Oakley Grom Games at Chille Factore in Manchester

Saturday 17th April 2010,

Today BeXx headed up to the Chill Factore indoor slope in Manchester for the first ever 'Oakley Grom Games'. There was a lot of excitement in the air as this event was going to judged by the legendary Jenny Jones gold medal winner of both the American and European Winter X Games 2010.

BeXx set off up the motorway in convoy with two other Maverix team members Josh Ogden and Jake Binnee. The whole journey was also spent in 'Walky Talky' communication with her good friend and riding buddy Cerys Allen (10). On arriving at the slope all the Milton Keynes based Groms rushed to check out the features on the slope, and became very excited by the set up.

The competition was to be broken up into different age categories, BeXx, Cerys, and Jake would all be in the under 12's along with another two friends of BeXx from The Brits event, Lucy Prior and Katie Omerode. It was soon apparent that there was a fair number of girls competing in the same category as BeXx.

The format for the competition was a jam session, this meant that all the competitors would be riding on the slope at the same time. However the organisers had the good sense to issue everyone with a unique stick on number, so that Jenny and the other judges could identify who was who. So for two hours everyone was throwing down their best tricks on as many features as possible. The slope had three features at the top, then three in the middle and then three different size kickers and finished up with two different types of stall feature at the bottom.

All the Maverix team were throwing down some awesome tricks, and Cerys pulled out a new trick over the small kicker.

Jamie Green and his family from Boarders Boards one of BeXx's sponsors and also Jez Ainsworth and his family from Chiemsee clothing had turned up to support her. Jez's two lads Harry and Charlie had made a special banner to urge BeXx on, and they hung this over the balcony for her to see. This really inspired her as she had never met them before and did not know who was holding the banner for her.

BeXx holding the banner made for her

By Harry and Charlie Ainsworth

The judgeing finished and the results were calculated the three top riders in each category would be announced and prizes given. First category to be called was the under 12's. Waiting with bated breathe, there was a bit of confusion as a lad called Jacob Roy Robertson was announced in third place. The confusion was caused as Jacob signed in using his nick name of JJ and the organisers had accidentally placed him in the girls category. They later sorted this out placing Lucy Prior in third place, and JJ recieved a prize as well.

BeXx was overjoyed to then be announced in 2nd place, and took her place on the podium after recieving her goody bag containing a nice pair of very expensive Oakley googles and a Groms tee shirt. The final results for the under 12's girls were as follows:-

1. Katie Omerode

2. Becky Menday

3. Lucy Prior

When asked what the highlight of the Event was for BeXx she replied "not only meeting but being given a big hug by Jenny Jones she is famous and such a good rider". Who needs prizes when you have Jenny around!

All the guys and girls rode really well and some amazing stuff was thrown down by everybody. BeXx would like to say a big thankyou to Jez for making her so welcome and allowing all the Menday clan to crash at their house for the night. Also for all the kind words of support and encouragement given to her during and after the event.