Scottish Roller Derby Blog (Posts about falkirk)

Christmas Craft Fayre in Falkirk

feemccartney — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 12:47:26 GMT

On Saturday 7th December, Fierce Valley Roller Girls will be hosting a Christmas Craft Fair in the Masonic Hall, Falkirk Town Centre. Doors open at 12noon and shoppers are welcome to visit until 4pm.

There will be a wide-selection of handmade local crafts for sale - perfect for last-minute Christmas gifts! Confirmed stalls will include sweets in hand-painted jars from All the Noms; quirky accessories from Hummahazey; handmade jewellery from Kurious Trinkets; as well as a range of greetings cards and knitwear.

All this shopping will be hard work, so home-baking, teas, coffees, and a pot of soup kindly donated by Voodoo Lounge Falkirk will also be available. If you're feeling lucky, you can try your hand at the tombola or raffle prize draw!

Please see the Facebook Event for more details.

FVRG Pub Quiz Fundraiser

feemccartney — Wed, 14 Aug 2013 11:18:45 GMT

On Thursday 5th September, Fierce Valley Roller Girls will host a Pub Quiz Fundraiser at The Voodoo Lounge in Falkirk (7-11 Wooer St, Town Centre, Falkirk FK1 1NJ).

FVRG skater - Must-Dash - will test the limits of your general knowledge from 8pm until late, and the bar staff will be serving a selection of FVRG-themed cocktails during the quiz.

So what are the prizes on offer? Well apart from winning the admiration of all the other quizzers, you could also win a pair of tickets to the upcoming FVRG vs. Granite City Roller Girls bout, or a meal voucher for two people at The Voodoo Lounge.

Entry will be charged at £1.50 per person, with a maximum of four people per team to keep things fair. This event is only open to those aged 18 and over due to licensing laws at the venue.

Funds raised at the event will go towards the general running of Fierce Valley Roller Girls, and can hopefully help subsidise their upcoming UKRDA application.

Poster designed by Gotham Nicky from FVRG

FVRG Fresh Meat - Sunday 18th August

feemccartney — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 18:42:26 GMT

Fierce Valley Roller Girls continue to grow from strength to strength, but they want more Fresh Meat to sink their teeth in to! The league have organised a Taster Session on Sunday 18th August for you to see what roller derby is all about before making a commitment to join.

During the Taster, you will be buddied up with an experienced skater to go through the basics of skating (and stopping!) safely. You will can borrow their safety equipment and skates in this session – but please bring your own mouth guard (you can pick these up for under £5 from Sports Direct).

If the Taster has confirmed that this is the sport that you've been looking for, then it couldn't be simpler to join FVRG. Tiny from the New Skaters Committee will email to confirm the first date of your 12-week training plan in The Mariner Centre, Camelon - then all you have to do is show up with buckets of energy and a big bottle of water!

If you are interested in joining FVRG and are aged 18 or over, please complete their Online Registration Form to reserve your place in this Fresh Meat intake. Times and venue for the Taster Session will be confirmed once you have registered online

Poster designed by Gotham Nicky from FVRG

FVRG Christmas Craft Fayre

feemccartney — Sun, 25 Nov 2012 12:16:13 GMT

Fierce Valley Roller Girls are hosting a Christmas Craft Fayre in Falkirk town centre, on Saturday 8th December.

Their last event attracted a lot of interested in the local craft community, and the stalls have been quickly booked up again! The hall will be overflowing with glassware, jewellery, handmade cards (and more!) - perfect for finding a unique Christmas gift.

More details can be found on the Facebook Event.

Craft Fayre poster, designed by Claire Brunton

An Interview with Into the Nitemare

feemccartney — Tue, 21 Aug 2012 12:04:21 GMT

You may have already seen Raven Psycho from Into the Nitemare selling roller derby clothing at bouts all over the country; she now has some exciting news to share with us!

Tell us about Into the Nitemare: who are you, where do you come from, and what do you do?

Into the Nitemare started out as the clothing side of our bookshop and has become its own entity very quickly. We've got the best job ever! We travel the UK watching bouts and taking our gear to skaters, officials and fans, it's awesome. We're a family business consisting of myself, Pete and the smalls Calum, Dominic and Jenna, you'll see a combination of us somewhere at a bout on Saturdays!

How did you got involved with Roller Derby, and what made you decide you wanted to do more than just take part in the sport?

Two skaters with FVRG, Monkey Wench and Chaos Faerie joined the book club I'd started and found myself roped into Fresh Meat but due to work commitments I found it really difficult to keep up. So this s my 3rd attempt, but from that first day on skates, I, like most other girls who skate, was completely hooked! The business came about by accident really. We'd started doing the Roller Derby hoodies and then were invited to have a stall at a fundraiser for DRG and we've been at a bout every weekend since. People then asked if we'd be expanding in to skate kit. And we've never looked back.

Your business has recently evolved from selling Roller Derby clothing, to selling equipment – how did that decision come about?

People asked us when we were organising travelling if we could bring, pads, wheels and other small bits n pieces like bearings and toe stops. We'd looked into going into partnership with another company but it never came to fruition so we made the move to become official suppliers ourselves. Since then it's just expanded to the point we’re we are now.

We've seen your stall at Roller Derby bouts all over the UK for months – what made you decide to open a physical shop, and why Falkirk?

We love to travel and meeting new people and to be honest you can't get in the house for stuff! Plus when people see that you've got a physical place they can visit they have more confidence buying from you. That and people have the opportunity to come and see us for a change..We chose Falkirk because my team, FVRG, is based in the Forth Valley area and I live here so it made sense. And the FVRG deserve a local store.

Raven Psycho at Block and Roll All Nite in Belfast

When is the grand opening of Into the Nitemare's store? The Grand Opening will be the first week in September. Fiercey's, Keep an eye on your inbox and our Facebook Page for an invite to the opening party!

There are very few dedicated Roller Derby stores in the UK – has that posed many challenges for you in the initial setting up phase? Unfortunately Derby isn't a mainstream activity yet and the biggest issue we've had is sourcing the UK distributor, as most of the kit is manufactured in the US, but most people are pretty helpful throughout the community and have given us loads of advice and support. We've found one excellent supplier and we're now in talks with others to assist in expanding our range of accessories and wheels. The biggest issue we find is that some shops have a derby section or can get derby kit, the biggest issue with this, we've found, is that they don't have the experience of taking part to advise correctly. However, when you do find a skater run store you can be assured that they have the best interests of the skater at heart.

What do you think makes you stand out from these other stores?

We travel. That's the biggest difference, people don't just see a website, Facebook page or flyer – they see us. They've met us or are going to meet us, again, gives them confidence in the name. We're also pretty prolific on Facebook too, so a lot of people know 'Into the Nitemare' and then get to put a face to the company, makes such a difference. Loads of people approach us at bouts saying 'Ah, so you're Into the Nitemare...' they've seen the brand and now get to meet the family behind it.

How do you decide what clothing lines and equipment to sell, and from which brands?

We like stuff to be a wee bit different and we end to choose stuff we would wear ourselves, and if it's a small or independent company, even better. That's how we hooked up with Ralph and Nadia at Queens of The Sin Bin, by Derby, for Derby. Our Darkside range started out as our main brand in the book shop and when we came across their Roller Derby range it was hard to resist. At this point we are developing our own Nitemare clothing line with designs coming from our own local tattoo artist, a derby tattooist from Leicester and the final designs coming from Roller Grrrls L'il Rollers line.

Kit wise we stock Sure Grip, Green Monster, Smith, Bullett, 187, Rollerbones, Reckless, Roces, and Antik to name a few with more brands on the way too. We're really excited to have the new Sure Grip Zombie wheels in stock and the new Envy arriving hot on its heels.

Roller derby equipment can be very confusing because there is so much choice and a lot of decisions come down to skater preference – do you agree that in this respect, your store has a lot of benefits over online stores since you can talk to your customers face-to-face?

Definitely, face to face in any situation makes a difference. One thing we've come across again and again is pad size issues, you can always send them back but that takes ages and we all know derby girls have no patience. So with us, you can try the pads for size, see the quality of the tee shirts, have a squidge of the wheels.

We give as much advice as we can but don't profess to know everything and we'd rather look into something than sell you something that doesn't suit. We love hearing about a great wheel set up or which plates you've fallen in love with but, as you say a lot is personal preference, so if you fancy the new zombies or want to try a set of Witch Doctors, ask your team mates if you can borrow theirs before making a decision.

What does the future hold for Into the Nitemare?

The future for Nitemare is looking bright. With Roller Derby in the UK still in its infancy and growing in popularity and participants month on month we're hoping to be here for the distance.

We'll still be travelling the UK so check out our website to see if we're coming to your local team! We've got a few Scottish bouts lined up for the rest of the year and will be shouting on the Fierceys in November.

So if you're ever passing by Falkirk, drop in to say Hi, 'like' us on Facebook or check out our website.

FVRG Presents... The Craft Emporium

feemccartney — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 19:22:01 GMT

After the success of their Springtime Craft Fayre last year, Fierce Valley Roller Girls will be treating you all again to a hand-made, home-grown Craft Emporium! The event will be held in The Masonic Temple in Falkirk on Saturday 28th April from 12noon – 4pm, and will play host to a fine selection of around 20 local arts & crafts stalls. Scotland’s first Junior Roller Derby league – Fierce Valley Roller Cubs – will also be there to share their future plans and answer any questions that kids (and their parents!) may have about the sport.

The Fundraising team at FVRG have pulled out all the stops to make sure there will be something for everyone at The Emporium. The crafters will be offering a range of handmade goods from jewellery, to greetings cards, to scarves, and even corsets and ‘skatergirlz’ art work.

There will be an elaborate bake sale for the sweet toothed, with tea and coffee also available. If you’re feeling lucky, then why not buy a raffle tickets to be in with a shot of winning vouchers from LMG Hair & Beauty, or a set of books from Litlist Book Shop, or lampwork jewellery from Scarlett Impressions or Flaming Eck?

So what's it all in aid of?

As well as keeping you entertained for the afternoon, proceeds from the FVRG stalls at the Craft Fayre will help fund Fierce Valley Roller Girls team, ‘Parma Violents’, in their next bout. This will only be their second public outing, and they will be playing away against Belfast Roller Derby! For such a young league, going to Northern Ireland to represent Scottish Roller Derby is a huge opportunity, so all support received to help fund the trip will be hugely appreciated.

To keep up with the latest Craft Emporium news or to be tempted by the latest raffle prizes on offer, take a look at the Facebook Event, or look out for our skaters on Falkirk High Street on the day – you’ll not miss them!