SPANISH visitors provided an international flavour as Furness Firecrackers step up their preparations for the roller derby season.

A year after Furness Firecrackers visited Madrid, the Black Thunders stormed over to Chetwynde School but could not repeat their victory as they lost 133-125 to the home team.

It proved to be a tough contest on skates with the lead changing multiple times after jammers gained points for passing the opposition blockers.

With multiple impacts and crashes to the floor, teams don protective gear all over the body for a reason.

Angela Garnett, captain of Furness Firecrackers, said: “It is a high adrenalin sport, but with less chance of a broken nose than rugby. It is definitely worth being involved, it is a community not just a sport. We have had help from other teams. We have refs from Carlisle coming down to help with this event.

“It is so much fun, and the atmosphere is second to none.

“I started as I was looking for a hobby. I was never a sporty person.

"I wouldn’t even run for the bus, but it's different now since I found this.

“I came along and they made me feel like I belong and I have got friends now I would never meet normally because of this.”

Michelle Oldcorn, vice-chair of Furness Firecrackers committee, said: “It’s a pre season warm up game for us, the first British championships game is in March.

“Obviously a lot of work goes into this. We have a whole committee who organises everything, and we are very lucky to have Chetwynde School available to us.

“The Madrid team have been staying locally and we socialise with them afterwards and go out.

“The main attraction to it is that it is a very inclusive sport.

"Anyone over 18 is welcome and it doesn’t matter what size you are.

“It’s great that The Black Thunder have come over from Madrid. We are building bonds across the world and we are proud to be hosting them."

A new intake session is starting on February 9.

Anyone interested can contact the group on Facebook.