Round 4 - Report

The Castle Climbing Centre, North London, 18 February 2001
On paper, this promised to be an exciting round. In many ways, it proved to be our best so far with some important changes to the overall League positions.
I was particularly pleased to see so many parents and friends supporting our pupils. All the competitors appreciated our visitors taking on judging duties.

The route setting was the one small disappointment. In previous rounds Junior competitors have competed on easier versions of the same twenty five problems set for the Seniors. The Route-Setters have given individual thought to the Junior version of each problem. At this Round a blanket rule was announced allowing "any feet" for Juniors. It soon became apparent that the rule had made the Junior problems much easier than usual. The result was a high-scoring Round with only a few climbs that could divide the stronger competitors. Nevertheless, our younger members enjoyed a more successful event with more top-outs and bigger final scores.

I was also pleased to see the likes of Stuart Walters, Russell Bates, Philip Maringer and Joe Cook maintaining their places both in this round and in the League.

We knew that Tom Gore's reign over the Junior Boys was under serious threat from Richard Sharpe who had decided, on this occasion, to compete in his technically correct Junior category. To nobody's surprise, Richard came first with a good lead. Perhaps more significant was the excellent performance of three non-Dane Court competitors who achieved third, fourth and fifth places. Tom made second place by only one point.
Mark Watkins, Scott Simmonds and Mikey Evans held on to sixth, seventh and eighth respectively.

The way in which the overall league scores are calculated leaves Dane Court in a fine position going into the final round on 18 March:
Tom's strong lead is maintained with Mark second and Scott in third place (Scott achieved his target for the Round; to beat Robert Frost).

Please - by the next round; sort out those trousers!

Mr Alderson

PS: The ClimbUK website has a report on round 1, round 2, round 3