McNeice and Pope win senior titles at BLCC
- Thursday 20th October 2022
Erin McNeice and Jim Pope won the senior titles at the British Leading Climbing Championships last weekend.
The rescheduled British Lead Climbing Championships were held last weekend at Awesome Walls, Sheffield. The two-day event saw a packed agenda with not only Senior (16+) competition but Youth A, Youth B and Youth C as well as Veteran categories (45+). Climbers in all categories climbed a two-route qualification round on the Saturday whilst the highest ranking contested the finals on the Sunday.
Last year’s senior winners, Zoe Peetermans and Jack Macdougall, where both back again to attempt to retain the titles they won at Westway. Jack in particular faced some stiff opposition from a stacked and experienced men’s field which include two-time winner Jim Pope. Sadly, lead specialist and former two-time winner Molly Thompson-Smith has recently broken her ankle in a bouldering accident so wasn’t able to complete but was in action behind the mics along with Dave Greenall as part of the commentating team for the livestream. Like Jack MacDougall, Zoe Peetermans was joined by a strong field of emerging lead climbers.
With all the various categories climbing two qualification routes Saturday was a pretty hectic day. Emily Phillips and Erin McNeice finished in joint top spot after the qualifiers in the women’s seniors with Emily Phillips close behind. Over in the men’s Jim Pope and Billy Ridal held a solid lead ahead of Kieran Forrest with Jack MacDougall in fourth. Tops in both the women’s and men’s qualification rounds were limited; only Zoe and Emily managing one apiece.
Sunday was once again another busy schedule. Throughout the Youth finals the level of commitment was self-evident and those watching were treated to some remarkable displays of both tenacity and skill from the young climbers. It’s worth remembering that the current programme has produced the likes of Hamish McArthur and Toby Roberts both of whom have gone on to do extremely well on the international senior competition circuit.
Several hours after the start of isolation, the seniors’ final started early afternoon. Unsurprisingly, the setters had opted to use the main roof, arguably the centrepiece of Awesome Walls Sheffield, for the seniors’ finals. Not only is it a massively impressive feature, the varied terrain of the main roof enables the setters to test the finalists on a range of angles and holds. The plan too was that the finalists would climb in pairs; a female finalist climbing on the left hand women’s route and whilst a male finalist climbed on the right hand line through the giant roof. However, because of the numbers of entrants in the respective categories there were six women and eight male finalists. Despite the in-balance in the numbers and what seemed like the relative closeness of the routes it provided a spectacular showcase for the finalists to climb.
The majority of the finalists were all on the GB Climbing team having represented the Country at either Youth, Junior and/or Senior levels. Interestingly though, a number of specialist boulderers – including Max Milne and Holly Toothill – have been increasingly adding in Lead to their schedules in the run into 2023 and Olympic selection for Paris 2024.
Because of the in-balance in number of finalists the finals started with first two men climbing alone. First out was Joe Xiberras and, as often the case in a competition, he climbed brilliantly settling what was an impressive high point finally falling on the headwall just a few moves short of the top. Joe’s excellent performance not only set the men’s final alight but, in all probability, made the setters very, very nervous indeed!
Most of the men’s finalists – last year’s champion Jack MacDougall included - faltered at the end of the roof several moves shy of Xiberras’ high point. Climbing second to last Billy Ridal was, like Xiberras before him, smooth through the roof and once on the lip dropped in a knee bar at the base of the headwall. Leaving that behind, Ridal moved up but ultimately fell two moves past Xiberras’ high point. When Jim Pope emerged to climb last, it was – as they say - his title to lose. Climbing with a confident maturity, Pope gunned the roof and then assumed the knee bar on the headwall like Ridal and Xiberras had done previously. Once Pope left the security and mini-rest of the knee bar, he climbed calmly and confidently and, shaking out between the fingery moves, cruised to the top of the route to win the 2022 title - his third as a senior.
It has been some time coming but the women’s final route had a short but crucially placed hand-jamming section in the depths of the roof. It proved decisive with some finalists avoiding it whilst others dived-in and used it to good advantage. Emily Phillips was the first to use the jamming section well and hence progress beyond it onto the upper reaches of the route. She finally fell after a monster battle establishing a high point.
Zoe Peetermans climbed second to last and made solid work of the route ultimately falling off wrestling to get established onto the headwall a few moves beyond Phillips’ high point. Climbing last, Erin McNeice – like Peetermans – also made it to the base of the headwall; McNeice however was able to get her left hand one hold higher than Peetermans and so take the 2022 title – her first – by the narrowest of margins.
Senior Results: Women
Erin McNeice (46+) 1st place, Zoe Peetermans (45+) 2nd place, Emily Phillips (41+) 3rd place
Senior Results: Men
Jim Pope (Top) 1st place, Billy Ridal (45+) 2nd place, Joseph Xiberras (43+) 3rd place
Click here for a full listing of all the various category results.
Senior Podiums
Watch the livestream of the entire finals below.