I'm sure I wasn't the only one at Saturday's bout who was a little shocked to hear that Blood Clottia had received a major penalty for "slapping" Heathers skater (and Wheels of Justice team mate) Mick U Cry in the face. And I certainly didn't remember Blood slapping Mick in the face and couldn't imagine Blood doing that.
What had apparently happened was that Mick knocked Blood down with a forearm, and as Blood fell, her arms flew up, and one of her hands landed in Mick's face. (Which is, admittedly, less exciting.)
Former GnR and current RCR referee Itzo EZ explained that under the WFTDA rules (section 6.3, I think), any contact between one skater's hand or forearm and another skater anywhere above her shoulders is a major penalty (for the skater with the hand or forearm, of course).
Also, a skater isn't absolved from penalties herself after she's been fouled: just like it's the skater's responsibility to "fall small" to avoid tripping or obstructing other skaters, it was Blood's responsibility to keep her hands away from Mick's head.
So because Blood's hand made contact with Mick's face, she picked up a major. And that makes much more sense than the idea of Blood smacking Mick for knocking her down, which is what it sounded like to me when the penalty was explained at the bout.
Thanks to GnR-for-life EZ for the explanation, though I'm still disappointed that I haven't seen her throwing some calls for GnR, and I'd like my twenty bucks back.
\m/ \m/
[Post edited 04-16-2010 because Itzo EZ is an excellent official and wanted to make sure that it was clear that she was only explaining the rules and not offering any judgment on a call that had made against a GnR skater. Which also makes it clear that I completely wasted my twenty bucks.]
What a disappointing explanation. I had been hoping it had been more in the style of a classic slap-fight, you know, the kind that Gore Vidal used to get into with William F. Buckley.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this! If anyone has any question about this "slap" you can watch it on the bout video at Rosecityrollers.com it’s at about 97 min 20 something seconds into the game.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard when you've been hit/back blocked to be in control of you arms, hands and or legs while falling on the ground.
I’ve never met a Rose City Roller who didn’t feel bad about accidentally hitting a derby sister in the face.
xoxo
Blood
Haha! Coroner, If I was going to fight someone, it wouldnt be a slap!
ReplyDeleteBlood :)
Aha!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the getting your crack research team to work on this. (Not that crack! Nope, not that one either. Never mind.)
There had been a gigantic question mark about "the slap" floating over my head at the bout, but it vanished as soon as I hit the parking lot.
Disappointing as the "real" story was, this post was like getting an itch scratched that I'd forgotten I even had!
Is the "slap" in question at 102:15ish?
ReplyDeleteThe video quality makes it hard to tell, but it doesn't even look like Blood's hand came within six inches of Mick's face.
Ah well ... water under the bridge.
The slap is around 97:25
ReplyDelete