Canny Belters take another win at British Champs!

Marie Roberts and Ellie Dixon keeping their wall slow and strong, photo by Jason Ruffell
Marie Roberts and Ellie Dixon keeping their wall slow and strong, photo by Jason Ruffell

Newcastle Roller Girls Canny Belters are still at the top of their division, UKRDA tier 2, National North in the British Championships after the second round was played in Leeds on the 28th February.

This was the second game this year that the underestimated Belters had been predicted to lose based on rankings and gone on to win.

Head coach Kerri James said: “We’ve met Hot Wheel twice before while rankings have been in existence, and lost both times. We’re a different team than the last time we met them on track and we were determined to show them why. The effort everyone put into the game in the run up was phenomenal, which really showed and Hot Wheel were never in the lead points wise with NRG dominating.

“We know Hot Wheel are good at coming out in the second half and making a statement, often taking the win but we were determined not to let that happen, and even when they came within 6 points of us at one stage, we kept our cool, and just kept doing what we do best, making their life difficult with super strong walls and we pulled away again to take the win 194-150. We hope that other teams see this is a new more strategic side of Newcastle Roller Girls, which we hope will push us even higher up in the rankings and sees us in a good position for our next game of the champs against Leeds which is likely to be the toughest one for us.”

Co-captain Penny Bizarre makes light footwork of the Hot Wheel squad, photo by Jason Ruffell
Co-captain Penny Bizarre makes light footwork of the Hot Wheel squad, photo by Jason Ruffell

Belters Bench Coach Dark Matter said: “It was a really tough, physical game and was definitely full of emotion as each team wanted to win so badly, but we pushed through to keep our winning streak for 2015 unbroken. They found it hard to counter the walls that we’ve been working on, and we’ll be taking away from the game to stay focused right up until the final whistle to avoid unnecessary penalties.”

The outcome of their game against Hot Wheel sees NRG Canny Belters rise to 8th in the UKRDA rankings (8th best team in the UK out of 42 teams) and rise to 22nd in the European rankings (22nd out of 344 teams).

The awards for the Newcastle squad went to:

  • Best jammer – Sly
  • Best blocker – D’rama Bomb
  • MVP – Missy Pow Pow
  • Spirit of derby award – Kalamity James

Have you noticed our amazing brand new uniforms courtesy of the brilliant Queens of the Sin Bin?QOTSB-web-res