A 20-year reunion takes place at Ryde ice rink on Saturday 16 July from 7pm till late. Past and present staff, customers, hockey players and figure skaters are welcome for an evening of classic tunes and great games.

From the figure skating point of view, in the past 20 years, the rink has produced a number of talented skaters who have gone on to win medals at British championships, including:

Robert Paxton, who with skating partner Erica Risseeuw achieved silver in the senior pairs at the British Championships in 2009. They went on to achieve seventh in the pairs competition at the European Championships that year; Robert is the first IW skater to participate in that event. Robert started skating at the age of seven, in the earliest years of the rink. He moved to Canada to continue training as a solo skater before switching to pairs. Both Robert and Erica now skate professionally.

Charlotte and Henry Aiken: Charlotte and younger brother Henry both learned to skate at Ryde, moving on to Guildford where they switched to ice dance. Charlotte was junior ladies’ solo ice dance champion in 2007;  Henry was novice men’s solo ice dance champion the same year. Charlotte joined up with skating partner Josh Whidborne in 2008: they are current British junior ice dance champions, and are now based in Madrid, Spain, preparing for competition at senior level. Henry and skating partner Annika Mackza are current British novice ice dance champions.

Synchronized skating teams: the Wight Jewels have won the British junior championship three times in succession; the Wight Crystals have also won the juvenile championships three times in total. As current British champions, the Jewels compete internationally, having twice taken part in the junior world championship event, the Junior World Challenge Cup.

Not bad for an ice rink measuring just 44 by 22 metres.

Facebook event: http://www.facebook.com/

Charlotte Aiken and Josh Whidborne: http://aiken-whidborne.ice-dance.com/