Font Overview

I was going to attempt to write at least one post a month, and I'm not sure whether I am actually achieving this at the moment because I cant even remember the last time I made a new post.

As usual, lots of things have happened between this post and the last so I will try to keep it quite short in comparison to the last uberpost.

I think the happening most worthy of note since last time you joined me for a reading, has been my double trip to font this Easter.

A last gasp effort to get out of the country this Easter left me piggybacking on another trip from some old Bristolian friends. Jim and Lorrainne were well known to me already, but the other 6 members of the team were less so. While they might not have been trying the same problems as myself and Jim, they provided good company, food and comedy while out on the rocks. I did not spend long without laughing at one or other of Rowan's ridiculous accents throughout the week.

However, while it is nice to socialise when you aren't climbing, I traveled to the forest for a reason and that reason was CLIMBING!
I knew I was fairly strong before the trip, but I have definitely felt stronger in terms of straight up finger strength in the past. The major difference with this trip is that I managed to get to the week before the trip without somehow causing myself some tendon or pulley grief.
I say the week before because I didnt actually manage to get out there injury free. We left of Saturday morning, but the previous week had contained 2 climbing tough climbing trips to Craggy Island. The first on Monday and the second on Tuesday.
The monday session was good, but the nail on my right forefinger bit down into my finger and cut in a bit.
I rather foolishly failed to wash my hands that night, leaving a bit of chalk in the cut overnight and by the next day it was a bit sore. Naturally the response with only a week to go to Font was to squeeze in one more climbing session.

By Wednesday morning my finger was starting to throb and swell up.

By Thursday I wasn't typing with it or clicking my mouse because it stung so much.

Naturally, I was less than impressed with this turn of events and resorted to bothering my mother for some hardcore cures. I dosed up 3 times a day with antibiotics, cut the nail back and put some silver nitrate on it.

Apparently Silver Nitrate inhibits 'Over-Granulation' which is bad for healing.
However, it also dyes your skin black and makes your wimpy injury look far more awesome than it really is.

Of course, using this finger wasn't really possible for the first half of the holiday, but after that it felt pretty
normal and I just got on with Project 'Crush'!


I went with the vague hope of climbing a 7C, specifically having a decent attempt on Noir Desir.
I'm sad to say that I failed in this aim during the first trip, and then failed to even have an attempt in the second trip.

However, I would say that overall, this is definitely my most successful font trip to date, and I cant claim to be unhappy with anything I failed to climb.


L'Ange Naif Droite   7a+
Jete Mitraud           7a+
Jeu Au Jambes            6b
Grande Marche   7a+
Gros Doigt           7a
Narine Droite           7a
La Baleine           7a+
La Joker                   7A
Carnage                   7B+
Jeu Du Toit           7A
La Raie du Q           6B+
Toit de Cul de Chein   7a

Naturally, the ascent of Carnage is very welcome as being the first 7B+ that I have done that I dont think is about to be downgraded any time soon.

Deliverance and Doctor Med were hardly anywhere near as hard as Carnage was, either due to morphology or grade typos and La Pioche in Cresciano apparently starts from one move lower down.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ go figure...



Carnage 7B+ Bas Cuvier from Archie CB on Vimeo.


The end of the first trip was sadly filled with failure for me as I couldn't managed to claw my way to the top of Arabesque. I had all the beta, I had all the moves dialed but, by the end of the trip, I didn't enough juice left to get to the top.

I went home slightly disappointed and vowed to return and demolish the beastie.

I didnt really have a second trip set up, but I was feeling super determined to go back and do arabesque and I wanted to make it happen. I phoned round a bit for partners and eventually managed to find a really lanky b*stard called Anthony Moore, as well as a really short stumpy chap called Rob.

After we had set up camp and spent a night shivering in the cold we got up and left for Cuisiniere and some attempts on Beetlejuice. Rob showed why he was a top three finisher in SIBL this year with a cool flash of the problem as his first climb of the day, while it took me a good few attempts - with repeated heartbreak on the last tough move.

Straight after this we moved on down to try out La Mouche, which I had seen in videos and looked to be a winner as a potential 7B+. We worked out some good beta, and got into sending mode.
Rob once again got it fairly quickly after he worked out the middle, but the penultimate move was the tricky one for me - requiring a high reach off of a left heel in a sharp pocket.
I did it a couple of times to practice, then went for a proper go, confident that I would be able to do it if I could link the bottom well.

Unfortunately I came a cropper and ripped a muscle up in the back of my leg. Upon my return this developed into a rather nice bruise.

Sadly this ended my hopes of any serious climbing for the rest of the trip.

Nevertheless I tried it out a bit later in the day to work out my limitations and scrambled my way up Bizarre Bazaar (assis) which went at a cool 7A+. Sadly I think this probably did more harm than good and I then spent the following days freezing my balls off and watching Robthony climb.
I think that if you were to question him, Anthony would have nothing but positive things to say about my cheery outlook on life at the crag.

In an unusual twist, I decided that on the last day, I would like to at least have a look at Arabesque. My left leg might not be working too well, but the rest of me was in pretty good shape and with some different beta I thought it might be possible. I convinced Rob to follow me out there for the last day and once everything was clean and padded out, we gave it our best shots.

Rob once again sent quickly after stealing my beta for the end, despite previously complaining about the longest siege of a problem he had ever had to undertake. All that was left for me to do was get from the start holds to the top.

In payment for my bulge beta, Rob came up with a new method of doing the top that didnt require a high left foot, and the send was on!


Arabesque 7B+ Cul de Chein from Archie CB on Vimeo.


I must thank Anthony for his support during this climb, I'm not sure I could have gotten through it without him.

The next day we had a quick poke around Cuvier Rempart, and quickly found out that Tristesse is fecking hard, as is Noir Desir and Formis Rouges.

Maybe next time!

There is more photo and video evidence of the trip, but it is over in Bristol with Jim at the moment. And until my leg is a bit better, I dont think I will be heading out there any time in the near future. Instead I will be staying around the South East and putting some time doing some real training on a fingerboard.

Good luck to all!

Exams, Climbing and Gaming

Another long time since the last update, and some stuff has happened... just not a great deal.

I shall start with a list of things to be covered:

1. Learning Fatigue
2. CWIF
3. Peak District afternoon
4. Gaming
5. A Badass Music Video

 1. Learning Fatigue

In response to an email conversation earlier this week I suggested that I would drop some thought bombs on the subject of learning fatigue in the modern age.
A simple analysis of 'schooling' shows that if a person goes through preschool, primary school, secondary school, and then gains a degree at university, then they will have spent about a fifth to a quarter of their potential lifespan in education.

Now, I understand that people need to be educated to exist in the modern world, but doesn't this just seem mental? 21-15 years in education, just so you can get a job that may potentially be nothing to do with your degree!

Now, I'm not saying that this method is necessarily any worse than the alternative methods of education, but I don't think it has worked for me.

I did something like 12 GCSE, I'd count them but I cant remember what I did any more. I then did 4 AS levels and 3 A levels before going on to do a degree in chemistry.

• GSCE - 12 Papers over 2 years
• A levels -  15 Papers, and practical exams over 2 years
• Degree - Who knows... not to mention various projects, assessed labs, vivas and presentations over 3 years

When I was younger I would read books on other subjects and write short stories in my spare time just for the giggles. Unfortunately I think I hit a wall somewhere in my degree, and I feel like I neither wanted to, nor had time for that sort of thing any more.

Put simply,  I hit the wall. I imagine that gaining some Independence from the system allowed me to take a backseat with my studies , and given that I had been pushed for the last 5 years I took full advantage of the wealth of both money and time I had come to receive.

From there it was a bit of a vicious circle of doing badly in exams, led to me feeling less interested, led to me doing other activities, led me to doing badly. I knuckled down a bit in final year and saved myself a vaguely passable grade. But when asked by a woman in HR why my certificate wasn't framed, I just laughed and looked at her like she was insane.

The funny thing is, that at the time I wasnt concerned with my performance in exams. But now that I have had a year out of education, I actually feel a bit guilty about 'letting myself down' given the opportunity that I had. I know I could have done better if I had applied myself better, there are far more stupid people on that course that got better grades that me. But after all those persistent exams in the preceding years, I ran out of juice.

Maybe I am making excuses, maybe I am just a lazy scroat. Either way, my new years resolution is to read more books to try and get my brain back on track. Unfortunately, judging by the huge unread part of 'Game of Thrones' I still have to read, I need to try a bit harder.

2. CWIF

CWIF!
Oh CWIF
CWIF Richards,
CWIFton suspension bridge,
the white CWIFs of Dover

Or as it is known up north, where the people are grim faced and 2/3 have never laughed:

The Climbing Works International Festival

 The CWIF is a bit of an odd competition, in that pros and punters all have the opportunity to qualify for the finals. To split the field effectively this requires a large number of problems, with a large number of difficult ones to split the top levels.

Last year's competition was host to some serious talents in the form of Nalle Hukkataival, Ty Landman and a significant portion of the UKboulder team. This years was no exception with names like Puccio, Sanchez, Barrans, Partirdge, Webb-Parsons, Coxsey, Crane, Wujajstyky, Caminati and more that I cant remember.

Needless to say, watching some of these guys cruise through the problems that I am at a loss with is at once both humbling and inspiring. I might be pretty good down south, in my small town, London based, 20 problem contests against the baying mass of new climbers. But when I come up against a troop of psyched individuals, who have used all the time they spent not-laughing to train...Things turned ugly.

30 problems in 3 hours is no mean feat when the problems start at about 5+/6a and get much harder very quickly. SIBL works out at about 20 problems in 4 hours or so - or 1 boulder every 12 minutes. And those boulders are pretty easy for the most part.
CWIF was a much higher standard and ran at about 1 boulder every 6 minutes!

I was given a round spanking by the works, and while the problems were cool, I dont think I really managed to reflect my ability to climb as best I can. But everyone competed in the same circumstances, and I heard a lot of similar complaints to mine about falling off the last moves of problems. I guess the good people just didnt do that...

I ended up as 87/189 who put in cards (quite a few didnt bother). I think this probably verges on respectable, but I am 100% certain I can significantly improve on this next year with a small amount of fingerboard and stamina training.

3. Peak climbing!

After being beaten up by CWIF we went out to burbage edge and flailed ineffectually against West Side Story. I am sure that if I can get up to the top sidepull I will be able to do the problem. Unfortunately, it is a bit tricky to get up there. I blame the heat.

After falling off this, we resolved to go to the Excreta Buttress, where I was once again beaten up by a filthy slopery 7B. I think that if it was slightly cooler, and I did some more fingerboarding (again) I will be able to do this problem. Unfortunately it was not to be, and instead I focused my attempts on the 7A+ linkup through the roof called Hemline. We sorted out the beta pretty quickly and easily and I sent it in 4 'redpoint' attempts. Quite happy to do something after my abject failures elsewhere during the weekend.

4. Gaming

My new thing to chill out with after a phase with Rubiks Cube, Ukulele, Juggling, Climbing, Fives, Harmonica, Slacklining, Photography and being all indie and shit with music, is competitive Starcraft 2.

In review, I am definitely getting better but I still feel like I am awful. I suppose that given the non competitive nature of most of my activities, it is quite easy to feel bad when I lose against someone who completely outplays me. I believe the experience can be looked at as 'defeat therapy' whereby your ego is given a nice beating and you become a little more level headed. It is frustrating that given my ability to 'pick up and play' almost any other sport I attempt at the moment, that one where I get to sit down and compete with my fingers and my mind is the one where I am beaten most frequently and apparently easily.

Indeed, this is what fuels my desire to get better. I know I can be, so I am going to try!

Outside of SC2, I spent this weekend playing a combination of 'Costume Quest' and 'Bastion'. I know I am quite late to the party with these games as they have been out for ages, and the reviews have been so good that I really should have attempted to play them a little earlier.

Costume quest is cute and very well written, but the gameplay became a bit too repetitive for my liking so I stopped playing after a while and switched to playing Bastion.

Bastion is simply gorgeous, I knew I was onto a winner as soon as the game opened and the narrators voice cut in. Great gameplay, great music, great visual style, great story integration.

I'll let total biscuit explain what is going on, because he is good at that sort of thing and I dont begrudge him the ad revenue.

I realise it is a long video, but if you have time I think it is worth a quick watch if you had considered getting the game. He mentions the music at one point, and it really is beautiful.

In honour of such beauty, I have decided to do my best to butcher it!

Yes - it is time.

For another.

AceEebie Music Production!

I'm hoping to go to font this weekend, needs some planning.
If things work out, and conditions are good then I am going to
CRUSH.
THAT.
SHIIIIIT!!!!

I just need to come up with a ticklist now!

I have lots of photos from CWIF and the peak on my facebook, but I cant link them from work.

I shall upload to flickr or the like and get some posted up on here soonish.

Toodles!

Happy Birthday to me!

Cough...anyone at work going to say anything?

Nope just me then.

S'all good.

I wrote this in celebration

"He floated, looking out into the inky blackness of space for what seemed like an eternity. The comlink had died 3 days ago and since then the only suggestion of contact had been a single blinking light on the console, telling him that his oxygen was running out.

Across the porthole soared a majestic planet, crowned with rings of gold and purple. He had seen it before many times as his science ship had orbited gathering research about the planets atmosphere, and after the first awe inspiring experience it had soon grown to merely become another part of his environment that he glanced at from time to time. This time however, he pulled himself towards the window, aware that it may be the last time he got to see anything so beautiful again and drank in the size and grandeur of the galactic behemoth. The red light continued to blink.

After it had passed out of sight he pushed himself back to his seat, and considered his options. Of course, since he had been out of contact for days, the space research centre located in the nearby system would be looking for him. But as the craft had only power for a weak localised homing signal, the chances of them finding him were slim to none. He knew this.
Even so, he checked the signal was transmitting and tried to conserve energy.

Slipping into unconsiousness wasnt a bad way to go anyway, at least there wasn't any pain. He had heard of a troop of scientists and marines who had landed on one of the planets, only to discover that the ground gave way to reveal a lake of fuming acid, cloaked by a thin film of impenetrable dust. Suffocation was the best of a bad job compared to that."

I may continue, I dont know. Anyone feel like a critique of that start?

I am all busted up from sport. nothing seems to be going particularly smoothly recently, maybe going to the peak this weekend, but then again, maybe not since the weather is looking a bit shite.

Time for lunch.

Also, Easter would be nice in spain.
Summer in SA

I need to get to doing some fucking training though, I feel like I have barely even been climbing at all.

I have been enjoying htis song though, so that is good.

The AceEebie way of life

So...Snowboarding is frickin awesome...

From learning on nursery slopes on Monday, to attempting black moguls and off piste powder on Friday I don't think I have had quite so much fun on any other holiday.
I simply cannot wait to go back.

Since I returned on Saturday it seems to have been a bit of a whirlwind in my life.

I went to Portland on Saturday with Ed, and tried my hand at some of the longer routes there, which ended badly for the most part.
It appears that trying to do stamina routes after a week of snowboarding, and a day of being cramped up in a car is not the best way forward. Especially if you miss breakfast and fuel yourself with service station food.

Nevertheless, I tried to climb and did a 6a onsight lead, and tried a 6b but got rained and hailed upon before running out of ideas and steam. I then did a 6c on toprope after Ed tried his hardest to convince me it was a good idea, and I will confess, the route was excellent.
After that, we left and headed to cuttings so that I could give Liquid Sunshine a blast.

I sent a V6 in about 3/4 attempts using utterly broken and lanksome beta, and then got down to the business of being completely shut down by my intended target. I think being tired was a large factor in the failure, but I just felt completely clueless about the moves and not even close to putting it together. I shall have to get down there again for a decent session sometime in the near future.

After accepting failure we trekked back up to the new cuttings, and I sent Ed up my first ever 6c route outdoors. The Unworthy is a short route, with potential for a tasty lob from the last move due to a hidden final hold. Ed flashed it of course, and when I went up to clean the gear, it certainly felt a lot easier than it did when I first climbed it. Of course, that was about 3 years ago now, but it is still nice to see that sort of improvement in solid terms.

Monday was first day back at work, and by the afternoon I felt like curling up and dying from fun withdrawal symptoms. Instead, I got dragged into a squash match against a few of the teachers. Despite not having played for a good few years, I eked out a clean sweep of victories against all challengers. Unfortunately I am now a bit of a broken man from all that running and whatnot.

Tuesday was another fives session and a long day of preparing and cleaning practicals, before helping to adjudicate in the house climbing competition
Wednesday has been a long one too. I finished working at 3:15, then went down to the school wall.
I started by climbing all the problems in the competition and then working some of the new hard ones.
Sadly though, I was climbing awfully and didnt feel good at all.
I eventually left at about 7:30/8:00 after setting and testing a few new problems.

Basically, I need a rest if I am to have any intentions of putting in a showing at the Reach on Sunday.
However, even if I don't climb there, I am going to go to my first 'Barcraft' with a couple of friends in the afternoon! If you don't know what one is, Google it, repress your first thoughts (which are just close minded), and come experience it with me!

Gnight all.

WWOOOOOOOAAAAAH, I'm back!

Holy shinkleficks everyone!

I am back and with a vengeance,
Since November - the last time that I wrote on this blog, I have been doing a shed load of exciting and awe inspiring things.

Hoorah!

Unfortunately, this means that this post may end up being quite long and backwardly relevant. Indeed, those of you that have actually spoken to me in any time in the last few months will probably know all about my exploits already.

Nevermind.

I proceed forthwith!

1st of all.

ETON FIVES TOURNAMENT IN LONDON

I went to my first senior tournament!

I was paired up witha  fine young player called Tony Baxter from St. Olaves School, we played pretty well and won a couple of games in our group. Unfortunately, we also came up against the eventual winning pair...and the outcome was not pretty.

Despite thinking that I was playing quite well, and believing that my partner was playing slightly better than myself, we succumbed to a 12-1 12-2 loss...We weren't even remotely close to having any impact on the game. I mean, our opponents didnt even take off their tracksuits...yeah....

This colourful gentleman was a member of the Eton fives club.

Basically, it seems that there are a few levels of Eton fives ability.

1 - BEGINNER - utterly useless, hides from the ball and loses with aplomb
2 - NOT SO BAD BEGINNER - Can actually hit the ball consistently with both hands, but doesnt have a clue what they are doing
3 - INTERMEDIATE - Capable of hitting the ball with conviction, can return the ball from the buttress with some skill, but for the most part loses because of poor shots selection
4 - DECENT PLAYER - Can cut well, hit some good shots and win points against better opponents, but the odd weak shot will leave him at a disadvantage as the rallies get longer and the game drags on
5 - GOOD PLAYER - Cuts well, good shot selection, plays with some guile and deception, targets holes in opponent pairs and will win most matches against similar opponents
6 - OBSCENELY GOOD - These are a rare brand of player, and no one knows where they come from or train, but they must have their own private training camps, where they congregate and become ridiculous volley machines, with reflexes like those of that annoying fly that has been buzzing around your room for the last 20 minutes, that you just cant hit with your rolled up copy of the tv guide. These pairings are largely unbeatable, and rare errors will be the main cause of defeat when they meet. For all other standards, damage limitation is the word of the day when coming into contact on court.

Anways, after we fell out of the group stages, we entered the 'A' Plate, which is really code for the grade 5 players and below. Fortunately, we kept our game together and won that competition, another victory to put under my belt, but sadly there was no trophy to take home.

Here is the short and shabby video that I made of the tournament.

http://vimeo.com/32919901


SWITZERLAND #1

We went to Switzerland in December and I crushed hard, that's right. I crushed like a fridge which not only produces ice cubes, but will also make those same cubes into smaller versions that melt quicker and therefore cool your drink more effectively! I was on fire! not literally of course, because then I would have been warm, and that - I was not.

Although the temperatures were slightly warmer than they were on our previous trip they were still not toasty. Indeed, we were beset upon by great clouds of snowy precipitation, that sought to waylay our advances from high on one side of the valley to high on the other side to Chironico.

Fortunately, we managed to get out and keep up a vague schedule of two days on and one day off.
Despite still carrying my gammy A4 pulley injury from the trip to font earlier in March, I was able to tape up and send most of the problems I attempted. Come to think of it, I dont think there was actually very much that I failed to succeed upon.

My ticklist for the trip ran to: -

Erm... I cant remember, and I dont think I really wrote it down anywhere.
I know I did a 7B and perhaps a 7B+ (that one is in dispute)
I did  bunch of 7A problems too.

Anyways, without further ado
I proudly present, my two hardest climbs from the holiday
YAY...CHEERS...APPLAUSE!

http://vimeo.com/34294475

After I got home, it was time to have a little rest and a series of food filled parties around the country.
Christmas,
Boxing day,
Jonny's wedding (crazy christian heebiejeebies but lots of wine)
New Years party (G&T all evening till it turned messy and we went to bed)

I think there was some climbing in there somewhere as well, but my memory fails me.

Oh yes, I went to TCA for a climb, and then afterwards I went out to try my first 8a sport route with Tris and G. Parry.

I managed to do the bottom crux, but the top was too hard for me in my fatigued state and I settled for taking some photos of Gaz.

After all this, I eventually went back to work, and have started climbing a lot at the school wall, setting all sorts of mean and evil problems for the kiddies and myself.
They must have been having some sort of effect, as I have been placing noticeably higher in all the competitions I have started to attend in the start of this year.


I placed 6th in the Reading round of SIBL (However, I am first to admit that the usual crowd of ultra strong wads was not there to show me up for once, but I drew with a chap who has climbed 8a+ before, and for me that is a great achievement in itself.)

Pfft, Reading boulders? Easy.
Credit to Mateuz (sp?) for the great pics.

I placed 1st at a local Craggy2 competition and won some vouchers for free climbing along with the other two winners of the easier categories who were both Cranleigh school kids!
(Again, there were stronger climbers present, who didnt hand in their cards... but you cant win if you dont put in your card, and I certainly beat them at doing that.)

Crushing the Craggy boulders

I then came 6th at the TCA competition, which was a decent showing since it was the 3rd competition in 6 days and the standard of climbing at those competitions is always high.
Unfortunately, I looked at the results and found that I had infact been beaten by the little scroat Laurie SE who mere months ago was certainly not capable of competing with me.
Of course, the fact that he is on the TCA boulder squad with Hamish Potokar and James Squire, and that his father owns the centre may have something to do with the whole thing.

So, I suppose that brings us up to about now.
And right now I am in

SWIZZY #2

Only this time I am going to attempt to stand on a slidey sideways deathboard of terror.

I understand that those in the know also call this  a'snowboard', but I think they are really just showing off.
Since I have managed to stand on a slackline, and walk backwards and forwards and twist around, I have faith in my ability to eventually grasp the damned concept of moving sideways , but if my last attempt aobut 3 years ago is anything to go by, I shouldn't hold out much hope.

Deathboarding lessons start on Monday, but that still leaves a whole day tomorrow for me to get to grips with learning to stand up after I fall over. I hope I wont be too bruised to learn form the teacher :-/

I have my camera with me, and we are right under the Eiger, so I shall attempt to take a moody black and white shot extolling the power of nature and the feebleness of man. In all likelihood, I expect this to look like a distinctly average black and white picture of the Eiger with some clouds, the caption will attempt to add the dark brooding sense of foreboding.

Anyways, staying true to form, it is now 10 to 1 in the mornings here, so I had best be off to bed, lest I fail to rise in the morning.

Wish me luck!

I want to walk around spanish cities at night.

Sitting at my desk, listening to Bon Iver.

Some days are busy, others - like this - are empty, and I just sit here trying to think of something to do.

Yesterday, I solved a rubiks cube in under 30s after a few attempts.
I know how to play 'Where is my mind?' on ukulele.
I played fives with the Brigands.
I did an AS chemistry unit 1 paper.
I solved a crossword.

Maybe I should start learning a language while I am here...


I met Gaz Parry the other day at SSP and had a chat, considering getting him to come to the school to do some setting/coaching.
After that I flashed a few of his new routes; a 6a+ a 6c and up to the last move of his tufa 6b+ problem.

All I really learnt from the experience was that my stamina is thoroughly up the shitter, I was pumped out of my mind after one route! I am heavily missing out on having a multitude of well set circuits at TCA, I might actually go back for a couple of weekends just for that training facility. It is a pretty long trip over, but considering it costs £7.50 for entry to Craggy Island, it probably works out to be only about 10-20 pounds more, and I get to see my friends in the west country again.

I made a video of myself doing some fives training the other evening


Eton Fives trailer from Archie CB on Vimeo.


As it says on the vimeo page - I would like to make a longer video that explains some of the rules, and since there is a large tournament in London at the end of this month - I think that would make a nice centre piece.

Just need to find a partner now.
And sort out my complete and utter inability to return cut.

Another week gone!

So here we are - another week has disappeared into the sands of time.

Since the last post I haven't done a great deal except play a single game of fives on Thursday evening.

I received a callup from Richard Black (whom I had never met) to play for the 'Lancing Fives Club' - Which is a rather grand name for the 4 old men that the team appears to be comprised of. I think someone mentioned to Richard that I was around in the area and keen for a game, and I am glad that they did because the game I played in was excellent. 

After turning up and playing a few points so they could gauge my ability, I was placed placed in first pair to play a best-of-five match against the top charterhouse pairing.

Naturally, as befits any game I have played in recently, the first thing we did was go behind by about 7 points and then struggle our way back into the game. Our opponents were very fast cutting, and made cunning use of the angle, such that I found myself pinned into the buttress a fair few times before finding some form.

Once I did however, we started to play some very good fives, with some long volleying rallies. One even got up to around 20 shots in length, which left me panting up against the wall.

One of the odd things about fives, and fives courts, is that each court seems to be a little bit different. 

Westway has nice even bouncing courts, fairly similar to Eton in size and shape.

Eton has very shiny courts which dont seem to allow for a great deal of spin

Cranleigh has fairly wide courts with grippy plaster on the walls

St John's is just awful.

And Charterhouse has slanty floors.

These slanty floors threw me off for ages during the match, until I worked out where I needed to stand to be in the right position for my favourite shot into the buttress. Unfortunately, because the ball takes a much narrower angle to the floor when it is slanted, it also meant that I was having to hit it much closer to the ground. Which resulted in my 'killer' shot, not only being telegraphed from the back of the court, but also going a great deal slower than usual.

Nevertheless, we pulled ourselves back into the first game and won in good fashion. The second game was equally close, before we finished them off comfortably in the final game.

Fortunately, next week isnt anywhere near as manic on the fives front, and hopefully I will be able to get my heels back to fighting fitness (they get bruised when I play for a long time) Perhaps I need new shoes.

In other news - I went climbing the other day, and since I have been taping my finger during sessions, my pulley has stopped protesting so much - and today it is even feeling good! I'm not sure how long there is till SIBL now, but I might put in a showing at the first round, just because I can. :-D

Hoorah.