Burly wall and Roaches

Thursday saw a Wall of Burl revisit, with Nik. UKBs Gremlin was keen to get some training done, so he was round to be initiated into the WoB too. The 'footwork King', G-Lah had submitted a rather poor excuse and was nowhere to be seen however, so it was the three of us.
Memory man Gremlin was given some excellent pointers from Nik-should-have-been-a-coach-at-work, and in spite of a woeful ability to remember more than two holds in sequence, he did well. WoB is a bit of a baptism of fire and he didn't hold out too badly for his first session, he'll come on quickly I reckon if he concentrates on his footwork and finger strength.
Nik was looking as strong as ever in spite of the split finger, hope your crook wrist is better soon beast.
I on the other hand felt a bit weak to be honest. I wasn't really thinking properly and ended up failing a lot on the same move without changing anything or trying to do it any differently. Bit lazy really, so it wasn't the best session for me. Plus I didn't really feel beasted at the end either, so I could tell I wasn't giving it 100%. If I'm going to get stronger I think trying harder will be key. Sometimes it doesn't flow, and other times it does. Thursday, it wasn't particularly flowing...

So today saw me in sunny Coventry. After a successful meeting I headed up to Stoke as I had another meeting this afternoon. I managed to break free and as I was in the area I went straight up to the Roaches as it was virtually on my way back anyway.
I arrived feeling like crap, and wandered up to the crag. I didn't even look at the Spring boulders as I knew they'd be sodden (I was right) so I went to the lower tier boulders beneath Teck crack. After warming up on problem 40 and 41 (4a, 4c) I went over to the block behind to try something a bit harder.
Firstly I had a look at problem 8 which involved undercutting an overlap. Relatively tricky, but it felt straight forward. Second go. V3 6a
Then I had a brief look at the flake and arete on the left (Problem 6) V3 6a and thought it looked ok. I managed to find a pebble to 'finger' and pulled on. Foot on the right, slap with the left then another slap with the right and it was in the bag. Probably the third go.
I also did the flake problem to the right (Problem 9, V0 5a), then went over to do the Arch, V0 5a, and finally to the traverse (Problem 2, v1 5c) although didn't top this out it was good for the arms. I ran out of time, so headed off...

I really like this place, and there's more to come back to. GCW pointed out I should have headed up to try the Staffordshire Flyer, and I'd completely forgotten about it. I'm actually gutted that I didn't head up there actually as this has been on the list for a while, and I'm unlikely to head back any time soon.
So now I'm drinking beer after having chippy. I'll never lose the belly...
I'm quite pleased that I managed to dispatch a couple of 6a's with relative ease - I think I should be setting my sights higher when I'm out and about...
7a in 2010? hmmm. At least I tried today.

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