2018 is a great year for World Cups in Roller Derby. Not only has it featured the 3rd Roller Derby World Cup itself, in Manchester; and the 3rd Men's Roller Derby World Cup, in Barcelona... but it will also see the first truly international Junior Roller Derby World Cup, as JRDA extends its Championships to include an National Teams tournament, including European representation for the first time..

Great Britain will be one of 6 National or Quasi-national teams competing in the event, taking on Europe (also debuting), and the returning Teams of Canada, Australia, USA East and USA West for the JRDA World Cup Trophy, between 23rd and 24th July (the two days following JRDA Champs), in Philadelphia, PA, USA!

You'll recognise some of the skaters involved in Team GB from the Roller Derby World Cup's Junior Roller Derby exhibition bout (and some of the others in that exhibition are in Team Europe, competing against them!); in fact, Team GB and Team Europe's mastermind, Phil Rutter, was responsible for organising that as well! (He's also the JRDA "European Regional Coordinator".) Team GB Juniors has a host of other talent behind it, however: Head Coach, Toots, is a long established member of Lincolnshire Rolling Thunder + England Men's Roller Derby; also repeat members of England Men's are two support Coaches, Reaper (also of Southern Discomfort), and Tom-A-Hawk (also of Lincolnshire Rolling Thunder); the third support coach being England Roller Derby and London Roller Girls' equally skilled and experienced Beth Lord. Beyond the coaches, there's a huge organising committee you can see here.

Enough about the adults, though, you'll want to see the actual skaters! If you've missed the announcements, then here they are:

Running a National team is expensive - and it's especially expensive when you have to fly intercontinentally, and even more so when you're a Junior team (and thus need adults around for legal reasons too) - costs for Team GB Juniors will be at least £20000 overall...

As such, Team GB Junior Roller Derby have been raising funds for some time - supported by some excellent teams across the UK in providing events! This way, you can both support the UK's Junior Roller Derby community, and also experience awesome Derby too...

Team GB Juniors logo by Jen Smith

First up: Peterborough's Borderland Brawlers Roller Derby host a double header (2 June 2018), combining some all-gender roller derby with the best of UK junior derby.

• 2 June 2018, Peterborough: [EVENT]
  • Borderland Brawlers (Open To All, Peterborough) versus Mustard City Rollers (Open To All, Norwich) [FTS]
  • Team GB Junior Roller Derby versus The World (UK Junior skaters): Level 3 Junior Derby Exhibition!

If you'd like to learn something as well, Team GB Juniors also have you covered, as Rainy City Roller Derby are generously providing the Thunderdome to them to host a combined adult/junior bootcamp!

• 16 June 2018, Oldham: Brutecamp, with Rosie Peacock and Optimus Grime. [EVENT]
  • Team Scotland /  Glasgow Men's Roller Derby's Rosie Peacock, and Power of Scotland / Glasgow Men's Roller Derby's Optimus Grime host an all day bootcamp event:
    • Morning: Adult intermediate skill bootcamp + scrim
    • Afternoon: Juniors Level 3 bootcamp + scrim
  • Learn from two national squad level skaters and coaches with extensive international experience!

But that's not all! Eastbourne Roller Derby's annual Outdoor Roller Derby festival, Eastbourne Extreme, will also be featuring an exhibition bout from Team GB Juniors, and opportunities to help support the team!

• 15 July 2018, Eastbourne: [EVENT]
  • Eastbourne Extreme Outdoor Roller Derby Tournament
    • Team GB Juniors Exhibition Event.

That will be your last chance to see Team GB Junior Roller Derby before all the skaters jet off to represent their combined nations at the Junior Roller Derby World Cup!

If you can't make it to any of these events, and missed the chance to donate to Team GB Juniors at other events in the last few months - don't worry! You can also help the team entirely via the Internet by:

• Donating to the Team Crowdfunder: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/teamgbjuniorrollerderby
• Donating to individual Skater Crowdfunders (a bunch of these show up as "related crowdfunders" at the bottom of the Team fundraiser page)
• Buying Team GB Juniors Merch: https://teamgbjuniorrollerderby.org/shop/
• Buying tickets in the Team GB Juniors Prize Draw (with prizes including signed national teams merchandise from USA Roller Derby, Team Wales Men & Power of Scotland's Optimus Grime, tickets to the Men's European Cup, fantastic artwork and more) https://teamgbjuniorrollerderby.org/prize-draw/
• Volunteering your time to support any of the events above!