When last we saw Worcester Roller Derby, they were recovering from a
hard-fought loss to Rock Coast at the All 8 on the Floor Tournament in
August. This past weekend, they came down to Connecticut to see how both
their A and B teams would do against HARD. We were only able to catch
the A teams (Wailers vs. Warriors), but we understand the B teams
(Bedrockers vs. Warheads) played a very similar game.
For the
first 15 minutes or so, it was a close game. Hartford drew first blood,
but only just, in a 10-9 jam. Worcester took the lead and held it for a
few jams, keeping a two-point buffer while scoring in every jam.
Hartford snatched the lead back momentarily, but then gave Worcester a
power jam, which put the score at 38-51 about ten minutes in. That was
when Hartford found the right gear. They used an 18-1 power jam to put
themselves back in the lead, and spent the rest of the game turning a
4-point lead into a 152-point win.
Worcester got lead jammer in
only 7 of the 40 jams (39 if you don't count a double false start that
sent both jammers to the box), and gave up eight power jams to
Hartford's three. Hartford excelled at keeping Worcester's jammers stuck
in the pack, and at finding holes for their own jammers to fly though.
In the end the Wailers walked away with a 277-125 win over the Warriors.
There
were a couple of technical issues with this game (resulting in 6
official time outs in the second half), but we're happy to report that
HARD is growing into an impressive and competent league very quickly.
There's marked improvement over where they were two months ago, and we
hope to see even more from them as they finish up their first official
bouting season next month.
Name of the Bout: Bench Coach Bloodbath And Beyond (HARD)