So that’s it again for another season; the 2016-17 winter bouldering league completed its final round six at EICA Ratho on 18^th March. The results are now up on the Mountaineering Scotland website.

There were 24 competitors taking part in the Ratho round amongst nearly 100 competing on the day.

Junior Categories:

Out of the four contenders in the Junior male category, the fight developed between Jack Mckechnie and David Miedzybrodzki. Both competed against each other in previous rounds swinging between 1^st and 2^nd place each time. They competed against each other in the last round (each completing their minimum of 4 rounds) and at Ratho, for the second time, Jack beat David to 1^st place in the round but not by much, which meant Jack managed to hang on to the lead and take the SNBL win by just 20 points. Fraser Moodie took 3^rd place. In the women’s Junior event the final winners were Kirsten Taylor in 1^st place and Lucy Ross in 2^nd.

Adult Female:

In the adult female category, the battle between Alison McDougal and Ajda Remskar for top spot over the rounds was upset somewhat on the day. Ajda did not compete at Dundee so her lead was just 9 points - she had to compete to win. Unfortunately she was unable to attend which left podium places possible for Lien Nguyen and Laura Begbie. However, Emily Eadie won this, her only SNBL round, placing her 8^th overall and Tiffany Murray competing in her third event in the league took 2^nd place which gave her 5^th place overall. This meant that Lien, the closest contender to Alison, gained 4^th in this event to place her on the SNBL podium in 3^rd place overall, a result which pushed Laura Begbie off the podium by only 11 points and Alison’s 3^rd place at Ratho meant she took the overall SNBL win; Ajda taking 2^nd place.

Adult Male:

Richard Abel’s position in 1^st place in the adult male category had been decided by the last round as he was 109 points ahead of his rival Jay Carr. He need not have competed but he came along for the crack and to make up his 4 rounds. Richard won with Jay a close 2^nd reducing Richard's SNBL points lead a little in the process. Nicholas Rodger was in 5^th after his last competition in Aberdeen, but a 3^rd place at Ratho meant he saw off his closest contenders Byron Jackson and Matt Berry as they did not compete. In the end Nicholas was just 0.5 points ahead of Byron to take 3^rd overall.

The Veterans:

There were only three competitors in the female vets category throughout the league and after Round 5 at Dundee, the fight to see who would take 1^st place was between Koon Morris and Debbie Riley. But at 30 SNBL points ahead, Koon was almost guaranteed the win had she competed. Unfortunately, she was unable to and Debbie took the win ahead of Koon and Avril Gall took 3^rd place overall in SNBL. Going into this final round for the male vets, Gareth Yardly was in 1^st overall having competed in 5 rounds and Dave Douglas was 2^nd having competed in 3 rounds. But there was only 30 points between them. Each time the two had competed head to head Dave had taken 1^st place, so Gareth had a hard fight on his hands. In the event Dave took the win and the league title and Gareth 2^nd overall. Brendan Pollitt and Dave Hainsworth came 3^rd and 4^th respectively at Ratho, but although John Sharples didn’t enter Dundee or Ratho his higher ranking points in his other 4 rounds meant he retained 3^rd place overall.

As an aside, out of a possible maximum of 400 SNBL Points available by coming 1^st in all four rounds, only Dave Douglas (Vet Male) managed a complete 400 sweep, whilst close behind him was Richard Abel (Adult Male) with 390, Jack Mckechnie (Junior Male) with 380 and Debbie Riley (Vet Female) with 370.

We would like to give a huge thank you to Allcord for their continuing support with a fantastic range of prizes and Winners T Shirts, and all the host walls for entering into the spirit of the league:

Alien Rock, Edinburgh

Inverness Leisure

Transition Extreme, Aberdeen

TCA, Glasgow

Avertical World, Dundee

EICA, Ratho

SNBL 2016-17 Winners:

See http://www.mountaineering.scot/activities/indoor-climbing/competitions/adult-cometitions/snbl for the full scores and ranking positions.