The Domino’s Urban Rider Games 2016 was a massive success!
On Friday the 8th of April, just under 100 competitors took part and around 200 spectators descended on the park to watch and cheer on their friends and family.
The event started at 3pm and ran non-stop until just before midnight with eight different categories across three disciplines; scooter, skate and BMX with all the riders pushing themselves to the limit as winning this event and gaining the title Urban Rider Games Champion was so important. The atmosphere inside Swindon’s only indoor skate park was electric with everyone cheering and going wild when a massive trick was laid down – there was, after all, over £2,000 worth of prizes to be won from top industry manufacturers.
We were lucky enough to have the world’s number one scooter rider, Jordan Clark as one of our guest judges as well as Soly Bloomfield from the Grit Scooter Team, top scooter rider Alfie Mann and Geoff Else from Camp Rubicon. The Domino’s Urban Rider Games attracted lots of competitors from all over Swindon and Wiltshire plus many travelled from further afield. There were entrants from Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Bristol and one BMX rider came all the way down the M4 from Cardiff to compete! With such a wide range of riders and abilities, there was no guarantee who was going to win.
The Scooter 8 and Under category kicked off first with an amazing level of skill being displayed by all riders. First place was taken by Oliver Fergusson, local rider Josh Lingham – Scellier came in second in this year’s competition. Freddie Aplin followed close by in third with Callum MacLeod coming in a close fourth.
The next class was the Scooter Girls which we were very excited to host as it was the first girls only scooter competition of it’s kind in the UK. Again the level of skill displayed by these riders was phenomenal with MADD Scooters team rider Lucy Evans taking first place. Second was Olivia Martin who at just 6 years old was one of our youngest competitors and clearly impressed guest judge Jordan Clark who ran onto the park to personally congratulate her after her run! Third place was taken by Grit Scooters team rider Chloe Whitworth and Blunt Scooters and ATBShop team rider Jenna Sharma came a valiant fourth.
After the girls category came the Scooter 12 and Under class. There was a huge amount of talent coming up from this category with a battle between Niall Day and Tobi Ololade for first place but Naill just had the edge, scooping first place and winning a new MADD scooter deck. Third place went to Ethan Butler and fourth to James Hinton.
By 6pm that evening we were on to the Scooter Novice category. Although the category was called Novice, the riding skills were still high with massive tricks being laid down by all the competitors. It was brother versus brother in the final as Jordan Harris faced off with younger brother Danny. It was a close run thing as both riders had a smooth and consistent run but in the end Jordan took first place winning a new Crisp scooter with Danny coming a close second. Third place went to Zack Stevens who was laying down some big tricks on his runs and Curtis Giles came in a valiant fourth.
Finally came the Scooter Intermediate Pro class. This is what everyone had been waiting for and if last year’s competition was anything to go by, it was going to be massive! There were some very talented riders in this class making the judges decisions very hard and some of the heats had the judges discussing for longer than normal. They were looking for clean, well landed tricks that showed a good use of the park and a high level of skill. No one was holding anything back, all the riders were really pushing themselves hard which was well reflected when they landed something big, the crowd was going mental banging scooters, cheering and shouting words of encouragement. Connor Baskey worked the park (and the crowd) well from start to finish landing each and every trick. Last year he came second but this year, due to his awesome riding ability, he scooped a well deserved first place. Second went to David Ambrose who was clean and consistent and barely broke a sweat on his run! Ben Wilkinson came third and despite snapping his bars during one of the heats and suffering a suspected broken wrist, Kai Renshaw battled on and managed to place fourth.
Once the scooter categories had finished it was the turn of the BMX riders. First place went to ATBShop team rider Harry Calvert who won a new Federal saddle, t-shirt and a pile of stickers with Ben Baker coming in second, Zach Francis-Cox third and fourth place went to Harley Burford. Other prizes in this category included a TSG helmet and other BMX accessories.
By 9pm the skateboarders were on the park, warming up for their heats. The first category was Skate Novice and we’re pleased to say, had a fantastic turn out almost doubling the entrants from last year’s competition. Park regular Tom Clements stormed the park and came in first place with Liam Minter coming a close second. Third and fourth place went to local skater Alfie Sims and Finnian Martin respectively.
Once the Novice category had finished it was the turn of the Intermediate Pro Skaters. Unsurprisingly, Element, Animal, Theeve, Modus, Skate Warehouse and Minirig team rider James Threlfall took first place, flying through the air with his lofty frontside airs with Karma, Supertoxic and ATBShop team rider Pete Case coming in second. Huw Gordon was third with the youngest competitor in this category, ten year old DC and Karma rider Finnian Martin placing an amazing fourth.
We also had a huge amount of media coverage again from the Swindon Advertiser, Swindon Link and also BBC Radio Wiltshire.
Massive thanks as well to everyone who worked behind the scenes, helping make this event the massive success it was and to the companies that sponsored us; from our main headline sponsor Domino’s Pizza who catered the event from start to finish and Morrisons Regent Circus who provided all the ingredients for the free smoothies we were whipping up on the day, to our brand sponsors; Apex, Thrasher, Hex Bug, Phoenix Pro Scooters, Blazer Pro, Plan B, SK8 Mafia, Jart, Independent, TSG, Bones, Blunt Scooters, Real Skateboards, Grizzly, Fracture, Ethic, Lucky, DGK, Chocolate, Bullet, MGP Scooters, Spitfire, Camp Rubicon, Lakai, Grit Scooters, Morrisons, Primitive Skateboarding, Street Games Swindon, ODI, Girl Skateboard Inc, Crisp and Swindon Borough Council.
Finally, a massive thank you to everyone who helped on the day and to everyone who took part and watched… Roll on 2017!
