In a town where Gator games dictate wedding plans and entire wardrobes are based on the orange and blue, it was fitting that the Gainesville Roller Rebels would pit orange—the Swamp City Sirens—against blue—the Millhopper Devils—in GRR’s intra-league bout Sept. 24, 2011.

The bout was GRR’s first public, intra-league bout in a few years and despite some overlap with a Gators football game airing during the bout, the turnout was good as Gainesville showed up to support its derby team. The bout was Gainesville’s second in two weeks, coming off of a 146-86 loss against Gold Coast Derby Grrls on Sept. 16 in Coral Gables. Some familiar faces from Gold Coast — Lucy Liunatic, Spontaneous Combustya, Tsunami Tsue, Baller Shot Caller, Jess Business, Shred-Her, and Tackle Me Elmo — made the drive up from South Florida to fill out the Gainesville rosters for the intra-league bout.

Krispy Kreme-Her (#0) got the first lead jam of the night for the Blue team and scored five points before Orange jammer LeBrawn Maimes (#23) could rack up any points. After earning 13 points in the first four jams and edging out an early 8-point lead over Blue, Orange made a comeback and managed to tie things up at 17-17 after four consecutive lead jams. Orange took over the lead spot with a 25-20 score thanks to a grand slam by LeBrawn. The lead was short-lived, however, as Blue’s Suzie Bonebreaker’s (#13) grand slam tied the score again at 25-25. Krispy Kreme-Her was the next jammer up for Blue and was able to score 13 points thanks to the superb blocking of Demonomia (#138), Marty Maraschino (#507), Tackle Me Elmo (#96), and Jess Business (#49), who kept powerful Orange jammer Spontaneous Combustya (#800) at bay. Blue team’s Suzie Bonebreaker and Baller Shot Caller (#143) continued to hold Orange back for the next two jams, with Suzie scoring four points and Baller getting a triple grand slam while Orange jammer LeBrawn was in the penalty box.

Blue went into the next jam with a 25-57 lead, but Orange’s Spontaneous Combustya was able to narrow the gap to 44-57 with all of the Blue team in the penalty box at some point during the jam. The score stayed close going into the last jam of the first half, and while Blue remained in the lead, Orange had closed the gap to just 9 points. But that last jam proved fruitful for Blue, with Suzie Bonebreaker adding 20 points to Blue’s lead while Orange struggled with players in the sin bin. At the end of the first half, Blue led 50-79, with Suzie heading to the penalty box at the end of her quadruple grand slam.

Despite starting with a jammer in the box, Blue still outscored Orange in the first jam of the second half, with Suzie Bonebreaker racking up 8 points. Orange jammer LeBrawn earned 5 points and a trip to the penalty box for a major cutting the track. LeBrawn turned the tables during the next jam, managing to earn lead jammer status after coming out of the box and scoring 10 points with Blue jammer Eh-Nihilator (#49th Parallel) adding 2 points to Blue’s lead. Blue held on to lead jammer status for the next four jams, though, and were 75-108 with Suzie looking to have lead jammer status locked in for the fifth consecutive jam. A major track cutting penalty, thanks to a hit by Orange blocker Atomic Mel-Down (#U-235), sent Suzie to the penalty box. Orange jammer Lucy Liunatic (#88) quickly took lead jammer status and scored 15 points, edging in on Blue at 90-108. The closest Orange got to overcoming Blue’s lead happened after another jam with Lucy in lead jammer status, leaving the score 121-128. After that there were just seven more jams in the bout, with each team getting about the same number of lead jams. Blue held Orange at 127 points for four jams while adding on 7 points, bringing the score going into the final jam 127-142, with Blue in the lead. With a few seconds left on the clock, Orange still had a shot, and Orange jammer Spontaneous Combustya quickly got lead jammer but could only score 4 points before the jam was called off due to an injury. With a final score of 131-142, it was a close game but in the end GRR won either way! MVP Jammer for Blue was Krispy Kreme-Her and for Orange Lucy Liunatic. MVP Blocker for Blue was Baller Shot Caller and for Orange Atomic Mel-Down.