Tuesday 28th November 2017, 1:14pm
By Kevin Howett
It was great to be able to have a round at the new Alien Rock wall: Alien Bloc. William Bosi (GB Team member and Olympic hopeful) was one of the route setters for this hotly contested Alien competition so there was bound to be some interesting and testing problems.
It was a good turnout in the Male Vets with 7 competitors including two new faces to SNBL. Gareth Yardley remains top dog, but only just as he was beaten to 2nd place in the comp by David Watt who was 4th at TCA. His win at Alien brings him up to 2nd in the SNBL forcing Dave Douglas to drop to 3rd. The new names did well with Brendan Pollit usurping Ian McFadyen to 6th place overall and Robert C Wallace lays joint 7th with Mark Goodall. Will anyone topple Gareth this year?
Rachel Carr
In the Female Vets, Mountaineering Scotland Director Avril Gall entered the fray picking up 3rd place in the comp to place her 4th in SNBL. The top two contenders competed again with Koon Morris staying ahead of Debbie Riley so far in 1st and 2nd respectively. Helen Rowlands moved into 3rd Place overall.
In the Junior Male category Euan Farmer was the only competitor from the last round to compete, alongside new face Joe Wallace. Euan took the win but Stephen Keir and Fraser Moodie were close on his tail at TCA so there is still a lot to play for in this category.
In the Junior Female category, Emma Davidson had someone to compete against this round with Ella Yip entering the fray.
17 competitors battled in the SNBL Adult Male category. Previous 1st place Max Milne elected not to compete at Alien which left the top spot open for Calum Cunningham and Jack McKechnie to fight over. Jack came 1st gaining the full 100 SNBL points with Calum joint 2nd with Alexander Bosi, which was enough to give him 1st Place in SNBL. Alexander comes into the league on 6th place. Our own ClimbScotland Jamie Smith gained a 15th place overall gaining 22 SNBL points putting him in 26th Place. Doing their first SNBL round were Roger Scott coming in at joint 19th ranking and Angus Harrison-Smart at joint 15th.
In the Adult Female category there were 18 competitors signed up for SNBL. Rachel Carr took the win and gained 100 SNBL points on this her first round to be placed joint 4th with Lucy Ross who did not compete at Alien. Ajda Remskar retained her SNBL 1st place ranking coming second in the comp. Mhairi Thorburn was 3rd in the comp and moved up to 3rd in SNBL rankings. New faces at Alien were Elsie Riley placed 12th overall and Tiffany Murray who was 4th in the comp and so gained 9th place in SNBL.
ROUND 3 is coming up sooner than you think!
There is not a lot of time before the next round which is being held at Transition Extreme in Aberdeen on December 2nd. This is an opportunity for the northern competitors to get some ranking points in. So get along to Aberdeen before you eat too many Christmas pies!
We are grateful to Psychi for supporting the Scottish National Bouldering League with prizes. Psychi is a UK-based fitness and climbing brand which offers a climbing essentials range with all the basic climbing and bouldering essentials. All its products are designed in the UK and tested by experienced athletes whose core values of quality, performance and design are at the heart of their business.
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ClimbScotland is a registered trademark of the Mountaineering Council of Scotland Limited
Mountaineering Scotland is a registered trademark of the Mountaineering Council of Scotland Limited
