By Kevin Howett
(Sport Development Officer)

This years BRYCS was something of a watershed; the event was re-branded as the 'Youth Climbing Series' with MCofS taking control of the regional events in Scotland, and also because this would be Graeme Alderson's last BRYCS as the BMC Competitions and Walls Officer after 7yrs in active service. Graeme has left to concentrate on his 'side-line' of owning and managing the newly opened 'Europe's largest bouldering wall' in Manchester. His expertise in holding national and international climbing competition events is unrivalled in the UK, and it will be hard to fill his old boots. We wish him well.

The Scottish teams held great hopes for the final this year with very strong individual contenders in both Scottish regions; several members of the south team had been selected to the British Aspirant Team (Jonathan Stocking and Ross Kirkland) and the support given by the newly opened Extreme Dream wall in Aviemore showed great potential coming through from the north team.

After nearly four years trying to get the final to Ratho, it finally happened! And what a difference – the space and the scale of the walls made it clear that Ratho was by far the best climbing wall venue for competitions in the UK.

The results (see the box) speak for themselves, with great performances from all the Scots competitors for the best results the Scottish teams have seen (both individually and team scores) for some time. Other team members doing well include Dawn Longworth (Scotland North), new to the competition this year, gaining a 7th place (Girls 7-9), Stuart Leith (Scotland South) gaining 5th (Boys 7-9), Jamie Davidson (Scotland South) 6th (Girls 10-12), Jessica McCaskey (Scotland South) 5th & Amy Johnston (Scotland South) 6th (Girls 13-15) and Ross Kirkland (Scotland South) 6th (Boys 13-15).

photo gallery

BRYCS 2007 Results
Girls 7-9: 1. Nikki Addison (Scotland North) 2. Mari Teasdale 3. Rachel Tennant (Scotland South)	Boys 7-9: 1. Ruarirdh Macaskill (Scotland North) 2. Jack Graham 3. Ben Lee
Girls 10-12: 1. Maud Galmiche 2. Lily Rosengard 3. Olivia Ratcliffe	Boys 10-12: 1. Dylan Mackenzie (Scotland North) 2. Randy Roby 3. Steven Addison (Scotland North)
Girls 13-15: 1. Kitty Wallace 2. Frances Bensley 3. Suzie Zitter	Boys 13-15: 1. Deb Banerji (Scotland South) 2. Luke Tilley 3. Jonathan Stocking (Scotland South)
Team Prize Each team can have a full compliment of 18 climbers (the top 3 from each category) and the amalgamated points from all the team members gives a team ranking. The top three this year were: 1. London and South East 2. North West 3. Scotland South

Full results can be found here.