Nottingham Bouldering League By Luke Tilley

Final round problem, Photo: Paul Phillips

I always look forward the Nottingham Climbing Centre’s annual Bouldering league. With even more to look forward to this year being the first series in their brand new, bigger and better wall. The problems have all been as intricate and varied as ever, with a diverse style.

The first 4 rounds were very relaxed and everyone simply enjoyed the challenging problems of that month. Unfortunately, for two of the rounds I had to leave early, for parties and the like (Poor excuse I know), leaving me in a bit of a rush. This effected my climbing and I didn’t do as well as I’d like. However, by the end of the 4^th round I was in 2^nd place to Ben Meakin and very close behind was Tom Bonnet and John Nightingale.

11^th of March was the final round. It was all down to this one and I was going to take it serious, winning the open league would be quite a bench mark for me and I was psyched. The problems were more technical than in the past, including some tricky slab climbs and a lot of volumes. This suited me and I found my self working number 30, the last and hardest problem, and getting close to topping out.

I knew that I was climbing relativity well and that I had completed a good majority of the climbs. Still, I was ecstatic to discover I had won! In fact the three podium places were held by juniors which was encouraging, two of them in the GB team; me, Ben and Tom Bonnet. This was a first for me, winning the senior open category. There are some exceptionally strong boulderers in Nottingham so this was a really good result.

The rest of Team Tilley also got some excellent results; sisters Naomi and Flo got 3^rd in the women’s open and 2^nd in the fun category. Dad also did well, coming 14^th in the open.