Roller Derby

A roller derby game between the local team, Joensuu Roller Derby and visiting team Kuopio Roller Derby was played on Saturday. The game was nothing short of sweat and tears, but even more than that, it was a beautiful reminder of what roller derby is in all of its intensity, tacticality, and most of all sportsmanship.

Roller derby is a fast-paced contact sport. Photo: Veera Konsti

The event was succintly named Susi Hot Rock. The name is most likely an homage to one of the most well-known roller derby players, Suzy Hotrod from the US team Gotham Girls Roller Derby.  There was a good crowd of people in the audience, despite the fact that the sport isn’t as popular here as in the States. The underdog Kuopio Roller Derby revealed before the game they hadn’t played together in almost a year, whereas Joensuu Roller Derby played in the 1st division and also has played a few games abroad. The match was played at noon, and as the weather outside was just perfect, the inside of the hall was full of warmth. This is roller derby. The roller derby circles are fairly small, so the teams know each other well, often personally, and the audience is usually mostly players from other teams and the teammates of the teams playing, cheering their friends on before and during the game.

The roller derby game was fourth of its kind in Ilosaarirock and the event itself has always had a friendly label attached , but this game was no stranger to sweat and tears either. On the first half player #15, Henna from the Kuopio team, apparently got hit in the face by another player and the game was stopped for a while to make sure she was ok. Luckily it wasn’t that bad, and Henna remained on the bench cheering her teammates on until the last whistle blow. It might have been the close call situation or a combination of other small matters, but Kuopio managed to get their defence on really well, and closed their lines really tight in the first half, keeping the small and quick Joensuu jammers behind them. After the first period, the score was a close match, 99-68, and the half ended in good spirits. The most memorable moment of the first half for yours truly was when a Joensuu jammer gave applause to a Kuopio jammer when the other team scored, while serving her penalty in the box .

Jammers battling for the lead. Photo: Veera Konsti

On the second half the fatigue was apparent, and especially the jammers were getting tired due to tight defence on both sides. Joensuu had a clear advantage with their jammers, but Kuopio was still doing a great job defending and we saw some nice clean blocking. This wasn’t enough though, and Joensuu slowly built up their points by snatching leads and keeping the jams short, only picking 4 points per jam, slowly but surely. Halfway through the second half of the game, the score was already 169-79 to the home team. The jammers of Kuopio were clearly very tired, and this gave Joensuu the space to keep scoring these valuable points, and with only 2 minutes left on the clock the score was quite clear, 209-86.

The score aside, the last jam showed the crowd just what roller derby is at its best: on the whistle there was a very unexpected star pass by Kuopio, with #44 Borderline Baby grabbing the jammer hat and sprinting on, trying to put on the hat, with Joensuu blockers right behind her. As she broke from the pack, the audience rose to their final cheer. The Joensuu jammer came right behind her, but as she didn’t get the lead jammer, we were looking at a full 2 minute jam. It was intense as both jammers were fighting each other, themselves and for their teams, and when Kuopio broke the 100 points mark, it was clear they didn’t feel like losers after all. The long-haired DJ put on Final Countdown and I saw him smile. I was close to tears, having been a jammer on the same court 4 years ago,  and I wasn’t the only one. After the last whistle blow the score was 220-106.

Thank you Joensuu Roller Derby, Kuopio Roller Derby and all officials involved, this was a beautiful reminder of what roller derby really is: full of surprises, athletism and good spirit! Highly recommendable.

Text: Armi Kunnaala
Photos: Veera Konsti