Derby Dolls win Battle on the Bank III

By Will Parson

Contributor

San Diego wins back-to-back tourney titles

The San Diego Derby Dolls continued their domination of the national roller derby scene, skating to victory over Team Legit, from the Northwest, in the final bout of the three-day Battle on the Bank III tournament on Sunday.

A trophy standing taller than some of the San Diego skaters marked their second consecutive title in the tournament held over the weekend in conjunction with the International Beer Festival at the San Diego County Fair.

San Diego Derby Dolls league founder and jammer Bonnie D. Stroir led her team with 36 points in the final bout. Jammers Kung Pow Tina and Kiki Diazz added 35 and 34 points respectively to demonstrate San Diego’s deep well of roller derby talent — SDDD had two teams in the eight-team tournament.

In the championship bout, San Diego took an early lead over Team Legit, who fought hard enough to outscore San Diego by 30 points in the second half. But the rally was not enough to close the gap and the final score had San Diego winning 121-94. Team Legit’s last-minute surge led to a narrower victory than in San Diego’s quarterfinal and semi-final blowouts, in which they beat the Tilted Thunder Rail Birds 187-14 and the Lonestar Rollergirls of Austin, Texas, 145-47 respectively.

San Diego skater Lt. Redrum offered some insight into how the San Diego team stayed focused in their narrowest victory of the tournament. “I always play like I’m losing. Legit’s a really good team ... so you never know.”

San Diego narrowly avoided facing its rival Los Angeles Derby Dolls in the final. Los Angeles was leading Team Legit 65-62 with a minute to go in its semifinal bout on Saturday. Team Legit then scored four points in the last jam of the bout, clinching the win by one point. Los Angeles went on to beat the Lonestar Rollergirls, taking third place to add to last year’s second place finish behind San Diego.