Charm City (#4) takes on Gotham (#1)

Photo by Kelli Catana

The Gotham Girls Roller Derby (#1) and Charm City Roller Girls (#4) met on the track on Saturday afternoon where Gotham was Gotham: full of impenetrable walls and wily jammers. Charm didn’t let the limelight get in their eyes and gave Gotham a physical and challenging game.

But it’s hard to win a game when the other team earns lead jammer 70% of the time and knows exactly when to call it. Charm’s jammers frequently found themselves with a point right at their fingertips but the whistles would invariably blow and the jam would end scoreless.

This made every point Charm was able to score a victory until halfway through the first period when Gotham jammer Claire D Way visited the penalty box along with two of her teammates. Charm wasted no time and collected 24 points bringing them to within 28 points of Gotham. Charm’s points came at a price though; blockers in the penalty box.

Throughout the game, Charm spent considerable time in the box compared to Gotham, though they only gave up four jammer penalty minutes while Gotham gave up three. Charm was able to capitalize on two of their power jams though Gotham made quick work of their advantages as well.

In the end, it all came down to Gotham’s precision timing. Their hits were timed well to clear the path for their jammer and even though Gotham frequently had to call it before they scored to prevent Charm from scoring, their jams were called off at the perfect time.

Charm made Gotham fight for every point and there weren’t many passes where Gotham’s jammers went untested.

“Charm City is always a great opponent because they know how to mess with your strategies and they really challenge what you are doing on the track,” said Gotham’s Bonnie Thunders. “It makes your strategies stronger because you have to work harder to accomplish them. It’s always a super, tight and fun game when we play Charm City.”

Gotham Girls Roller Derby (#1) 283
Charm City Roller Girls (#3) 86