Category: News

Five Nations Roller Derby

Five Nations Roller Derby

British Championships is rebranding! The competition is now known as the Five Nations Roller Derby Championships.

When the competition was established the Union Flag was used in the logo as what felt to be an obvious choice for the British Championships. However, we received feedback that the flag was undesirable as a colonial symbol. This, coupled with the use of the name British proved a barrier to entry for leagues from the island of Ireland, who have always been welcome in the tournament.

We conducted a survey which confirmed this assumption, and highlighted other issues with our Union Flag based logo. Five Nations was one of the shortlisted names, alongside a number of plays on “UK & Ireland Roller Derby Championships.” We then conducted focus groups among leagues from all nations, and there was consensus that Five Nations was the best option.

There were very strong feelings in the survey about removing all national symbols from the logo, as well as many positive comments about the strong brand our five pointed star shape had.  Following this we workshopped different star-based options with a final short list of concentric stars or each point featuring a different colour. Using national flags or even their colours are politically loaded, and also may change in the future. We settled on concentric stars as being an eye-catching and playful logo using the seven colour rainbow. We want the tournament to be for everyone and we hope this new logo reflects this. Special versions of the logo will be made for Pride, Trans Pride and other key dates over the year.

The logo update was devised by members of our 5NRD leadership committee with inspiration from artist Dan Eatock and layouts made by Shutter (Belfast Roller Derby) and Hurt Nouveau (Milton Keynes Roller Derby).

The logo has been designed to work in both full colour and black and white, which will support branding, merchandise, and ensure that it can easily be used alongside league communications. 

Watch this space for further updates from the Five Nations Roller Derby Championships as we make a slow, safe return to the sport we all love.

2021 And Beyond

After a lot of conversations with UKRDA and other interested parties, we’ve made the difficult decision to not host a 2021 season in the traditional format.

Under government guidelines, it will not be possible for teams to properly train until spring of next year, at the earliest. This won’t give teams enough time to be ready for competitive play.

Rather than try to rush a season that may not even happen, we believe it would be better to make use of the time and focus on helping leagues return to play in a sustainable way.

Return To Play

We will work with UKRDA, WFTDA, MRDA (Men’s Roller Derby Association), JRDA (Junior Roller Derby Association) and other National Governing Bodies to look at how we can integrate national championships into regional and global play so that derby can return stronger than ever.

We are also going to set up a Five Nations Return to Derby group. All leagues in the United Kingdom and Ireland, regardless of whether they participate in the tournament, will be welcome to join. This will be a space for arranging local games when teams are ready, and supporting teams to find new ways of working and coaching as we work through the returning to play.

We will also set up officiating communities for learning and networking, in particular to support officials that cannot return to training until scrimmage is happening. We will support affiliated and independent officials to find leagues so they can be part of a safe return to play.

2020 Season wrap-up

All teams who signed up for 2020 will be contacted via email in the coming weeks with details about a full refund.

And finally, for patch collectors, we will be selling a special edition 2020 patch. Profits will go to charities who are on the COVID-19 frontlines.

You can purchase the patch now through our online shop.

Rebranding

And that brings us to the good news! We’re rebranding! Thank you to everyone who got involved and shared your thoughts. 

From 2021, we will be known as the Five Nations Roller Derby Championships.

We believe this clarifies and makes explicit the nations able to participate in the championships – England, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

We’re also removing language and imagery that could be seen as exclusionary or unclear across the brand.

We are in the process of rebranding now, and expect to have everything in place by 2021. If you have the skills and time to help us out, or have any feedback or thoughts, please get in touch with us.

2020 Season Announcement

2020 Season Announcement

We are all aware that the current situation is having a huge impact on all parts of our lives. Though we all hope to be back to the game we love very soon, we at British Champs have made the incredibly difficult decision to cancel the remaining events for this year’s competitive season. We believe that this is the most responsible thing we can do to support the next few months of social distancing, and to give leagues time to safely return to training and gameplay. 

As frustrating and disappointing as this is for us all, we can promise that we’re already busy behind the scenes preparing for British Championships 2021. We would like to thank our wonderful volunteers, supporters, teams, and officials for all their incredible work already this year. We can’t wait to see you all on & around the track again soon.

Stay Safe 

British Championships

Welcome to our new website

Welcome to our brand new website for the 2019 season!

We hope you will enjoy the updated look and easier access to the content that matters.

If you notice any problems, errors, or omissions, please let us know. You can use the contact form, or click on the page feedback icon in the bottom right of every page.