It’s only a few days until we host the final T1 British Championships game for this year – and we are EXCITED!

On Saturday 7 July, LRB’s A team will be taking to the track against Central City Roller Girls and Glasgow Roller Derby will also be playing CCR, in what is bound to be a hot and sweaty double-header. (Get all the game-day info on Facebook here.)

But there are big questions hanging in the air.

Who has to win which games in order to come out on top? How have the Birds been prepping for the game? What is in store for us all at the chocolate tombola?!

We’ve been number crunching with our very own Statto (Bobby Mean) to get some pre-game analysis and chatting to team captain, Becky Ruckus, to find out more.

In it to win it

This is the state of play as we find it:

• – LRB currently has 2 Champs points and CCR have 1, with Glasgow yet to achieve a point.
• – If CCR beat Glasgow, they will have 2 champs points and LRB’s game with CCR will be the decider.
• – If Glasgow beat CCR then CCR would need to beat LRB, meaning CCR and LRB would both have 2 Champs points and it would come down to a points differential to decide the winner.

Either way, for LRB to win Tier 1, the team need to win against CCR. 

So, Ruckus, how is the team feeling about this final Champs game?

We’re feeling very confident about our game on Saturday. We’ve used our training time wisely and have covered the main areas we needed work on in order to put forward our best game against CCR. We’ve discussed the whys and what ifs as a team during training to get the best understanding of us, our opponents and how best to play.

The team has had a succesful season so far – what do you think has brought about this success?

We’re more than happy with the two wins so far. Last season was great for us too, but towards the end of the season we felt like we should have come away with better results. We’ve worked on fine-tuning everything, especially really paying attention to the pack to manipulate it as much as we can to our advantage. We’ve been focusing more on new skills to suit a higher level of play.

More than anything though – everyone has been working their arses off to get better on and off track. The burners have really been switched on this season and we all want it!

Our league reaches its 9th birthday in November and we’ve steadily improved throughout the years against the odds of venue losses, comings and goings, injuries and lots of time off to make beautiful babies.

We can still improve during these times of adjustments because our league is incredibly supportive. People love being here and our team is strong right through.

It’s game day: as captain, what will you be saying to the team?

We have done what we can at this point. Our game is there, we just need to play it. Our bodies have done the work – we just need to switch off and stay as calm and controlled as we have done so far. With collective clean, strong and positive intentions we can’t finish the day disappointed!