Watch out for clever girls on wheels

Dunedin Derby members (from left) Leigh "Lee Oh Tard" Paterson, Karen "Orkazzmic" McDonald, Kat "Diva Demolisher" Geeves, Amy "Amygeddon" Weeks, Katie "80 Grit" Molloy, Charmaine "Little Yellow Jacket" Reveley and Sam "Anne Thrax" Mitchell jam in the University of Otago Union Hall yesterday. Photo by Craig Baxter.

Few sports involve the crowd quite like a roller derby.

University of Otago students got a closer look at the action than expected at a demonstration of the all-female, full-contact craze at Reorientation in the Union Hall yesterday.

"There was so much interest, we had to turn people away," Dunedin Derby media liaison Karen McDonald said yesterday.

"There were some pretty big hits. A couple of the girls went flying into the walls and the crowd. We call the seats by the track 'suicide seats' and everyone knows that if you sit there you have a good chance of being taken out."

Dunedin Derby was established at the Edgar Centre in March last year and the demonstration was held to promote the club's first competitive bout, against Otautahi Roller Derby at the Edgar Centre, on October 21.

"Most of the girls have been skating for a year now and they're amped and ready," Ms McDonald said.

A roller derby bout is played over an hour on an oval track the size of a basketball court, in two-minute races called jams. Combatants wear fishnet stockings, short skirts, pads and helmets and are known by nicknames.

The jams involve five players - four blockers and a jammer - from each team on the track at a time. The jammer is the only skater who can score points, which is done by passing opposition players, while blockers try to help their jammer through the pack and obstruct the opposition jammer.

The US sport has taken New Zealand by storm since it was introduced in 2007 and New Zealand will compete in the inaugural Roller Derby World Cup in Toronto, Canada, in December.

The Otago University Students Association Reorientation continues today with a Paint Party at 9pm in the Union Hall, which promises to be a colourful event.

- nigel.benson@odt.co.nz