Meet the GRD team: Skellytor

What's your skate name and number?

Skellytor 07

How long have you been playing roller derby?

Since 2016, 6 years now

What's your favourite thing about roller derby?

Not to be too cheesy, but, the friends I have made ❤️

Who is your derby hero, or favourite team?

Mutch Mayhem, what a gal!

What’s your best derby moment?

Finally getting to play my first game in 2019 after falling in love with this sport in 2013, when I was just a little 15 year old.

What do you like to do when you aren't playing derby?

Binge watch Greys Anatomy and cuddle my cat.

Tell us an interesting fact about you.

I have a tattoo of my cat, Loki, wearing my roller derby kit 😺

Meet the GRD team: Hardcore

What’s your skate name and number?

Hardcore #12

How long have you been playing roller derby?

7 years (-2 pandemic years)

What's your favourite thing about roller derby?

How empowering it is.

Who is your derby hero, or favourite team?

Miracle Whips (jammer goals!)

What’s your best derby moment?

Playing in Hamburg with the Bruisers. I never thought I'd ever go abroad to play sport! We came 2nd and the city was amazing to explore.

What do you like to do when you aren't playing derby?

I also play American Football and enjoy running to clear my head.

Tell us an interesting fact about you.

I scored a penalty at Old Trafford in front of over 70,000 people when I was 19.

Introducing... Cara Viola & Cardinal Spin

We’re just one week away from the second edition of Chaos on the Clyde, a two day roller derby tournament featuring four UK teams which will be held at Arc Health & Fitness on 17th & 18th August 2019.

Six years have passed since the inaugural Chaos tournament, so in the spirit of bringing things back, here we are resurrecting our blog to introduce you to our A team captains - Cara Viola and Cardinal Spin - with a wee interview.

Cardinal Spin, leaping the Apex like it’s no big deal…

How did you find roller derby?
Cara: When I was living in Toronto one of my friends suggested that we go watch a match. We had no clue what was going on but we were instantly hooked. After watching a few more games in Toronto I started to figure out the game and signed up to joined GRD when I came home.

Spin: I can’t remember how I heard about it originally - I almost started playing back at the start of 2012 but because of crazy life stuff it didn’t happen and it wasn’t ‘til the start of 2016 that I actually started skating.

Who is your derby hero, or favourite team?
C: Obviously my favourite team is GRD. Outside of this Montreal and Gotham are my other favourites.

S: Hmmm… not sure you want to get me started on this. I’m a big fan of Snowy from Dublin Roller Derby/Team Ireland, Curly Håår from Malmo, Wilhelm from Denver… I love to see smaller jammers slicing up the pack and pinging about. I regularly cheer for all the jammers on track rather than picking sides.

Cara Viola, ready to make the jammer sad

Which game of the tournament are you most excited to watch?
C: I think there will be some great match ups no matter who is playing. As I will be playing the GRD games I won't choose any of those…so I will go for Kent vs Liverpool. Both teams are new to WFTDA but are well established teams so it should be a good one.

S: We’ve played quite a lot against our neighbours ARRD [Auld Reekie Roller Derby] so I’m excited to be able to cheer on their side from the audience this time.

Do you have a derby mantra?
C: Adapt or die. Everything changes so quickly in roller derby that you have to react and change with it.

S: I get super nervous before/during games so I mostly try not to think about it too much to keep my adrenaline down a bit. One of my personal mottos is “find the joy”. I play best if I'm feeling upbeat and positive so sometimes I wander about telling teammates that they’re amazing (and occasionally making them say the same back) so we all get the endorphins flowing.

Share your best derby memory moment.
C: At this point I have been playing for 9 years so it is hard to pick a favourite. Generally though I love the moment when I am able to stop a jammer jumping the apex.

S: I just love playing and scrimming. I love the hundreds of moments and challenges and laughs and little victories on track.

Tickets for Chaos on the Clyde 2 are available to buy online here. Day tickets are sold on a sliding scale from £0-10, weekend tickets are £16, and kids and carers go free.

Skater of the Month: Sarah McMillan #7

Sarah McMillan ready to go on the jam line. Image courtesy of John Hesse.

This month we would like to dedicate our Skater of the Month award to Sarah McMillan #7.

Sarah joined Glasgow Roller Girls in 2008 as a new skater, number x7x. She progressed through the league and showed us how it’s done many times as x7x, before she transitioned to the name we all know and love her under: McMillan #7. Somewhere in that time, we also followed suit and changed our name to Glasgow Roller Derby (always a trendsetter, that woman).

Long term teammate and friend, Lindsay “Haberbashery” Watson, said:

“Even before joining GRD I had the pleasure of skating on track with Sarah. My third game ever was against Glasgow when I skated for Auld Reekie Roller Girls at Roll Britannia and Sarah was not only an amazing opponent, she was also always really nice.

When I transferred to Glasgow I was really nervous but she made me feel so welcome. We have become good pals on and off track and she has always been there for me at difficult times in my life and I am so lucky to count her as a friend.

On track she pushes me as a teammate (GRD and Soy Division), makes sure I never give up but also that I acknowledge my successes.”

Taking a whip, back in the early days of GRG. Image courtesy of Wullie Marr Photography.

Sarah is a wonderful influence both on and off track; perhaps one of our favourite of her achievements outside derby is her daughter Amy who draws the most excellent pictures of her dancing.

Some fabulous artwork, courtesy of Amy.

Sarah has had a massive influence on many skaters, leagues and nations in the roller derby world. We’re pretty sure her modest nature will mean she doesn’t believe us or skims over this bit looking a bit embarrassed, but we’ll continue to tell you just how much impact she’s had in her career.

In 2014 she made the roster for Team Ireland and competed at the Roller Derby World Cup, which involved playing against many of her GRD teammates on Team Scotland! We were extremely proud of her for this achievement, as were Team Ireland themselves:

Team Ireland, ready for the Roller Derby World Cup 2014. Photo by: http://www.roller-derby-on-film.co.uk/

Agony (Ann Prendeville-Burgess) said:

"Being on Team Ireland with Sarah was an absolute pleasure . Sarah has this natural way about her that makes you feel like family. I hadn’t met her before Team Ireland but had heard many positive things about her, which she lived up to. She could see when stress levels were rising and would face them with a smile and a rational word, allowing everyone to feel heard and move on. There’s so many good things I could say about Sarah, it’s safe to say I think she's bleedin' deadly."

Now in 2017 we’re gutted to announce that Sarah is retiring from roller derby; her last game for Glasgow Roller Derby was at the West Track Story tournament in Nantes. We’ve been absolutely unable to put into words how much Sarah has given to us as a league, we will miss her more than any words we can ever write can express.

Sarah: we will miss you, your frank way of speaking and the passion you bring to Glasgow Roller Derby, we hope that you’ll return again one day. Don’t be a stranger.

Love all of us,

Glasgow Roller Derby x

Image courtesy of Tsunami.

#10yearsofgrd // 11 March 2017

Game poster for our 10th Birthday event.

So, we made it! It has officially been ten years since the first time a group of people led by Mistress Malicious and Teri Toxic skated around Kelvingrove Park as Glasgow Roller Girls, and now here we are (via a rebrand and so many other things to celebrate!).

We wanted to celebrate all of the people that have made us who we are today, so we put a call out for everyone's favourite photos and memories of GRD on social media and we got so many great images! Search #10yearsofgrd on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and you will see everything that's been shared with us. These were all collated into a slideshow which was shown on the day, and we're assured that Puma will turn this into a video and set it to music at some point before our anniversary year is up! So keep an eye out for that, it's going to be great.

There was a vicious inflatable banana attack during the day. Photo courtesy of Ali Maddock.

So: thank you everyone. Whether you've been on our A team, never made a team, officiated for us, volunteered at an event, announced a game, spectated, taken photos, provided medical support or did anything at all for us we want you to know how grateful we are <3

Thanks also go out to all our sponsors over the years, but particularly our current sponsors Euro Hostel, 5th Blocker Skates, S1 Helmets and KT Tape. Without their support, we would really struggle to keep doing what we do on roller skates. So, cheers for that!

For the 10th Birthday celebration itself, we decided to get as many people together as we could who are part of this awesome sport and who have been part of our story. We arranged three games: Rising Stars, Co-Ed and Advanced Women.

To see the programme, go here.

The Rising Stars teams. Image courtesy of Ali Maddock.

First up on the schedule were the Rising Stars, two teams made up of skaters from across Scotland with 0-3 games experience. There's clearly a lot of talent up and coming in Scottish roller derby, so don't be complacent if you're already on a team because these guys were great! The game was pretty close most of the way through, but towards the end Team Black pulled ahead.

Final score: Team Black 180 - 119 Team Yellow

Marshall Lawless sneaks past Optimus Grime in the Co-Ed game. Photo courtesy of Ali Maddock.

The Co-Ed teams were keener on a pun than the newbies, choosing the monikers No Pun InTENdid and The Banana Splits. This was a really tight game with multiple lead changes and very little to choose between the teams, as they were both so strong and showed no sign of tiring! Eventually, after quite the battle, No Pun InTENdid won by a narrow margin.

Final score: No Pun InTENdid 97 - 90 The Banana Splits

The Advanced Women's teams, and the inflatable banana, which got a penalty at some point. Photo courtesy of Ali Maddock.

And, last but far from least, were the Advanced Women. Team Yellow took on the Ten-Ah Ladies who not only kept Puma amused with their excellent name as she made up the programme, but also sent in headshots of them aged 10. These were truly gold, and well worth checking the programme out for (see above).

It's unclear if it was the power of the Pun Gods which spurred the Ten-Ah Ladies on to such a dominant performance given that both teams were fairly evenly mixed, but dominant they were and piled on the points while holding Team Yellow under 100 points despite a valiant fightback.

Final score: Ten-Ah Ladies 255 - 58 Team Yellow

L-R: Venus, Sadie, Chris, Siobhan, Sharizard and Lawless with the picture we got for Chris and the one he made for us! Photo courtesy of Ali Maddock; artwork for Chris by Nuclaire Art.

And as if that wasn't enough awesomeness for one day, we also got a gift for our most loyal fan, Chris. Don't get us wrong, we love all our fans but Chris does have a bit of a special place in our hearts. He is there for us just about every game and draws us wonderful portraits of our skaters so we reciprocated with a portrait of Chris done by Nuclaire Art.

And to round off the day, we had a lovely free skate with music and pals. We had a lovely time and we hope everyone who came along did too.

In the run-up to the event, we were featured in The National and on Commonspace.

And if you're ready for more roller derby, check out our Events Page for what's next in the GRD journey! We also designed some special edition merch for the event which was available on the day, and will be up on the website soooooooon!