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Oakland Outlaws jammer Grrr Lee Burly, second from left, makes her way through San Francisco ShEvil Dead blockers during the Outlaws homecoming bout at the Dry Ice Roller Hockey Arena on Saturday, April 26, 2008, in Oakland, Calif. The Outlaws won the bout. (Jane Tyska/Staff)

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In a flash of fishnets and underpants, 20 women roll by while a stadium announcer does a roll call, introducing the Oakland Outlaws. As the team members, who go by monikers such as "Jane Hammer" and "Lisa Lawless," fly by in their caked-on makeup and impossibly short skirts, the crowd roars a deafening cheer. It is, after all, Oakland's home team that's just hit the flat-track derby course.

"BOOOOO!" the crowd roars again as the equally skimpily dressed women from San Francisco's ShEvil Dead hit the course. The ShEvil Dead team, according to the crowd, is the enemy, and women such as "Annie Agony," "Getta Piece" and "Bliss Bomber" will get no love from Oakland tonight.

What the quad-skaters have in common, however, is that they're all B.ay A.rea D.erby Girls, or BAD Girls for short, members of an all-female full-contact roller derby league that is one part sport and two parts plunging-neckline spectacle.

Sitting out this first game of the league's 2008 season game, but supporting the teams with tickets, publicity and general beer-guzzling merriment, is the third BAD Girls team, the Richmond Wrecking Belles.

The entry lineup for this bout, which took place a couple of Saturday nights ago inside Oakland's Dry Ice Roller Hockey Arena rink, started well before the event got under way, at about 7:30 p.m.

In one line stood ticket-holders and, in another line, the wannabe ticket-holders. Unfortunately for many of the latter, there were only 49 tickets left at the gate. The rink's capacity is about 600, and pre-sale tickets almost hit that mark. The league has to be careful. Last year, sell-out over-capacity crowds forced the city of Oakland to close down the Oakland matches, and the teams had to travel to the South Bay to rumble.

The rink owners will have to improve emergency exit access for that to happen so, for now, capacity is full when there are about 600 people inside. "We're hoping to get

When the league first put on events around 2005, fans crowded into every crack and crevice of the rink. It was a social, drunken, tattooed crowd that seemed more interested in gabbing with friends and eyeing the gams of the players than paying attention to the sport.

On the evening of the first bout of the 2008 season, however, the crowd is mellower and appears actually interested in the sport, which was invented in 1935 by Leo A. Seltzer. It involves five players from each team skating the track at once. A pivot sets the pace and three blockers help the team's fifth player, a jammer, get through the pack. The jammer scores for her team once she passes the opposing team's players.

The league has grown up, too. Since it began in 2004, BAD Girls has become a nonprofit organization controlled democratically by its 75 full-time league members. It even provides skating activities to children of low-income families, "Skater Tots."

At around 9 p.m., the game starts. It soon becomes obvious the Oakland team is the stronger of the two that evening, with jammer "Kitt Turbo" lapping the girls to score over and over again. Three 20-minute periods — and more than a few bruises — later the Oakland team wins the game 103 to 66.

Reach writer Laura Casey at 925-952-2697 or e-mail lcasey@bayareanewsgroup.com.