'˜Frenemy' roller derby teams prepare for Leeds clash

Leeds' roller derby team Hot Wheel take on Middlesbrough Milk Rollers this Saturday. The two teams are pictured during a previous clash. Picture: Jason Ruffell.

Hot Wheel Roller Derby take on Middlesbrough Milk Rollers (MMR) at Leeds University as part of preparations for the Skate Odyssey tournament in Ghent, Belgium next month, while MMR travel to the USA in June for a tour of the East Coast.

Hot Wheel captain Philippa Donnelly said: “I guess we’re ‘frenemies’ - we know each other really well and lots of the skaters are friends but we’ll be enemies on the track on Saturday night.

“Both teams have a really big and exciting summer ahead. Hot Wheel have been invited to take part in SKOD, as it’s known, where we’ll be playing some great teams from across Europe, and MMR are off to the states, so this is an important warm-up to those games.”

The two teams have played each other four times before, with MMR taking three out of the four wins.

But Hot Wheel will still be fighting for the win. They are currently nine places behind MMR in the UK rankings - with MMR sitting at fourth.

“They are one of the best teams in the UK, and I guess we’re the underdogs, but sometimes being the underdog is the best place to be,” said Philippa. “We’ve won our last two British Championship games convincingly and confidence is high. It’ll be a great night.”

The game takes place at The Edge, Leeds University, at 6pm on Saturday with the first whistle at 6.30pm.

Tickets are £6 each, with under 16s are free.