The Roses Cup is an annual invitational competition between NWPL and YNEPF we’ve had running for a few years now, 3 men and 3 women from each division and highest IPF (formerly Wilks) wins. We take turns to host, and this year it was at Fighting Fit, in Manchester. A great gym, full of amazing lifters, and no bias at all because it’s where I lift…
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This year was an amazing competition, with a really fantastic atmosphere, where I had the privilege to both TC and referee for the lifters today; plus doing the weigh in, I also had the treat of seeing all the male lifters in their pants, lucky me!
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A full list of the teams and lifts can be found at http://nwpowerlifting.org.uk/calendar2019/roses-cup/ and as you will see, NWPL was able to hold on to the Cup for the 4th consecutive year; but that doesn’t of course, mean it wasn’t a scintillating event. The standard of the lifting was on another level, with records all around.
Best lifters for the day both came from the NWPL team, with Bobbie Butters taking it for the women, after finishing with a 160kg squat, 95kg bench press and 167.5kg deadlift, weighing in at just 58.2kg bodyweight. This gave her 765.48 IPF points, and all the 63kg NWPL records, with the exception of deadlift which still belongs to Lauren May-Drake; though she did it close to 5kg under the class limit - truly inspirational from Bobbie.
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Tony Cliffe took best lifter for the men overall. In doing so, he took unofficial British Records across the board with the exception of the deadlift (which is his anyway!) He squatted 420kg which is one of the biggest squats ever attempted in Great Britain and is 20kg over the existing record; benched 320kg, which is 15kg over the existing record and deadlifted 360kg; which provided him with another unofficial British Record, the under 120kg equipped total, at 1100kg exactly. This gave him 722.27 IPF, which for a heavyweight man is an achievement and a half!
On IPF points, the 2nd and 3rd places for women went to Rebekah Tiler and Rachel Braddish, both of the YNEPF, with 724.61 and 723.90 respectively; a very close run! For the men, those podium spots went to Jord McLaughlin of NWPL and Dan Bedford of YNEPF with respective IPF points of 680.70 and 652.33.
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As usual with NWPL events, we had a fantastic atmosphere, which I’m sure anyone who has attended an NWPL national event at Manchester Grammar School will agree. Refereeing for the day was provided by myself, Mariella Fisher and the wonderfully brace wearing Dr Rick Booth, and Peter Ratcliffe, with organisation for the day being handled by the ever capable and awesome Kim Cowell. Full results are available as a PDF on the nwpowerlifting.org.uk website.
