Suffolk Roller Derby

tu 7 Jul 2020	In a lifetime of laughter and tears we have noted that most people like what they're used to and that usually means clichéd predictability so when the Blue Thunder Rollers renamed themselves we were impressed they resisted Suffolk Punchers or such like. Recently Suffolk Roller Derby skater Dr Astrid Coxon has revived the draught horse allusion.
su 20 May 2018	Yesterday at the Ipswich Inspire Kent Men's Roller Derby v East Anglo Smacksons and Suffolk Roller Derby v Dorset Knobs (it's a kind of biscuit).
th 17 May 2018	♫ This Saturday the organ festival in Diss (including The Grange Musical Collection) sounds good fun, pity it clashes with roller derby in Ipswich.
th 22 Mar 2018	Suffolk Roller Derby 2013 to 2014.
sa 17 Mar 2018	Skaters were a little thin at last night's Suffolk Roller Derby open scrimmage in Inspire Ipswich but it was still rewarding with newbie NSOs (Non Skating Officials) learning in the penalty box and a very youthful seed being cast. Girlfriend and boyfriend playing on opposing teams was an interesting situation and disappointingly what used to be automatic for SRD training and scrims no after beer.
su 21 Jan 2018	This year Suffolk Roller Derby are holding monthly open co-ed roller derby scrimmages alternating venues between Inspire Ipswich and CurveMotion Bury St Edmunds. Friday was the year's first and at Inspire where the foyer's had a coat of paint and the hall floor made very shiny. A little chilly especially around the penalty box and some skaters clearly newbs. Number 11 got his seventh and ejection penalty for taking his helmet off in the penalty box, we had a faint inkling it was a penalty but then just about everything in derby is:) You need passed minimum skills, black and white tops and five pounds for the next scrim on the 15th February.
su 20 Mar 2016	In Ipswich last Sunday the first roller derby bout day of the British Championships Tier 3 Men's Regional South ... rolls off the tongue eh?
sa 12 Mar 2016	Tomorrow male roller derby in Ipswich. A Brit Champs double bouter with hosts Suffolk playing Nottingham and Bristol playing from Stamford Brawls of Steel. Tickets eight quid on the door or six online from Suffolk Roller Derby.
th 21 Jan 2016	Suffolk Roller Derby held their first fresh meat of 2016 earlier this month at the Inspire centre Ipswich. We reckon there were 14 newbs ranging from ready to go to never been on skates before. New male and female faces always welcome Fridays but to ensure there's enough loan equipment it helps to contact them first.
tu 14 Jul 2015	A broken down horse box on a Martlesham roundabout contributed to us missing the first bout at Ipswich's first public roller derby hosted by Suffolk RD. As so often what looks like an enormous sports hall immediately shrinks with a derby track on it and things were crowded. In the event we were surprised (but then what do we know) how comfortably the Norfolk Brawds beat SRD 243-63 though it's clear that the longer established Brawds have a larger cadre of skaters to call on. SRD Men v mixed league Top Gun was more evenly matched with Top Gun coming from behind to lead at the half but in the end losing 226-132. As with most if not all men's derby it was physical, at one point the pack came past jammerless but still with every skater engaged in hefty contact. Great stuff, ♥ it!
mo 9 Mar 2015	We arrived early for Suffolk Roller Derby's first training session in Ipswich and it was a little disheartening, maybe half a dozen skaters waiting for the women's basketball to vacate the hall. Then suddenly everybody turned up en masse with maybe 10-12 newbies (including a mother and daughter) being fitted up with borrowed kit. The Inspire looks encouragingly big but like any hall it shrinks when a derby track is laid out but it will still make a fine venue for SRD's next home game. Inevitably falling over is part of derby but nobody laughs at a fresh meat landing spectacularly on their bottom and everyone enjoys the Who are we? ritual at the end. Newcomers welcome again this Friday.
su 16 Nov 2014	We blooded a new to us camera body at Suffolk roller derby's Thursday training in Bury St Edmunds, nice to see Joni and Yoshi skating.
fr 31 Oct 2014	The Paradise Centre Ely has a dry bit and a wet bit, Glen the manager of the wet bit didn't know why it's called the Paradise. The sports hall in the dry bit was sufficiently small that when hosts Red, White and Bruise laid out the track the penalty track in the back straight was no more than 12 inches wide. That'll never work we thought Where are they going to put four outside refs? but we were very pleased when it did work just fine. As with many scrimmages there was no scoreboard making the bout difficult to follow and at the end head ref Reffy Paws with the lofty impartiality of a referee didn't know who'd won let alone the score:) Turns out it was visitors Suffolk Roller Derby.
we 30 Jul 2014	Helmet Newton has told us he has the same problem, recognising skaters without their helmets. At Suffolk Roller Derby in Bury St Edmunds last month we introduced Yvonna Bone (without her helmet) as Malicious Wishes <blush> so gratifying that Yvonna has picked up a second fave on Flickr.
fr 27 Jun 2014	In Bury St Edmunds last Saturday Suffolk finally felt derby l♥ve when home team Suffolk Roller Derby met from Chelmsford the Killa Hurtz Roller Girls and a support bout from two mixed league men's teams. The Abbeycroft Leisure Centre is too small for derby, the track was undersize with the spectators crammed in at one end and on balconies ... but it was brilliant! SRD covered their costs from ticket sales and the raffle raised some £200 (raffle draws may be the tedious inevitability of a British event but they do raise money). The only thing that made the day fall a micron short of perfect was that though neither visiting team was a pushover it was reasonably clear during the first halves it would be home wins, a point in it last jam cliffhanger and a home win would have probably made us wet ourselves.
su 22 Jun 2014	Yesterday we felt the derby l♥ve in Bury St Edmunds.
sa 21 Jun 2014	Today we will be feeling the derby l♥ve in Bury St Edmunds.
th 19 Dec 2013	Any East Anglian interested in roller derby would have been heartened by a massive turnout for coaching by Croydon's Rolling Thunder at Suffolk Roller Derby in Bury St Edmunds Monday night, maybe 50 skaters from five or six East Anglian leagues? We particularly liked the 'pursuit' drill with two massive bunches obliged to stay together unlike track cycling and the jumping was impressive; jumping the apex maybe hard but staying in bounds on the other side is even harder. Derby name of the evening the cerebral Blockums Razor.
fr 1 nov 2013	We are continually impressed the effort people will make to roller derby. Last night for the Suffolk Roller Derby née Blue Thunder Rollers mixed scrimmage in Bury St Edmunds a Bourne Bombshell had travelled from the south coast, Ryan had cycled from Ipswich to geek the scoreboard and went to the pub afterwards, just about everyone had made an effort for Halloween except us and the refs though this was the solitary outside ref. An evenly matched bout (though in the end a 190-177 win for Black) with often just a single point in it despite White losing a seven majors skater in the first half, in fact early on the penalty box was pretty damn busy. Some presumably less experienced skaters did look a little ungainly but they got the job done and derby (and tortuous) name of the night Dicey Tequil'Her.
th 12 Sep 2013	It's always nice when someone gets it.
we 7 Aug 2013	Unlike last time we managed to turn up on the right day for Blue Thunder's weekly practice in Bury St Edmunds. There were a good handful of freshies both male and female looking already halfway there and impressively a first visit from Malicious Wishes of banked track league the Arizona Roller Dames. At the after pub visit we found ourselves sitting next to MW and learnt that Arizona started as flat track league to raise the money for the banked track, there would be fake fighting to entertain the crowd, the banked track cost $50,000 and takes three days to take down and put up again; and banked track derby skaters serve a penalty after the jam has ended, the lead jammer can lose their status if the other jammer passes them and passes are decide by both the jammer ref and the eye in the sky ... phew.
tu 9 Jul 2013	Friday we went to Bury St Edmunds to snap a mixed league roller derby scrimmage hosted by Blue Thunder Rollers ... unfortunately we were confused about the meaning of the word 'tomorrow' and it had been the day before. Coming back through Stonham Aspal we noticed the Ten Bells was boarded up and at the far end of the village on a corner was a chip van. This chip van you climb into to order; sausage in batter, chips and some scraps £2.40, did the trick.
fr 4 jan 2013	Last night at Curvemotion in Bury St Edmunds Blue Thunder hosted multi league training with more than a splattering of blokes and they weren't all off duty refs. Off skate fitness led by a member of the England roller hockey team (interestingly his skating style was different, closed up and low centre of gravity) started the session and as so often with these things showed big differences between skaters. A three blockers one jammer exercise eventually morphed into single jam scrimmages with a major earning ten press ups rather than a trip to the penalty box. A little guidance about the new rule set and then we went home tired but happy.

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