It's a busy weekend for Dundee Roller Girls travel team, The Silvery Tayzers. Sunday 17th November sees them take on Fierce Valley Roller Girls travel team, The Parma Violents. It has been over a year and half since these 2 teams met, both having refreshed their rosters and experience since then. Come along to the DISC, Dundee to see who will win in what is sure to be a most exciting bout. 

Doors open at 1.30pm with the bout beginning at 2pm. Tickets are available in advance for the reduced price of £5 (£6 on the door on the day). There will be merchandise from both teams available and beautiful cakes baked by the skaters/refs/NSO's themselves! 

This is absolutely not to be missed. See you trackside for some Live Action Roller Derby!

A reminder to everyone that the busy Roller Derby calendar in November is particularly packed this Saturday, when Into The Nitemare's Battle of Britain tournament kicks off in Stirling's "The Peak".

Featuring 6 teams from around Britain, including Scotland's Dundee Roller Girls, Lothian Derby Dolls and Bairn City Rollers' Central Belters, the event will last the day, and feature 30 minute placement bouts followed by 3 full length "finals" to determine ranking.

Full details can be found on the Facebook Event Page, and tickets are from Brown Paper Tickets.

Scottish Roller Derby are rather excited to announce that a limited number of T-shirts are now available. As the blog is run on a not for profit basis, all profits from the sale of this run of t-shirts will go to support the next generation of skaters at the Fierce Valley Roller Cubs.

Photography-SandySRDBlog

These are Gildan Softstyle shirts in white, printed with the Scottish Roller Derby 'Lion Rampant Jammer' design in black. Available in small/med/large/xl and also as a ladies fitted medium. This is a limited run of shirts with a never to be repeated design/colour combination, priced at £10. You can find them for sale at the upcoming Fierce Valley Roller Girls bouts, or contact the Cubs or Scottish Roller Derby directly.

One reader can win one of these t-shirts, just find Scottish Roller Derby on Facebook, like and share the competition post. A winner will be chosen at random and announced on Saturday the 9th of November.

Next in line in our series of announcer interviews, the one and only Sven WillIBeFamous.

Photo by Zero-G Photography

How did you get started announcing?

It was the start of 2010 and myself and fellow Newcastle Rollergirls ref Glen Moreangry had been invited to stay with some friends in Falkirk. Glen had just started dating Blackjack Belle who was skating with ARRG and it was arranged that we'd go to see London Rockin Rollers versus Glasgow's Irn Bruisers on the Saturday and then Leeds Roller Dolls versus ARRG's Twisted Thistles on the Sunday. I had heard about Roller Derby but never seen it and so after a bit of googling decided it would be a good place for Glen and I to try out our budding hobby of photography. The Saturday came and we arrived at the Arc, cameras in hand to try and shoot some of the action. About 10 minutes into the bout we both realised that we'd forgotten about the photography and were just enthralled by the game. The next day we went to Meadowbank, again with the cameras but I don't think either of us removed the lens caps. After the bout we were leaving and Blackjack suggested that I should take up announcing, as I'd recently been dabbling with stand up comedy and that was it. Sven WillIBeFamous was born. I even came up with the name there and then. Next thing I know I've been volunteered to announce at Highland Fling, A 2 day tournament in Aberdeen. I had a few months to learn the rules and even did some NSOing with ARRG. It was while NSOing that we found out about Newcastle Rollergirls, our home city league! Highland Fling came around sooner than expected and Helliverance and I spent a weekend trying to fill air time with our meandering banter. The week after, Glen and I joined Newcastle Rollergirls properly as referees and as we were learning the ropes I was announcing as many bouts as I could.

Announcers all have different styles, how would you describe your style and how do you think your experience as a referee has altered it?

My style is definitely play by play(PBP) now. I think when I started I was a mix of colour and PBP but then I had the fortune to work with Bulldog, during a Berlin vs ARRG bout. I learned a lot that day including the way that a true PBP announcer works, and I started to work on that style. I now alter my style depending on who I'm working with and what works best. I think that being a referee definitely helps me as an announcer as I can pick up on whistles and hand signals and of course, I have a very good knowledge of the rules.

How do you prepare for bouts and how much work do you have to do on the fly?

It all depends on which bouts I'm announcing. If it's 2 teams that I know really well then I normally just make sure I have the postcode for the venue and spare batteries for my microphones... On the day I spend a bit of time getting to know the rosters. For this I like to watch the skaters warm up and commit their names and numbers and any distinguishing features to memory. I'll then write out the rosters side by side on a fresh sheet of paper in numeric order, which helps to cement them into my brain(and is also a handy reference for me mid bout).

How do you find that stream announcing differs from trackside?

Stream announcing is the announcing equivalent of taking a car to a private track. You get to do all the stuff there that you normally aren't allowed to. You have the freedom to discuss tactics, say what you think 1 team is trying to do and you don't have to worry about hyping the crowd. You still have to be careful what you say though, and I wouldn't say anything about a skater on the stream that I wouldn't also say to their face.

Skaters have skate heroes, do you have any announcer heroes?

If you're talking announcers/commentators of any sport then I guess I'd have to say Al Michaels from the NFL's Monday Night Football. I've spent nearly 30 years following the NFL and Al Michaels is definitely one of those voices that has been with the game all that time, and is considered one of the best play by play callers in the game. I don't know if I could single out any particular heroes in derby announcing but there are a lot of people out there that I look up to and love working with. It sounds cheesy but anyone that is willing to devote their time to learning the sport, the gameplay, the tactics and the teams gets my worship.

What has been your favourite bout to call and what are you looking forward to calling in the future?

I was lucky enough to spend 3 days announcing Track Queens in Berlin last November and was paired with L'il Joker. Every bout we called there was amazing and we were lucky enough to call most of the ARRG and GRD bouts. I can't really pick 1 bout out of the many we did that weekend though, maybe ARRG vs LRG if I was pushed. Most recently it was the last 2 bouts of MERDC 2013. I called the 3rd place final and saw Tyne and Fear fight tooth and nail with The Inhuman League to take 3rd in Europe and then the Final was something else. Probably the greatest deby crowd I've ever had the pleasure to work with. Helliverance was announcing with me and was in his element! The next bouts I'm looking forward to announcing will be at the Men's Roller Derby World Cup in March, where I'll be co-ordinating the house announcing.

Team Scotland, the Women's National Team, is up and running and ready for skaters to try out to represent their country at the 2014 World Cup in Dallas, Texas (and potentially other events).

If you'd like to try out, there are two sessions being held:

Session 1 Sunday 24th November – Grangemouth Sports Complex, Abbots Road, Grangemouth, FK3 8JB – 13:00 – 16:30

Session 2 Saturday 7th December – Dundee International Sports Complex, Mains Loan, Dundee, DD4 7AA – 13:00 -16:00

[googlemaps https://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=201904390601748355049.0004ea576c1ab0811ec82&ie=UTF8&ll=56.243952,-3.3402&spn=0.464629,0.762546&t=m&output=embed&w=425&h=350]

If you are unable to attend either session, then tryout by video submission will be possible. Contact Team Scotland via email or their Facebook page to arrange this.

The tryouts will be part drills part scrimmage and will be filmed for selection purposes. Those attending are asked to bring both a black and white scrim shirt, without league/team logos on it. This is a UKRDA guideline on tryout kit, to ensure impartiality on behalf of the selectors.

Eligibility for tryouts is dependant on possession of a British Passport. You are eligible to try out for Team Scotland in particular if you, or at least one parent or grandparent, were born in Scotland, or you are a current resident in Scotland with 4 or more years' residency. There are no requirements on membership of particular teams. Full details are available here: http://ukrda.org.uk/?p=567

On Saturday 14 December 2013, The Jakey Bites will host a 'Sur5al' tournament in Edinburgh's Meadowbank Sports Centre.

Windsor Roller Girls hosted the first Sur5al challenge in April 2012, and now the format of a five-a-side, one-day tournament has spread all around the world. Skaters from all the Scottish leagues have been invited to form teams of 5 to take part in The Jakey's event, including co-ed teams. A few English, Welsh and Irish teams may even pop up on the day!

The tournament will be open to the public with all profits going to the winning team's nominated charity. Join the Facebook Event for the latest news.

Image courtesy of The Jakey Bites

On Saturday 2 November, The Jakey Bites will take on Barrow Infernos in Grangemouth Sports Complex, at 4pm.

Both teams are keen to hold onto their recent winning streaks, with Barrow beating Wirral Men's Roller Derby and Bairn City Rollers' Skelpies, where as The Jakey's have beaten Team Steve and Super Smash Brollers. If you are yet to see any Men's Roller Derby, this will be a great first experience!

The November bout will be The Jakey's first outing since July, when they played in the Men's European Roller Derby Championships. The team played excellently in the tournament, and learnt a lot from the experience that they have taken back to the training room. Their hard work will hopefully pay off when they come face-to-face with the team from Barrow-In-Furness next weekend.

Tickets are now available online through PayPal. Join the Facebook Event to keep up-to-date with the latest news.

Image courtesy of The Jakey Bites

Continuing our series of interviews with Scottish Announcers, we caught up with Granite City's SmackDaddy...

How did you get started announcing for GCRG?

Ha! This was actually quite funny. I had originally got involved with the league as my other half (Krusty) was convinced I’d make a good ref. Unfortunately, injuries etc. kept me off skates for a while so, since they had lost their normal announcer and I had a bit of a history as a presenter on the radio, they asked me to step in. It was a home bout (their first in over a year due to issues with the venue) and I was honoured to do it. Needless to say I was MAJORLY nervous but I just ploughed ahead with it. One of the GCRG skaters (Zomboobies) was injured so she joined me on the mic to help with the play by play stuff. It was awesome and I got a lot of great feedback from refs, skaters and fans. J

Announcers all have different styles, how would you describe your style and how has it evolved since you started?

My style is very simple. I’m loud and clear! I’ve taken a lot of the stuff I learnt from doing podcasts and radio shows and carried it across to announcing bouts. Get rid of the accent as much as possible, throw your voice and have fun with it! I firmly believe that you have to have a lot of inflection in your voice. Get hyper with awesome plays, go crazy during timeouts and be serious when you have to. Simples! ;) In regards to how my style has evolved, by attending more bouts and watching ALLLLLL the footage I can online, my play by play has improved a lot. I’ve started to develop little catchphrases and I have become a lot more natural meaning my sense of humour tends to shine through a bit more too. Although if you ask the girls up here, they’d tell you that’s not necessarily a good thing…

How do you prepare for bouts and how much work do you have to do on the fly?

I try and be as prepared as possible. I study the rosters as soon as I get them, I contact the leagues taking part in the bout and see if there is anything specific they want me to talk about (birthdays, sponsor messages etc.) and I make sure I have the skaters' names perfected! God help me, there is nothing worse than getting a skaters' name wrong! They WILL kill you! Problem is, 90% of what announcers do is on the fly as you are talking about the match going on in front of you and obviously you can’t plan any of that! Sometimes, it’s the off the cuff stuff that gets the best reaction from the crowds. Whenever there is a decent break in play, I have been known to wander into the crowd and pick out some of the best signs and talk to people about them on the mic! It’s great fun and it gets people interacting.

Skaters have skate heroes, do you have any announcer heroes?

Hell…yes! Jim Ross, the greatest announcer in the history of the WWE. I have idolised that man since I was knee high to a grasshopper! His delivery, his flair and his attention to detail is phenomenal. He spent a lot of his time working alongside the younger talent in WWE so in addition to honing his mic skills, he was learning about the stars of the future! This was invaluable as often he would be announcing their matches so he knew their history which gave him loads to talk about during the lull periods in live events! I was gutted to miss out on seeing him when he came to Scotland recently. L

When you watch sports in your free time, do you find yourself doing your own commentary?

Emmmm…kind of! I don’t so much commentate as I do shout and scream! I’m a nightmare for screaming “what are you doing??! You totally shouldn’t have done that! You should have done X-Y-Z!” I do have a little bit of an inner monologue though. I talk to myself a lot throughout the day. I find it helps me concentrate and remember what I’m doing. I have to make sure I don’t do that when I’m announcing derby bouts because I will probably mutter something incoherent and/or ridiculous! And yes, by inner monologue, I do mean that essentially…I talk out loud to myself.

Which has been your favourite bout to call and what are you looking forward to calling in the future?

The final of Quad Nations a few months ago in Swansea. It’s my favourite for one reason…GCRG won the whole thing! Although as well as being my favourite, it is also my worst because I was so proud of the girls yet I had to remain completely impartial the whole time. It actually got to the point where I just went quiet because if I didn’t, I was going to explode! At the end, I broke down in tears…while talking on the mic! Not ashamed to admit, I bawled my eyes out! I’d also say MRD vs. GCRG because I got to work with a fellow wrestling fan, Captain Malice! We bounced off each other fantastically and had an awesome chemistry. It was the first time we met, yet everything we did just sounded so natural. Loved it. What do I look forward to calling in the future? Well, I applied to announce the Men’s World Cup next year but to be fair, I’m probably not experienced enough for that yet. I would love to do it and have total faith in my own ability, but there are loads of other awesome people who have applied so I don’t envy those who have to make the final decision!

After skating hard in Tenerife in September, Granite City Roller Girls are back with a bout in October, hosting to Lothian Derby Dolls in a Halloween weekend bout.

This will be Lothian’s third bout to date, and Granite City’s third home bout of the year after securing a venue at the Beach Leisure Centre.  This will be a new experience for both teams, as they have never played each other before.

The bout takes place on Saturday, 26th of October.  Dressing up by spectators is not required but hugely encouraged.  There will be a cake stall with themed snacks (no tricks or treats needed, but again, highly encouraged) as well a raffle with all proceeds going to local charities.  Merchandise stalls will be in the hall as well as a donation bucket, with any money raised going back into the team to make future bouts a reality.

People of all ages are invited to the bout, which is free of charge (get there early to avoid disappointment – doors open at 2pm with the bout starting at 3pm).  All we ask is anyone under 18 sits away from the suicide line to avoid injury.

While normally you wonder who will win the after party, a more appropriate question for this bout may be who will have the best costume? Come along and find out.

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Next up it's the turn of Stephen Tawking, announcer at Auld Reekie Roller Girls.

Photography by Graeme D Duncan.

How did you get started announcing for ARRG?

I actually went to my 1st and ONLY bout I have ever just watched live, which was Cannon Belles vs Wakey Wheeled Cats (Crashablanca to give it it's bout name!!) and saw in their program that they were looking for an announcer (the wife Luruk-Hai had just started fresh meat so really not been involved at all). I knew public speaking would not be a problem due to my previous life as a bingo caller (please don't laugh). Even though this was my first EVER time watching roller derby I knew that the advert was in the program for me. I am so glad I did it too because I would never have met so many people that I am proud to call my friends.

Announcers all have different styles, how would you describe your style and how has it evolved since you started?

I don't know if it is a good thing or a bad thing but I have been affectionately dubbed by some of the skaters....'The Voice', possibly due to my volume rather than skill ;). I think though I am really known for being able to pun at the drop of a hat on any subject which always means I have something to say. I would definitely describe myself as a colour commentator. At first I knew nothing about Derby so really had to rely on my co-announcers to do the play by play and I did more of the fun stuff, such as making sure the crowd were having fun and the skaters were too. Now however I would say I do both colour and a lot more of the play by play. As long as I keep getting asked back to announce I know I must be doing a good job.

How do you prepare for bouts and how much work do you have to do on the fly?

The 1st thing I normally have to do when preparing for a bout is to make sure I have the day off work, so the sooner I know I am wanted the better. I also like to get the bout information as soon as I can (skaters, announcements etc) so I can learn as much off by heart as possible. The main thing for me is that the announcer should only enhance the atmosphere of the bout and let the skaters do the talking with there skill, so I like to be good and prepared with not chance of a balls up on my part. The other thing I have to make sure is my shiny 'look who's tawking' t-shirt is clean (still love that it was made for me). In terms of knowing what to say on the day however, it has to come naturally, I have the best seat in the house so I have to use it well........and my only real discernible talent is, I always know the right things to say.

Skaters have skate heroes, do you have any announcer heroes?

I am not really the type to have heroes to be honest and would hate to single out just one person as there have been some great people I have co-annouced with over the last couple of years. Everyone who is willing to announce for a bout should be commended as I have seen what it can be like trying to get people to volunteer to do it. Thing I am always worried about however, is if my co-announcer gets annoyed with me talking too much or if they say/do things they shouldn't during the bout.

When you watch sports in your free time, do you find yourself doing your own commentary?

I have always commentated on every aspect of life, let alone sport (i'm a bit of a social commentator). But certainly when ARRG's Twisted Thistles were across the pond I found myself announcing the whole bouts at the computer. In terms of other sports I would love to take my brand of announcing to the commentary booths of Golf to properly mix things up; but I probably would not be welcomed for all my puns...... such as wearing a second pair of trousers to work....in case I got a whole in one!!(sorry). I would also have to say my dream announcer role in other sport would be with WWE but I would be hard to wrestle me away from derby ;)

Which has been your favourite bout to call and what are you looking forward to calling in the future?

My absolute favourite bout was my first, which was Twisted thistles vs Stuttgart at the Edinburgh Fringe 2 years ago. It was live on RDUK (daunting when it is your 1st bout) and there was such and fantastic atmosphere that in NEARLY left me speechless in the closing minutes. Another great experience was the one chance I have had to announce at an away bout, in Newcastle. It was near Christmas so everyone was having a brilliant time, there were party games and the bus trip home was hilarious, and it was the time I properly felt part of the ARRG family. I would finally love to be known a little more across the derby community, to get my name out there so I can eventually announce things like international events and world cups!!

Thanks for listening to me folks, hope this comes across that I love doing this and I thought I was restrained with the puns;) (even if the are pundamental to my personality :)

Stephen Tawking