Street roller hockey rolls out across the nation

Bayswater+Bowling+club+is+the+home+of+street+roller+hockey.+Picture+credit%3A+https%3A%2F%2Fwww.instagram.com%2Fstreetrollerhockeyleague%2F

Bayswater Bowling club is the home of street roller hockey. Picture credit: https://www.instagram.com/streetrollerhockeyleague/

Street Roller Hockey is on the move with a social game at the local bowling club turning into a fully fledged competition now played in nearly every state capital.

The Perth-based competition was born in 2013 by founder Eamonn Lourney’s who, needing a weekend hobby, put four teams together and raised money to buy use of Bayswater Bowling Club.

Despite adversity along the way, the WA sport has grown to a 100-team strong competition split into different leagues based on experience and gender.

Perth Street Roller Hockey committee member Perri Beard says they are not a competitive league.

“We are a ‘beer league’ because winning or losing is way down the list of importance and more about the good vibes,” Miss Beard says.

The league prides itself on not caring about who wins or loses, with some of their social media pages proudly boasting that they are “probably the worst roller hockey league in the world”.

Each team is named after a suburb with puns a must. There are currently teams called ‘Jurassic Pucks’ and ‘Fifty Shades of Graylands”.

“Good vibes is the core value of the league, (you are) meant to be having a beer after the game, laughing and not taking yourself too seriously,” Miss Beard says.

What was originally a uniquely Perth league, has now turned into a national movement with leagues popping up all around the country in major cities.

The league’s home turf is the Bayswater Bowling Club, where the team say they converted two of the greens into certified roller hockey pitches.

Bayswater Bowling Club now hosts games, while also putting on events year round. Miss Beard says the league has a lot of fun stuff happening that is outside a typical sports league.

“We try to be involved in the community and give back by doing a lot of fundraising and we even had a float in the pride parade,” Miss Beard says.

“We did an event called ‘queens on the green’ which had drag queen performers and was a LGBTQ+ friendly event,” Ms Beard said