The Urban Rider Games 2015 was a massive success!
On Friday the 10th 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 4pm and ran non-stop until after midnight with seven different categories. All the riders were pushing themselves to the limit as winning this event and gaining the title Urban Rider Games champion meant everything to everyone.
Lucky had already given away a scooter in the press to launch the Urban Rider Games so everyone knew it was going to be a big event.
The atmosphere was electric with everyone cheering and going wild when a massive trick was laid down – there was, after all, over £2k’s worth of prizes to be won plus goody bags for each competitor.
Special guest judges came along from Bristol and further afield to make sure the judging was fair and accurate. Special thanks to Soly from the Grit Team and Nathan Baker from Grit, Lucky, Phoenix and Crisp for judging the scooter rounds.
The Urban Rider Games attracted lots of competitors from all over Wiltshire, Bristol and Oxfordshire so there was no guarantee who was going to win.
The 8 and Under category kicked off first with Alfie Mann looking like he had it in the bag from the start. Parents, friends and family watched on with their mounths wide open as Alfie ripped up the park setting the benchmark for the other riders. It was clear from his first run that this was going to be his event. Local rider Josh Lingham – Scellier came in second but did really well as this was his first competition. Jack Tanner followed close by in third with Reece Vellender coming in a close fourth. Alfie Mann was the clear winner by miles but judging was close between second, third and fourth.
The next class was the 12 and Under. There was a huge amount of talent coming up from this category and again there was a massive battle beween Connor Wilson and Lewis Marsh for first place but Lewis just had the edge, scooping first place and winning a new Grit Elite thanks to Grit Scooters. Third place went to Zachary Stevens and fourth to Reuben Moorby.
The next class was Scooter Novice. Although the category was called Novice, the riding skills were still high with massive tricks being laid down by Liam Curtin and Reuben Humphrey who appeared to be best mates as they kept cheering each other on and shaking hands before their runs. It was clear that Liam was taking first place in his last run. All his tricks were big and clean and well landed. Third went to Hal Howe and fourth to Joshua Leech who looked as if he earnt it, as he stormed the park, going big where ever he could.
Finally came the Scooter Intermediate Pro class. This is what everyone had been waiting for. It was going to be massive and if the adrenalin in the warm up was anything to go by, it was going to be huge. There were some very talented riders in this class making the judges decisions very hard. 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.
Jo Hamilton worked the park well from start to finish landing each and every trick. Nothing was left to chance and it looked as if Jo had a good run planned out. Connor Baskey just made everything look big. His tricks were pretty clean but just his riding style of going big on everything helped him scoop second place. He even lost his hat in one of his runs costing him at least 10 seconds while he collected it but that didn’t seem to phase him as he more than made up for the time wasted with the other 30 he still had left over. Felix Percival was just amazing from start to finish and seemed to be a real crowd pleaser landing everything the park threw at him. The final placings for this class were Jo Hamilton in first place, Connor Baskey second, Felix took home third and there was a really good effort from James Daniels who wasn’t far behind in forth. A great result as this was James’ first competition.
We also had media coverage constantly from day one until after the event from Swindon Advertiser, Swindon Link and also BBC Wiltshire Sound.
Massive thanks as well to everyone who worked behind the scenes creating this event and sponsoring us; from Domino’s Pizza who catered the event from start to finish, to our brand sponsors; Apex, Grit, Lucky, Crisp, ODI, TSG, Blazer Pro, Bullet, MADD, MGP Bikes, Chocolate Skateboards, Spitfire, Girl Skateboards, Lakai and Camp Rubicon.
Another massive thank you to everyone who helped on the day and to everyone who took part and watched.
Roll on 2016!