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Manhattan Sinks Brooklyn, 121-93

Gotham Girls Roller Derby's fifth anniversary season rolled on with a matchup of the original two GGRD home teams: the Manhattan Mayhem and Brooklyn Bombshells. As a favorite for the GGRD Championship, Manhattan started off the season strong, locking up the rookie-heavy Bombshells by a score of 121-93.

The Bombshells were winless in the 2008 regular season, but eked out a last-jam victory over Montreal Roller Derby's New Skidz on the Block in the post-season doubleheader. The Mayhem's only regular season win in 2008 was over an injury-depleted Brooklyn; in the post-season they dominated Providence Roller Derby's all-star travel team, the Rhode Island Riveters. In 2009, Brooklyn finds themselves in a position similar to that of Manhattan in ‘08; depleted by the retirements of several skaters, including league founder Chassis Crass, they brought 8 rookies and transfers on board. Manhattan is now a team of veterans, having corralled 8 rookies last year, including 2008 Rookie of the Year Em Dash and newly minted All-Star Polly Gone. Fans have declared 2009 Manhattan's year to win it all, and their performance on May 16 reinforced that belief.

The first half started off with Em Dash on the jammer line for Manhattan and Papierschnitt for Brooklyn. Both jammers struggled to get through the pack against strong defenses, but Em Dash finally emerged as the lead jammer. Papierschnitt almost got through first, but couldn’t get past Manhattan blocker Polly Gone, who swooped in for a massive hit just as Schnitt was about to pass, trapping her in the pack. Em Dash took advantage to score a grand slam, starting the Mayhem at 5-0 two minutes into the bout. In the second jam, Fisti Cuffs built two more points into the Manhattan lead, jamming against Barbara Ambush. In jam 3, Em Dash jammed again, this time against Aunti Christ. After a bit of trouble, Christ broke through for Brooklyn’s first lead jammer call and went through one scoring pass before calling the jam with only 1 second left. Long jams seemed to be the order of the day, with nearly a third going for almost the full two minutes.

With the score 11-4 in favor of Manhattan, Polly Gone took the star against Brooklyn’s Carmen Monoxide. Carmen, a former Gotham Girl in 2004 and 2005, returned to GGRD this season after two seasons with the New Jersey Hellrazors. It was a tight race through the pack for both jammers, but Polly Gone won lead jammer by sneaking through on the inside line just barely ahead of Carmen. A major block in the back sent Carmen to the penalty box after scoring four points, and Polly managed to tie her with 4 of her own before calling the jam. In the first power jam of the game, workhorse jammer Em Dash lined up for the Mayhem and took advantage of a full Brooklyn penalty box to score 9 points. With the score 20-5, the Bombshells went scoreless for the next three jams as a strong Manhattan defense shut them down. In a rematch between Polly Gone and Carmen Monoxide in jam 8, Polly slammed into Carmen right off the line, taking her out of bounds, but then committed a major cut while making her way through the pack, leading to a stint in the penalty box. Carmen followed her to the box a few seconds later after a major cut of her own. Being mindful of the jam clock and knowledgeable of the new WFTDA 4.0 rules, she took her time before putting cheek to seat, prolonging Polly’s time in the box and potentially preventing Manhattan scoring by killing precious jam time. 

The Bombshells and Mayhem traded punches for the next couple of jams, with Em Dash pulling out a 4-3 win against the initially-boxed Carmen Monoxide in the next jam, and Brooklyn’s Barbara Ambush winning a 4-0 over Roxy Gibrawltar. Jam 11 saw Em Dash up yet again, this time against Papierschnitt, who endured a massive hit and was tended to by medics on the inside of the track. Meanwhile, Em Dash racked up 20 points against a penalty-depleted Brooklyn lineup. This began a 33-11 run for Manhattan to close out the first half with a lead of 61-29.

The second half began with a matchup of jammers Barbara Ambush and Em Dash. Manhattan continued their momentum from the first half, with lead jammer Em Dash racing through a ragged Brooklyn pack multiple times, scoring 19 points as Ambush faced the intimidating defense of Surly Temple at the back of the pack and Polly Gone holding down the front. Roxy Gibrawltar scored another 4 for Manhattan in the second jam of the half, and the Bombshells’ Papierschnitt proved that getting knocked around in the first half didn’t keep her out of scoring in the second, achieving lead jammer and a 3-3 tie with Em Dash. Polly Gone and Carmen Monoxide paired up at jammer in the fourth jam of the second half, with Polly again going in for the big hit against her opponent right off the line, making Carmen ineligible for lead. Polly wasn’t able to grab lead jammer either, and was on her scoring pass with one point under her belt before being sent to the penalty box on her fourth minor. Carmen took advantage of the situation to score a grand slam and chip away at Manhattan’s 50-point lead. Papierschnitt continued the Bombshell rally in the next jam, obtaining the lead jammer call as Em Dash got held up by a wall formed by Megahurtz and Barbara Ambush. A giant whiff by Megahurtz on an attempted hit allowed Em Dash through, but Papierschnitt scored 4 points and called the jam quickly before Em Dash could come through on a scoring pass. Em Dash repeated her turn as jammer in the next jam against Aunti Christ, but both were held scoreless as Miss American Thighs singlehandedly held up Christ at the front of the pack for a full 45 seconds and Em Dash got the lead jammer whistle just as Christ finally broke free. With Christ right behind her, Em Dash called the jam.

Both teams went back and forth with the lead jammer calls for the next 4 jams, each scoring small wins in quick jams. Barbara Ambush started a run for the Bombshells with a 10-2 jam against Roxy Gibrawltar, with the latter going to the box for a major block in the back. Still in the box to start the next jam, Roxy watched Brooklyn’s OMG WTF (a rookie who originally started with Montreal Roller Derby) slip through the pack as Bombshell Raggedy Animal and Manhattan’s Surly Temple traded massive hits in the back. OMG looped through the pack on 3 scoring passes for 15 points, aided by pivot Hela Skelter, who expertly slammed into Manhattan pivot Fisti Cuffs to clear the way. Surly Temple, after being waved off a full Manhattan penalty box, rejoined the pack and nailed OMG to the ground, leading to OMG calling off the jam. Amidst the action, Roxy Gibrawltar came out of the box and went right back in for an illegal procedure major for rejoining in the middle of the pack.

With the Manhattan lead cut down to 97-68, Barbara Ambush started on the jammer line for the second consecutive Brooklyn power jam, and obtained lead jammer status as Roxy emerged from the box and passed the star to pivot Fisti Cuffs, who had been released from the box seconds earlier. However, this was not a play without controversy. As Fisti started the jam in the box wearing the pivot helmet cover, Manhattan managers Cruel Hand Luke and Leif Sentence failed to notice that she was the pivot of record and sent Mac N Sleaze (formerly Jenna Jamitin of Garden State Rollergirls) out on the track wearing a pivot cover. With two Mayhem pivots when Fisti Cuffs rejoined the action on the track, there were questions about the legality of the star pass and the legitimacy of the 8 points Fisti scored as jammer. After a lengthy official time out, head ref Sugar Daddy ruled that Fisti was the legal pivot and the score stood at 105-74.

Brooklyn’s momentum was stopped in the next two jams as Carmen Monoxide and Barbara Ambush went scoreless against Em Dash and Polly Gone, respectively. Then Em Dash, who had jammed every other jam throughout the game, went to the box on her fourth minor committed during her scoring pass, leaving Manhattan jammerless against Brooklyn’s Aunti Christ. Miss American Thighs repeated her earlier blocking performance against Christ, holding her at the front of the pack all by herself. However, Christ persevered and managed to get through on three scoring passes, bumping Brooklyn’s score up by a healthy 15 points. With more time for a couple of big jams like that, Brooklyn could have caught up, as they had sliced Manhattan’s lead to 20 points, 109-89. But with the plethora of two minute jams, time ran out on Brooklyn. Barbara Ambush went to the box on a major cut jamming against Polly Gone, who took advantage of the situation for 8 unanswered points in a two minute jam. Then Papierschnitt took lead over Em Dash in an extended battle through the pack, leaving time for only 4 points scored for each before the jam clock ran out and the game was finished. Thus, Manhattan took their first win of 2009 over Brooklyn, 121-93. 

Mayhem jammer Em Dash set a GGRD single-game scoring record, scoring 81 of Manhattan’s 121 points in 19 jams. The previous mark was 72 points, held by the Bronx Gridlock’s Bonnie Thunders. The remaining 40 Mayhem points came from Polly Gone (22 points in 8 jams), Fisti Cuffs (12 points in 5.5 jams), and Roxy Gibrawltar (6 points in 4.5 jams). The Bombshells’ top scorer was Barbara Ambush with 34 points in 12 jams. Other Brooklyn jammers were Aunti Christ (19 points in 8 jams), OMG WTF (17 points in 2 jams), Papierschnitt (14 points in 6 jams) and Carmen Monoxide (9 points in 9 jams). MVPs Polly Gone and Barbara Ambush provided blocking power for their teams in addition to effective jamming. Other blockers of note were Hard Anya, Megahurtz, and pivot Hela Skelter for Brooklyn, and Fisti Cuffs, Miss American Thighs, and Surly Temple for Manhattan. 

Next, the Manhattan Mayhem goes up against 2008 GGRD champions the Queens of Pain on June 13. The Brooklyn Bombshells will see action against the Bronx Gridlock on July 11. In the meantime, the 2008 WFTDA National Champion Gotham Girls All-Stars face Carolina June 6 in Raleigh.

Photo by Tom Igoe.