Peggy Lethal ready to rumble after being given a second chance in sport.
In most sports when you get to the age of 29 you start to think about winding down your career and start considering hanging up the boots. This is not the case for Hayley Lambert AKA Peggy Lethal as she hasn’t even entered her prime in the adrenaline fuelled sport of Roller Derby and the future looks bright for the jammer.
Despite competing in sports such as Diving and Gymnastics from a young age, Peggy spent nine years away from sport and never in her wildest dreams would she think another opportunity would arise after such a long time away.
She said: “I grew playing individual sports, I did Gymnastics from a young age and went into Diving when I was about ten and competing with that till I was 20. I competed at a very high level for Great Britain, I loved it and then eventually I thought I want to travel and do other things. It had never crossed my mind taking part in a different sport, I thought I’d already ‘been there done that’ but then I fell into Roller Derby.
Hayley has never had the pleasure of taking part in a team sport during her career.
She admitted: “It’s really different being in a team in a good way. I love it. It is really nice having a group of people around you who are all a little bit mental in there own ways. Everyone on our team is so different and it’s fantastic to have such a big group of great girls around you. Roller Derby becomes your entire life, it sounds extreme but it actually does.”
Let me roll the tape back to October 2011 when it all began at a Comic Book Convention in Leeds. Hayley didn’t even know Roller Derby existed and couldn’t rollerskate for toffee. But when she saw girls doing security for the convention on rollerskates she couldn’t resist getting involved. However, it wasn’t until the following April that she got the nerve to actually go.
She said: “I went to a roller dance class and saw the girls who were on security and they railroaded me into it and I have never looked back.”
Lambert admitted to owning a pair of rollerskates but they were simply used for ‘messing around on.’ Luckily for Peggy she had team mates around her that were willing to help out and be very patient with her through her first few sessions.
Lethal has been taking part in the sport for over a year now and her progress has been nothing short of spectacular. Hot Wheel travelled down to London in March to face one of the best sides in the UK, London Rockin’ Rollers. This was Lethal’s second bout as a Hot Wheel player and she drew the plaudits claiming the award for best jammer.
She admitted: “I’d actually gone thinking I’d be lucky to get on the track for maybe four or five jams and block and I ended up going on and jamming quite a few times and I got best jammer award, which I nearly cried when they gave me it because I was so shocked.
Despite competing in sports such as Diving and Gymnastics from a young age, Peggy spent nine years away from sport and never in her wildest dreams would she think another opportunity would arise after such a long time away.
She said: “I grew playing individual sports, I did Gymnastics from a young age and went into Diving when I was about ten and competing with that till I was 20. I competed at a very high level for Great Britain, I loved it and then eventually I thought I want to travel and do other things. It had never crossed my mind taking part in a different sport, I thought I’d already ‘been there done that’ but then I fell into Roller Derby.
Hayley has never had the pleasure of taking part in a team sport during her career.
She admitted: “It’s really different being in a team in a good way. I love it. It is really nice having a group of people around you who are all a little bit mental in there own ways. Everyone on our team is so different and it’s fantastic to have such a big group of great girls around you. Roller Derby becomes your entire life, it sounds extreme but it actually does.”
Let me roll the tape back to October 2011 when it all began at a Comic Book Convention in Leeds. Hayley didn’t even know Roller Derby existed and couldn’t rollerskate for toffee. But when she saw girls doing security for the convention on rollerskates she couldn’t resist getting involved. However, it wasn’t until the following April that she got the nerve to actually go.
She said: “I went to a roller dance class and saw the girls who were on security and they railroaded me into it and I have never looked back.”
Lambert admitted to owning a pair of rollerskates but they were simply used for ‘messing around on.’ Luckily for Peggy she had team mates around her that were willing to help out and be very patient with her through her first few sessions.
Lethal has been taking part in the sport for over a year now and her progress has been nothing short of spectacular. Hot Wheel travelled down to London in March to face one of the best sides in the UK, London Rockin’ Rollers. This was Lethal’s second bout as a Hot Wheel player and she drew the plaudits claiming the award for best jammer.
She admitted: “I’d actually gone thinking I’d be lucky to get on the track for maybe four or five jams and block and I ended up going on and jamming quite a few times and I got best jammer award, which I nearly cried when they gave me it because I was so shocked.
It has been a huge learning curve for Peggy and the reward for her hard work was the opportunity to jam against ‘Jack Attack’ London Rockin Rollers Team England representative.
She claimed: “Jamming against ‘Jack Attack’ was insane. I think they blew the whistle and I was stood staring at her! I was in awe of them.” Despite losing on the day 252-104 Peggy remains confident in her team mates and herself. She said: “It was my second bout for Hot Wheel, so I’m still very new and still learning what it is like to go and compete with another team. We did ourselves proud, we didn’t win but we were playing against a really good and established team with Team England players.” If Peggy had three words to describe Roller Derby she would say: “Friends, exciting and fun (long pause) its also really cool!” Listen to the interview in full with Peggy Lethal below. |