With 180 competitors Sundays event was the busiest they have ever had and attracted a very high standard of competitor, including Gaz Parry and John Partridge from the British Bouldering Team. However the competition remains a fun outing and a great opportunity to pit your bouldering skills against your friends and other enthusiasts. The team at Craggy worked all week hosting the tri services bouldering league on the Wednesday and then the SIBL on the Sunday, with all routes set specifically for each event by Mark Croxall, Mike Hadcocks and Danie Rushmer. For SIBL depending on the category entered you get a colour coded score card and then your left to find the routes tagged with the colour of your card. Craggy 2 crew along with the SIBL team were on hand to help entrants find their way about the myriad of walls and what could have been chaotic (due to the high numbers), was incredibly well ordered and fun for juniors as well as the adults!
The Southern Indoor Bouldering League has been in existence in one form or another for 20 years and has recently been given a revamp by Sam Johnson who took it on in 2009. However this year other commitments meant that Sam passed the baton on to David Andrews, although a relative new comer to bouldering, has big plans to expand the series. “Craggy 2 is such an amazing venue, the level of organisation and quality of the routes is incredible and a great place to start the series,” says David who has pulled together an impressive list of sponsors and high profile venues for this season’s 6 competitions and urges anyone who is toying with the idea to get involved. A view echoed by Gareth Squire centre manager at Craggy2, “competitions and especially SIBL are especially welcome at our wall as they give a real sense of focus to boulderers especially during the hard winter months where getting outside can seem a distant goal”. Prizes were donated by Rock On and Sportiva who had a big presence on the day setting routes and with a boot demo respectively.
We were especially proud that Craggy members turned out to compete in such numbers and featured so well in Tiffany, Vicky, and Lucy Bradbury in the juniors, who has been with us through our kids clubs and Craghoppers. We are yet to get the full results from SIBL, so if you were wondering where you came, so are we! I have been assured by David Andrews that the full results will be found on www.sibl.co.uk in the next few days.
SIBL first round at Craggy 2 results
male open: 1st Jon Partridge (190) 2nd Tom Gore (166) 3rd Marcin Franiak (165)
female open: 1st Tiffany Soithongsuk (130) 2nd Yvonne Cortrulia (122) 3rd Vicky Hau (111)
male junior: 1st Max Wright (168) 2nd Oscar Krumlinde (156) 3rd Brendan Gallagher (142)
female junior: 1st Becky Whaley (134) 2nd Lucy Bradbury (127) 3rd Izzie cooke (121)
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Tags: competition, Craggy 2, SIBL
Christmas will come early for Craggy2 as we get the company of our merry route setting elves next week in the Rock Room.
