Saturday night saw New Zealand's first ever inter-league roller derby match-up. Our team's colours are orange and purple, so after swapping the green shirt for an orange one, I figured the old joker costume would have to get another outing. What I hadn't counted on was only three other people being in costume, and none of them being quite so obviously "costumes" (two guys had coloured boiler suits and gasmasks on, another had come dressed as one of the skaters).
At half time it was announced there was going to be a competition (I didn't know that previously, I just like getting dressed up). I was at the other side of the stadium to the others that were in costume, so felt a bit embarrassed and stayed sitting down. Then over the PA comes "There's a Joker somewhere! Can the Joker please stand up!" Well looks like i've been noticed, so I sheepishly got on my feet. The referee skated over and gave me a thumbs up, so I thought I must be in with a chance.
We were sat about four rows from the front, and when I stood up everyone in front of me was cheering and that gave me a bit of a boost. Then I turned around, only to be confronted with the sight of a thousand people behind me, all cheering me on! I was up on my seat in no time, and had the whole stadium cheering me on, which is a new experience I can tell you!
I won of course (a woman’s t-shirt, but hey, what do you expect?) and had to spend the rest of the night posing for photos, official professional type ones, phone-snaps from the crowd, and then all the kids who wanted their photo taken with the joker. My own favourite was with the two IHC kids; the brother stood there terrified rigid, and the girl was shaking like a leaf, so either she was terrified too, or very, very excited!
It wasn’t until much later that my wife (who was dressed in her purple and orange Velma costume) said “Do you know what you just did? You just climbed on your chair and got a stadium of a thousand people to cheer you on! Not bad for a bloke who twelve months ago wouldn’t ever leave the house!”
Oh yeah, there was sport on as well. We got thrashed. 88 - 174. Here’s my pics;
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=5 ... 4fde3ce517