News

A MUM-to-be is aiming to set up Barnsley's first ever Roller Derby team.

Joanne Greasley, 23, from Monk Bretton used to train with the Sheffield Steel Roller Girls but when she moved to Barnsley couldn't find a team to join.

She said: "It's a real contact sport and really there's no easy way to explain it without showing a video of what it's all about.

"I'm eight months pregnant and people think I'm mad when I tell them I'm doing this but I'd been thinking about it for a while and I thought I'd take advantage of my maternity leave to arrange something. I'm obviously not going to be skating around with a bump."

Joanne will be hosting an information day at Walkabout on Sunday from 2pm to do an early sign up for ladies who may be interested. The event is for over-18s only.

She said: "I'm just trying to get an idea of who'd be interested - we need 12 for a team and a coach but there will be no skate training starting for a month or so.

"The first thing will be to learn basic skating techniques - it doesn't matter if you can't skate, I'm really keen that we all learn together at the same pace.

"I think it's really important that we get something like this in Barnsley - I feel like a lot of the local sports clubs are aimed at younger people so it would be great to get something like this going."

To see what roller derby is all about, watch the Sheffield Steel Roller Girls in action (you might want to skip to about two minutes in) here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGQdwOouSyw