Arizona Roller Derby

On a cold but not as nippy night as the January bout, Arizona Roller Derby has played what some consider as a historic game as we saw the return of Trish The Dish and Ivanna S. Pankin who was the original Bruiser captain. They will take on the strongest team in the league, The Bad News Beaters.

The roster of the 2007 Bruisers recently split off from AZRD. Therefore, AZRD needed to compose a new team. Skaters were selected at random from the Brawlarinas and Surly Gurlies to play on this interim Bruisers team.

On January 19, it was a very chilly night at Casey At The Bat. So chilly that some skaters were warming up and even bouting wearing bandannas and other items to cover their faces. Fans were also very cold and we had noticed a declining number of fans as the night progressed despite the excitement of this bout. It was so cold, I dropped and slightly damaged my camera between the second and third periods. This bout is the first full derby bout in Arizona for 2008 and it is the make-up for the January 5 bout that was rained out.

Today in the Phoenix area, there are two exiciting roller derby events taking place.

Before that, we must mention that the RENEGADE ROLLERGIRLS have postponed their park demo bout "until further notice". Therefore, they will not be skating today.

BRUISER NATION SCRIMMAGE BETWEEN:
THE ARIZONA BRUISERS and
(TUCSON ROLLER DERBY) COPPER QUEENS
CASEY AT THE BAT (40TH ST-UNION HILLS)
4PM - INFORMAL SCRIMMAGE - OPEN - LIMITED SEATING

Bruisers announce league split from AZRD

by azdr - January 18, 2008 - 4:01pm

Arizona Bruisers LLC has issued a press release today to announce that they have officially split from Arizona Roller Derby and are now independent. The new Arizona Bruisers is being positioned as a national-level travel team.

The Bruisers was AZRD's first team and one of the first in the nation since the resurgence of the sport.

The team has stated that they have been scheduling monthly events as well as several "high profile" events" with various derby leagues across the country.

Arizona Roller Derby (AZRD) has told the Arizona Derby Report (AZDR) that the make-up date for the recently rained out bout between the Brawlarinas and the Surly Gurlies will be on Saturday, January 19. Doors will open at 7:00PM and the bout will begin at 7:30PM. The bout will be at Casey At The Bat in Phoenix. This bout was originally scheduled on January 5 but was postponed. Advance tickets from the 1/5 bout will be honored.

Rain fell this evening over the Phoenix metropolitan area. At approximately 5PM this evening, AZRD had announced that the bout scheduled at 7PM between the #3 Surly Gurlies and the #4 Brawlarinas has been postponed due to rain. The AZDR did visit Casey At The Bat, the outdoor venue for AZRD bouts and found that while the rain had cleared, the track was not dry and it was not safe to bout.

This Saturday, AZRD's #4 Brawlarinas will bout against the #3 Surly Gurlies in a bout where someone will skate away with their first "W". In their last bout, the Brawlas had a low scoring 20 point margin loss against the Brusiers and the Surlys had a high margin loss against the Bad News Beaters.

I have seen both teams scrimmage over the past few weeks and without giving any secrets away, I can say that both teams pretty much will be meeting the same challenges when they go against each other. It's really a battle to see who can do it better.

Revised to reflect corrected parade time.

Arizona Roller Derby (AZRD) will be participating in the Tempe Block Party parade on New Years Eve. This is an event that will take place prior to the Tempe New Year's Eve Block Party.

This parade is also not to be confused with the Fiesta Bowl Parade which will run along Central Avenue in Phoenix. (that confused us since we could not find any information on the Mill Avenue parade)

In an announcement on amp.az, Arizona Roller Derby (AZRD) has announced that former league founder Ivanna S. Pankin as well as Trish The Dish have returned to the league. No team assignments are known at this time.

Recently, Ivanna and Dish moved from Las Vegas to Tucson and moved their business, Sin City Skates to a new location in Tucson. We will have a story about the new Sin City Skates on the December edition of the Arizona Derby Report (AZDR).

A copy of AZRD's announcement follows:

According to Coach Pauly of AZRD, the May 3, 2008 bout between the Tent City Terrors and the WFTDA National Champions, Kansas City Roller Warriors has been canceled.

This bout was originally mentioned by the Arizona Derby Report's Michi-chan as a "Must See" bout for 2008. In a brief statement, Michelle A. Eyre aka Michi-chan stated "This cancelation was very disappointing but understandable. It would have been nice to see the national champion and the likes of Snot Rocket come to Arizona for a visit."