Winter joy for Richard

RICHARD Townsend led the way for Royston Rockets as they travelled to Norwich for the second round of the East Anglian BMX Winter Series. Townsend raced home in third place it the Formula 1 section of the competition, a class that had 27 entrants taking

RICHARD Townsend led the way for Royston Rockets as they travelled to Norwich for the second round of the East Anglian BMX Winter Series.

Townsend raced home in third place it the Formula 1 section of the competition, a class that had 27 entrants taking part with a range of skill and age including European Champions and dads out for a bit of exercise.

In the B final Danny Bateman took fifth with Darren Foreman in seventh after a race long battle with James Dalleywater who finished a place behind him, while in the C final Paul Bateman finished fourth.

The youngest class are nominally seven years and under and are known as Formula 5, and three of Royston's four riders in the class made the main final with Ethan Vernon finishing second with Daniel Blanche in fifth and Oliver Snelling eighth, with the youngest of the four, Ted Dalleywater finishing second in the B final.

In Formula 4 for 8-10 year olds, the Rockets riders had more A final success with Aaron Dalleywater in a fine third just ahead of team mate Zak Foreman in fourth.

The Rockets only representative in Formula 3 (11-13 years) was Louis Burton who finished third and the two Royston riders in the Formula 2 class had more success in the A final with James Handleigh, who qualified to ride up a class following his win in the previous round of the series finished sixth, while Wayne Gutteridge was on fire all day to take a fine win - his first number one spot at regional level.

The next round in the series is at Peterborough on December 10 where the Rockets will again be out in force.

The Royston Rockets have had a busy two weeks with the club presentation taking place at the Bassingbourn Ski Centre last weekend and after a session of sliding down hill on a variety of sledges the members congregated for the main business of the day which was the trophy presentation.

The first awards were for the Club Summer Race series, with the six-and-under trophies going to Ted Dalleywater in third, Jasia Blanche in second and Daniel Blanche taking first.

In the seven-nine year class Ethan Lewis picked up the trophy, followed by Aaron Dalleywater and Bradan Blanche.

Anthony Taylor won the 10-14 class, with Wayne Gutteridge finishing runner-up and James Handleigh coming third.

The 15+ class was less well represented as many of the older members were involved in coaching and supporting the younger riders but second place went to Darren Foreman and the win was taken by Lee Alexander.

Following the presentation of the series trophies the individual annual awards were made with rider of the year going to Jonathan Roberts in recognition of his win at the British Championships and his work with the younger riders.

The member of the year went to Ethan Lewis in recognition of his regular attendance at all events and his positive attitude to racing.

The last two awards are in commemoration of club members who are no longer with us. The Shane Keeler award for the rider who enjoyed their racing whatever the result went to Aaron Dalleywater whilst the Rob Indri award for the most improved rider went to Wayne Gutteridge.