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PEGASUS POST Tuesday <strong>September</strong> 6 <strong>2016</strong> 13 Our People ‘Evel’ Knievel of roller skating Kay Newton spends her spare time in safety gear speeding around a track on roller skates. She spoke to Caitlin Miles about how she got into roller derbies and her time representing New Zealand at world cup competitions FIRSTLY I have to ask what your roller derby name is? It’s Evilknevil, I picked it because it just worked really well with the fact my name is Kay. Can you tell me why you decided to get into roller derbies? There was myself and a couple of others talking about it one day and we decided to go to watch a practice and see what was involved and it just seemed really fun so we thought we would do it. Can you explain to me what is involved in a roller derby? Well, it’s played on an oval track and you have 14 people from each team on the side lines. But there are only five people on the track at any one time. But players rotate throughout the game so that’s why there is so many. There is a jammer who is the one designated to score points by lapping people on the opposite team and then the other four are blockers. Most people can be blockers, you can have any body type really, but jammers are usually a bit slighter built and have good stamina. Jams, which are the sessions, have a time limit of two minutes as well. It’s hard to explain, but it’s a lot of fun. Are you a jammer? I was for a few years. Not any more though, because we have a lot of jammers in our team so we need more blockers. I like being able to do both so I don’t mind. Is being a blocker quite violent? I would avoid using the word violent. It’s not as brutal as people think. There are a lot of referees involved in the game and, if they catch you doing something intentional towards another player that can hurt them, you’ll be given a penalty or possibly taken off. There is only a certain area on the body where you can hit people and that’s not above the shoulders and it’s not below the knees. You can’t elbow people or punch people, or anything like that. It’s like any contact sport, you can get hurt. But I have had worse injuries from soccer than from roller derbies believe it or not. Really? I always thought it was very violent? A lot of people do, but we have a lot of protective gear as well. Have you had any bad hits? None that have made me want to stop playing. I have had a few where I’ve thought, oh, that’s a goodie or that’s going to hurt later, but I’ve always got back into it. Could you roller skate before getting into roller derbies? Yeah, I have been roller skating ever since I was a kid, so I had the skills before getting involved. I thought it would be a fun chance to do something I really enjoyed as a kid. How long have you been ROLLER BLADER: New Brighton’s Kay Newton has been involved in roller derbies since 2009 and goes by the name Evilknevil when she’s on the roller derby track. involved in roller derbies? Since <strong>September</strong> of 2009. I have played for the same team the whole time as well. There were quite a few of us just discovering what roller derby was. Where you nervous before your first game? It was so long ago now I can’t really remember, but yeah, I think I would have been. I mean who wouldn’t be? I think it’s the same feeling before playing in any sport. I was nervous and anxious, but I was excited too. It’s basically the same feeling before any game I think. But you practice and train before, so you are prepared for the game. How do you train? I don’t want to give too many secrets away about our training. We practice layouts and tactics and things like that, making sure the team works well and everyone is on the same page. But we have a really strong core team, so we already work really well together. Do you balance work with training? I work for Vivace Espresso. I drive around the city teaching people how to make coffee so they can keep Christchurch caffeinated basically. Has much changed in the game over the years? The rules have changed a bit over the years. Our rules come from the American roller derby league. So when they make changes or alter the rules of the game or safety rules or something, we do the same. So there have been small changes over the years. Have you noticed roller derby change in popularity? I can’t really say if the sport has gained or lost popularity, but our team has always done well. We have had members come and go for various reasons; they don’t want to do this anymore, or they want to pursue different things, or they decide to have a family, so they come and go throughout the sport, but we always have a great team. What are some of your highlights from roller derby? There have been a couple. I don’t want to blow my own trumpet, but I represented New Zealand at the 2011 World Cup in Toronto and the 2014 World Cup in Dallas. That required a lot of fundraising because it’s not a cheap event to take part in. I was really shocked actually because my team presented me with a cheque to help me out. I cried when they did that. I was really surprised and couldn’t believe they had given me that support. They are some of my really close friends. You’ve got a big roller derby meet coming up as well, right? Yeah, this weekend actually. We’re facing off against Wellington, which will be a really good game. We are currently ranked third in New Zealand and they are number one. We played them previously and they beat us by 150 points, so we really want to redeem that. Really looking forward to facing off. 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