& Rock Southern Indoor Bouldering League 2007/8
Round One – Mile End, London
On Sunday 4th November, despite great weather outside and another major competition the day before, were almost 200 competitors turned out to Round One of the Snow & Rock Southern Indoor Bouldering League (SIBL), held at Mile End Climbing Wall, London. The event is held over 6 rounds at 6 of the top walls in the South East. It draws some of the best boulderers in the area and for round one even the British Team attended.
Registration started at 10am and was extremely busy but well ordered right up to the 11am competition start time. Competitors for the main league could choose to warm up on the 10 Fun Comp routes by donating to a fund supporting the Mile End charities, they also got entered in to a draw to win a trip to Font with Boulder Bus (well done to Zoe Fidler)
The main competition sponsored by Metolius & Evolv rock boots started promptly at 11am and competitors spread themselves evenly round Mile End inspecting the 20 set problems, the Junior Male and Female categories did the same problems as the Male and Female Open categories but with slightly changed rules meaning that final scores were close across all categories.
Results for the day were
Male Open:
1 Jon Partridge 183
Evolv Rock boots
2 Merlin Kassab 182
Metolius Rock rings
3 Chris Zuran 170
Metolius Goodies
Female open:
1 Clare Curling 154
Evolv Rock boots
2 Jessica Garland 148
Metolius Rock rings
3 Charlie Kelly 139
Metolius Goodies
Male Junior:
1 Jake Storm 168
Evolv Rock boots
2 Henry Francis 149
Metolius Rock rings
3 Will Peck 148
Metolius Goodies
Female Junior:
1 Kitty Wallace 151
Evolv Rock boots
2 Maud Galmiche 128
Metolius Rock rings
3 Amber Bouderstone 126
Metolius Goodies
Vets:
1 BarryKnight 151
Snow & Rock Voucher
2 Martin Randall 148
3 Justin Downthwaite137
At 3pm the horn sounded to mark the end of the event and everyone rushed to get their score cards in and the results were tallied up, the top 5 scorers overall then went through to the traditional Head to Head this year sponsored by Bleaustone, Ben Read, Matt Cousins, Chris Zuran, Merlin Kussab and Jon Partridge were placed in isolation and completed a long traverse with a final overhanging section set exclusively on Bleaustone holds. Matt Cousins last years champion emerged the eventual winner just beating Jon Partridge on time as both fell on the final dyno to the last hold.
Also big thanks to Neil and Keith for route setting, and the orc and loz for sticking up the banners and helping out, also Chris hart for sitting on the computer all day
Round Two takes place on 18th November at Evolution Indoor Climbing, nr Harrisons Rocks in East Sussex.
