Crescent City Wenches trounce the Pearl River Swamp Dolls

Photo by Scott Stuntz

Were I 10 years younger, I would absolutely try out for the Big Easy Rollergirl team - New Orleans' first and only all-female flat-track roller derby league. I doubt my OBGYN would approve of my  diminishing-density bones crashing to the cement floor and occasionally careening into bleachers, not to mention some of the pretzel positions these girls wind up in. Right now, the Pussyfooter cheering squad is more my speed and they have cute costumes, too.

The Swamp Dolls were no match for the Wenches at the Southern Throwdown tonight. Several of the dolls went down very hard and out of bounds. One required the on-site paramedic, though managed to hobble away aided to the sideline. Their captain, Brass Kicker, was numbered 13 - certainly not the luckiest number she could have picked.

The Wenches' jammer, #7, appropriately named Balls-Out Betty, zoomed around the track, aided by #23Xy, ChessTosterone.

The Wenches are best known for leading the "Running of the Bulls" pack of horned female skaters through the French Quarter on one Saturday morning in July since 2007.  Elvis impersonators precede the girls through the streets and sangria flows freely before 8 a.m. Last year, 80 "Rollerbulls" bashed with foam-rubber bats many of the 4,000 hopefuls on foot.

The National Roller Derby Hall of Fame credits Leo Seltzer, a Chicago sports promoter, with holding the first roller derby event in 1935. Initially, it was an endurance race. But through the years, it morphed into a sport that emphasized skater collisions and falls.                     The Times-Picayune 9/12/2010

Roller Derby was revived in the early 2000s and grew to 450 flat-track leagues worldwide.

It's total girl-power - a game of speed and cunning, wearing daring, short outfits. 

If interested in learning more about roller derby, come to our very own indy theater, Zeitgeist, on Friday, Nov. 12 to see Hell on Wheels, a documentary about the sport.