The 2010/11 Southern Indoor Bouldering Series came to an end on 19th March, when Craggy Island 2 in Sutton hosted this year's Final. Preparations had begun for the day 48 hours earlier with March Croxall and his team of route setters busy as work creating a fitting finale to this year's series, along with Craggy Island's staff busy spreading the word and getting the centre ready for the day.
The centre was soon alive with over 100 competitors fighting it out including teams from the Westway, Calshot and Evolution climbing walls. At the start of the competition the Male Junior top three places where only spilt by a couple of points and spectators watched on as the boys fought for every point.
A favourite problem of competitors and spectators alike was the wacky upside down, feet first starting problem number 12. This involved hanging from your feet from a large hold and swinging round to mantle up to the same hold. With the right technique this proved do-able, but get it wrong and there seemed a hundred different ways to fall off it!
Once again the competition had attracted its usual mix of first time competitors and old hacks all joining in the fun and laid-back atmosphere of the competition. The hardest problems were soon being sent in all categories and even the tough routes on the comp wall wall soon fell to the likes of Jon Partridge and Liam Halsey. Throughout the day there were some added extra treats thrown in including a Rock On! traverse problem that had been set in the Kids area which proved quite tricky. Everyone who made it to the final hold was put in a raffle draw for the chance to win £50 worth of Rock On! vouchers. Alongside this, Karma, who make some superb fingerboards had created a custom fingerboard for the round and anyone who managed to top out the tricky slab of problem number 2 was again entered into a prize draw to win the board.
John Samways from the round sponsors Lyon (distributors of La Sportiva, Beal and Petzl amongst others) was on hand all day, sharing his indepth knowledge of products and offering support to all the competitors.
As the competitors and spectators gathered to see the final results from this year's series the guys and girls in the Open category had one final hour to try and earn every last point they could. At 5pm time had run out for everyone and the final call came for everyone to stop.
Whilst the scores were being worked out the renowned head-to-head took place. This consisted of the top five scores from the Open category fighting out a timed traverse problem. Ben Read, Kitty Wallace, Jon Partridge, Liam Halsey and Piotr Wycislik were called upon for the last time this year to do battle. All of them flew through the problem with quite amazing speed to finish off another great round.
The final results for the round were: Male Open
Female Open
Male Junior
Female Junior
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This years overall series winners were: : Male Open
Female Open
Male Junior
Female Junior
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SIBL would like to thank Craggy Island 2 – Sutton for all there hard work before the round and on the day. A special thanks to Mark Croxall and his team who done a great job at setting this years problems along with John Samways and Lyon Equipment who sponsored the round.
This year's series has been huge, with record numbers turning up. I would like to thank everyone who has attended and hope you have enjoyed the series. We will be back again in the Autumn but in the meantime, enjoy the sunshine (while it last) and I hope you have a enjoyable and safe time at the crags this summer. Keep an eye on the website for more information as it happens about the 2011/12 series.
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