The Rainy City Roller Girls are an established all-female full contact roller derby league. We've been based in Greater Manchester since 2008, and in September, we opened a new training and bouting venue in Oldham, above the Leisure Lounge on King Street.

Roller Derby is one of the fastest growing and most exciting all girl contact sports in the UK. Its fierce, feisty, fast paced and fun! We have girls of all ages from all walks of life on our team, the sport is wholly inclusive and wildly addictive. If you want to see a snapshot of us in action, check out this video.

Roller Derby is integrated into the British Roller Sports Federation. As a women's contact sport, with a 'street' or 'urban' culture, we attract women who are not traditionally 'sporty'. In addition to the game itself, we also provide coaching and officiating opportunities for both male and female skaters.

The Rules

Two teams of 5 skaters battle it out for position over a series of “jams” which last up to 2 minutes. Four “blockers” on each team and one “jammer”. The jammer’s job is to score points. After her initial pass through the “pack” of blockers, a jammer will score one point each time she  passes a member of the opposing team. The blockers attempt to assist their own jammer while hindering the opposing jammer — in effect playing both offense and defence simultaneously.

The game is played over two 30 minute periods, and is regulated by no less than 7 referees who call penalties on skaters who break the rules. Examples of common offences are skating out of the track boundary or initiating an illegal block by using elbows or forearms.

If a skater commits a major offence, they will be sent to the “Sin Bin” usually for one minute. If a jammer gets sent off, then her team are at a serious disadvantage, as the opposing jammer can potentially score heavily while she watches helplessly from the box.

The game ends after the period clock runs out, and the team with the most points wins.

New Skater Programme

With the surge of interest in roller derby in recent months, and especially now that there is a performance pathway into an England team, we are looking for more ways to develop and grow our league. We encourage anyone who wants to give roller derby a try to come along to our New Skaters Practise session, held every Monday, 6:30pm – 8:30pm. The sessions are open to anyone over the age of 18, and we can provide skates and safety equipment.

Those who may not want to join the team can still get involved – coaching, officiating,  jeer leaders, penalty markers, general organisers, cake-makers, promoters, designers, we need many people and skills to help run our bouts.

Skater-owned, Skater-run

We are funded entirely by the skaters who pay a monthly subscription to be part of our league, which covers our rent and running costs. We are not-for-profit, so any money we make from ticket sales, merchandise and refreshments goes directly back into the club. All of the work that goes into the club is carried out by the skaters, from coaching and training, organising bouts, designing posters and advertising, to administrating  the accounts and paying the bills.

Contact Details

To get in touch, or find out more, visit www.rcrg.co.uk

Email us at: rainycityrolllergirls@yahoo.co.uk

Find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/rainycityrollergirls

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/rainyrollergirl

Visit, or write to us at The Thunderdome First Floor, 1 King Street, Oldham, OL8 1EU.