The penultimate round of the East Anglia Region BMX Racing series was hosted by the Royston Rockets BMX Club last Sunday and the warm conditions attracted over 170 riders from across the region.

This was the first time the club’s new cabin, funded by Royston First, Herts Year of Cycling, North Herts District Council and the Luton Airport Community fund was in use for a full day’s event.

The 29 riders from Royston Rockets taking part were in two main categories – the main regional series riders were competing for qualification to the British Championships and the novices, many of whom were taking part in their first regional level competition.

The seven and under novice class was packed with Rockets as Finlay Clark took first overall ahead of William Alexander in second, Harvey Unsworth in third and Lui-Kye Mapp in fourth leading home riders from the other clubs.

In the Novice 11-13 class, the Rockets had Billy Unsworth taking first and Brian Ward in third and the 14-16 Novice class was won by Matt Melrose whilst in the 17+ category Connell Clarke took second.

The main regional series classes were packed with top national level riders but this did not deter the Rockets who started off with the 7yr category where Dominic Hines finished in first and Shae Smith took seventh in the A final and in the B final Hugo McFarlane-Cushing who took third place.

The 10-year-old class saw Josh Abbott taking second in the A final and Oliver Dwyer taking first in the B final. In the female 11-12 year class, Harriet Alexander finished in third ahead of Holly Dwyer in eighth and second place went to Ella Tomsett in the Female 13-14 year category.

The older riders have their classes combined so in the male 11/12yr class Harry Evans finished in fourth and Christopher Davies took fifth in the 11 year group and in the male 13/14 class, the two 13-year-old Rockets, Louis Foreman and Bradley Marvel, finished in fourth and sixth respectively whilst in the 15/16yr class Daniel Blanche took first to keep up his challenge for the top position in the series standings.

Royston’s other female riders were in the female cruiser classes where Alyx Foreman took second in the 17-29 category with Claire Pollard taking first and Laura Russell taking seventh in the 30+ cruiser class and in the male cruisers combined class Jason Heard took first in the 40-44yr category and in the 17-29 group, brothers Connor and Jack Hudson took second and third.

The combined classes of Masters (30+) and Veterans (40+) saw Richard Townsend in the Masters category finish in fourth and veteran rider, Darren Foreman took 7th overall and 2nd in his own class.

The clubs regular Tuesday evening sessions are now in full swing with alternating club race series and coaching sessions taking place from 6pm.

For more about the club racing and coaching sessions and BMX racing in the region go to www.roystonrockets.co.uk and the BMX East Regional site at www.bmxeast.com