2014 was another exciting year for ARRG. January saw us embark upon our third annual intraleague Home Season - and, as we’ve witnessed for the past two years, we saw the Skatefast Club and the Leithal Weapons make it to the final, but this year, for the first time, the amazing Skatefast Club took the title! February was a busy month of training for us all, and in March the Twisted Thistles played a closed game against Tiger Bay Brawlers, and won. May saw the Thistles head off to Oregon to compete in the Big O tournament, whilst our Cannon Belles took on Newcastle at home, and won. We had our annual awards ball in June, which is an amazing celebration of our work both on and off skates, and a lovely excuse to get dressed up and have a night out. In August we played our annual Fringe games, first our Belles took on Dirty River Roller Girls and then the Thistles faced London Roller Girls Brawl Saints. Sadly we were defeated on both occasions, but the Belles did not feel defeated and they went on to beat Hamburg at home in September. Nor were the Thistles, who also came out with a win when Royal Windsor Rollergirls came to play.

Then, the Belles headed off to Oslo for a tournament with some really highly ranked opponents; Oslo Roller Derby and Dock City Roller Girls. The tournament was incredibly hard and both games saw us defeated, but we fought hard for every point, coming home and ready for the last game of the year against Malmo’s B team, ending the year on a high with a comfortable win. [And, of course, quite a few Thistles travelled across to Dallas as part of Team Scotland, as well as one in Team Belgium.]

And so another year ends, but this time with some BIG changes afoot for 2015. First and most excitingly, the Thistles and Belles are no more! We have retired these names and as of January 1st, the teams will be known as the Auld Reekie Roller Girls All Stars and All Star Reserves. This is an exciting movement forward for us, and we are super excited. We’ve also seen big changes with our home season, which is now taking place at the end of the year, from September to November. By the time it comes around, we’ll have a massive number of new skaters in the league so it will definitely not be one to miss.

We’ve also got a lot of really exciting games planned for this year, including being part of the British Championship Premier League where we will play with the other top 4 leagues in the UK to battle it out for the top spot! Look out for more information on that.

We hope to see more and more fans at our home games, and for more information on the fixtures, check on arrg.co.uk or for any enquiries, email communications@arrg.co.uk.

Here’s to 2015!