We’ve come a long way baby!

Roller derby is flourishing in the UK, with new leagues popping up all the time. This is particularly true in Scotland, where roller derby fever had swept the nation – with leagues large and small travelling the globe to represent Scottish derby.

FCR's Detroit jamming (left) against DRG's Psychomilly (right)

The Fair City Rollers are one of the smaller Scottish leagues, formed in November 2009 when roller derby was still a fairly new phenomenon. FCR were the fifth league in the country to be formed, and since then there has been the inception of 3 new leagues with rumblings of more to come.

The Fair City Rollers skate in Perth; a town and former city in central Scotland. Perth has been known as ‘The Fair City’ since the publication of the story Fair Maid of Perth, by the Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott… Exciting roots!

However representing a smaller and fairly rural area comes with its problems, and when the league first started skating they couldn’t find anywhere to practice at all. Thankfully a neighbouring league, the fantastic Dundee Roller Girls, were kind enough to share their training and this began the start of a beautiful relationship between the two teams.

After a few months, the team found a small church hall in the middle of nowhere that could barely fit half the skaters in! However they worked their asses off with the space they had. After training themselves for a few months with no experience, the Auld Reekie Roller Girls lent a hand with coaching, putting the girls through their paces and helping them through minimum skills and game play.

8 weeks later, on 4th Sept 2010, the league played their first bout against Edinburgh’s formidable Cannon Belles. And a few months after that, the league secured a space to host their first home bout against Dundee Roller Girls on 13th Nov 2010.

FCR's Pistol Panties (left)

Since those humble beginnings, the Fair City Rollers have bouted 6 times in total. Only 3 original members of the Fear Maidens, the travel team, still skate with the league – and already in the short time since their inception, the Fair City Rollers have made an impression on European roller derby. They have guest skated for Manchester Roller Derby; skated in a European mixed UK/Malmo bout in Sweden; and attended many open scrimmages and bootcamps throughout the UK.

The great thing about roller derby is that with a little help from your friends, you can accomplish anything – and Fair City Rollers are a fantastic example of this! A small league that has made a huge journey and become awesome through the sheer hard work, patience, dedication and absolute love of a sport which has become a lifestyle for its members.

Words by Knock-turnal