recount of the scores at the end of the bout, however, and the final total turned out to be 111 to 109, in favour of the visiting team. It was a hard result to take for the Dolls, who stated that they would have (rightly) changed their tactics for the last jam had they known that the true score was 109 to 107.
It certainly makes for fine drama if they manage to arrange a re-match, reverse fixture in Quebec City sometime near the end of their bouting calander.

Next up for the Dolly Rogers is a trip to Alliston, ON to take part in Mother's Day Mayhem this upcoming weekend, where they will face the Renegade Derby Dame's Misfit Militia

In other away news, the Rideau Valley Roller Girls' travel team, the Vixens, were in Toronto this past weekend to bout against the GTA Rollergirls' GStars. It was a resounding victory for the Vixens as they finished the game with a score of 278 to 39.

This upcoming weekend, RVRG is hosting their first double header of the 2012 bouting season.
Wreck 'n' Roll takes place at the Barbara Ann Scott Arena, in Nepean. The first bout will have the Slaughter Daughters against the Hellions of Troy, from Troy, NY, while the Riot Squad take on the Tatas, from Sudbury, ON. Doors open at 6. Please refer to their event's Facebook page for further details.

But that's not all... that's right, there's even more derby action going on in Ottawa this weekend.
Ottawa Roller Derby are holding their first Black and White scrimmage of the year at Brewer Arena, just across the street from Carleton University. While this isnt a full blown bout, it does provide casual derby action as randomly selected lines of skaters (made up from ORD, CCDD, and our favourite visitors, the Limestone CrusHers) run through jam after jam. Its a nice, easy way to familiarize yourself with the sport of Roller Derby, especially for people looking to try it out.
They're even offering an Open Skate hour before the event begins where you can try on some skates and see what the girls have to deal with down on the track (non-contact, of course). Skate rentals will be available for the Open Skate hour. As always, Facebook holds the key (oh, and here's the Open Skate info).

Since we cannot be in 3 places at the same time (and as our host, the Emir of Istanbul, is providing announcing services for the Mother's Day Mayhem bout in Alliston), we will not be able to provide coverage of the two events taking place here in Ottawa. If some freelancers wish to provide match coverage, or do some journalistic work on our behalf, we would love to post some articles about them. You can contact us at ottawaderbycast@gmail.com if you're interested.

Thursday 19 April 2012

Upcoming Events

Hello, Derby fans, here's what you have to look forward to in the next few weeks (the 12th of May is an especially busy day).

This upcoming weekend is the 5th installment of Montreal Roller Derby's Beast of the East tournament. This is a 2 day event that sees 16 teams from around Ontario, Quebec, and the eastern provinces playing in a series of  25 minute, single period bouts as they determine who will be crowned champions. The Rideau Valley Roller Girls, winners of last year's competition, return to defend their crown.
The event takes place April 21 and 22 in Montreal. For further information, please visit http://beast.mtlrd.com/information

Speaking of the Rideau Valley Roller Girls.
In addition to their trip to Montreal this weekend, RVRG and the Slaughter Squad Men’s Derby Team are teaming up to ROLL OVER MS by participating in the MS Walk on Sunday, April 29th, on skates!
You can donate directly to their team by using the following link

On the 5th of May, the Vixens, RVRG's travel team, will head to Toronto to face the GTA Rollergirl's GStars. More details on their trip will be posted when they become available.

And finally, on the 12th of May, RVRG will be hosting the Wreck 'n' Roll double header event.
The Slaughter Daughters will be battling against the Hellions of Troy in the first bout of the night, who will be visiting from Troy, NY. The second bout of the night has the Riot Squad facing against the Tatas from the Greater Sudbury Roller Derby league.
The event starts at 6pm at the Barbara Ann Scott Arena, in Nepean.
Tickets are $12 in advance, or $15 at the door.
For more information, please visit the event's Facebook page.

The Capital City Derby Dolls also have a busy May. They start off with their Season Opener home bout on the 5th of May as the Dolly Rogers meet Les Duchesses from Roller Derby Quebec for the first time.
The event takes place at Jack Charon Arena, 10 McKitrik Drive, in Kanata. Doors open at 7pm.
Tickets are $7 in avance, $10 at the door.
For more information, please visit their Facebook page.

The Dolly Rogers will be travelling to Allison, Ontario the following weekend, May 12th, for Mothers Day Mayhem to face off against the Renegade Derby Dames' Misfit Militia. The Facebook page contains further details.

The 12th of May is also the date of Ottawa Roller Derby's Black and White scrimmage, where lines made up of random skaters bout against each other. The event takes starts at 5:30 at Brewer Arena, near Carleton University. Skaters looking to take part in the scrimmage have until the 1st of May to contact ORD.
As always, Facebook is the place to find further information.