Sheffield Steel Roller Derby (SSRD) is a flat track

roller derby Roller derby is a roller skating contact sport played by two teams of fifteen members. Roller derby is played by approximately 1,250 amateur leagues worldwide, mostly in the United States. Game play consists of a series of short scrimmages (jam ...

league based in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire ...

South Yorkshire South Yorkshire is a ceremonial and metropolitan county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. The county has four council areas which are the cities of Doncaster and Sheffield as well as the boroughs of Barnsley and Rotherham. ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. Founded in August 2008, SSRD are a member of both the

United Kingdom Roller Derby Association The United Kingdom Roller Derby Association (UKRDA) is the National Association for roller derby Roller derby is a roller skating contact sport played by two teams of fifteen members. Roller derby is played by approximately 1,250 amateur leagu ...

(UKRDA) and the

Women's Flat Track Derby Association The Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA) is the international governing body for the sport of women's flat track roller derby, and association of leagues around the world. The organization was founded in April 2004 as the United Leagues Co ...

(WFTDA).

League Structure

The league has over 70 members making up two competitive teams, the All Stars (A) and the Crucibelles (B). A number of skaters also train as a non-competitive, recreational group called the Molten Mavens. Since 2016, the league run a

junior roller derby Junior roller derby is the sport of roller derby, modified for children and adolescents up to 18 years of age. The sport is played in both modified-contact, known as "positional blocking," and full-contact approaches, to facilitate safety across m ...

team, the Sheffield Steel Junior Rollers. Members of the team include students, teachers, engineers and other professionals, ranging in age from late teens to mid-forties and beyond. Sheffield Steel Roller Derby practice three times a week with extra sessions outdoors during the summer. The league is a skater-run organisation, managed by a committee of elected officers who head up sub-committees in areas such as training, media, merchandise, sponsorship and events. Officers are re-elected annually, as are the league Captain and Vice Captain.

History and organisation

Pauline Chalmers (

derby name A derby name, roller derby name or skater name is a nickname used by a skater while playing or officiating roller derby. Derby names can be seen as an opportunity to adopt an alternative on-track persona. Many derby names are puns, and in some c ...

Jane Doe-a-Go-Go) established the league as Sheffield Steel Rollergirls in August 2008, after moving to the city to meet new friends and gain new experiences. After discovering roller derby online and finding that there was no team in Sheffield, she created a Myspace profile to find interested locals. In March 2010, the league received a £700 grant from the ''

Sheffield Telegraph The ''Sheffield Telegraph'' is a weekly newspaper published in Sheffield, England. Founded in 1855 as the ''Sheffield Daily Telegraph'', it became known as the ''Sheffield Telegraph'' in 1938. History The ''Sheffield Telegraph'' was founded i ...

'' as part of the South Yorkshire Community Foundation's Grassroots Grants programme designed to fund worthwhile projects in Sheffield. This allowed the league to organise their first home bout at

Ponds Forge International Sports Centre Ponds Forge International Sports Centre is a leisure complex in Sheffield, England, that contains an Olympic-sized swimming pool with seating for 2,600 spectators, family and children's pools (50 m Competition pool and 25 m diving p ...

in July 2010. On 3 September 2011 the league's B team, the Crucibelles, debuted against Newcastle Roller Girls' B team, the Whippin' Hinnies. This was a double header that also saw the All Stars play Newcastle's A Team, the Canny Belters. Sheffield Steel Rollergirls entered the

WFTDA Apprentice Program The Women's Flat Track Derby Association Apprentice is the program affiliate of the Women's Flat Track Derby Association (WFTDA). In operation from 2009 until early 2019, the Apprentice Program served to onboard new member leagues into the WFTDA. ...

in July 2012,WFTDA Accepts 35 Apprentice Leagues
, WFTDA, 16 July 2012 and became full members of the WFTDA in June 2013.WFTDA Welcomes First Full Member Leagues in Asia and South America
, 6 June 2013 In January 2019, the league changed its name to Sheffield Steel Roller Derby as a move to reflect the inclusive nature of the league and the sport as a whole.

National Team Representation

At the

2014 Roller Derby World Cup The 2014 Roller Derby World Cup is an international women's roller derby tournament organized by ''Blood & Thunder'' magazine. Teams of amateur skaters from six continents compete for their respective nations. The 2014 Roller Derby World Cup is ...

, Holly Hotrod (17) was part of the Team England training squad while Glenys the Menace was on the

Team Wales Roller Derby A team is a group of individuals (human or non-human) working together to achieve their goal. As defined by Professor Leigh Thompson of the Kellogg School of Management, " team is a group of people who are interdependent with respect to infor ...

squad. Erica Mitchell-Packington (She-Rarr, 242) was part of the West Indies Roller Derby squad the same year, and on their management team for the

2018 Roller Derby World Cup The 2018 Roller Derby World Cup was the third international women's Roller Derby World Cup, taking place on February 1–4 at EventCity, in Manchester, United Kingdom, with 38 teams competing. An international roller derby tournament, it was orga ...

. Her Sheffield teammate, Madge Juicer (5), was on the

West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...

squad in 2018 and Tom Pritchard was bench coach for the West Indies Roller Derby squad at both the 2014 and 2018 Roller Derby World Cups. The league's Athanasia Carghiaur (Athas' Sin, 11) was in the

Romania Roller Derby Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Moldova to the east, and ...

squad for the 2018 Roller Derby World Cup.

WFTDA rankings

*Please note that rankings were suspended in March 2020 in light of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. * ''NR = no ranking assigned in this release''

Early games

Sheffield Steel Rollergirls vs Nothing Toulouse - 2014-03-29 - 8819

¹ ''Results from Sheffield Steel Rollergirls' view''

In the media

Sheffield Steel Roller Derby have been featured in the

, and the ''

Sheffield Star ''The Star'', often known as the ''Sheffield Star'', is a daily newspaper published in Sheffield, England, from Monday to Saturday each week. Originally a broadsheet, the newspaper became a tabloid in 1993. ''The Star'', the weekly ''Sheffield ...

''. The SmashDance event was also mentioned in Exposed Magazine. Sheffield Steel Rollergirls appeared on

ITV1 ITV1 (formerly known as ITV) is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the British media company ITV plc. It provides the Channel 3 public broadcast service across all of the United Kingdom except for t ...

's '' ITV Calendar'' on 22 April 2010. They have also had a number of appearances on

BBC Radio Sheffield BBC Radio Sheffield is the BBC's local radio station serving South Yorkshire and north Derbyshire. It broadcasts on FM, DAB, digital television and via BBC Sounds from studios on Shoreham Street in Sheffield. According to RAJAR, the statio ...

. On 10 November 2010, the team featured on

BBC Online BBC Online, formerly known as BBCi, is the BBC's online service. It is a large network of websites including such high-profile sites as BBC News and Sport, the on-demand video and radio services branded BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds, the childr ...

. On 4 December 2010, the team featured on

BBC2 BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream a ...

Sportsround ''Sportsround'' is a weekly spin-off from CBBC children's news programme ''Newsround''. The sports magazine show was broadcast between 2005 and 2010, on Friday evenings at 6:30pm on CBBC Channel and on Saturday mornings on BBC Two at 7.25am. '' ...

(repeated on

CBBC CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 7–16 ...

on 5 December 2010) as part of an "Alternative Sports Special". Erica Mitchell-Packington (derby name She-Rarr) featured in the documentary film On the Road to Dallas, which explores the lives and preparations of a group of roller derby players as they get ready for the

Roller Derby World Cup The Roller Derby World Cup is an international women's roller derby tournament formerly organized by ''Blood & Thunder magazine'', and currently organized by the Roller Derby World Cup Committee. Teams of amateur skaters from around the world c ...

In the community

On 9 April 2010, Sheffield Steel Rollergirls took part in the

Showroom Cinema The Showroom Cinema is an independent cinema, café bar and creative workspace contributing to the culture in Sheffield, England. In 2002, the cinema was voted the favourite independent cinema of ''Guardian'' readers. In November 2007, Showr ...

's premiere of '' Whip It''. Ten members of the league completed the

Goodwood Roller Marathon Goodwood Roller Marathon was an annual charity race around the historic Goodwood Motor Circuit organised by thCamberley Skaters The event officially raised money for the NSPCC anYoung Epilepsy(formerly the NCYPE) with many participants also rai ...

in August 2010, raising over £1,200 for the Sheffield Children's Hospital. A group of skaters from the team completed the 2011 Goodwood Marathon for the

NSPCC The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) is a British child protection charity. History Victorian era On a trip to New York in 1881, Liverpudlian businessman Thomas Agnew was inspired by a visit to the New Yor ...

and the

Bluebell Wood Children's Hospice Bluebell Wood Children's Hospice is a children's hospice run as registered charity offering palliative care and support to families who have a child or young person with a shortened life expectancy and complex medical needs. Bluebell Wood provide ...

in Sheffield. More recent charity events have concentrated on raising awareness and donations for The Homeless Period.

References

External links

Sheffield Steel Rollergirls Bout Photos

A Team results on Flat Track Stats

Crucibelles results on Flat Track Stats
{{WFTDA Division 3 Roller derby in England Roller derby leagues in the United Kingdom Women's sports teams in England Roller derby leagues established in 2008 Sports teams and clubs in Sheffield Women's Flat Track Derby Association Division 3 2008 establishments in England