The main event of the Great Derby Social 2012 was a WFTDA Regulation bout between the Green Mountain Derby Dames' Grade A Fancy (GAF), and the Hellions of Troy (HoT). GAF is a WFTDA ranked team, whereas HoT is a WFTDA apprentice league. If you didn't know about either team, you would've likely figured out that these two teams are rivals, because the defense was ferocious, and the hits were hard.
I had the great responsibility and the pleasure of jam reffing this bout with the HoT's head ref; Miranda Rights. From my ref perspective ( I watched it later from the fan's perspective on the internet) it was a great bout. It was physical, and showcased some serious skill and strategy. It was a clean game, as the penalties did not appear to be the product of sloppiness or ill will, but rather just the level of intensity at which this bout was played. Disappointingly, the bout ended with GMDD squeaking out a victory (141-138) because the HoT's jammer committed a major back block on the bout's final jam, allowing GAF's TerminateHer (#1984)to score some serious points (15) on a power jam to end the bout. I say disappointingly, because I always like to see a non-power jam tooth and nail battle to end a great, well fought derby bout.
Coming from a person who both skates in, announces and officiates derby bouts, both HoT and the GAF are very entertaining to watch. The Hellions remind me of Gotham from several years ago, as they communicate very well in the pack and all 5 skaters on the track are almost always on the same page. This strength is evident as their pack often changes strategies mid jam, which really helped their jammers succeed against GAF's formidable walls. GAF, on the other hand, I feel, has more talented individual skaters, but often plays a static strategy throughout each jam. GAF also has two top notch jammers, Nancy Nightmare and TerminateHer, whereas the Hellions only had one, Baby Nuclear (#011), who was playing her final bout as a Hellion, as she is moving to Chicago. Fantastic jammers typically allow the blockers to isolate the opposing team's best blocker(s) by outnumbering them, and letting the jammers take their chances in juking weaker blockersto get through the pack. Having great jammers is always a valuable asset, and it makes for a fantastic bout...
Baby Nuclear was HoT's best jammer and GAF's choice as MVP for the bout, as she was nearly unstoppable, and one of only a few jammers who was evenly matched with both Nightmare and TerminateHer, GAF's jammer duo extraordinare. Nuclear was fast, got very low, and was strong, much like Nightmare and TerminateHer, making it very difficult for blockers to do much once they got beside them, without danger of a penalty. Nuclear also made excellent use of GAF's blockers' legal target zones, as she routinely pushed her way through looser walls to get out of the pack and score points. Nancy Nightmare and TerminateHer were very consistent, as usual, and both did tremendous jobs of getting lead jammer, and helping their pack recycle the Hellions' jammers. GAF used it's jammer advantage to the max, as Nancy Nightmare and TerminateHer both irritated Hellions blockers to no end...
Pack Strategy:
For much of the bout GAF relied on forming a three-wall up front, and having a sweeper behind the wall. The GAF sweeper was largely ineffective as the Hellions rendered the 4th blocker ineffective by peeling her off and assembling a wall of four behind GAF's three wall. Often the jammers were released into a pack formation where a lone GAF blocker trailed the pack, a wall of four Hellions were in front of her, and the foremost part of the pack was made up of a three-wall of GAF blockers. As it played out, this scenario enabled the Hellions to control the pack speed. If the Hellions jammer broke through to the front of the pack comprised of the GAF three-wall, the Hellions blockers often gave up on clearing her a path by chasing, and opted instead to line up just inside the outside boundary line, and slow the pack down to a crawl, basically giving the GAF blockers one chance to stop the jammer before they went out of play. 98% of the time (a pure guess) the Hellions were all on the same page, and slowed down the pack effectively, but I suspect this is a newer strategy for them, as they missed several chances to corral the sweeper, and stop the pack altogether.
Another strategy ToH employed, was lining up their blockers directly in front of the jammer line, and when the jam timer raised his hand signaling 5 seconds before the jam start whistle, HoT's jam coach would sometimes yell "down." If he yelled "down," they would take a knee and the jammers would be released immediately. This threw off the GAF blockers only two times at most, and then they caught on. In the second half, GAF began to occupy the jammer line before HoT could get to the line, staking out the position nearest the jammers, and the advantage HoT gained from its pre-jam positioning was effectively nullified. Nonetheless, HoT's pre-jam strategy didn't seem to allow them to steal more than 5 points total, and thankfully, for the fans' sake, this bout was all decided in the pack, during conventional derby play.
Regardless, the Hellions were in control of the pack much more frequently than the GAF, and HoT's degree of control was evident as they were able to trap GAF's talented jammers many times, in instances where the HoT jammer had completed an initial pass first. On the flip side of the coin, if the GAF jammer got through the pack quickly and earned lead jammer, the HoT jammer was often trapped in the pack on its initial pass by GAF's talented blockers. GAF was very successful at capping the front of the pack, and in effect, nullifying HoT's excellent four-wall. Because this matchup essentially created a stalemate, the bout basically came down to the jammers.
As mentioned above, the HoT were masterful at controlling pack speed, while the GAF pack skaters made use of their individual talent brilliantly, to slow down the Hellions' jammers. It made for an amazingly close bout, which came down to the last jam. One of the reasons the bout didn't get away from the GAF, is because they put all of their best blockers in on the same jam several times in instances where HoT gained momentum. Several times, GAF put in all of their best blockers on the same jam; Susan Slamberg (#107.9), Atomic Muffin (#8HER), The Silencer (#10-96)
Reffing & Bout Finish
I think the reffing was, by and large, very good. The engagement zone was constantly being stretched, and the refs were very consistent in calling out of play penalties. I'll admit I made a major SNAFU late in the bout that could've cost the Hellions dearly, but we conferred as refs, the Hellions asked for an official review, the mistake was corrected, and all was once again well in derby land. So, I guess you want to hear what my snafu was, eh?
With approximately 2 minutes left in the second half, Hellions jammer Lehman Smothers (#915) was released from the box, after GAF jammer TerminateHer collected her 4th minor. The Hellions jammer met the pack on the straightaway between turns 4 and 1, and while entering turn 1, got knocked out of bounds on the outside of the track and promptly entered in front of two GAF blockers. From my perspective, it looked like she cut 2 GAF blockers (one of whom appeared to be tightrope walking the outside line on her toe stops, struggling to remain in bounds), so I called a major track cut, and sent her to the box. The jam ended mere seconds later, as the jam clock hit 2:00 with neither team netting anymore points. The Hellions bench was incensed, stating that I should've awarded the jammer more points before the penalty, and that it was an incorrect call. They used their official review, and by that point in time, I had already conferred with the outside pack ref Luci D. Dream, who was Johnny on the spot with the proper call. Luci explained that one of the tightrope walker's wheels was touching outside the track, which means #915 only cut one skater, and my major track cut call should've been a minor. Fortunately for me, the jam ended just after I made the erroneous call, and it did not cost either team any points.
At this point, the Hellions were poised for victory as they had a power jam with less than 2 minutes in the bout, and the lead. TerminateHer had 0:19 left to serve in the penalty box, and the Hellions had their best jammer, Baby Nuclear, on the line. The Hellions took a knee to release Nuclear immediately, and she got lead jammer rather quickly. As Nuclear came around on her first scoring pass, TerminateHer left the box, and took up a position behind the pack, to try to block BN, as she approached the pack. About 5 ft. behind the pack, Baby Nuclear committed an unambiguous, major back block on TerminateHer, who then scored three grand slams, and Nuclear could not score again on that jam. GAF won 141-138.
What I took away from this bout:
Strategy and teamwork triumphs over skill. Duh...
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