On Sunday, October 17th, history was made at the very first Men's Derby Coalition Championships thanks to lots of hard work by skaters, referees, non-skating officials (NSOs), and other volunteers. After the 3rd place bout (full write up to come) was deftly refereed by Anne Persand, Lethe L Ejection, Dr. Scratch n Sniff, Bat Fasterson, Mr. Mystery, Phil the Box, and Veronica Ache, a new lineup of skating referees (except Anne Persand who pulled double duty!) came out to call the Championships. Head Referee Miss Trial appeared well-prepared as her team took the floor. It included inside pack referee Anne Persand, Jam Ref Potomac Ripper (fresh from head refereeing NYSE v. CTDQ 7 days prior!), Jam Ref Refsputin, and outside pack referees, Serial Kilter, Limbs Akimbo, and Joy Kill Her.
The first few jams were a fast and furious race between the black and tan teams. Refsputin and Ripper had their work cut out for them as many of jams were close and had quick call-offs. Emotions ran high on the teams and, early on, an official review was called during which both the black and tan teams disputed the number of points and when the jam was called off. Miss Trial firmly calmed concerns and the points called during the jam stood. Ripper stepped up his skills and the skaters started another jam. On point tabulating, Treble Damage [who was filling in for Captain Morgan] and Roxy seemed to make no mistake as Thai Fighter swiftly updated the scoreboard. At the half it was black team
57 points, tan team 42 points. Given the intensity of the bout, numerous penalities were to be expected (Totally
unofficial stats say black team skaters spent 30 minutes in the box and tan team skaters spent 21 minutes). Luckily, Busta Capps, Admiral Mayham, and Sarah L smoothly handled the wrangling of jammers and blockers to the clearly labeled penalty box. In the middle of the track, legendary penalty trackers, Matt Decap, Chairman MEOW, Infinite Justice (who sang a wonderful national anthem to kick the whole night off), and Panzermensch, juggled penalties like workhorses. Rookie official Celtic Thunder, who worked on the outside white board, was wowed by all the hard work on the inside catching and thought it was a great experience! She was backed up by Brook Lynee BasHer aka Brooky Brooky Bang Bang.
To make matters seems even more insurmountable, both teams had a whole bunch of confusing, nearly-conflicting numbers such as 11 & 111 as well as 1993 & 1955. Nonetheless, Pope John Maul and Big Rac Attack were nearly perfect on catching lineups.
At the end of the game, despite some inappropriate illegal procedures by the skaters, all the officials continued to stay professional and did their jobs to their absolute best. As the last jams were whistled to start by Georgia O'Kweefe (
who moonlights as a T-shirt designer), the referees knew they were about to wrap things up as a job well done. They made the calls the best they could and kept the game running without a hitch. In turn, this helped elevate the sport to new levels of respect on this unforgettable evening.
Edit: Updated Point Tracking Officials (Thanks MT!), Added special friends I missed the first time
