Tonight was a major night for roller derby in Arizona as three different leagues held events. In Phoenix at Arizona Roller Derby, the 1-0 Bruisers would take on the 0-2 Surly Gurlies while down in Tucson, the day started with an afternoon bout between the Tucson Derby Brats travel team, the Saddlebrats and the Los Angeles Junior Dolls, the little sister league of Los Angeles Derby Dolls. Then in the evening, Tucson Roller Derby had their season opener with 6 15-minute mini-bouts following the same schedule as the home team bouts for the rest of the year.
At AZRD, the Bruisers managed to hold the Surly Gurlies despite lead changes at the beginning of the bout. Shirley Demise jamming for the Bruisers managed to get double grand slam and had several other successful jams. The Bruisers ran a larger than normal rotation of jammers including Shirley Demise, Shedonist, The Bone Setter and new acquisition, Loco Lena. The Surly Gurlies put up a very hard fight using jammers Gratuitous Violet, Domiskatrix, Dark Ajenda as well as the services of Rayna Rage. Despite the hard fight put up by the Surlys, the Bruisers managed to win the bout 90-60. This loss knocks the Surlys out of any post-season contention. Even though all three teams for the post season is known, it is still to be determined which team will be placed first and will receive the free pass to the Championship Bout.
After the bout, Bruiser captain Shirley Demise told Michi-chan's REAL Derby that this was her last home team bout with AZRD. She is going to play in the Four Corner Feud later this month in Colorado Springs to represent AZRD and then she is moving to the Las Vegas area.
In Tucson, VICE Squad managed to sweep all three of their mini-bouts bearting FTW 42-4, Copper Queens 28-17 and Iron Curtain 29-23. The Copper Queens would manage to win their two other bouts by a score of 22-17 over the Iron Curtain and 35-5 over FTW. The Iron Curtain wins their first bout in regulation season play in TRD history by beating FTW 24-7.
Earlier in the day, the juniors from Tucson's Saddlebrats managed to whallop the LA Junior Dolls, 163-11.
TRD's next bout will be on March 7 with a repeat of last year's Championship Bout when Vice Squad takes on FTW in a full length game. AZRD will have their next bout on March 14 when the 1-0 Bad News Beaters take on the 1-1 Brawlarinas. The Michi-chan Derby Love Tour plans to be at both bouts.
