Alien Rock Boulder League Results

Alien Mike - 06/03/2006

Five fun competitions took place on Friday evenings over the non-winter. There were a total of 314 separate competitors vying for eminence in six categories with a total prize fund of £720. Thankfully not all turned up on the same night and the early opening time has proved popular enough to become a permanent fixture. It means that you had more time to do the problems or more time to spend in the pub.

Over the winter three men pulled away from the field to give an open and exciting competition. When the dust had settled, new comer Reuben Bennet-Daly had emerged to take the honours in what had been a close race. Not a bad effort at his first attempt.

The women’s hard category looked on paper to be more open due to scoring changes. Aline Kirkland however obviously didn’t read this script as she dominated the women’s league and romped to a clear victory despite decent performances from Kirsty McBirnie and Sarah Daniels. Aline’s win is all the more impressive as this was her first senior comp (she turns 16 in a few days) and was well deserved.

By contrast the junior comp was much closer. Janey Kennedy and Robbie Philips being made to work hard all the way for the top spots in their categories.

In the fun category youngsters Jenny Hutton and Dave Lambert came out on top and look more than capable of stepping up. Can anyone spot a youthful theme here?

In its second year, the Dave Cassidy memorial cup (veteran category) changed hands from Gavin Swinton to Dave Bryson who climbed well to claim first place. By way of consolation, Gavin’s son ally deserves mention for finishing sixth overall in his first senior comp. Well done and yet another youth to watch for.

As always the competitions were well supported by our sponsors Tiso. The prizes were good and numerous and were distributed by raffle at the end of each event, ensuring that everybody had a chance to win. This combined with the general camaraderie, support and spotting across the different categories gave us all an enjoyable winter series.

Thanks should also go out to our route setters. Mike, Martin, Reuben, Steve, Malcolm, April, Pete, Andy, Jamie (the blob), Tom and of course our two guest setters, Mike T and Niall.

Patience is a virtue. There are only 8 months ‘till we start all over again. Time to get cranking. Time to improve your moves. Time for the route setters to recharge. Time for us to come up with new and improved problems that will make your fingers hurt, your legs shake and generally call us very bad names.