My real name is Darcy Leigh. I don't like my derby name that much and have wanted to change for at least a year now. Any ideas? I'd like something a bit more political, radge and/or genitalia related.

I am doing a PhD in politics. I work on Indigenous politics in the Canadian Arctic which is pretty random, I know - no-one ever knows what to say next when they ask and I tell them. I also teach a variety of different university students a variety of different things and work for a "bush university" in Northern Canada. Oh AND I work at a sleep disorder clinic. Busy times.

I like doing things with my body (aka sports and exercise). I can't cram in everything I would like so am just running and skating at the mo. Previously I've also been a gym freak and boxed.

Previously I've also been pretty politically active - around trade union, student, feminist and queer politics. These days I'm mostly just a bit disillusioned.

I'm a vegan. This isn't very central to my identity but everyone has said something about food so I figured I would. I eat a lot of vegetables. Vegetables are central to my sanity!

I'm pretty anti-social and judge every single situation against whether it would be more fun to be at home reading a book - usually the book wins.

Roller derby is the most serious relationship I've ever been in (although not remotely the longest) and is the love of my life. That includes all the hard stuff, too...

xxx

My name is Anna, but you'll find me on facebook as Bruce Sparkle-ArkleHorse. Some people have said I should use it as my derby name but I wanted something that was more of a pun. Plus i really enjoy tackling/hitting & wanted something that reflected this - my sister came up with Death Biffo & a derby persona was born!
I grew up in a town called Callala Beach, 3 hrs south of sydney on the east coast of australia. I was going to pop a photo in here but i've got no computer skills whatsoever so you'll just have to google. Apparently Hawaii imports our sand. If anyone ever heads down that way & would like some mates rates accomm at the beach, i'm your girl
I came to the UK with my wife when we were just fiance's & have been married/civilly partnered since jan. She's a radge ranga & derby supporter.
Currently I'm a Wine Advisor at Oddbins (glorified sales assistant) It feels a bit wanky talking wine but i'm actually getting into it. Before that i worked with kids in a variety of random jobs (nanny, preschool, after school clubs, autism intervention) for about 10 years. I miss the random conversations, 'cups of tea' and general craziness of children, but i'm loving wearing nice clothes to work & not worrying about snot or poop.
I'm still not sure what i want to do for the rest of my life - professional derby? i went to art school & would like to be an artist, but i'm not doing anything to further this dream at the moment. Life here so far has been about travel & getting the most out of being close to europe, but i've loved living in edinburgh & the longer i stay here the less i want to go back to aus!
I'd emailed two different derby leagues about fresh meat previously but never had enough money for kit. Admiral Attackbar just kept on at me about the may fresh meat so i asked my mum for a beginner pack for my birthday, convinced she'd say no, and she said yes. And i'm so glad she did! I'm loving being a part of ARRG - everyone is genuinely nice to each other, supportive and encouraging, it's great. When i started I was a bit worried cos i played previously for a women's team that wasn't particularly nice but ARRG is completely different. a bit special.

I am a movie nerd and most of my Mum’s family are dairy farmers. Really. I think ‘Moo’ suits me more than I am entirely comfortable with (thanks, Mags).

I like the focus of doing sports and physical stuff because it takes me out of my head and makes me feel calm and controlled. Weirdly, derby isn’t like this, but I love it and everyone in it anyway – especially my wife and my big cousin. Realising that I want to be better at sport has forced me to try to sort out my ridiculous relationship with food and I am currently trying to get bigger and stronger and not descend into blind panic about it.

Holding grudges is a waste of energy - they probably didn't mean it anyway. I stop to talk to cats. I am a fan of Prozac. Being up a hill at sunrise with a big flask of coffee is total perfection. I’ve never eaten meat. Things end, and that’s OK. I miss writing essays and being a student. Opera makes me cry. Art makes me passionate. I like people, especially when they use apostrophes correctly. The ultimate mark of friendship is being able to hang out with someone and not have to talk to them - sometimes napping is involved.

More importantly, I am often sarcastic and enjoy reading the nutritional content labels on cereal packets.

My real name is Lucy Glenny. My derby name is from the shortened version of my name (Lu) and that fact I love Irn Bru, I am scottish and girders=strength and all that balls. My man husband (Stephen Tawking) made it up...and he is pretty good at thinking of things like that. We spend a lot of time thinking of stupid puns, the lack of actual funniness actually makes them more hilarious.

I am a country bumpkin at heart, as lived in the borders till I was 18. After which I moved to Edinburgh to do media & culture at Uni. We got to watch films and write about them, but it was the only part I liked, so I left. I have now been in Edinburgh for 7 years. I work at the charity Alzheimer Scotland (with fellow skater Pummel-a) doing admin typey things.

My friend got me interested in derby when she started up in Aberdeen with GCRG and kept going on about it. I went to the ARRG and Berlin bout last year, loved it and signed up. One of my best friends started skating at the same time, but she had to move down south so skates in Nottingham with the Hellfire Harlots (I am jealous of how awesome she is already!) I never joined anything on my own, as I am very shy when I first meet people, so I was shitting myself on my first day. But I have met many an AWESOME person...so love it.

Random things about me...hmm - I have a twin brother, and was very much a tom boy when growing up. I lived in Dundee for a few months when I left Uni, and did a book-binding course and a photography course. I am allergic to cats. I am very self conscious and think I am shit at most things (but derby and my man have helped me a bit!). I have been married for over 3 years and was previously called Lucy Bathgate. I am VERY indecisive. I love films more than most things and own FAR too many DVDs (600ish). I love history...particularly ANYTHING Ancient Egyptian or Medieval. I like French, and plan on trying to be fluent at some point. I love books and really want a big house so I can have a proper library with one of those swinging ladder things like in Beauty and the Beast. I love my PS3. I particularly like Buffy...and also Richard Dean Anderson in SG1. The most sporty thing I did before derby was go to an athletics weekend in Primary School and I had to explain how to throw a javelin on the BORDER NEWS. I am turning in to my mother and becoming a bit of a grammar Nazi and keep correcting people who say things wrong. I was never allowed any pets when I was younger (bar goldfish that I won at hook the duck) as my dad was a bit of a knob, but really want a dog or a lizard. I prefer to sit in a pub than go to a club, but I did meet Stephen at Opium on a 'pound a drink' Sunday night 7 years ago, since we are classy. Oh, and I love music, a lot. I like to sing, but can't very well. I also LOVE Batman.
I could go on forever, but I shall shut up now.

Aw, I love this thread .

I'm Kirsty and I'm 24 though I look younger. If you're out with me I'll more than likely be the one in the group asked for ID (Connie dislikes this, it normally gets her IDed haha). The nickname of Kirds has been with me for years and evolved from 'Kirdy' which a friend gave me when we were 15. She decided she knew too many Kirstys and started calling me that. Pretty much everyone calls me Kirds these days, I only go by Kirsty with the family or at work. It actually freaks me out if Connie calls me it cause I think I've done 'a bad' . My derby name comes from curds and whey.

At uni I did a genetics degree (mm science) and spent a year on placement in Finland. That was a year spent despairing at my project not working, partying, travelling to different parts of Finland, and visiting Tallinn in Estonia a couple of times. I went to Lapland to visit Santa's village and along with a group of friends we got to sit on santa's lap (my parents have a photo of this). I also spent a month on crutches as I slipped on ice (I was coming back from food shopping too!) and messed up the ligaments in my left ankle. The first thing I did once my friend Pat had helped me into my flat was call my mum and have a freak out over the phone. Pat came with me to A&E where I spent 7 and a half hours waiting to be seen only to be told they couldn't tell me that night what I'd done as there wasn't a radiographer on staff that night to look at my x-rays. After a couple of weeks I dragged myself into the lab still on the crutches (it was still super icy and snowy) so that I could talk to people before I went crazy with cabin fever in my flat.

After I finished uni I moved back in with my parents but after a few months I wanted to leave again. It's been almost 2 years since I moved through to Edinburgh from just outside of Glasgow. I knew Connie through a mutual friend of ours who was moving to Canada so I moved through to become her flatmate along with another guy (who was kind of weird and creeped around :S. We actually moved out of our flat 2 months early into our current one to get away from him and our letting agent). I still haven't found 'the' job, having been temping since I moved through here, but I *think* I may eventually go for some sort of job in science which isn't lab work as I was never really good at working in a lab. Nor did I have the patience to deal with things just not working. For a year.

I came across roller derby properly for the first time when 'Whip It' was released. After that I had a look to see if there was a team in Edinburgh but couldn't make it along to a bout until the Fringe bout 2010. I had no idea what the heck was going on on track but thought it was amazing and that I might want to try it out. In the months until I finally went to Fresh Meat in January this year I helped out at bouts with me and Connie also going to last year's Halloween party. Her as the 'Twister' from the film Twister and me the cow which gets caught up in the twister. My derby wife is Irn Lu who I met at our first FM as we both were travelling back to Leith on the bus. Me being the romantical type I proposed to her on the way back from the toilets at Banshee's at Alma's birthday party.

Before Fresh Meat I'd never roller skated but I did kind of roller blade as a kid. This mainly involved me skating on whatever flat ground I could find and if I happened to go down a hill I'd stop by jumping onto grass Go me!

Other fun facts;
As a kid I once... twice on the same day got stuck in one of those small outside concrete bins. Someone helped me out then I climbed back in a while later and got stuck again. Yeah...
As a teen I went to PACE Youth Theatre at the weekends and one summer I took part in some of their summer workshops, one of them being 'Play in a Week'. We did The Crucible and I played Reverend Hale.
I love CSI, Criminal Minds, Bones, True Blood (books and show), Chuck, Glee (I love musicals!), Buffy, Firefly and I'm a Trekkie.
In my first year at uni I was part of STaG and I actually knew Maulibu Barbie from there but it took us both a while to figure out why we recognised each other.
I have a cat called Baldrick who is hard to explain, he needs to be experienced.
I've dyed my hair various shades of red since I was 16.

My name is Jenny Gow. A lot of my friends actually call me by my full name, which is weird. I'm not quite sure how that happened. I guess just because Gow is kind of a weird name.
My derby name comes from Admiral Ackbar. He's the squid guy from Return of the Jedi. I'm not actually a massive Star Wars fan or anything, although I do like it. Return of the Jedi was just one of my favourite films when I was about 7. Admiral Ackbar was my favourite character but I didn't know his name so I just called him Fish Face. I also really liked Sister Act... and Whoopi Goldberg in general. Who doesn't love a wise-crackin' nun?!
I was born in Edinburgh and have pretty much lived here forever, except when I lived in Melbourne for a year and a half, which was both a massive mistake and one of the best times of my life. I grew up in Cramond mostly, with my older brother. I basically used to follow him around everywhere and played whatever sports he did. At one point we were really into the Mighty Ducks so we started playing street hockey and ice hockey if we could find ice anywhere. It was pretty much me getting beaten up by a bunch of my brother's pals. After that we started skating ramps and stuff, with no pads because we didn't want to spend pocket money on them! We also used to go down to Cramond beach and get the ice cream van to tow us along while we held on to the back. I'm not sure how I didn't get hurt more as a child!
I stopped skating when I was about 14, which was around about the time when my bro was "too cool" to hang out with me any more. After that I played basketball for Edinburgh for a few years. It was basically my whole life. I have a ridiculously embarrassing tattoo of a basketball on my shoulder (15 year olds should not get tattoos!) Anyway, that's where my love of skating and team sports and all that came from. I'd known about ARRG for ages but never got round to actually going to a bout or a fresh meat session until this year. Obviously it's one of the best decisions I've ever made! Only wish I'd done it sooner.

Umm, what else? I'm a graphic designer. I both love and hate it in equal measures. I'm sure several of you have heard me ranting about this in some way, sorry! I absolutely love being creative, it's basically what I was born to do but I'm not really built for a 9 to 5 desk job and have to constantly fight with myself over whether or not I should just up and leave and go on some sort of adventure. I've had that feeling for most of my life actually. I've pretty much been fascinated by the prospect of adventure since I can remember. It's what the girl riding a tiger on my arm is supposed to symbolise.

I miss being a student and doing ridiculous feminist guerilla art projects instead of doing work for monetary reasons. I basically hate having to adhere to any sort of convention so the whole career thing kind of pains me. However, both of my parents are massive career people so I basically have tremendous guilt and fear every time I think about quitting my job!
I'm 26 years old and have a complex about clients not taking me seriously at work because I look 12. I'm also pretty socially retarded in general. If I don't talk to you, nine times out of ten it's because I feel awkward, not because I don't want to talk to you. However, that's kind of a double edged sword because once I know someone I tend not to shut the fuck up.
Food is pretty much my fave thing. I'm also quite partial to a caffeinated beverage. I will probably be a crazy cat lady when I'm old.

Hi I'm Sarah, I'm 28 (although I genuinely had to think about that and wrote 29 first - I'm putting this down to it being before 9am though...). I have a boring admin job at the university which I'm really pretty bad at because being organised and efficient does not play in to my natural skill set at all. however I seem to be able to wing it in order to pay the mortgage. It also means that I can spend a ridiculous amount of my day online and drink copious amounts of tea and coffee which I like a lot!

I'm not a very complicated person. I fell in love with my first boyfriend and we've now been together nearly 10 years. I go to a truly ridiculous amount of weddings, in fact I start to get twitchy if I don't know at least the next 3 I'm going to. I love weddings though so I'm quite happy with this. I also enjoy pizza, red wine, American TV about (and aimed at) teenagers, Dave Gorman, They Might be Giants and wrestling (I hold my brother responsible for the last two). My ideal evening is probably making dinner for friends and then playing Risk while drinking too much red wine.

I have a few hang ups which some people find strange, namely that I can't touch the bridge of my nose and genuinely don't like it when others touch theirs. I hate spines. I also don't like the word 'actually', this is because it's pretty much impossible to say it just once! Seriously, by the time someone has said it once in a sentence a second one creeps in uninvited and all unnecessary - look out for it, you'll see what I mean. I also dislike words which have been purposely miss spelt to make them zainy, however I do it myself all the time in an *ironic* way.

I like skating because it means that even if my day job is pretty rubbishy I'm doing something cool with my life. I also look forward to showing my grandkids photos of granny being cool! It also allows a healthy outlet for my love of puns.

This is fun.

I'm Kate aka Shootin' Annie aka KASLAM-itty Kid aka Slam, Hoots, Shooty, etc. But I seem to only answer to some of these selectively.

I am 35, but inside I am a 14 year old boy. I am originally from Chicago and grew up a proper tomboy/uber nerd. I liked (and still do) mud, playing with sticks, horses, baseball, Nintendo, Dungeons and Dragons, sci-fi, fantasy fiction with hilarious cover artwork, action figures, bikes, and playing all sorts of musical instruments. I went to uni in London to study book and paper conservation when I was 21 and was pretty much lost to America at that point. I loved living in London and spent too much time doing bad drunken things in Brixton, which means my three year course actually took me four years. Oops. During this time I met my husband Magnus in the Last Drop on the Grassmarket on a weekend trip to Edinburgh with a friend. I went back to the States for awhile after my degree, but somehow I found myself moving to Edinburgh to marry this guy I hardly knew in 2004 even though neither of us particularly wanted to get married. Damn you, governments. However, it worked out pretty well in the end, and he's now my best friend and I wouldn't have it any other way. I also am now British, which is pretty cool.

I live in Abbeyhill with Magnus and two rescued cockatiels (one of which flew over with me from the States in 2004). We drink too much wine and beer, and spend too much money on music and going to gigs. I also am still a proper nerd, and still love science fiction, fantasy, and video games. So many video games. I am also a vegetarian, as is my husband, and I love cooking and food and talking about food and thinking about food. ALL THE TIME. I work as a book and paper conservator at the National Library of Scotland on George IV Bridge, which pays the bills. We have good coffee in the cafe - come visit.

I found ARRG because Sunny Sheeba (who I met through work in 2004, and is now one of my bestest friends in the world) asked me to go to Fresh Meat with her in January 2010. I allowed my arm to be twisted because it was Hogmanay and Sunny made me drink whisky. She is a bad influence in many ways.

I skated loads when I was younger (my first major injury was a broken arm from skating down a huge hill when I was 10 with no pads or helmet. What were my folks thinking? Oh yeah, it was the 80's), so I took to the skating part of derby quite easily. The rest I've struggled a bit more with, but I love that derby makes my body and mind do things that I never thought I was capable of. Unfortunately, I've spent a lot of my time with ARRG injured, and as another Kate that suffers from quite severe hypermobility, I'm trying to come to terms with the fact that I am just going to be prone to being broken if I insist on doing this sport. Because of this, Owen is my most expensive habit. But I intend on doing this as long as I can until my body tells me to stop.

I've particularly enjoyed being involved in committees and helping to run ARRG. Spreadsheets make me excited, and I love being on Secretarial and looking after the List. I have also just started on the Board, and I really love seeing how this group of girls (and guys) make this amazing, complex machine that is ARRG run from the inside.

Hey! I love reading about everybody btw.

Anyway, my name is Pamela Stevenson (not as in The Big Yin's wife although I am a huge fan) and I'm 24 years old going on 80 as it feels sometimes haha.

I work for a dementia charity as I quite like the thought of helping the oldies, bless 'em. It's a great job but the staff are challenging lol. I actually work with Irn Lu who is the gal who got me into Roller Derby. A friend of my ex's was encouraging me to join up a while ago but life got in the way and didn’t let me unfortunately.

Lu joined ARRG and told me stories about it constantly which sounded really exciting so eventually I decided to give it a go as I needed a hobby and the exercise as I’m a naturally fat person. No joke, I was way over 18 stone at a point in my life so derby helps me stay away from there.

I've always been terrified of pain and hurting myself so roller skating scared the sh*t out of me but I think I've overcome this thanks to ARRG I've yet to overcome my spider phobia but that's another story. Think that will be the death of me.

I’m from the Scottish Borders so I’m a Hill Billy at heart. It shows when I walk around the city centre coz I get frustrated at the amount of people walking slowly in front of me lol!

I’m the type of person that goes through weird phases in life. From my chavvy teens (I have no criminal record by the way!) I went a bit goth, started listening to metal, got piercings and believed I’d ‘found myself’. I then moved to Auld Reekie, ditched 7 stone of weight *but have since put on 2* - shhh, and slowly tried to grow up a bit. My partying abilities decreased which upsets me a lot but having made friends with many of the amaaaaaaazing ARRG ladies; I see another opportunity to practise partying again yay!

I’ve reached a crossroads in life again where I’m not sure where life is going to take me but I’m very happy with skating and also the new man.

Sadly, I’m quite a negative person which I’m trying to improve on but I love a good ol’ rant on Facebook which seems to amuse people so add me if you want a laugh or someone to think ‘shut the hell up’ towards.

Love to all the ladies.

Pum xxx

Hey guys! I'll give this ago!

My name is Gemma McAdam. My sister has spent most of my life calling me ‘Midget Gems’ but it was something I never thought of as a derby name. Not until Stitches came running up to me saying, ‘Is your name Gemma, you should be called Midget Gems’ and I thought ‘Ok, why not!’

I am a music teacher and I teach at Glenrothes High School in Fife but live in Edinburgh. I love my job but it does stress me out a lot! My life revolves around music. Music is everything to me and I plan to try and play as many instruments as I can get my hands on. (If you ever come round to my flat I will probably make you play an instrument, or make you sing a Disney song.) I write songs and perform a lot of them to the wall in my living room.
I got into derby after I posted on facebook that I was bored one Saturday and could someone suggest something for me to do. My friend Jack who is a ref in Leeds (AKA Boris!) told me he was ref-ing at a bout in Meadowbank and I should go and watch. I went along, spent about 20mins giggling at Jack in Skates and then fell in love with the game, signed up for the fresh meat right away!

My parents are from Glasgow, so that makes me Scottish – but I was born and grew up in Taiwan. I went to Taipei American School and was an elementary trainee cheerleader. Spent my childhood moving around lots of different countries (Singapore, India, Saudi Arabia Germany and finally back to Scotland!) and because of this was sent to boarding school when I was 9. It was exactly like Hogwarts. I had a cloak. I don’t even know if that is how you spell cloak.

I am actually a really shy, socially awkward person. Sometimes when I try to overcome my social awkwardness I actually come across as a bit of a twat.

I like the pub. We should all go for a drink.