On Saturday 26 September the inaugural British Climbing Cup Championships will take place at Rockcity, Hull, giving British athletes much-needed competition practice post-lockdown. The invitational bouldering event will be contested by GB Climbing Team members and some of the country's top bouldering talent. A livestream of the semi-finals and finals will be hosted on the BBC Sport website and BBC iPlayer.
The routesetting team will consist of Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games chief routesetter, Percy Bishton, and IFSC setter Jamie Cassidy, with Mike Langley and Leah Crane in the commentary box.
On the women's side of the draw, reigning 2019 British Bouldering champion Holly Toothill will be seeking to continue to assert her position at top of the national stage, with GB Climbing Team members Hannah Slaney, Jo Neame, Rhos Frugtniet and Pippa Watkin being joined by some younger talent including Louise Flockhart and Thea Cameron.
Over on the men's side, former British Bouldering champions Matt Cousins and Dave Barrans are on the startlist alongside Jim Pope, Orrin Coley and future stars including Max Milne, Nathan Whaley and Toby Roberts.
Saturday 26 September (all times GMT)
10:35-12:30 - Semi-Finals
17:30-19:30 - Finals
Comments
I watched the Semi Finals yesterday and it seemed pretty slick. Well done - seeing the close-ups on some problems worked well.
What's the view on the new scoring system - does it open up new strategies?
Congratulations to Leah Crane. Very knowledgeable and a good, interesting, lively commentary. I hope she can cover more of these events.
John Gresty
I think it was a good attempt at improving the scoring, but still was not clear enough.
What I really liked, and think is absolutely necessary, is the combining of all tops/zones/attempts into one single score, with the winner being the climber with the highest score.
What I didn't like was the 110 point max per problem - doesn't seem intuitive. Also the 10 points given for free seemed, er, pointless :)
Anyone care to explain why 100 points for a flash wouldn't make more sense?
Makes a change from the usual trying to be cool beanie fests that weve come to expect from british climbing comps. Very professional.
Hi John,
It may well make more sense - 100 for a flash, 400 for a perfect score. It was the first time this scoring system had been used, and there was apparently a lot of debate and discussion before choosing the one used, and we judges were asked to provide feedback and thoughts - if it can be improved / made clearer, then no problem. The extra 10 points were "attempt points2 - each attempt beyond the first one cost you a point, the idea being to bring another element of strategy into play. Not perfect, but it was certainly not detrimental to what was a pretty good event - obviously would have been better with spectators, but in the current circumstances, i reckon the organisers should be feeling quite proud of how it all went.