I had a pretty full on day at the TCA in Glasgow where I competed in the second round of their Winter Bouldering Series.

In the morning I headed over to pick up friends of mine who were also competing, Neill Busby, Eddie Barbour and Lisandro Defays. Eddie is probably for lack of a better term (and possibly the most accurate one that comes to mind right now) my rival :P In a friendly way, but he is a good guy for me to try and beat as we both tend to climb at a fairly similar level, in quite a similar style and Eddie always tries really really hard, so you know it’s going to be a good challenge!

When we arrived at TCA, I went for a quick mosey around the problems to check what the setters had prepared for us. The competition format allows for everybody to try the same problems but with each successively higher hold gaining you more points than the previous. It’s like a route competition more or less but on boulders :PChris Everett on the campus move of one of the hardest qualifier problems - Photo by Jonathan Bean

I really like the format, especially on the Onsight days when you are only allowed one attempt for each problem. This basically means that you can’t screw up on your first attempt, as it’s the only one you are going to get. The best thing about this format - because you only try 20 x problems, 15 of which for the top 3 competitors shouldn’t be too hard, everybody is fresh for the finals allowing for a proper fun final battle to see who comes out on top.

The problems looked excellent and I couldn’t wait to get stuck in – so much so that I totally ignored the first 13 and just did 14, 15 and 16 straight away! I then went about some of the easier problems, getting a total shocker at No.8 which was totally sandbag for one of the first 10!

Once I felt up to it, I headed over to the top 3 problems to finally give them a good attempt. It was really funny though, all the strong guys were just looking at the problems and not trying them… Most of them were waiting on somebody to step forward and try first. Some of them were being attempted but nobody was getting really high, so for the guys who were aiming for finals it wasn’t giving a lot away as to the sequence. Eventually, I stepped up to try the middle of the top 3, in doing so, the boys behind me started to shout in jest - an possibly also to put me off a little :P

“Mr Phillips is getting on it now! EVERYBODY! ROBBIE IS GETTING ON THE HARD ONE!”

This definitely set the pressure as I was one of the first to try this and now I had a good crowd behind me watching intently to see what I did. It was a really cool problem actually and I didn’t do too badly on it.Edwardo Barbour on that damn heel hook problem! - Photo by Jonathan Bean The first 5 moves where very easy after which you had a tricky sequence coming out onto the volume and then a slap around it to reach a really positive sloper. The next section caught me a bit by surprise as I didn’t expect the lock off to be as hard as it was, but luckily my fingerboard training has been paying off and I managed the lock all the way to the crimp. It was here I got a bit stumped and made quite an out of control catch to the next pinch and came off. Not a bad attempt really, and well enough that nobody managed to get any higher during the rest of the day.

At the end of the qualifiers I had racked up a good score, dropping only 2 out of 20 problems and still scoring very high on them. This was more than enough to make the finals alongside Eddie Barbour and Mikey Bleausard.

After watching the juniors compete and seeing some impressively strong performances by the next generation, it was time for Seniors to step up to compete in the finals. We all walked out to view our problems, a fun looking black set. The left hand one was techy on small crimps and volumes, the middle was a horror fest on snake-like lapis crimps and the final on the right was a totally bewildering sloper test-piece on volumes.Me on the middle snake crimper problem in the finals! - Photo by Jonathan Bean

I had unfortunately suffered a very bad split on my left middle finger directly on the pad! This was really painful throughout the whole competition and by the time finals came along, it was starting to bleed slightly.

My first problem was the snake holds, this was really sharp and crimpy and it took all my effort not to let go in pain as I pulled. Luckily I topped it quickly, this gave me time to rest. If my finger had not been in so much pain, I am positive I would have flashed this quite easily, the power screams I made as I climbed were not due to the difficulty of the moves, more just trying not to think about my sore finger…

The second problem was the horrendous sloper on the right side. I got a little shut down on this, more to the point though, I had to quit early on it too. As I was climbing, I heard a loud crack come from my right knee as I rocked over on my heel. Following the crack was a sudden rush of pain and instead of pulling any further, I just dropped off. I lay on the ground in agony for what felt like ages… Everyone was asking how I was, I knew that I could walk but the pain was so bad that I didn’t want to. Eventually I just got up and walked out of sight so I could stretch and test what my knee would take.

Me again on that snaky crimps problem - Photo by Jonathan BeanBasically, any heel hook felt like my knee was going to explode… the next problem required a really hard pull on my right heel which of course was not ideal for my current situation. In the end, I had a decision to make, either give up and place 3^rd in the finals, or take a risk and see if my knee holds up on the climbing. What I did was stupid and not in any way reflective of what I would advise as a coach, but as a competitor, I wanted to win. I decided that one attempt would be all that it takes to top this and if my knee was too sore then I could just drop off…

I pulled on the first two holds, a couple of tiny slopey screw on crimps. The fact that my finger was now also gushing blood from the pad wasn’t helping and  the crimps felt like daggers in my finger! The second I pushed on my right foot I felt the pain rise up through my leg… I withstood it though… The next move required a high heel hook and a lock to reach a big sloper. I crimped down on the slopey crimp and felt the blood run out and slide along my finger, the heel was causing my knee to burn and I felt sick from the pain but I just locked harder on my arms and tried to pull as little on the heel as possible. Thankfully, I got a seat on the volume and this took the weight of my heel – thank god!

The next moves were all very easy and I could more or less leave my right leg hanging completely limp as my left leg did all the work. I crimped down on some more slopey crimps and yet more blood ran down my finger… It was pretty grim but I topped it regardless.

After I had topped, I jumped off and landed in a heap on the ground… down climbing was too much like hard work. I crawled away to sit down and didn’t even look at how Eddie or Mikey where getting on with the other problems, I just needed to rest and focus on stopping my leg from pulsating. I came back 10 minutes later to find out that somehow I had won? I was confused with this (and still am to a certain extent) as I was positive that Mikey had climbed better than me. Both of us topped 2 problems but because I had made it higher on the first attempt on problem 3, I won… Eddie was 3^rd and Mikey was 2^nd. Dave Macleod himself gave me my prize and I got to shake his hand… covered in blood :P

Anyway, massive big up to the setters of the fab problems throughout the competition. The qualifiers were great and the finals superb, can’t wait until the next competition in January. I hope I am fully recovered for the final competition – a 1^st and 2^nd place in this years winter series is not too bad for a route climber and it’s looking good for a series win if I can pull out another top 3 position. Just need to make sure Eddie doesn’t win another :P

Sunday

So, I awoke in Aberdeen around an hour after I went to sleep unable to move my leg without a shot of pain from my knee to my big toe. It seems the adrenaline of the competition and travel has worn out and the knee crack which at the time was very sore but afterwards had dulled down to a minor ache was now a deep throb and sore with only the slightest of movement.

Regretfully but unavoidably I had to cancel my coaching plans in Aberdeen and get the next train home so I could get to Hospital for a doctors opinion. Turns out, the doctor thinks it might be a damaged meniscus but there is no sign of any damage on the bone after an X-Ray. Theresa Tait at EICA has a few ideas and she gave me a good little massage to ease some of the tightness which already has given me a lot more freedom of movement without pain. 

I have a physio tomorrow at 3, so we will see what he/she thinks and hopefully an ultrasound will show up anything more sinister deeper within the knee if it's there... Hope not though...

Ewan Davidson cranking it at the comp

With the exception of a few tears from a few Ratho boulderers (and myself), the EICA Winter Bouldering Competition and Bonfire went exceedingly well. The day before the competition it was myself, Buz, Geek and Lisandro setting in the bouldering room. Although I never felt that my setting head was screwed on quite as tight as usual, I somehow managed to turn out a few good problems that caught the attention of those competing the following day. 

I set a funky White V6 right up the 45 board manoevering through the huge triangular volume from right to left. In my mind I wanted to set something that wasn't immediately obvious what to do and which would catch those out who wring handed or moved out of sequence. Watching climbers on the day, it did the right job with those who took the wrong sequence being either spat off early or forced into much more energy sapping moves which affected them on the final move (mantling the lip and undecutting the pinch to reach the final jug).

I also set a Fluro Yellow problem graded at around V7. This stopped most in their tracks but was techy enough and not simply brute force that meant those that took the time to work it out and plan their strategy actually managed to get high rather than just getting stuck on one move. Angus Davidson came close to a flash but had to settle for a 2nd go whilst Alan Cassidy flashed it whilst crimping the broken corner of the volume that everyonelse was pinching (it just looked painful!).

Alan Cassidy (TCA Coach) making awkward work of my Yellow V7 Volume weirdness!

What was great to see on the day was a good selection of Youth Teams from around the Scotland South region showing up to compete. We had our local youth team competing obviously, all of them doing well. From Glasgow the TCA Squad came through as well as a bunch of the Sterling climbers.Connor getting high on the Pink V-Board Bloc It is impressive to see how far Youth Climbing in Scotland has come since I started climbing, not only in the standards but also in the volume of kids taking part in the sport and enjoying the competetive element to it. I hope this continues in years to come as it is really a fantastic thing to see.Rory Whyte competing for TCA at EICA Although competitions can be stressful, they can also be great fun and provide valuable lessons to all those taking part. I know that Competitions have taught me a lot over the years and I know from watching the kids growing up in the comp scene now that they are too.

After the competition, we all headed outside into the darkness of night where the Ratho garden was lit up in flames by our Bonfire and fireworks. As I said before, the fuel for the bonfire was the much loved and missed volumes :( Gilles better get building some more soon :P Although it was cold, the bonfire and fireworks made up for it not to mention the tasty (though slightly raw) hamburgers cooked by Lisandro and Christian.

Thanks Guys for the food poisoning - only joking!

This year, TCA are hosting 4 bouldering competitions across the winter months. I am going to use these as personal goals to focus my strength and power training over the winter. I did well in the last two events held earlier this year and late last year - placing 1st in the Onsight and 2nd in the Redpoint event.

Today I took part in the first of the four events. This one being a Redpoint event allows for the climber to have as many goes on the problems during the qualifying round as they want with the number of goes not affecting the overall score, only the height you achieve when starting from the bottom.

I was climbing well in the qualifying round despite noticing that my skin was peeling off in copious amounts. I think this was from doing a lot less climbing than I'm used to recently, so skin built up into callice on the pads and began to peel off in waxy flakes! 

EURGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

The qualifiers were set by Paul Twomey and Joe Day. The problems were really well set, with interesting funky sequences and a good selection of hard problems to split the field. I find that I always do well in the qualifiers thanks to the length of some of the harder blocs. If the hardest problems where shorter then no doubt some of the stronger boulderers would cruise them and I'd be scuppered, but I always come through strong when the hard problems are long enduro fests :D In fact, I don't think I have lost a qualifying round yet?

This round I won the qualifiers based on three blocs in my opinion:

TCA Board Red Bloc

This beast of a problem was around 13 moves long in total and where most where just getting tired and falling off, I could keep going. 13 moves doesn't sound like very long, but it was powerful, upside down and very beta intensive! My style basically...

I managed to make it all the way to the last move, sticking the second last hold only just but failing when my feet cut sending me hurtling into the crowd behind me :P Almost killed several kids!

Endurance Board Traverse

There was a tricky bloc to the right of the circuit boards. On this one I managed to make quite a high flash attempt just skimming 48, which we all took as 46 due to ourdynamic slap and sudden dismount. I was lucky on returning about half-way through the comp to almost get a top just missing the last hold three times! At that point I decided to call it a day on this problem... Funnily enough I ended up returning later on and making the last move but not from the start!!!

Cobra Rood Red

I knew I would get high points on this for the pure fact that it was around 20 moves long! I never actually got past my 2nd attempt high point which was on the crux moves about 15 moves into the problem. I made this high point but other competitors I saw where only making a few moves lower than mine.

These three problem secured me a strong 1st place lead in the quali's, but I did feel that perhaps my eagerness to place high in the quali's might set me up badly for the finals. The finals was a tussle between me, Eddie Barbour of Ireland and local boy Chris Everett.

To be totally honest, Eddie wiped the floor with us! He topped all 3 problems in awesome style and I'm actually pretty upset with the whole experience :P How can I lose to an Irishman! I'm competing at ILCC's (Irish Lead Climbing Championships) next month so I can't let him beat me again. After the comp we discussed what might have gone wrong with some of our performances and why Eddie did so well. I think Eddie is just going stronger than me at the moment to be fair, although a few things to take note of for future comps that I felt held me back was:

1. On the first Bloc (No.3), I made the silly mistake of doubting my own sequence when it failed first time round. If I hadn't I probably would have topped that one on my 2nd go...
2. In the 2nd Bloc (No.1), I made a very bad route reading error of not noticing a really good heel hook that would have given me the ability to make two moves further and potentially given me another top!
3. The third problem (No.2) by then was totally smeggin' greasy. The sloper at the start was hideosuly greasy. Couple with the fact that my body temp was probably above 40 degrees and I was bucketing sweat didn't help. Realistically, that problem was only do-able if you where: a) strong enough that sweat wasn't an issue b) lacked sweat glands or c) had it as your first problem and therefore not already piping hot!

Basically, what I have discovered from this competition is that I need to sort out my Boulder route reading skillz before the next comp, I need to up my power enduro a bit for the finals, I need to make sure I am recurited to max strength and power and  finally... I need to drug Eddie before the next comp just enough so it looks like he's just weaker than me and not too much that he's having to bail... because that would just feel like a hollow victory now wouldn't it  :P

Also, big well done to the Edinburgh juniors Fraser Mcalwraith, Eilidh Vas Payne, Claudia Charlwood, Kirsten Gray, Keira Farmer and Jodie Brown for a great display of awesome climbing the whole day!

Beginner or Elite... Try Win a Prize

This coming Sunday (18th March) is going to be a really exciting one here at TCA.  We are opening our doors to all for FREE!  While the focus of the day is just coming in and enjoying the TCA facilities free of charge, we have a number of other things going on to make it all that bit more interesting.  The first of which is the mini boulder comp.

How does it work?

On the day there will 18 brand new problems falling in to the following 3 categories (i.e. 3 problems per category):

• Male & Female Beginner (climbing ability = Purple - Red Circuit: Font 3- 6b)


• Male & Female Intermediate (climbing ability = Red - Orange Circuit: Font 6b - 6c+)


• Male & Female Advanced (climbing ability = Orange - White Circuit Font 6c+ and up)

The competition will be a hybrid format of our onsight and redpoint competition formats and works like this:

• Each problem must be attempted Ground Up (i.e. starting from the beginning each time, no practicing moves) and each hold will be allocated a score.


• You can have as many goes as you wish on each problem.  You then record the highest scoring hold you get to and in how many attempts it took you to get there.


• The person with the highest score over three problems and in the fewest attempts wins.  Simple.

Which category you enter is based on your own honesty and trust but the judges do reserve the right to move people up a category if deemed appropriate.

The great news is that Ellis Brigham have also kindly donated prize vouchers for each category. So it is well worth having a go.

Saturday was the second round of Glasgow TCA's winter bouldering competitions. The first round held last year I had won, surprising myself in my bouldering ability which I had always thought of as clinically weak : P I guess it still is on a comparative scale with my endurance, but seeing as I'm a focussed route climber it was nice to enter a bouldering competition and come out on top - ONE UP TO DA ROUTE CLIMBAZ!!!

The second round in my opinion was even better than the first. I really enjoyed the style of setting in the qualifiers far more. The competition format was Redpoint, meaning you could have as many goes on the problems as you wanted. This meant that nerves were greatly reduced across the field of competitors. The only factor that you had to take into consideration was that because unlimited goes were allowed, the problems set were definitely a step up from last time. I felt that in this format I was a little disadvantaged from not being as strong as other guys out in the field who were mostly pure boulderers.

It was funny on Saturday, because even though it wasn't flash, I still tried hard to flash the problems for the added practice. I actually did quite well flashing all problems but four and apparently being the only guy to flash the insane slab (probably due to a slight height advantage I'll admit). The problems I didn't flash I managed to get most to the last or second last move by the end. I was a bit worried about my points, I knew Gary Vincent had done better than me on one or two problems and Alex Gorham was crushing absolutely everything I saw him on. Not to mention there where also a few dark horses floating around including one Ali Coull who I didn't realise I was climbing alongside until the very end of the comp.

In the end it was quite a shock, I actually managed to qualify in first place! I beat Gary by 2 points in the qualifiers (probably thanks to the slab) and Alex was in third. The finals were next up and I was eager to do my best in them. I spent most of the time I had eyeing up the final problems, learning every detail i could about them to give myself the best advantage to flash them. From my perspective, I thought that i could flash the far right problem (Problem No. 3), it looked the easiest and most basic. The middle problem (Problem No.2) looked awkward and confusing, but I knew it wasn't hard, just subtle and requiring a bit of finesse. The far left one (Problem No. 1) looked ok apart from one move to a volume which I was convinced I could get.

Problem No.1

I was first on this crazy thing. On my flash I made a stupid mistake half-way through and pinged of quite early. Second go was a lot better. I managed to stick all the moves until the volume, I eyed up the holds lying flat on the otherside, hoping they were there as I couldn't quite see them. I threw my hand round the side, caught it, but my other hand came off! I swung off with one hand on the volume and the other flying through the air - before I knew it I was lying flat on the ground. I knew I wouldn't get any higher but stupidly I decided to go for another blast... I didn't even get up as high as the volume : P

Problem No.2

This wasn't actually that bad. I think I could have done better on this if I had been on it first. I was still tired from the last problem and my fingers were starting to bleed at the tips : P It was just a weird sequence really. You had to manoeuvre your way around a huge volume and slap up to a big sloper, the problem here was that when you had the sloper you needed a high heel hook round the side to stabilise yourself before moving any higher, but I couldn't quite get my heel up and I fell flat on my butt!

Problem No.3

Not making excuses... we actually I am. By the time I came to this one I was well and truly gubbed! There was no chance I was going to do this. I knew this was probably the easiest of the three, I knew it was the most basic and only required the ability to pull hard - but I didn't have anything left : ( My arms were gone from previous attempts on the other problems and I had to just do my best. I barely got half way...

Thankfully halfway was enough to draw with Alex : P I got 2nd on countback and Alex was third. Gary won the finals with a flash of his first problem (Problem No.3).

It was a really great day overall and I can't wait until the next one! Come on TCA guys, can't we have one every month : P I think these bouldering competitions are a great way of testing how well you are going and I really enjoy them as days out just "hanging" with your mates. Saying that, big ups to Neill Busby who came 9th, Calum Forsyth who was 8th (just!) and Ian Patterson who was 14th!

Natalie came 2nd to Anna Trybis in the womans finals as well. Sorry Anna for stealing your brush : P

Also don't forget guys that EICA: Ratho have their winter bouldering competition on the 19th February. I am setting for the event and will also be demoing for Evolv on the day. We have the new Shaman's to test that Tiso's at Ratho will be stocking, so come by and grab a demo pair to test out at the comp : )

PEACE!

P.s. There are loads of photos by Jen Randall! Check out her site!

Anyway, I travelled through with two young boys I coach in Edinburgh, Sam (10), Leo (7) and their Dad, Fabrice. Sam and Leo where really looking forward to the comp as it was their first trip to TCA. When we arrived, I set about showing Sam and Leo the whole centre and we immediately got to work reading all the problems from No. 1 to No. 20 before they had even registered : P. The most important thing in competitions is getting the right warm up. The boys know their warm up at EICA but TCA was very different, so I took them to the circuit board wall and we discussed what was the best way to warm up before trying any of the problems.

Sam and Leo started the comp earlier than me, so I helped them with a few of their problems until my category (senior men) began. I wanted to wait until I saw the best senior guys arriving so that I could catch a sneaky bit of beta on some of the problems before I went. Roddy Mackenzie and his wife Anna Trybis arrived fairly early on and got warmed up. Soon after, Eddie Barbour arrived with Mike Mullins and Nat. There were a couple of other strong boys knocking around the place, guys like Alli Rob and some lads from Aberdeen. I was watching as everyone arrived and once I was satisfied enough of the strong guys had started, I began also.

It turned out a bit different to how I had imagined it. In most comps you do get to watch others trying the problems, but because everything was flash, there where no repeats after someone had attempted or climbed something, so everything went pretty quickly. In the end, I didn't actually get any beta on any problems and was actually among the first on most of the harder ones (more out of anticipation and boredom than anything else).

I flashed 18/20 problems altogether, mucking up only on one due to my foot getting caught on a different coloured hold as I moved to the final jug (annoying). When that happened, initially I was really annoyed as it was nothing I could have avoided, I certainly felt very cheated out of the problem and was worried that everyone else had done so much better than me.

Amazingly, it turned out that I qualified in first place! Roddy hadn't made it as far as me on two problems (more due to fitness and a debilitated shoulder than anything else), Eddie had screwed up on some other problems and Ali just dropped one move before me on the hardest problem (No.20). It ended up with me in 1st, Ali in 2nd and Roddy in 3rd.

I couldn't really believe that I had made it into the finals never mind in first place! Not only that, but I found out soon after that Sam had won his category (Junior Boys) and another boy I now coach, Scott, had qualified in 2nd for the finals! So far, a really successful event, anything that happens afterwards is nothing, I was happy with making the finals.

We all watched in awe at the Junior event as Scott, Fraser (A2 Wad) and Hamish (Bristol Wad) battled out in Junior boys. In the end, Hamish won by two points, Scott in 2nd and Fraser in 3rd. In the Junior girls it was equally impressive as Christie Macleod snatched a 1st, followed closely by EICA regular Megan Saunders and then another girl from Bristol.

Meanwhile, I started to warm up again for the men's category. The guys routes looked pretty hard, but we discussed the sequences during viewing time which helped a lot building confidence. It was good discussing with Roddy mainly, I knew since he was a really experienced comp boulderer that he would see most of the tricks. I was convinced the middle problem was flashable, the leftward one looked really hard but do-able and the rightwards one looked solid.

When it was time to climb, I stepped up to try the first problem (left), however, there had been a mix up regarding which climber was on which problem and i had to swap all of a sudden with Ali. This shook me a little as I had been focussing on doing the leftwards one and had to suddenly re-focus on a different one. It didn't matter anyway, it was the middle one that I had fancied my best chances on so I was quite happy to go do this. I actually had an amazing flash burn, falling just moving to the final hold! This confidence boost set me really well for the rest of the event. I managed to do good on the furthest left problem and not so good on the further right one. Regardless of position on those two, it was the first (middle) problem that made the difference. I took first place overall in the Men's Senior Category with £75 of Ellis Brigham Vouchers! WHOOOPEEEE!!!

Nat crushed the female seniors in style flashing every problem as if it was her warm up. Anna came in second and Holly Rees in third. Roddy and I joked that it was battle of the couples : P

It was a great comp regardless of me and Nats success and we are both eagerly looking forward to the next one in February. I am training hard at the moment, mainly focussing on the Siurana trip in spring, but most of my training revolves around bouldering anyway which is good prep for the comps also. EICA has just built a new 45 board in the bouldering room and we've bought a load of new holds (Moon and Beastmaker) so there's no excuses for not doing well next time round too : P I'm also getting through to TCA fairly often so I'm getting really familiar with the walls and style of setting.

Psyched!

ROBZ OUT

P.s. All photos courtesy of Will Carroll. Jen Randall also took lots of good shots, so check out her site for them, I just don't want to pay for them for my blog : P

FULL REVISED RESULTS OF EICA: RATHO FUN BOULDERING COMPETITION

U13 Boys

1 William Bosi 195
2 = Robert Davidson 180
2 = Sam Harlend sendra 180
4 Rory Cargill 177
5 Jamie Pendan 175
6 Rory White 167
7 David Medzybrodzki 163
8 Harry stansfeild 157
9 Ruraidh Middleton 146
10 = Evan Davis 127
10 = Findlay Johnson 126
12 Euan Farmer 122
13 benFindlay 102
14 = Evan Rasmussen 89
14 = Guy Mathison 89
16 Declan Currie 87

U13 girls

1 Rebecca Kinghorn 180
2 Eilalh Vass Payne 177
3 = Emily Eadie 172
3 = Kirsten Grey 172
3 = Gabrialla Stewart 172
6 Keira Farmer 170
7 Morgan rodgers 165
8 Kirsten Taylor 164
9 Ellie Hogarth 156
10 Jodie Brown 154
11 Erili Geddes 107
12 Freya Baxter 99

13- 16 boys

1 scott Keir 200 (Winner in Finals Climb-Off)
2 Jamie Drummond 200
3 Steven Addison 197
4 Angus Davidson 186
5 Malcolm bradley 181
6 Scott donaldson 170
7 Ruaraidh Macaskill 163
8 Alex Bosi 150
9 andrew Hairsworth 93
10 Scott Govens 32

13-16 girls

1 Rachel Carr 197
2 Sophie Harper 147
3 Amy Anderson 146
4 Nikki Addison 145
5 Simla Green 139
6 Christie Macleod 107
7 Lyndsey Forsyth 106
8 Megan Saunders 79
9 Victoria Boyd 44
10 Hannah Dewar 30

Rec. Men
1 Alexei Matveyev 162
2 Gordon McKillop 161
3 John Sharples 147
4= Mike Lewis 145
4= Mitch Figures 145
6 Robbie Carruthers 140
7 David Carruthers 139
8 Grant Saunders 134
9 Colin Mcpherd 120
10 Ian Brown 108
11 Martin Wood 107

12 Lukas Solanka 99

13 Alex Scott 93

14 Mark Hammonds 83
15 Dave Brown 77
16 Tim Squires 70
17 David Wilson 55
18= Tom Jones 50
18= Sean Hiddleston 50
20 John Macleod 45
21 Paul Gowens 40

Rec.Women

1 Nicola Bishop 135
2 Gail Robertson 54
3 Avril Gall 50
4 Dawn Thomson 47
5 Kim Picozzi 45
6 Emily Raemaekers 22

Adv. Men

1 Will Atkinson 197
2 Eddie Barbour 184
3 John Brown 170
4 Andrew Simpson 162
5 Alex Gorham 160
6 Dylan Mackenzie 157
7 Kris Devlin 149
8 Mike Rudden 147
9= Ross Henighen 137
9= Merlin Floate 137
11 Paul Williamson 134

12 James McCartan 121
13 Will Carroll 102
14 David Gudmundsson 101
15= Nick O'Grady 100
15= Fraser Harle 100
17 Paul Raeside 94
18 Fraser Gibson 87
19 Donald Slatter 60

Adv. Women

1 Natalie Berry 125
2 Anna Wells 114
3 Xiao Xian Goh 93
4 Lasma Seitinsone 92
5 Eva Sparreboom 72

Vet. Men

1 Ruairidh Mackenzie 149
2 Neil Shepherd 146
3 Peter Roy 144
4 Robert Durran 137
5 Kevin Gibson 114
6 Dave Hainsworth 90
7 Ed Payne 52
8 Gregor Hannappel 50
9 Sandy Carr 49

I was hanging about the slab boulder for 90% of the comp, as this was where all the kids problems where held! I was assisting with all the kids I could, in particular the ones I coach regularly at EICA: Ratho. I was so impressed by the high level of performance of all the kids, but also the attitude each and every one of them had to competing. In my opinion, the most difficult thing about competing is not taking it too seriously, the main goal is to have fun and secondary is to win. If you enjoy yourself at the competitions, you will always win regardless of whether you beat anyone... and if you do actually win the comp, then thats a bonus : P Also, seeing every kid help each other out with problems, solving the puzzles together and working as a team is something else entirely I've never seen in any other sport and its a beautiful aspect of climbing that we seem to have. I watched as young Rory Whyte attempted a hard problem in the comp, fell off then as his friend Sam approached to do the problem, Rory's only thoughts where off giving Sam some beta and encouraging him to top the problem as much as he could, knowing full well that if Sam topped he would be better of in the rankings!

There where three main problems in the junior (U13's) category that seemed to break up the kids. These where all centered around one part of the wall, a vicious roof with the two hardest problems on it (orange + White) and a Ripple mantle pulling over the lip of the roof! The White was about V5/6 and the Orange definitely not easier than V5 for a kid. I'd say that the ripple was about V3ish, but the mantle was a deep lock and required flexible hips if you were short to reach the jug to which the final VB section of wall was reached i.e. a V3 with one move... a mantle! The ripple saw very few flash sends, only two that I witnessed (one from Sam and another from a young girl I hadn't seen before).

The Orange roof was very long and sequency (one of my addition to the comp : P ). It was absolutely essential to have the roof sequence perfect to complete the problem, otherwise it was impossible! William Bosi, a super talented climber and technical wizard made the flash look easy and got the sequence perfect, however everyone else struggled immensely with it, the two closest I saw where Rory, Sam and the other girl from Inverness. Rory was throwing himself continuously at the problem, every time looking a bit stronger and every time a bit close... but alas, no cigar! Sam had a solid sequence that was working for him, but over time, tiresome set in and he didn't have enough left to complete it. The young girl I saw from Inverness was very impressive, making the crux look easy, but did not have the right sequence for the final pull over the lip and blew it right at the end : (

Finally, the white problem only saw one ascent, William Bosi did it 3rd go to raucous applause by the crowd of watching kids and parents. everyone was struggling with the slopey open-handed nature of the holds and the roof was core sapping with powerful moves between small jugs... basically I built this problem to be an anti-child friendly problem. Being good on slopers generally means having big hands, and little kids don't generally have big hands, hence slopers don't tend to mix well with kids : p So although we saw some sick effort on the problem, the white was left without a second ascent  : ( Big up to Kirsten Gray though for her awesome heel hooking extravaganza on it!

In the U16's, both Scott Kerr and Jamie Drummond topped all the problems in the qualifiers securing a joint 1st place each, so in order to split the tie, an exciting final was put on for the crowd where Jamie and Scott had to climb three problems and if one climbed more than the other then they would be the victor, otherwise it would go into a super-final to see who got the furthest on an even harder problem! The first problem to climb was a tricky green crimpy problem up the pillar, both Jamie and Scott misplaced their feet on the first move and slipped off, making them joint equal still! The second problem was a pink mantle (one of my special little additions to the comp!). Jamie was first up, cruising the whole first section of the problem he was looking good for topping out, but the mantle was still to come... Upon reaching the mantle, Jamie started huffing and puffing, getting psyched up for the hard pull! Psyched up, he threw himself over the volume into the mantle position, for a while he was battling against the pull of gravity, then suddenly he fell back off the volume... but to the astonishment of the crowd he was reluctant to let go and maintained contact with the volume! He was still on the wall and went for one last blast to bag the send and with one mighty push, he was over the mantle and matched on the final two holds!

A huge roar burst from the crowd and no doubt Scott must have been shaking in his boots in isolation from what he must have heard. Next out, Scott ran over to the problem, chalked up and wasting no time at all got stuck in! Scott walked up the start, straight into the mantle and rolled over the volume straight into a standing position as if it were simply a step on a staircase! I know for a fact though that Scott had been practicing mantles at his local wall (Transition Extreme), he had been showing me the one set a few weeks ago for a local bouldering comp and it was no wonder he cruised this problem! The final problem was Busby's orange up the v-board! It waved about the wall, moving through three different volumes and made use of the mighty big bertha hold from Holdz which is possibly one of the coolest holds on earth! Jamie came out into the crowd and quickly looked over the problem, chalked up and went for the send... He was looking solid so far, but then straight into Bertha came the tricky sequence! Around the corner of the board was a juggy crimp, only accessible via a subtle toe hook and balancy body maneuver, without the toe hook its hard to keep your feet on once you latch the crimp and generally if your feet cut loose here its all gone! Jamie got Bertha, grabbed the jug undercut to place the toe, but instead, placed a heel... he threw for the crimp but as he latched it his feet cut loose and he was off! Jamie left the wall disappointed and Scott came out looking focussed but nervous. After a quick read of the sequence, he was on the wall. Same as Jamie he approached Bertha cruising, into the same position he went, undercut with his right, Bertha with his left, he moved his foot up to place on Bertha... and it was a toe hook! He balanced himself, threw for the crimp, and he was still on!!! Raucous applause came from the crowd, he slapped up the wall onto the panel corner, squeezing it he eyed the next crimp, SLAP! He latched it!!! Moving on up, the rest wasn't a problem for him and he topped out, the new EICA: Ratho Bouldering Competition U16 Champion!

Unfortunately, I don't have full results as of yet but will make the effort to get them uploaded onto the blog tomorrow! Nat Berry and Will Atkinson were the victors of the senior categories followed closely by Eddie Barbour and Anna Wells in second place!

It was a very busy day for me and I am pretty tired now, but the work doesn't end yet, I still have to run the British Team Training Event tomorrow which hopefully will be a great success also! I have some cool ideas (one special in particular thanks to Geek) that will make tomorrow a fun and educational day for all the kids involved.

On a final separate note, I have had a crazy amount of interest for the Yorkshire trips so will probably be having to organise more trips around the same time, if you are keen to join in on them, please get in touch ASAP if you hope to book a place!

All the best guys and happy cranking!

ROBZ OUT

P.s. Check out Will Carroll's website for more awesome pics as well as his flickr, comp pics should be up soon!

We had a huge crew of psyched setter helping out today including Neil Busby, Neil Mcgeachy, Gary Vincent, Calum Forsyth, Ian Sneddon, Jamie Drummond, Mark Mcgowan and myself of course! This comp has by far the most interesting problems I've ever seen at such an event, even funkier than the BBC's (which in comparison were more like Craig Y Longridge problems).

After the comp, I am going to write up a report on the event and you can see loads of results and some cool pics to go along with!

I am pretty dead now so I'll leave it at that...

Check up tomorrow for the exciting low-down on the EICA: Ratho Bouldering Championships WOOOOOOHHHH!!!!

ROBZ OUT