---

National Bouldering League Finals 2010
This year's national finals was held at the St Peters Bouldering Wall in Johannesburg on Saturday the 24th of April. This marked the first year that the finals are indoors as well as representation from almost every province.

Neil Margetts brings us the low down:

It was on a rain sodden weekend that all the competitors arrived in Johannesburg in drips and drabs. Months of preparation and hard work was finally coming to an end. Greg Streetfield was flown from Cape Town (which incidentally had good weather that weekend). He set about the task of setting the many hard lines needed to divide the strong competitors. He set the final problems first and worked backwards to the easier ones. A very clever tactic, as at the end of the 12 hour setting-marathon, he could barely do the U19 Girls’ qualifier routes.

The next morning everything was finally ready to go. Jackie had the lists ready and in clockwork fashion climbers were co-ordinated through the four qualifier problems. Many of the climbers topped out and we found ourselves with a large group in the finals. The U19 boys also were very strong, almost as strong as the men. The future of SA climbing looks bright.

The finals went smoothly with many hard moves needing rock hard core muscles with lots of compression moves. The U19 girls’ competition was close with Sam holding a hold that Gillian only touched. While in the U19 boys line up, Dylan Vogt and Jason Salt were a fair way above the rest to claim first and second places respectively. In contrast to the U19 boys, the men’s category was very close and had some surprising results. Problem 2 proved to be the decider. Benji de Charmoy and Wesley Black found the key toe-hook/bicycle move with their feet to stay on and move onto the right wall.  This did the trick to get them first and second positions respectively. Paul Bruyere did a huge leap to touch a hold and to seal third place.

Thanks go to Jackie Stainton, for the superb coordinating. To Patrick Black and George Stainton for the scoring, Caryn Waldeck with the help with the registration, Lindsay Gaydon for providing the eats, Jaco from Adrenalin Rush for providing the warm-up wall, Oliver the brush boy and to the many others who worked hard to make the event a success.

The winners were blessed with great prizes, and huge thanks must go to Black Diamond, Beal, Drifters, Edelrid, Mad Rock, Mountain Pursuits for supporting SA climbing. 
 
Finals Results:  (complete list to come)

	Mens	Ladies	U19 Boys	U19 Girls
1	Benjamin de Charmoy	Rachelle de Charmoy	Dylan Vogt	Sam Stainton
2	Wesley Black	Candice Bagley	Jason salt	Gillian Bester
3	Paul Bruyere	Illona Pelser	Diedeleff Gertenbach
4	Duncan Fraser	Debbie Mulder	Sean Potgieter
5	Marijus Šmigelskis	Jasmin Pillai	Gregory Oudhof
6	Russell Hattingh		Robin Sherwood
7	Andrew Wood
8	Rowan Toselli
9	Mathiew Schneuwly

For photos of the event and the inside scoop from head route setter Greg Streatfield click here.

---

Western Cape - Round 9
UCT played host to the 9th round of boulder league on Tuesday the 6th of April.  It seemed that the evening’s problems were a bit harder than usual from problem’s 10 upwards with Marijus Šmigelskis, Benjamin de Charmoy and Andrew Wood working at them the whole evening with very little success.  In the end all three managed up to problem 12 and Benjamin putting himself in first place for the round with the halfway problem 13.

In the Women’s open it was a three way tie between Weibke Toussaint, Rachel Strate and Julia Wakeling, who all managed to topout problems 1 – 6 on the night.

In the men’s intermediate category it also ended in a draw between Luke Gregor, Keith Forbes and Sebastian Wyngaard, with all 3 topping out problems 1-9, Luke making the crux on problem 9 look easy thanks to his reach.  

One round remains, on Friday the 16th of April at CityRock. The final ranking of the WP league will be determined by the top 7 out of 10 scores of each competitor.

---

Western Cape - Round 8
Wednesday 31 March saw Boulder League being hosted at the Neelsie wall in Stellenbosch, which its recent paint job provided an awesome venue for the evening. In the men’s open category the evening was dominated by Arjan de Kock and Benjamin de Chamoy with Marijus Šmigelskis out of contention with serious elbow strain induced by the weekends climbing. Arjan and Benj both sent all 15 problems on the night, a great effort on their part. Andrew Wood was just behind them in third palce, just not managing to send problem’s 13 and 15.

In the Women’s Open category, Weibke Toussaint had just herself to compete with, which was enough for to post a good score at the evening’s end. This resulted in sends on problem’s 1-6 and half way on 8. Though Weibke’s repeated attempts on problem 7 were very notable, the problem involved a dyno from the start which clearly exceeded Weibke’s body length, this did not put Weibke off it and she ended up being about a centimeter or two from sticky the dyno by the end of the evening.

In the Men’s intermediate category Sebastian Wyngaard and Luke Gregor put in some serious effort making attempts on most of the evening’s problems. Sebastian finished off in 1st place followed by Luke in 2nd.

In the Boy’s U18 category, both Oliver Heistein and Thomas Lane climbed really well on the evening, with Thomas not afraid to put in some effort into the evenings hard problems, which included some impressive attempts on problem 12. In the end Oliver took 1st and Thomas 2nd.

---

Western Cape - Round 7
On Tuesday 23 March UCT hosted the 7th round of boulder league with some challenging problems. In the Men’s open category problems 23 to 15 proved to be quite difficult and resulted in a separation in the field of competitors. Edvinas Šmigelskis and Benjamin de Charmoy were both able to get through the crux moves on problems 13 and 14, with Ed just managing to take the lead by reaching the hafway point on the very powerful problem 15. Marijus Šmigelskis was in 3rd place for the evening with sends on problems 1 to 12.

In the women’s open category Weibke Toussaint and Rachel Strate yet again went head to head, both seemed to find the reachy and somewhat blind corner move on problem 6 to be a challenge and just not being able to reach the final hold on the lip. Problem 5 saw numerous attempts on night with its large dyno’s, in the end Weibke and Rachel sent it in fine style. Rachel’s persistence paid off on her send of problem 7 which made the difference in their final score’s Rachel 1st followed closely by weibke in 2nd.

In the Men’s intermediate category Keith Forbes and Sebastian Wyngaard matched each other problem for problem, with both getting sends on the first 10 problems for the night to tie for first place. David Labrosse was one problem off the pace in third, just lacking the send on problem 9

In the boy’s U18 category Oliver Heistein was yet again on fine form when he posted the winning score which included reaching the half way point on problem 10. Although just off the pace, Shaun Botha also managed to post a fine total, with Ruan Combrinck in 3rd

---

Western Cape - Round 6
Tuesday 16 March saw the sixth round of boulder league being hosted at the MCSA Cape Town wall, the venue provided some interesting problems with lots of cutloose's, with some people not so lucky to avoid the fly legs while waiting in line for their attempt. In the Men’s open category problem 9 proved to interesting with it favouring taller climbers like Duncan Fraser who managed to flash the problem, on the other hand climbers with a more reasonable height like Andrew Wood came up with a slightly different sequence to make the final huge reach possible. Overall the problems on the night were quite challenging which separated out the open category quite well, problems 12 and 13 provided some challenges for the guys with only Andrew managing to finish problem 12. By the end of the evening Marijus Šmigelskis managed to just beat Andrew out of the top place by 5 points, the difference being made by him reach the halfway point on problem number 14. 

The night’s greatest entertainment came from the “sport route problem” number 10, this incredibly long problem had climbers trying various sequences to make it to the final holds, with lots of them being unsuccessful and flying off into the pads. Duncan and Edvinas Šmigelskis ended up being the only climbers to successfully reach the final hold on this problem.

In the Women’s open category yet again Rachel Strate and Wiebke Toussaint matched each other on every problem up to number 7. The challenge for the two of them seemed to be the final move on problem 6, which involved a cutloose which could be approached from various ways, none of which proved to be successful for either of them.

In the Men’s intermediate category, Keith Forbes returned to take the leading position again, seems that problem 10 was also at Keith’s limit with him only reaching the halfway point like the rest of the category’s top 4. Sebastian Wyngaard and Michael Woodward tied for second place, just half a problem off Keith’s pace, the half way on problem 11 making the difference.

In the Boy’s U18 category, Oliver Heistein and Shaun Botha posted good totals with both of them reaching halfway on problem 9, with Shaun reaching the half way mark on problem 8 making the difference to put him in first place.

The next round's details will be posted shortly.

---

Western Cape - Round 5
Round 5 of WP Boulder league was held at the Neelsie wall in Stellenbosch last week Tuesday, in what ended up being an awesome round. Challenging problems meant that everyone spent a good portion of the evening working out the best sequence for each problem. Problem’s 7 and 9 created some great challenges while still being possible to send. For the guys climbing in the open category problem number 14 created an interesting challenge with huge moves between desperate slopers, with only Arjan de Kock, Ben Harper and Edvinas Šmigelskis topping out by the end of the evening. Arjan and Ben definitely showed their strength off, managing to send problems 1 to 14 with Arjan just taking the lead by managing the halfway mark on problem 15. Edvinas wasn’t far off the pace with just not managing to send problem number 12, thus putting him in 3rd place for the round.

In the women’s open category Wiebke Toussaint showed some serious determination with repeated falls from the very last move on problem number 6, in the end exhaustion set in, preventing the much deserved send.

In the Men’s intermediate category Micky Wiswedel climbed well to post the category’s top score with the finishing holds on problem number 10 eluding him from topping out problems 1 to 11. Michael Woodward put his height and reach to good use on the evening to try boost his score with reaching the halfway mark of problem 14, this put him in 2nd position, with Sebastian Wyngaard in 3rd.

The guys from Bridgehouse yet again made a great effort to come through to the round and climbed well, all of them putting in lots of effort. Oliver Heistein made a really good effort posting a total that put in the score range of the men’s intermediate category.

In the end it was a round enjoyed by all the climbers there.

---

Western Cape - Round 4

Tuesday evening was the 4th round of boulder league at the UCT wall, although attendance was not up to previous week’s standards the climbing definitely was, with everyone putting in some serious effort into the evening’s problems. The Men’s Open category saw some challenging problems starting with problem 12, Robbie Fraser put in some serious effort but was unfortunately not rewarded with the send. In the end only Benjamin de Charmoy, Marijus & Edvinas Šmigelskis topped out problem 12.

Problems 13 and 14 proved to be the deciding problems, with Andrew Wood and Marijus managing to reach the halfway mark on this problem, while Edvinas was able to finish the problem. Marijus managed to grab half points for problem 14 to level out the score between him and Edvinas. The round ended with Marijus & Edvinas tie for 1st place and Andrew Wood close behind them in third place followed by Benjamin de Charmoy.

The Women’s Open category was a challenge between Wiebke Toussaint and Rachel Strate with both of them matching each other problem for problem the whole evening. Though it can be said that problem 7 provided the greatest entertainment with both climbers being pushed to their limit with the reachy moves right up until the last move, grabbing the final hold definitely looked like quite a relief to both of them.

The Men’s intermediate category was a close battle between most of the climbers competing on the night. Problems 8 & 9 saw lots of attempts with most of the climbers proving to be successful on it in the end. Problem 10 seemed to separate the group with Keith Forbes, Micky Wiswedel and Michael Woodward sending it to tie for 1st place. Sebastian Wyngaard and Luke Gregor were both unlucky to send 10, both very close to the finishing hold.

It must be said that problem 12 definitely provided most of the evening’s entertainment with lots of climbers trying various tactics to get through the moves, from Greg Bowden’s noisy ‘Sharma inspired’ lunges and Keith Forbes creative yet incredibly awkward looking Figure-4 beta. All in all it was a rather enjoyable evenings climbing.

---

Western Cape - Round 3
The third round of boulder league saw the participation of some strong climbers, with the likes of Arjan de Kock and Ben Harper; this created some extra competition for the men’s open category.  Marijus Šmigelskis climbed very well on the Tuesday evening and showed this with the only true ascent of problem number 14. The problem was set with a crazy horizontal dyno low off the ground followed by some intense moves up an arête to get the final jump to the finish hold on an opposing wall.  Nobody else seemed to make much progress on the problem except for Arjan de Kock who found a cheat method using some stemming technique to bypassing most of the problem including the crux moves, in the end it was decided that this method would not be considered as a send of the problem. Problem 13 created some interesting challenges for the men’s open with Andrew Wood falling from the second to last move, in the end only Arjan de Kock, Benjamin de Charmoy and Ben Harper topped out on the problem. By the end of the evening, the results were as follows: 1st Marijus Šmigelskis, 2nd Benjamin de Charmoy, Arjan de Kock and Ben Harper, 5th Andrew Wood

The men’s intermediate category was yet again taken by Keith Forbes with sends on problems 1 to 9 and the bonus hold on 12. Sebastian Wyngaard was close behind with sends on problems 1 to 8 and half way on 9, though he made some great attempts on the harder problems.

The Women’s open category was yet again won by Julia Chen who is in great form ahead of her overseas climbing trip. Rachel Strate climbed well on the evening, with Julia’s sends on priblems 7 & 9 setting them apart.

The U18 boys climbed well on the night with Shaun Botha taking 1st place with sends of problems 1 to 6. Overall the U18 guys put in some great effort working the various problems on the evening which is always great to see.

Next week's round will be at UCT wall on Tuesday 2 March at 6:30 pm.

---

Western Cape - Round 2
This week’s round of boulder league at MCSA CT wall, saw some serious competition in the men’s open category with Clinton Martinengo joining the field of competitors. Yet again challenging problems were set for the evening with the likes of problems 10 and 11 creating some considerable challenges. In the end, only Benjamin de Charmoy and Marijus Šmigelskis managing to send problem 10 with Benjamin applying some sport climbing style to solve the long and sometimes blind reaches. Problem 11 provided a significant amount of entertainment in the open, with most climbers struggling to control the cutloose on the second to last hold. In the end Benjamin took 1st place only missing full points due to problem 15 challenging last move. Marijus Smigelskis was back to a strong form placing 2nd, even though he arrived late from an afternoon’s bouldering session…who knows what a bit of rest and more time would have resulted in for him. Clinton Martinengo and Andrew Wood placed 3rd and 4th respectively on the evening.

In the Women’s Open category Julia Chen climbed well to take 1st place, coming close to sending problem 8 by the end of the evening. American climber Rachel Strate provided some competition for Julia with her strong climbing this week.

In the men’s intermediate category Keith Forbes provided some great entertainment with his attempts on problem 13, which included a fare bit of screaming and grunting just to see if it would affect his ability to send. In the end Keith finished the problem to the cheers of the other participants.

The U18 field was somewhat smaller this week but this didn’t change the fact that these guys were giving it their all. By the end of the evening Shaun Botha managed to score well to take the first place with Oliver Heistein close behind him in 2nd.

Next week’s venue will be announced soon, so keep check your emails/cutloose/ClimbZA for updates. See the attachment at the bottom of this page for full results.

---

KZN NBL Results Round 2

 

 

 

---

Western Cape - Round 1
Tuesday night saw the start of the Western Province boulder league with 30 climbers participating. The UCT wall provided some challenging problem’s, Problem 13 and 15 eluded all the competitors, with problem 14 being the decider between Andrew Wood and Benjamin de Charmoy, with Andrew falling from the last move to land up in 2nd place. Seems Benjamin has brought some additional competition to the men’s open category, hopefully this will push the standards that little bit extra. On the Women’s front the event was not well attended however Julia Chen did not let this hold her back and she posted a fine total which included reaching the half way point on problem 11. In the intermediate men’s category the main battle was between Keith Forbes, Micky Wiswedel and Sebastian Wyngaard, with Keith reaching the half way mark on problem 12 to put him in the lead at the end of the evening.