McNeice and Dunne are the Plywood Masters 2023
- Tuesday 7th March 2023
Erin McNeice and Aiden Dunne won the BoulderUK 2023 Plywood Masters Competition over the weekend.
Plywood Masters, a two-day event held at BoulderUK, saw the start of 'Comp March' in which no less than three major bouldering competitions will be held in the north of England. Next up will be the CWIF (Climbing Works International Festival) followed by CrackFest at the Sheffield Depot.
The Plywood Masters is one of the longest-standing bouldering-only competitions in the UK; the first event was held in 2003 at the then BoulderUK venue in Blackburn. Renowned for being a community event with a fun and friendly atmosphere both new and experienced climbers alike can compete together alongside some of the biggest names in the UK comp scene. Several top-named competitors, who might normally be expected to compete at Plywood Masters, were absent given they were in the final throes of preparation for the forthcoming Lead Selection event this coming weekend. That did however mean that the Plywood Masters was more open this year than it might otherwise have been.
The setting team for Plywood Masters, led by Dave Barrans, a former Plywood Master himself, dished up 30 blocs for Saturday’s qualification round. Holly Toothill, Erin McNeice and Thea Cameron finished in the top places in the women’s event whilst Dyan Akhtar, Aiden Dunne and Toby Roberts topped the men’s standings.
Sunday’s semi-finals cut the field down from 20 women and men to just six of each; Erin McNeice, Eugenie Lee and Jen Wood lead the women’s field whilst Toby Roberts, Dyan Akhtar and Aiden Dunne lead the men’s. As is often the case, the semis were brutal. Arguably, the stand-out performance from the semis was a very impressive flash of M3 by Toby Roberts; that secured him the top men’s position going forward.
The IFSC-style, four-bloc finals providing the ultimate challenge began at 4pm, and the six finalists attacked each of the four blocs in mixed pairs. The women’s blocs especially proved difficult - the crowd seeing just three tops in total one each by Erin McNeice, Holly Toothill and Jen Wood. By the halfway stage the field was finely balanced; only Holly and Jen had topped W2 (in three attempts each) whilst Erin and Thea have three zones between them. The deciding performance came by Erin on W3 when she duly flashed it to sweep the other competitors aside and take the lead with just one bloc remaining. W4 saw just two zones being secured by Erin and Jen. Once the scores had been calculated Erin had won with a pretty tight margin having flashed W3. Holly and Jen finished in second and third respectively, Holly having secured two zones in five attempts whilst Jen had taken six attempts for her two zones. Thea was edged out into fourth.
The men’s event saw more tops yet finished up as finely balanced as the women’s. Aiden took an early lead with a super impressive flash on M1 the crux of which was a toe-catch move at the start. Dayan and Nathan also topped M1. Aiden, Dayan and Toby all flashed M2 whilst Jamie Jenkins got a top. The second half of the men’s event saw limited success by comparison; Aiden, Dyan and Toby again all topped M3 but no one even managed to secure the zone on M4. Aiden’s consistency throughout meant that he finished marginally ahead of Dayan; both had three tops but Aiden had got them in five attempts whilst Dayan had taken six. Toby finished in third place whilst Nathan Whaley was edged out into fourth.
Finally, alongside Dave Barrans the route-setting team also included James Garden, Max Ayrton and Maddy as well as Boulder UK’s Jamie Swales and Neil Mawson. Michaela Tracy and Jon Partridge commentated on the live-stream whilst George Lonsdale was MC.
Whilst both the semi-fFinals and the finals were live-streamed and can be watched on YouTube, you can see the finals below.