On Wednesday the 16th, after a day of route
setting and wall building at The Castle, a hectic evening awaits us. As always
a lot got left to the last minute and we had to pack an alarming amount of
stuff into my van plus Alex’s and Gaz’s cars.
In true Al style we manage to squeeze in all two boxes in the back of
the “beamer” but luckily Gaz’s car seems to be a TARDIS. It surprised me just
how much stuff you need to put on an event like Blocfest and, as Reading was
over an hour away for us, forgetting something major was simply not an
option. After the packing, kicking and
slamming the doors on the motors we moved out of the cold and went inside to
deal with the paper work. The
scorecards, number cards, challenge posters, registration database and tones of
other stuff needed to be ordered and packed up.
By 11:30pm it was done - I was destroyed and couldn’t believe the
festival was still three days away!
On Thursday morning we headed toward Reading with fresh
psyche from a few bouldering World Cup replays on YouTube over breakfast. Gaz’s
car bottoming out over every one of seemingly thousands of speed bumps in North
London. Inevitably we made it to Reading and as soon as I walked in and met the
Reading team I knew that for me this was going to be an excellent event and a
pleasure to organise. To quote Nick Pope “visiting Reading CC is always a
pleasure” and I have to agree - so much energy and psyche for stuff like this
comes from the team there.
The plan was laid out – Gaz and I set the finals whilst Al
and Kornelija, both of whom are suffering from injuries organised absolutely
everything else. This gave us time to focus on getting the finals right and
making them a showcase. All was going well until: A) we realised we were weak
and rubbish and B) it started snowing!
The snow started causing a real concern, there was no way we could
re-schedule or cancel but in the true spirit of climbers we decided if it all
went down the pan we had a blank climbing wall, a DJ rig with massive speakers,
and a cheap booze section in Morrison’s down the road!
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| Jim Pope on the Beal Traverse |
As you know on Friday it snowed a lot and the Morrison’s
option was looking more likely but reports from the arctic explorers (Reading
staff) told us that even though the snow came earlier then predicted the roads
around Reading were ok. So we pushed on setting the 30 blocs and preparing for
the big turnout. By the time we finished
it was 10pm and time to go back to the car park, dig the snow off the van and
get some sleep inside.
Saturday was really good fun and the turnout was amazing.
Big thanks goes to all those who braved the conditions and travel disturbances.
The first at the door at 9am was a
father and daughter from Bournemouth – how psyched is that! From this point the
day built up with so many great moments, so many laughs. Also a massive thanks
to all the volunteers who helped out on the day – we couldn’t have done it
without you!
 |
| Jenn Wilby on Women final bloc 1 |
After a great effort from all the Under 16’s and their
podium where they were presented with prizes by Steve McClure, the day pushed
on toward the end of the seniors’ time and the showcase finals. How would those
finals blocs from Thursday turn out? Would it be a show for spectators or would
everyone simply cruise to the top within the first seconds of their allowed
time? These are the pressures of comp setting and I was particularly bricking
it as a few top male “wads” had turned up and crushed the 25 bloc tour. I was
worried the men’s finals looked to be too easy so I made some very last-minute
adjustments and hoped some experience would get me through this one.
As it turned out the finals were immense! The crowd got
behind the climbers and DJs, technically speaking, RINSED IT!
Another great event - thanks goes to so many people and
sponsors and we really hope you can make it to the TCA Blocfest on 17th
February.
If you read this far..... good effort!
Mike
The Finals scores
Top/ Attempts
|
Bonus/Attempts
|
|
Tiffany Soithongsuk
|
0/0
|
1/2
|
Caz Coleman
|
1/2
|
2/3
|
Jen Wilby
|
1/1
|
1/1
|
Audrey Seguy
|
3/8
|
3/3
|
Molly Thompson-Smith
|
3/3
|
3/3
|
Top/ Attempts
|
Bonus/Attempts
|
|
Cailean Harker
|
1/4
|
2/5
|
Thomas Van Boeckel
|
1/2
|
1/2
|
Peter Wycislik
|
1/2
|
3/6
|
Matt Cousins
|
1/1
|
3/5
|
Jon Partridge
|
3/3
|
3/3
|
U16 podiums
Jim Pope
|
230
|
1
|
|||||||||
Sam Roberts
|
229
|
2
|
|||||||||
James Goodey
|
221
|
3
|
|||||||||
|
Photos courtesy of Christina Baldwin.
 |
| The finalists |
 |
| Cailean Karker on the Blocfest blobs |
 |
| Jon Partridge levitating |
