Team

A bit about us

Founded in May 2010, the Hellfire Harlots are a team of strong-willed, intelligent and talented women who have come together to form Nottingham’s most dedicated and hard working roller derby team. Dynamic, motivated, hard working, dedicated and welcoming. Yep…that would be us! But we’re so much more than that. The Hellfire Harlots got together because we shared goals, dreams and laughs in the pub. We want to be the best Roller Derby team we can possibly be, and as far as we’re concerned, there’s no limit to what we can achieve. Do we want to play a part in getting Roller Derby the international recognition it deserves? Yes please! Do we want to play Austin on their home turf? Definitely. Are we going to buy a warehouse and import a banked track one day? Hell yes! And all this while eating cupcakes, drinking beer, and sharing the joy and bruises through thick and thin.

Quite simply The Hellfire Harlots want to take over the world.

What is roller derby?

Roller derby is a furious, fast-paced sport played on an oval flat track by roller skating ladies. Five members of two opposing teams skate anti-clockwise around the track, attempting to lap the opposition whilst also trying to stop them from scoring points by using tactics such as pushing players out of the way or knocking them down. It was founded in America in the 1930s by Leo Seltzer who toured the states with his male and female roller derby stars. The sport grew in popularity until the 1970s when it started to lose fans and adopted attention-drawing tactics, such as staged fights and alligator pits, but this did not stop its decline in popularity.

In 2001 a grass-roots roller derby revival started in America and over the following years this DIY movement has spread across the world as a not-for profit sport that is run by the skaters, for the skaters. By 2004 the game had become so popular with participants that a regulatory body was set up – the Women’s Flat Track Derby Association (or WFTDA). The WFTDA set the official rules for the game and also the minimum roller skating skills each skater has to have in order to play the sport as part of a competing team.

As a result of the hard work and determination shown by those who brought roller derby back from the brink of obscurity, the game has risen from the ashes to be one of the fastest growing sports in the 21st century and now roller derby has come to Nottingham.