IT’S the game that put the map on Reading and it’s coming to a street near you.
Ten years ago, Dr William Bird, devised a game that would get the town’s residents active while also discovering their local community.
Now Beat the Street is coming home to the place where it all began with a six-week free, fun game for all ages whether you walk, cycle or wheel around your local area.
Running to November 1, the aim is to collect points by finding 60 contactless sensors called Beat Boxes on lampposts. Visit the next Beat Box within an hour to collect 20 points and carry on to as many as you can.
When it first began, 5,000 people took part walking 51,000 miles over three weeks and now Beat the Street has gone nationwide with over 1.7 million players across 164 locations in the UK. So far more than 1.7 million people have played Beat the Street, across more than 164 locations across the UK.
Dr Bird said he was “excited” that Beat the Street was finally coming home to the town where it all began: “All the games across the country begin their journey with our team at the Reading headquarters doing all the planning and logistics for everything to run smoothly.
“The whole idea of Beat the Street is to really get those people who don’t know what’s around them moving again and getting outdoors. This could be through activities or new places to go, so we use the game to incentivise them to get out and about and connect with other people in the teams that they form.
“To be delivering this game in our hometown in partnership with the Eden Project, Nature Nurture, Sport England and our neighbours Sport in Mind as part of the Green Social Prescribing Project feels like a huge milestone and a lifelong dream come to life from when I started the Health Walks and Green Gyms back in the 1990s.”
The game will see the West Reading wards of Norcot, Southcote, Coley, Battle and parts of Abbey and Tilehurst wards transformed into a giant board game where walking replaces throwing dice.
Players can create teams within their workplace, school, family or community and there will be prizes for the teams that travel the furthest. Beat the Street leaderboards will allow players and teams to compare their progress and engage in healthy competition. These will show an average leaderboard and a total points leaderboard to give teams of all sizes an opportunity to win prizes.
Children from participating primary schools will be given a map and a card, while adults in the wider community can pick up a card from any of the distribution points listed on the Beat the Street West Reading website.
Players over the age of 13 can also play via the Beat the Street App which can be downloaded via Google Play or the App Store. By playing with the Beat the Street App you can get access to exclusive features, collect Gems, choose an avatar to represent you and raise the competition with the team leaderboards.
Beat the Street West Reading is being delivered by Intelligent Health in partnership with Nature Nurture and Sport in Mind. It is funded by the Eden Project and the National Lottery via Sport England. Beat the Street West Reading has been commissioned as part of the Eden Project Nature Connections Programme.
For full details go to: www.beatthestreet.me
