Perths finest,the Fair City Rollers played host in a James Bond themed bout against Cumbria's Furness Firecrackers on Saturday the 29th of September 2012, in the superb setting of the Bells Sports Centre.

Photography by Stu Mackin

The first few jams of the first period were very low scoring,with both teams assessing the oppositions strengths and weaknesses.Lead Jammer status alternated between the two and things were shaping up nicely for an interesting bout when,in jam 4,the scoreboard went down and an official timeout lasted until a barebones scoreboard was re-established.The enforced break of the timeout,seemed to serve Furness well and in the next few,fast-moving jams they built up a lead over Perth,with Hell For Heather and Steffinately Maybe in particular doing some excellent point scoring,Jam 7 ended 51-20 in favour of the Firecrackers. Jam 8 saw the Maidens start a slow fightback.A powerjam in Perth's favour gave Louisville Destroier a chance to redress the points balance and despite some excellent recycling work from Furness she managed to pull the score back to 53-35.The next two jams saw the Maidens continue to chip away at the points deficit,but the combination of a powerjam for Furness and two Maidens in the Bin in Jam 11 saw them,stretch out in front again a little,roughly halfway through the first period the scores stood at 66-50. In the next two jams the Firecrackers extended their lead,taking lead jammer status in both and creeping the score upwards in their favour again,they continued to dominate the next few jams,denying Perth lead jammer status in all but one with excellent pack work.Jam 18 saw the turning point,when Jaggy Sw'aggie took the score to 87-74,in a powerjam for the Maidens and calling it off to start the next jam with Doh! still in the bin.Perth took advantage of this to put another ten points on the board,but not before the Furness jammer,now released,managed to score two.Perth kept up the pressure over the next two jams,taking lead in both and pulling the scores ever closer by four points with half time fast approaching,to make the score 89-88 The last jam of the half was a hard-fought one,both teams wanting to take the lead into the second period,despite some stellar walls from the Firecrackers skaters Tash Bandicoot,Steely'll Kill'Her and Kammakezzie,it was the Maidens Jaggy Sw'aggie that took the points as her opposite number,Doh!,was sent to the bin once more.Ending the first period with a Perth lead,89-98

The first jams of the second period saw Furness determined to narrow the points gap and Perth equally determined to keep things in their favour,by three jams in,the Firecrackers began to claw back some points with the score now 103-115,three more and the eight point difference had gone down to seven.An old school pivot line start saw Furness take lead ,get a powerjam and take the score to 117-124.The next jam,Doh! took lead and racked up a much-needed eighteen points in a powerjam for the visitors,score now 135-124.The next two jams saw Perth,at first hold Furness in check,allowing them to only score a few points.The following play saw Perth bring themselves back in close with a useful seven point powerjam,held back from scoring more by a disciplined Firecrackers pack bring the score to 138-133.Furness stepped up the pressure over the next two jams,denying Perth any points with some superb walls and pack work,keeping jams short,taking the four and out,building their lead to 149-133. In jam 35 Stephinately Maybe took lead for Furness and with three of the Maidens in the bin,easily took the score up to 184-133.Perth rallied and held the next jam pointless for both teams,the next few after that saw low scoring,with some great pack work from both sides preventing either from taking full advantage,It took another three jams before the scores crept up to 192-146.With five minutes to go on the clock in jam 41,Furness failed to field a jammer,which gave Perth's Pistol Panties the opportunity to put a very impressive and much-needed 34 points on the board,much to the fans delight this brought the Maidens right back into the running,making the score now 199-180.The last two jams of the bout were again,hard-fought affairs,with the sides closely matched,despite a huge effort from Perth,the bout ended in favour of the Furness Firecrackers,final score 200-182.

Photography by Stu Mackin

MVP's for the Firecrackers were- Best Blocker-Steely'll Kill'Her Best Jammer-Steffinately Maybe Best Dressed-Kit Kruger MVP-Yorky Thud

and for Fair City Rollers Best Blocker-Mini Me Best Jammer-Jaggy Sw'aggie Best Dressed-Knock Turnal MVP-Louisville Destroier