Sideline Sid Sports correspondant & historian www.sunlive.co.nz

Sidline Sid was delighted to see that a local Mount Maunganui group of women are putting together a Roller Derby ‘Crew' to compete in the non stop action ‘sport'.

While Roller Derby will be unknown to most in the Western Bay of Plenty, it has been around for decades.

During the 1960s Roller Derby held a huge following on Australian free to air TV – with both men's and women's leagues attracting huge viewing numbers and frenzied spectators track side.

Wikipedia tells us:

'Contemporary Roller Derby is an American invented contact sport with roots in sports entertainment. The game is based upon formation roller skating around an oval track by two teams.

Points are scored when designated scoring player (jammer) of a given team, laps members of the opposing team. Hence offences and defence occur simultaneously.

A Roller Derby, where skaters wear old style roller skates, consists of five players per team on the track at one time. Each team has a lead player (jammer) and four (blockers) defence players.”

What all that means – is that a player from one team breaks away with the mission of catching the pack, and weaving their way through to the head of the pack again. That's where the action begins.

It is a typical American derived sport along the lines of professional wrestling, with the officials appearing to allow the participants to get away with 'anything goes”.

However, the lack of enforcing rules to the letter is the real attraction of the ‘Sport'.

Non-stop action, players being bundled off the track or caught with an illegal move (or two) is a real crowd pleaser.

While Roller Derby has crashed from the high days of the 1960s and 70s where the game had a huge following – the modern version based upon women's leagues is creating waves again.

The local team is known as the Mount Militia. A further attraction is the derby names that the players take on. The Damage Patch Kid, Mad Molly Mayhem and Quarter Poundher are just three of the locals who have been in action with the Mount Militia.

On the rugby front, the Baywide competitions are about to reach the halfway stage of the season. With the last round to be completed this Saturday, there are a number of Western Bay teams in the frame to win the premier championship.

At the start of the season, Tauranga Sports was hot favourite to win an unprecedented fifth Baywide crown. However, Rotorua heavyweight Whakarewarewa has made the early running, and shares the lead with the Tauranga Boys'.

This weekend's results will determine who lifts aloft the first round trophy in triumph. There is a real logjam in the middle of the table.

Rangataua, Mount Maunganui and Te Puke Sports lurk in the top six with only Te Puna having little chance of playing post section rugby.

However, the second half of the season is always a battle of attrition with wet weather and the injury toll making it a battle of the fittest, to book a berth in the semi-finals.

Seeya at the Game