The Night the Lights Went Out in Texas
Bout recap by Phil Arnold

June 3, 2007

You know how in the midwest occasionally a thunderstorm will roll through with lighting strikes and strong winds, and knock out electricity to entire neighborhoods? Well I've talked to Pyro Maim Ya about this very scenario in Dallas with some of the fierce thunderstorms they've had in North Texas-- what would happen if you were skating and the lights went out? She was skating for Assassination City, and it happened Sunday night in Austin. It disrupted two exciting games.

So what's the rule on derby bouts losing electricity, and all except for emergency lights and camera flashes? Well in this case The Hustlers of the Texas Rollergirls were awarded a 17 point victory, 67 to 50 after the fifth jam of the second half.

After about 30 or 40 minutes, with no real knowledge on how long the electricity would be off, the first game was called a victory, under the agreement of the captains, and the Hell Mary-Hotrod Honeys game was recorded as “incomplete.” The Hotrod Honeys were leading 27-24 at halftime, although there are no official stats at this time.

The fans were enjoying both games which seemed to have a lot of physical blocking, and fast jammers...which is nothing new in Texas Rollergirls competition.

The Hustlers worked out to an early 21-6 lead after 8 jams in the first 30-minute period. They would draw it out behind jammer Dinah Mite who would take four out of five lead jammer statuses and score unofficially 20 points. The Hustlers would take a 54 to 30 lead at half time in an amazing 22 jams in that first half.

Perhaps the Hustlers were over confident, and perhaps the Special Ops from Assassination City wanted to prove something, but Goldie Schlager would pull a 14 point jam while the Special Ops were shutting out the Hustlers behind two Choko Ono jammer takeouts for that jam. The Hustlers would draw it back out to 20 points, but Assassination City would draw down the lead with Choko jamming, but who knew exactly how many points were scored in the sixth jam as the lights went out and the fans could all hear loud booms of thunder.

In the other game, that didn't count, the Hell Marys drew out to a 12-10 lead midway through the first half, but the Hotrods would rally taking a 19-16 lead after a five point lead by Rice Rocket. The Honeys would hold onto that lead unofficially and add another point by the end of the half. But the lights would frustrate the skaters on both teams who wanted to prove who was the better team. And the fans would be frustrated by not being able to watch. That will have to be proven in the championship game on August 5. Meanwhile skaters were heard telling other skaters, “let's settle this at practice!”

And honestly, Assassination City, the Hell Marys, and Hotrod Honeys were frustrated the night the lights went out in Texas and stopped a derby match dead cold.

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