After a temporary closure caused by COVID restrictions, the Rum City Derby Dolls are returning to the rink next Tuesday, 21 July.
President of the Rum City Derby Dolls, Sharon Golding said that training and competition was originally cancelled in March because of COVID restrictions.
“We were actually organising an annual fundraising event in Bundaberg,” she said.
“We had four teams from all over Queensland, a team from NSW, and also our first junior derby bout to be hosted in Bundaberg. Teams from Mackay to Tweed Valley were coming to play to raise money for the firies. We had just put out an expression of interest call for teams, when we had to sadly make the decision to cancel the event.”
“Being a contact sport, our training sessions which were once a week with Gladstone and Hervey Bay, they all had to stop.”
While the competitive nature of roller derby may have been put on hold, the Derby Dolls still came up with ways to keep up their skating skills and retain increased interest in the activity.
Those ideas included social skating at the Neilson Park Skating rink, which has now borne a weekly roller disco event.
Sharon hoped many of the people who had joined in on the fun of social skating may be interested in joining the Derby Dolls, which welcomes both males and females.
“It all started with the Rum City Derby Dolls hanging out at Bargara's old skating rink on Saturdays, spurred on by the Bundaberg Now post of the old skating rink days,” she said.
“We also found it was a great way to maintain our skills, while also adhering to social distancing rules, but whenever we skated, we found people loved it, and more and more people came.”
Sharon told Bundaberg Now that the team and new members were keen to return to regular training, but it was unlikely that competition would return soon.
For anyone interested in joining, training sessions will cover most of the basics as well as building on skills for those at various skating levels.
“For the first few weeks, because of the restrictions, we’ll really be focusing on the new members and any new skaters joining, so basically we'll be going through some skill building techniques and how to skate better,” Sharon said.
“That sort of training means we can stay in-line with COVID restrictions and do non-contact training.”
Training takes place every Tuesday from 6:30pm at Shalom College. Those interested can contact Rum City Derby Dolls on Facebook.
- Related news: Roller disco returns to Bargara
