It’s best to get clued up before you attend a sport with such seemingly non-sensical rules, sometimes becoming hard to keep your eyes to the action with around 10 referees and debatable point tallies. Yet you quickly become enamored with the game; all-female team players bringing their intimidatingly aggressive names, ‘Switchblade Jade’, ‘Meg Le Maniac’ and ‘Fightcub’ (naming a few) to life in hip knocks and shoulder shoving dives. Each round being named a bout and lasting for such a short period, the packed-out stadium becomes absorbed by the gripping fast-flowing passion of ducks, dives and tumbles.
It isn’t such a surprise that skaters influenced by D.I.Y. punk ethics and efforts muster such an admiring and supporting fan base. Witnessing a display of teamwork and tactics alongside iconic appearances, a battle won or lost soon becomes a display of camaraderie in a mess of knee pads and fishnets. When the game is over, you realise thst this is much more than a recreational pastime. A lifestyle choice for some who choose to breathe and sweat the sport, having signed the death waiver years ago at their first practice, ‘Fresh Meat’. Sitting by the track is by far the best way to catch the action. If you’re looking for warpaint on wheels here, you’d be in the right place.
4/5 
Celia Philips
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