Was it tried ground up? 'I remembered it from the abseil and it had looked pathetic.' Jerry is also on the record somewhere as watching JR abbing down and practising moves.
Also, the text says 1980, but we have it as 1982
Hmm good question, I'll have a look at Nick Dixon's cloggy guide when I get home, the history section at the back is great for this kind of stuff.
I think you're right about the ab inspection, his quote definitely backs that up. I have a memory of JR being a bit sniffy about the style Johnny and others tried it, but perhaps that was top roping vs. ab inspection rather than top roping v. ground up.
In Revelations Jerry says ‘the year before I had watched Redhead prepare his route on abseil’. Also All the holds above him in that photo are chalked.