[dobbin]

The second round of the British Bouldering Championships took place at BoulderUK in Blackburn on Saturday and Sunday just gone (1-2/11). The problems for the adults on Saturday were set at international level, and consequently anyone who'd got a big score previously may well have found it hard to maintain the same level this time. Owing to the small size of the venue it felt very busy trying to get round the problems, which, as usual were excellent - ranging from tenuous moves up a hanging arete on tiny screw on footholds to gorilla like tufa tugging giving a full body pump.

Both Malc and Andy only scored in the seventies in qualification and Gaz in the fifties, compared to the usual scores that people get to qualify this gives an impression of how hard the problems were on the day.

The usual suspects got through to the final - Malc, Andy, Gaz and Mark as well as Pete Hurly, Dan Bradley and Martin Smith. In the womens competition Gemma Powell climbed well in her first year as an adult, the other girls who got through were Jo Gordon, Sadie Renwick, Karin Magog, Alison Martindale and Jackie Godsman.

The mens finals are always exciting and they look soooo hard! the style of the climbing on almost all of the final problems seemed to require both tenacity and cunning rather than raw power - although a certain gent did manage to one arm dead hang a shit sloper in a half lever position in order to casually maneuveure into the next move! Mark Croxall showed all the benefits of a misspent youth at the Foundry and climbed really well to win the comp on the day although other mentions must go to Pete Hurly for dispatching the first problem in good style and to Big Malc for taking the piss on a move that had almost everyone else slapping like a fish! But mainly to Mr Parry who ended up facing the crowd at the top of the wall and nearly braining himself on one of the volumes as his hands slipped - exciting stuff!

Rather frustratingly I managed 3 problems but only 1 of them inside three goes, giving me a massive 14 points (7 bonuses), so I went to Longridge to sulk in between the qualifiers and the Mens Final and missed most of the womens - I did get some pics at the end though, and I'll upload them later.

Results as follows:

Finalists Men  
1 Mark Croxall      
2 Andrew Earl      
3 Gareth Parry      
4 Malcolm Smith    
5 Tom Sugden      
6 Pete Hurly      
7 Dan Bradley      
8 Martin Smith

Women
1 Jo Gordon
2 Sadie Renwick
3 Karin Magog
4 Jemma Powell
5 Jackie Godsman
6 Alison Martindale

On to Preston - two weeks!

[dobbin]

Pictures in thumbnailed format here

Pete Hurly showing how to apply trad climbing style to comps:



Yes, he is hanging a double hand jam!

[dobbin]

Good Pic of Andy earl stolen from a post on PlanetFear (courtesy of Ian Redmond):

[squeek]

Did anyone go to the juniors yesterday?  How many people went?
What were the problems like?  how close was the competition?
The Senior Mens was really close, with all top 3 men getting the same amount of top outs and bonuses in the final!

[dobbin]

Dunno the answers to any of those dude, but just bumped into Stu Watson who tells me his brother came second and that the competition was really close and all very exciting again...

[squeek]

Ah well not to worry.  I'm off to the old boulderUK in 30 mins anyway, so I'll just ask gaz/Ian/Jamie or who ever's about.  

They've probably left the junior problems up as well, looks like I'm in for a humbling climbing session tonight!

[Bubba]

Nice pics Dobbin  :D

[T.H.]

I was with Mark in Font a few days earlier and he was climbing like an absolute demon.

Watched in awe as he flashed loads of 7Cs and work (I say work, I mean do in a few attempts) even harder stuff.

That guy deserves more coverage than many other well known boulderers.

[Stu Littlefair]

I was with Mark in Font a few years earlier and he was climbing like an absolute punter.

Watched in awe as he failed on loads of 7bs and work (I say work, I mean flail on) even harder stuff.

Fair dos though - we did manage to make him strip off and run naked round the Berezina boulder. That guy really needs more coverage than many other well known boulderers. A pair of trousers would be a good start.

[dobbin]

The team players called him Darius throughout all of last year owing to his dodgy barnet, and to be honest the thought of a naked Dariarse pelting round Font is enough to deter me from ever going again.

Anyway, Cresciano is the new Font.

Squeek - what state is Blackburn in? are the junior problems still up?

[squeek]

They have put a variety of comp problems up, some from womens, mens and juniors.  Some of the smaller volumes weren't Vickers' so they've been replaced with bolt-ons.

From the Men's qualifying there is problem 8 the one I was judging taht was hideously hard and only Andy Earl got up, the one with the gasto on the bottom of the volume.  And the white one which was a sit start in the far left corner as you walk in.  The purple in the corner with the big leep leftwards, and dyno at the end.  Some of the Green form the men's final was there as well.

Nearly all womens final problems are still there, apart from the one where you had to jam your foot in the crack.

I wasn't at the juniors so I don't know which ones were which, but there were some from the girls and boys final, and qualifying  I was told.
There's a nice green up the prow which is pretty hard and has a huge move at the end, think that was boys final.

Then they've put a few (but only a few) easy climbs up, to warm up on.  They might have stuck a few more middle grade climbs on today, ie v3-5 as they seemed to be missing these grades bar 1 or 2 problems, which is a pretty big leap.

[gritmonkey]

In the Lads Jeff Landman was very solid and looks the real deal. Stewart was right his brother Martin was impressive Tom Newman has come from nowhere to claim his second, third place of the championship and is climbing out of his skin. Tom Arnold, qualified really well but did not carry it through to the final.
In the Girls Hazel Findlay is now clearly the number one and it showed. In the qualifying both Leah Crane and Lucy Turner looked to be in trouble and only sneaked into the final by one bonus, both climbed better in the. The Big star was 12-Years-old Nottingham Climber Beth Monks, who qualified second, but struggled to come to terms with her first experience of the format used for the BBC final and ended up sixth.

[dobbin]

Finally bothered to upload the video from blackburn, its 5.4mb and includes such luminaries as 'Burly' Pete Hurly, 'Mad' Malcolm Smith, 'Mean' Mark Croxall and Andy Earl's back.

Its windows media video so you'll need media player, shout if you have any problems.

[Adam Lincoln]

Finally bothered to upload the video from blackburn, its 5.4mb and includes such luminaries as 'Burly' Pete Hurly, 'Mad' Malcolm Smith, 'Mean' Mark Croxall and Andy Earl's back.

Its windows media video so you'll need media player, shout if you have any problems.

Nice, ill point the burley one at it.