Word on the Track: Skids Retain Top Spot; Clam Slam Rosters Revealed; First Cindy Davidson Cup Held!

AN INTERNATIONAL STORY AT ECDX

Montreal and Terminal City last met in 2010 at Toronto’s first ever Quad City Chaos. Montreal won that showdown 160-55. (Photo by Derek Lang)

Whatever way you look at it, Canadian roller derby is in the midst of a big year. With four teams currently sitting in D1 playoffs and another now ensconced in D2, the Canadian squads are set to build off of the surprises of last season when Toronto and Terminal City went on deep D1 playoff runs and Tri-City was a heartbreaking overtime clock mistake away from a potential berth in the D2 finals

On Saturday night at Philly’s ECDX, two of Canada’s big three faced off in a highly anticipated matchup that did not disappoint. Earlier this season, Toronto took its first swipe at Montreal and came within 17 points of upending the Skids (the score would not be as close in a rematch in Montreal a month later). This weekend, Vancouver’s Terminal City All Stars (25^th to Montreal’s 16^th) took their shot and came up as close, falling 199-177. Terminal stuck with the Skids through the whole game, but as it was with that Quad City Chaos showdown against Toronto, Montreal, while threatened, had that extra gear gained from so many hours competing at the upper echelons of the sport.

The rest of the weekend was a mixed bag for the Canadian entries. While Terminal City looked solid in decimating a slipping Boston (17^th) 269-160, Montreal looked out of sorts against a surging Victorian (10^th) from Melbourne who overwhelmed them 240-66. At their current rate, Victorian could be another international team to watch as they seem poised to join London at Champs this season.

Similarly, Team Canada took a slight step back against Team USA. At last year’s ECDX, Canada lost 252-72, a scoreline that surprised a lot of people. This year—with the World Cup only six months away—USA stepped up with a superior offensive performance (356 points) that overshadowed an impressive offensive outburst from Team Canada (90). It was, arguably, not Team Canada’s full A-roster, but it was pretty close and was one loaded with talent.

Nonetheless, Canadian teams continue to enjoy a growing spotlight, and while we may not have a team playing quite at the level that London and Victorian currently are, as a country we still have depth surpassed only by USA.

CLAM SLAM 6 SETS ALL-STAR ROSTERS

The 6^th annual Clam Slam is just around the corner, but this year the stakes are even higher! Yes, for the second year in a row this will be a unified ToRD–GTAR event, and, yes, for the second year in a row it will be at Ted Reeve Arena in Toronto’s east end, but this year’s Clam Slam  is a World Pride affiliate event! This is the first ever World Pride to be held in North America and festivities are already well underway in Toronto. Since this is the biggest Pride ever, it’s only fitting that this is the biggest Clam Slam ever!

Last year’s Clam Slam was a phenomenal event—featuring the best game of the five year history of the event, and this year promises to build off of that, with many players returning for the rematch.

As with last year, the Clam Slam will be a double header featuring two games, opening with an intermediate level bout featuring skaters from Ontario (and one skater from Montreal). Leagues represented include the hosts ToRD and GTAR, but also Hammer City, Renegade Derby Dames, Rollergettes, Northumberland Roller Girls, Kingston Derby Girls, Nickel City (Sudbury), Durham Region Roller Derby, Tri-City, and Royal City.

The advanced-level game will be hard pressed to live up to the level of last year’s thrilling match, but its got the talent level to do so. Loaded with Canadian and American All Stars, the main event should be incredibly fast paced. The Eager Beavers feature local stalwarts such as Nasher the Smasher, Fox Smoulder, Ruby Puby (AKA: ToRD’s Bellefast) and Bouche, but will also feature the return of three Naptown skaters Maiden America, Trudy Bauchery and Eve Ann Hellical. Fans will also get to see Tri-City’s Sofonda Snatch (AKA: Sofonda Beatin) who recently returned from injury.

The Clam Diggers respond with a pretty impressive rosters of their own, featuring the likes of ToRD’s Dyna Vagina (AKA: Dyna Hurtcha) and Matchu Eatchu (Matchu Beatchu), but also Clam Slam regulars Mirambo (Forest City) and Nameless Whorror (Montreal—who will be joined on the Diggers this year by leaguemate La Planche). Plus, Toronto derby fans will also get a chance to welcome Rainbow Fight back to the track after a long injury lay off.

The Clam Slam will be at Ted Reeve Arena on Thursday with the opening game starting at 6:30 PM and the second at 8:00 PM.

If you aren’t close enough to catch the game, you can still watch the Clam Slam! Both games will be boutcast live by the ToRD.TV crew and hosted here, by Layer9.ca.

**Full rosters are listed at the bottom of the post.

FIRST CINDY DAVIDSON CUP HELD

This weekend, the first ever Cindy Davidson Cup was held in Walkerton, Ontario. Called “Crushing the Big C,” the event featured a junior scrimmage followed by a full flat track game. The rosters featured many familiar faces to those in the derby community including skaters from Durham Region (Lous Ur Pants/Lucid Lou, TRUCK, Yogi Dare Ya), Northumberland Roller Girls (Provokenator, Chronic Carnage), Grey Bruce (Scary Queen, Anita AllyBy), Misfit Militia (Terry Bomb, Bee Bee MaGee), Renegade Derby Dames (Ethyl A Mean, Daemon Star), and Fergus (Steph-a-hani, Eager Beaver), among many others!

For the record, C Crush beat Pink Power 336-113, but the result was secondary to the event itself, a charity event with proceeds going to the Grey-Bruce Health Services Oncology Expansion and Wes for Youth Online.

Cindy Davidson, known as Mama Kal-Hell by the Northumberland Roller Girls, has been bravely chronicling her “cancer thing” (her words) on her blog “Aside from Cancer, I never Get Sick.” It is quite an astonishing blog—raw, moving, detailed. It provides a remarkably clear, yet sometimes wrenching, glimpse into the life of a cancer patient.

All accounts suggest that this weekend’s event was a great success, so keep an eye out for it next year, as it just may become an annual event.

Read Cindy’s blog here. More information about the event can be found here.

2014 Clam Slam Rosters

GAME 1:

Team Uhaul			Team Plaid Mafia
League	DERBY NAME	NUMBER	League	DERBY NAME	NUMBER
ToRD	Straight Bait	23	Kingston	Flaming Hips	40
HCRG	Hardcore Lolo	213	GTAR	Cunning Linguist	42
ToRD	G-STRINGER	312	Nickel City	Nellie McStung	73
HCRG	Pretty Fishy	314	MTLRD	La Grande Noirceur	78
Nothumberland	Betty BOOM	321	GTAR	Mashes to Ashes	88
ToRD	Vagina Dentata	422	ToRD	Sleeper Hold	213
HCRG	Smashin’ Good Time	519	Tri-City	Tits Tits Tits	480
Renegade	Riot Rhythm	524	ToRD	Beej	831
Nothumberland	Natural Dezzaster	911	PRD	Jaxalottapus	3953
GTAR	Pepper Pot	917	ToRD	SewButt	525S
GTAR	Dirty Daddy’s Kitten	6969	ToRD	Map of Tasmania	5BY5
Rollergettes	KALI	4NK8	Tri-City	Badger	6P
HCRG	M.I gay	9MM	ToRD	Miss Andry	B0TM
Rollergettes	Whoreschach	DSM5	DRRD	extermi-knitter	K2P6
ToRD	Heavy Petter	K1	Royal City	Scream Queen	O84
GTAR	COMMANDER BOX	X3	ToRD	VAGilante	X0X0

 

GAME 2:

Eager Beavers			Clam Diggers
League	DERBY NAME	NUMBER	League	DERBY NAME	NUMBER
Niagara	Lock N Roll	0	ToRD	Dyna Vagina	21
Naptown	Eve Anne Hellical	316	ToRD	Bi-Furious	31
Tri-City	Psykosonic	4	HCRG	Rock E. Road	52
ToRD	Rebel Rock-This	7	Forest City	MIRAMBO	69
Tri-City	AnneXXX	14	ToRD	Hoe Hoe Hoe NO!	111
ToRD	Rosemary’s Gayby	15	HCRG	Homewrecken Holly	187
ToRD	Bouche	26	MTLRD	Nameless Whorror	202
GTAR	SoFearMe	52	ToRD	Just Jes	510
ToRD	Hoff	65	GTAR	NEWFIE BULLET	709
Naptown	Maiden America	76	ToRD	Machu Eatchu	747
Tri-City	Sofonda Snatch	420	Tri-City	Fraxxure	911
ToRD	ThünderKünt	867	DRRD/PRD	Lous ur pants	1234
Tri-City	Fox	1013	ToRD	Ames to Please	2or3
Tri-City	MW	1321	HCRG	Cancer Candy	3BUX
ToRD	Ruby Pubie	5678	DRRD	Psy-Show-Bob	46N2
Niagara	Axel La Rose	15H0	MTLRD	La Planche	61X