Trisha Shetty (Editor)

Dolly Rockit Rollers

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Metro area
  
Leicester

Founded
  
10 January 2010

Affiliations
  
UKRDA, WFTDA

Country
  
United Kingdom

Track type(s)
  
Flat

Teams
  
All-Stars (A team) Raggy Dollz (B team) Foxton Blocks (Intraleague team) Angry Belvoirs (Intraleague team)

The Dolly Rockit Rollers (“DRR”) are an English roller derby league based in Leicestershire. Formed in January 2010, they skate flat track roller derby to WFTDA rules, and have been a member of UKRDA since September 2011 and a WFTDA league since July 2014. The league is entirely owned and run by its members, and was the first roller derby league to operate in Leicestershire.

Contents

History

DRR were formed by skaters Slamabama and Nitro Noush, who were both skating with Birmingham’s Central City Rollergirls but looking to set up a league in their home city of Leicester at the time. In conjunction with Central City they organised a practice in the Beaumont Leys area of the city and were encouraged by the turnout it received. Leicester has a long affinity with roller skating, with the Granby Halls roller rink widely popular until its closure in 1999, and this provided a solid basis for member numbers to increase over the following months. The fledgling league was named the Dolly Rockit Rollers, both as a pun on the term “rock it” and as an homage to Leicester’s National Space Centre.

The first bout for DRR was a mixed exhibition game in August 2010, with their first interleague bout (a 79-68 loss to the Newcastle Roller Girls) taking place a month later. This bout also marked the league’s debut at their new home, with the Dollies moving from Beaumont Leys to the larger Parklands Leisure Centre at this time. The team would play two more interleague bouts in 2010, winning both of them to finish the year on a 2-1 record.

Skater numbers continued to increase and by May 2011 DRR had enough advanced skaters to form a ‘B’ team, the Raggy Dollz. The DRR ‘B’ team made an unofficial debut in May 2011, skating under the name “Free Birds”, before playing their first official bout against the Birmingham Blitz Dames’ ‘B‘ team in September of that year. The Dollies were admitted into UKRDA, the governing body for UK roller derby, shortly after this bout.

DRR’s Allstars ‘A’ team played a total of twelve public bouts in 2011, with nine wins in total. This record saw them voted amongst the top eight members of the UKRDA and qualified them to play at the Tattoo Freeze 2012 tournament in January of the following year. They would eventually be eliminated in the quarterfinals after a tense game against the Auld Reekie Rollergirls.

The Dollies also had two skaters selected to play at the inaugural Roller Derby World Cup in December 2011, as England’s Rogue Runner and Ireland’s Holly Sheet were both drafted into their respective national teams.

In October 2012, the Dollies were accepted as a member of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association Apprentice Programme.

In July 2014, DRR were accepted as a full member of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association Apprentice Programme.

As the first British Championships" came to the UK in 2015, the Dolly Rockit Rollers were placed into the 'Women T3 West' tier.

Teams

DRR currently field five teams, two interleague teams (who play against the interleague teams of other leagues) and three intraleague teams (who play each other exclusively).

  • DRR All-Stars - DRR’s ‘A’ travel team. A 20 skater roster is picked for the Allstars every three months, which provides a pool of skaters for bouting teams to be picked from.
  • DRR Raggy Dollz - DRR’s ‘B’ travel team. Again, a 20 skater roster is picked every three months, with limits on the number of "crossover" skaters (i.e. skaters who appear on both rosters in the same selection period) in accordance with UKRDA rules.
  • Foxton Blocks - Intraleague team. Their name is a reference to Foxton Locks, a popular Leicestershire tourist attraction.
  • Angry Belvoirs - Intraleague team. Their name is a pun on the Leicestershire town of Belvoir (pronounced “beaver”).
  • Undercover Meerkats - Intraleague team. Their name is a pun on the Leicester's famous market.
  • Bout History

    The following is a list of open-door interleague bouts played by the Dolly Rockit Rollers since their inception in 2010.

    Last updated: 25 Jul 2012
    Source: Euroderby.org

    References

    Dolly Rockit Rollers Wikipedia