FIRST EVER BOUT!!

Last night we held our first ever bout! I can't quite get over the excitement of it all - both intraleague teams (more info when we debut in February!) were down on numbers and we had to cut it short by 15 minutes as our hall booking wasn't quite long enough, but it was still a bout!

I think the other team won by a handful of points and we finished on sixty-something to fifty-something. Somehow I managed not to get anywhere near as battered as I do in scrimmage, but I think I was probably the only one. It was totally different to scrimmage though, there was a totally different atmosphere and everyone was so focused. The refs (all SEVEN of them! That's like, a whole set of refs!) made calls confidently and loudly, called time-outs when there were problems and generally did an awesome job of keeping us in line. My old mucker and now the Rt. Honorable Head Ref, Chaz Tizer was very diplomatic and is going to be a derby ref to own all derby refs (yeah, even Ballistic Whistle). The NSOs were really well organised even though some of them had never even seen us train before, and head NSO Clutsy Springfield had managed to source a fantastic totally pro-looking computer scoreboard and projector for us! Also my jamming is coming along rather nicely, and I dished out some rather tasty shoulder checks.

I'm a bit sad (still, yeah I know, stop whinging) that I won't be skating in January's bout but I'm immensely excited about it now regardless. The Brawlers have a lot in store for them and I'm so lucky to be part of it.

And Another!

WAAAAAAAHOOOOOO!!! Tiger Bay Brawlers' first public bout will be on 15th January 2011 in our own fair city of Cardiff! Well, Penarth but it's not far away. It's so very exciting.

Sadly for me, I won't be on the travel team as I'm having laser eye surgery on 15th December and have to have a month off skating. There's no way I'd be able to get up to bout standard between now and December but I guess I'll get reading up on my NSO stuff instead!

The team are psyched for it too, but I think it's gonna hit home soon that this shit is real now, we're not just playing at it anymore and we are going to have to do it in front of people who have paid money to watch us. I'm so excited to find out who's going to be on the travel team!