Hangar Comp Hangover

On Saturday the Hangar hosted it's 2nd comp (the first being a local Red Nose Day affair). It attracted the big guns with there being a cash prize on offer so the level of problems had to be raised a notch to test even the best.

I was hoping to maybe sneak into the final 5 as I knew Ned, Dave and James were all over representing team GB but Gaz Parry also turned up, so I knew I was likely going to be behind these seasoned comp beasts!

The qualifying problems were spread all over every angle and stupidly I brought only a pair of dragons and teams and no flat shoe of any description! Suffice to say the steep stuff went well but I messed up on 3 slabs/walls with my feet popping off all of them. I flashed a couple of hardish ones and should have done better on 2 of the steeper ones only to drop the last hold and have to tick them 2nd/3rd go.

I thought my score was pretty average and I finished in 6th place behind the 4 mentioned earlier and the wildcard from Wales and Cave legend Ding Dong! It was great to see Neil rock up in a pair of old boots with homemade laces and holes in the toes and make it into the final.

The finals were a mix of steep and slabby in the new Downtown sector of the wall. Me and Hoppo were rooting for Neil to take down the British team in a spectacular underdog performance and he did well, running out of time on 2 of the problems and getting 3 bonuses but it wasn't quite enough as Ned took the Men's title by flashing the last problem using a sickening flexible hand to foot splits move to get out of the roof and on to the lip traverse before locking out to the finish.
Dave came a close 2nd after dispatching the brialliant first problem involving a dynamic double handed roof dyno catch and Gaz 3rd, just ahead of James after bonus holds came into play.

In the womens it was very close between Shauna and Leah with Shauna taking it down to number of attempts after they both did 3/4 of the problems. A mention must go to Laura too who made it into the final and then finished in 3rd ahead of a team GB member after crushing the slab problem (that Shauna didn't do!).

I'm looking forward to getting down to some more training tonight with Ged and the others and dissecting what could have gone better and what to work on in future. I was hoping to win the pair of Velcros in the raffle but failed and got a Yorkshire Grit vol 1 guide (if anyone wants it let me know!).

We celebrated in good style after the raffle and went for drinks on Lark Lane with Oscar as he was leaving for Sweden the next morning. This continued on into town and all got a bit bleary with me, Sean, Ged and Hot Dog being the last men standing at around 4am.

Sunday morning in work was not pretty but I came out the other side without being sick so a good end to the weekend!