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DCU Competition Report -
4th Round
IBL Round 4 DCU 5th February Competitions, eh? ....coloured holds,
chalk-filled unbreathable air, clueless norms acting as judges, people
moaning about the lack of free bananas.....we love it! No one has to get
scared and you can always say you had an "off day" after a below
average performance....why can't it be winter all year long?
So a bunch of skinny and fat, strong and weak (no names!) climbers
hauled themselves to DCU and the last round of the Irish Bouldering League
....a last chance to try to scrape into the final in your respective
categories, up your position in the league and burn off that skinny
bloke/bird who's always down at the wall (or get your ass kicked again).
Quick, leggit round the problems and try and scope out people on them
("I wouldn't do it like that...") and have some vague
conversations with the route setters trying to prise the numbers out of
them. Is it a bad sign when the first thing you see when you walk into the
hall is someone falling out of an off width??? Probably!
A fair crowd had turned up and for once people shut up about the
bananas and chucked some of the free Redbull down'em. After a can I was
jittering my way up to the warm up area wishing I'd had a banana instead.
(Sample overheard conversation: "I bet that Michael Duffy
lives on this stuff (Redbull), he always flying up the wall." FACT!
Michael Duffy lives on a diet of nothing but broccoli and coffee.)
Well, the problems didn't turn out too bad at all; James Gernon,
Alan Sarhan and Brian O'Dwyer did a good job belying their
lack of experience although so many of the problems could have been
enhanced by allowing the features on the Kellogg's panels to be used, a
waste of probably the best artificial climbing surface in the country.
Complaints about long reaches on some problems could have been prevented
if us short arses had some other foothold options. But all in all the
standard was as good as a lot of competitions in the last few years and
certainly better than some! Although the highlight must have been the
aforementioned off-width...however it was a little disappointing to
discover it had holds in it, I'm sure that'll be rectified next time! The
grades were fairly accurate, if anything erring on the soft side, which is
always a crowd pleaser.
In Male A Michael Duffy was the surprise third place on the day (not
enough broccoli?) and Ronan Browner made an injury ravaged return
to competition in second place but first place was snatched from both
their gnarled fingers by.....some bloke. He must be good, eh? Nigel
Callender once again won the Juniors, looking very strong....but what’s
he done up the 'head? He was comfortably ahead of second place Simon
Bell. The controversial B league was topped by Robert Whelan
and finally the Female category was won by Patricia Murphy with
Jennie Coughlan and Joan Flanagan coming second and third
respectively, although special mention should be made of what is an
important and progressive step forward when Jennie and Joan decided to
climb the Male A problems instead of the usual Female/Male B set of
problems. Certain Male A competitors may be cringing when the obvious
score comparisons occur. Hopefully this trend will continue and no, I'm
not bitter that Joan is taller than me.
A good day out, the best man won (he he) and see you all at the final.
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