THE largest BMX race of the year, The British Championships, took place last weekend at the international track in Cheddar, Somerset. Royston Rockets had 14 riders competing with the youngest being Ted Dalleywater and James King who both took fifth place

THE largest BMX race of the year, The British Championships, took place last weekend at the international track in Cheddar, Somerset.

Royston Rockets had 14 riders competing with the youngest being Ted Dalleywater and James King who both took fifth place in their respective quarter finals.

A good start to the qualifying races saw Daniel Blanche, Myles Fisher and Ethan Vernon move into the finals of the year nine class where Daniel took sixth in the semi-final just ahead of Myles in eighth and Ethan took a heavy fall in the main final whilst challenging for the lead.

In the year 10 class Aaron Dalleywater and Bradan Blanche had another good start to the day although Bradan's day finished with a sixth in the quarter-finals but Aaron went all the way to the main final where he finished in eighth.

The year 13 class saw James Handleigh finish fifth in the final, in the year 14 class Aston Blanche finished fifth in the quarter-final and in the year 15 class Andrew Brooker just failed to move out of the qualifying rounds.

In the 19 plus class Richard Townsend took a heavy fall in his first qualifying race but still managed to gain enough points in his next two races to qualify for the semi-finals where he finished seventh.

In the Masters (30 plus) category Darren Foreman didn't make it out of the qualifiers but Lee Alexander looked set to move through the semi-final stage until he was judged to have contravened the rules of racing and was placed last.

The Cruiser 40-44 class saw Danny Ancell make it into the class quarter-finals although he was unable to progress further but Royston's highlight of the day was the return of Lee Alexander to the track in the same class where he led the pack round all day to take the title of British Champion and the right to race with the coveted 01 number plate.