Giving VIENNA a WHIRL – The ROCKERS hit AUSTRIA this WEEKEND!

The mighty Brighton Rockers are off to sunny Austria this weekend as they take on Vienna Roller Derby’s A and B-teams at the capital’s HAKOAH Sports Centre. If you’re going to be in the area, or you fancy a last minute trip across (you can still get flights from Gatwick for around £100 return), doors open at 2.30pm local time this Saturday 13th October. Tickets are 14 euro and free for under-12s. The A-team game is at 3pm with the B-team match at 5.30pm. The meat in this derby sandwich is a 4.50pm show from the awesomes Vienna Fearleaders – the most famous interval entertainment in the whole of world roller derby!

PREDICTIONS AND THAT
[Skip to after the next photo if you don’t like to read predictions before a game.] Both Saturday’s games are rematches from a double header that took place in Haywards Heath in February of last year. Vienna emerged triumphant in both games that time, winning 262-126 and 242-107 respectively in the A/B games. Flattrackstats expects something similar in the B-team rematch, with Vienna Beasts (134th in Europe) given 94% chance of defeating 342nd placed Brighton Rockerbillies. Expected differential of 59:22 works out as something like a 236-88 home win.

Things are more complicated when it comes to predicting the A-team game. Vienna place 52nd in Europe with the Rockers 74th. The hosts are given 73% chance of victory with a 46:33 differential. That mathses out at around 184-132 to Vienna. However, if you switch to the WFTDA ranking system (and this is a WFTDA sanctioned match-up) then Brighton rank slightly higher, 272nd to Vienna’s 276th. Home advantage still swings the prediction the Austrians’ way, but here they only have 58% chance of victory and a super narrow 35:32 predicted differential. That would suggest maybe a 175-160 result, which is ‘anything could happen’ territory in the world of roller derby!

SHAMBOLIC – BRIGHTON ROCKERS ROLLER DERBY

Any thoughts about this weekend’s trip to Vienna? What are the best and worst bits of travelling overseas as a league?
I am SO excited about this trip. There are about 25 of us going, with an awesome travel theme, of course. The worst aspect is the 4am departure from Brighton, closely followed by a certain orange airline’s baggage restrictions. I will be wearing my helmet all the way. I’ll let you know the best bits when we get back.

The Rockers played Vienna here in Sussex early last year. The Austrian league’s A and B-teams both beat you by a fair margin. What are you expecting from the rematches?
We’re fully prepared for a tough game, but I feel that the A-team are stronger and smarter than last year, and we’ve been training hard for this. The B-team is a very different team from those that played last year so it will be interesting to watch. Results wise, I honestly don’t know. As long as we play the best game we can, that’s the main thing.

Any particular Vienna players or tactics you’ll be looking out for on track?
I can’t remember what I had for dinner yesterday so individual players are a blur; however as a team Vienna are a horrible combination of both strong and fast, which is my nightmare from opponents – urgh. We’ll be looking out for their Vienna Fearleaders cheerleading squad, for sure!

And any particular Brighton players that people should look out for on Saturday?
My team are all superstars in my eyes! Though I had to jam against my own line-up this week, and I’m glad I don’t have to at the weekend.

Any off-track plans for the weekend?
Oh my, I cannot wait to see the after party outfits. They’re gonna be something else for sure! We’ve got a couple of days to have an explore of Vienna. I’ll be eating mostly. Semmels and Sachertorte, mmmm….

Finally, you recently announced a home event at Haywards Heath on December 1st. The A-team are sitting this one out, but the B-team and brand new C-team are in action.
I think that event is going to be a biggie. The C-team have been training so hard and finally their friends and family get to come and see what all the fuss is about! The A-team are focusing on bringing up some fantastic new players from the B-team, so we’ve decided to hang back on a home game this time, but we will of course be cheering on the other Rockers teams from the crowd.

[Photos by John Hesse]

LINKS
FB EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/events/289159498579940/
VIENNA RD: http://www.viennarollerderby.org/
ROCKERS: https://www.brightonrockers.com/

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Turn Left Issue 19 Now Online

The biggest Dolphin crowd in quite a while saw the Brighton Rockers A-team and B-team both suffering defeat at the wheels of a very impressive Vienna Roller Derby. The big crowd means we only have a couple of spare physical copies of our fanzine, which are headed for the flyers shelf in the Evening Star pub. Please note: The Star is currently closed for a refurb, our magazines will be in there shortly after it reopens on Monday week (13th). If you can’t wait (or get to Brighton) then just click on the cover image above to be propelled towards the online version of the mag. Inside you’ll find our biggest interview ever (with Shambolic and Finn McCruel), Rockers Head Ref LaserHammer on the recent changes to the rules, a preview of the upcoming away games in Porstmouth, and much more. Special thanks to all our lovely interviewees, photographers and awesomes advertisers including http://www.meadowyurts.co.uk/ http://www.turnleftderby.com/ and http://www.portsmouthrollerwenches.com/ Yay!

WHO Will RULE Under The NEW Rules… As VIENNA Waltz Into BRIGHTON?

The mighty Brighton Rockers have their first home event of 2017 this Saturday 4th March at the Dolphin in Haywards Heath. Both the A-team and B-team will be action against their equivalents from Vienna Roller Derby. Tickets priced £10 adults, £8 students and free for Under 12s are available from the link at the bottom of this piece or on the door. There’s also a special online only deal of four adult tickets for the price of three, so round up some chums for a bargain price. Doors are at 2pm. If things follow the usual format of Rockers double headers we expect the A-team game first at around 2.30, followed by the B-team match at 4.30-ish.

If you’re one of the many who caught the Rockers in action for the first time at December’s exhibition game at the Corn Exchange, the venue in Haywards Heath is actually pretty easy to get to from Brighton. Drivers should point their Sat Navs at RH16 1LY – there’s parking at the leisure centre. A train from Brighton to Haywards Heath takes around fifteen minutes (£4.55 return with railcard) and the leisure centre is seven minutes walk west of the station. There’s a reasonable pub by the station (Burrell Arms) and a big Sainsbury’s on the way to the venue. There are ATMs at the station and Sainsbury’s but none at the leisure centre itself, so bring some cash for the bar and merch stands. Rail users from west of Brighton should note that the trainline between Brighton and Littlehampton is completely closed on Saturday, so allow a little extra time for a rail replacement bus to Brighton.

[Skip this paragraph if you don’t like to know predictions ahead of a game.] Brighton’s A-team didn’t have the best of starts to the year, going down to three heavy defeats in a tournament in Normandy at the tail-end of January. That has hit their ranking and is reflected in the Flattrackstats predictions. Vienna are rated 82nd in Europe on 565.5 points, whilst the Rockers place 113th on 536.2. The visitors are given 66% chance of victory, with an expected differential of 46:37 working out at something like a 184-148 away win. Vienna’s B-team place 252nd (472.4 pts) with the Rockerbillies 317th (449.5). The Vienna Beasts are given a 62% victory chance here, with an expected differential of 7:6 equating to something like a 175-150 win for Vienna B. It’s worth noting that Brighton are fielding full size squads (fourteen players) in both games, and we’re expecting them to fare far better than these predictions suggest.

This will be both leagues’ first open door games under the new WFTDA ruleset. The world governing body introduced no fewer than thirty rule changes two weeks ago, the biggest changes to the rules in around three years. See if you can spot what’s different on track. Or better still, pick up your free copy of our magazine ‘Turn Left’ on the door. Inside Rockers Head Ref LaserHammer talks us through the rules changes, whilst Finn McCruel and Shambolic look back on the last three months of games. The mag has full previews of not just Saturday’s games v the Austrian capital, but also the away trip to Portsmouth later in the month (Sat 25th) and much more. Enough blatant plugs for our tawdry zine, let’s hear from both leagues involved this Saturday…

“We’re going into the A-team game with a full roster and in theory, if we can do our magic, we can get all of our ranking back. We dropped down a lot because of results in Caen, but a good win over Vienna will put us back up there. So yeah, I’m hoping we beat them by a hundred points to get our old ranking back!”
SHAMBOLIC, BRIGHTON ROCKERS

“For the sake of harmony I would hope that both leagues win one game each. But as bench coach I really hope that Vienna Roller Derby wins both games. I leave the predicting to Flattrackstats and whatever they say is not written in stone either. It’s roller derby, so anything can happen!”
VENOM IN FURS, VIENNA ROLLER DERBY

[Photo by John Hesse]

LINKS
TICKETS: http://www.brightonrockers.com/shop
FB EVENT: https://www.facebook.com/events/1249739501774598/
ROCKERS: http://www.brightonrockers.com/
VIENNA RD: http://www.viennarollerderby.org/