QUODCUMQUE  FACIENDUM : NIMIS  FACIEMUS

Editorial

New Officers

The 1975-6 committee contains few, if any surprises.  None the less, our best wishes to Mike
Wheadon for agreeing to continue to be our Hon. Sec., after stepping into this
job at a moment’s notice during the last club year.

Our best wishes also to Roy Marshall, who has the difficult
job of keeping the Climbing Section going and, one presumes, keeping Bob Cross
happy at the next A.G.M.  Also, to Chris
Batstone who has taken on the equally difficult job of being Hut Warden.  We are sure that club members will wish them
every success during the next twelve months.

E.G.M. Ahead?

The new committee have some tough jobs in the pipeline
already.  The A.G.M., having thrown out
the idea of a waiver to prevent one member suing another via the club’s policy
– against the findings of the sub-committee set up to investigate these matters
and reinforced by experts like Mike T., Tim Reynolds and Bob White – has now
left the new committee in a bit of a hole from which it has somehow to emerge
in true caving fashion.  As if this were
not enough it has also to look into a mechanism whereby school clubs could
become affiliated to the B.E.C.

Now, any change to the conditions or classes of club
membership which would arise if the committee recommended some sort of scheme
along these lines must, by the club constitution, be presented to the club as a
whole for voting on, and cannot be put into effect by the committee.  Thus, the first amendment to this resolution
discussed at the A.G.M. (luckily defeated) was, as somebody pointed out,
unnecessary.  The second amendment (even
more luckily defeated) which would have compelled the committee to act was out
of order, although nobody pointed this out at the time.  The actual resolution, as passed, compels the
club committee to look into the subject as a matter of some urgency!  This hardly squares up with the normal
process whereby the committee reports its findings before the next A.G.M. and
the club then votes for or against.  One
wonders how the committee will avoid that most unpopular of moves – an E.G.M.

Once Written, Twice Try!

As was greatly feared at the time, it turns out that the
letter from Mike Wheadon has become the first item ever to have been printed by
mistake twice, for which we apologise to all members – and especially to Garth
Dell for having wasted some of his paper! There are a number of things which have, for an editor, a nightmare
quality about them.  One of these, which
has happened before but luckily not to me, is to find a page of the B.B.
printed upside down.  This has only
happened once, and the letter to the editor which suffered this fate was, in
fact, one which I wrote to the editor at that time.  The other one, which has not yet – touch wood
– happened, is to find that the wrong page has been printed on the back of
another page.  Don’t worry!  I expect it will happen some time!

Round and About

Dave (Wig) Irwin tells me that, owing to the amount of work
he has to get through, he is going to have to ‘taper off’ his regular column of
up-to-date information and finally stop at the end of the year.  On behalf of the B.B.  A hearty vote of thanks to Wig for his hard
work in running the longest running regular feature to have appeared in the
B.B.  Are there any aspiring young
columnists amongst our members who might be planning a successor to this
feature.

“Alfie”

 

Beginner’s (and Friends)

An account of some caving in
Yorkshire during July 1975 by ‘Beginner’

The expedition consisted of four members, namely Tony, who
scared the living daylight out of a party of unsuspecting cavers in the sandy
passages of O.F.D. with his renowned impression of a herd of stampeding
elephants; Annette, who impaled herself on the tag wire of a ladder while
descending the Twenty in Swildons and had to be lifted off, which was not funny
at the time (Shades of ‘Susan Grey’? Ed); Rosemary, who swore off caving for
life after being descended on by ten boy scouts while in difficulties in Upper
Swildons; and ‘Beginner’, who is modest, truthful and writing this rubbish
account.

The expedition arrived in
Yorkshire
(where the REAL caves are on Saturday, and a check of essential equipment was
initiated.  Three wetsuits; helmets;
lamps; carbide; rope; ladders; tethers; four gallons of homemade wine; two
packs of cards (Bridge) and forty pounds (drinking money).  By eleven o’clock on Tuesday morning, we
thought we really ought to do some caving. Tony said his back was too painful (he has a genuine incipient slipped
disc) and volunteered to help Rosemary guard the remaining wine.  This reduced the caving party to two people
and since we were not prepared to burden ourselves too much with tackle, we
chose the
West Kingsdale system (valley
entrance) for our first cave.

On approaching the faded orange oil drum, we heard a
peculiar whistling noise.  Removing the
lid proved that this was caused by the force ten breeze that wafted out of the
hole.  After crawling in and replacing
the lid, we were able to light the lamps. This revealed a four foot high passage which, after a few yards, became
a three foot tube containing two feet of water. Passing this, we entered the ‘roof tunnel’ which is about five feet in
diameter and mostly dry but which has about six inches of water on the floor in
places.

When we reached the master cave we found that the climb down
was not really difficult but, being idle, we rigged up a twenty foot ladder and
fifteen foot tether to the rawlbolt provided. Proceeding upstream, the Canyon and Cascades reminded me very much of
the O.F.D. II streamway, in spite of the reduced size (we liked it!)

On reaching the Master Junction, we decided to go via the ‘

Chest
Deep
Canal‘ as far as the
Rowten Sump.  The canal is about twenty
feet wide in a seven foot high tunnel and contains about five feet of
water.  Annette swam while I waded!  We eventually got to the sump which is marked
by notices pointing out the dangers of remaining underwater without air.

Returning to the Master Junction, we proceeded up
Philosopher’s Crawl towards Swinsto Final Chamber but turned back in order to
reach the nearest hostelry before it closed, which we did.  Wednesday was spent sightseeing Catrigg
Force; Malham Tarn; Malham Cove, various inns and fish and chips with wine
followed by a game of bridge.  On the
Thursday, we did

Short
Drop
Cave;
Leck Fell.  We spent much longer in this
cave, having started at nine o’clock in the morning, and explored many of the
side passages.  The cave is as described
in

Northern
Caves, Volume Four.  Our only problem was that, having reached
Gravel Pot, we could not find the correct way up.  However, not being prepared to go all the way
back again, we went straight up, with difficulty.

Going back to the other half of our expedition, we decided,
in view of Tony’s excessive state of fed-upness at not being able to go caving,
to spend the rest of the week getting rid of the remaining drinking money,
which we did.

Editor’s
Note:     ‘Beginner’ writes, with this
article, ‘In response to your appeal for more contributions to B.B., I enclose
an account of a recent trip to
Yorkshire.  Both caves visited required about the same
degree of skill as, say, G.B. or Swildons I.

Of other people were four from Whernside Manor – two
instructors and two novices.  The
instructors said that they were disappointed at the number of novices going
there and offered to lend us an unlimited amount of tackle at very reasonable
rates.

The only other cavers we saw were some in the process of
descending Gaping Gill main shaft on a single rope (rope walkers?).  They emerged later from Bar Pot.

 

Club Officer’s Reports. – Hon. Secretary’s Report

As delivered at the late A.G.M.
and published for the benefit of those who were not able to attend.

The past year has seen club members establishing the club on
both the caving headlines and on the political front.  Internally, two major investigations have
taken place, and their findings will affect club members in several ways.  Within the administration of the club, major
changes have taken place at the Belfry that have incorporated the improvements
that have been voiced as being necessary and should perhaps have been included
when the building was erected in 1969. Further changes have been made as a result of the experiences gained by
living and working in the building.

On the home front first. The election of the committee resulted in one of the most active for
many years.  The committee co-opted Chris
Rowell to take over the editorship of the Caving Reports and also survey
sales.  Later, to assist our Treasurer
Barry Wilton, Angie Dooley was appointed as Membership Secretary – a post that
has worked well this year.  Due to the
problems of committee members resigning during the course of any club year, it
was decided that all correspondence for subscriptions; Cuthbert’s trips;
bookings etc should in future be addressed to the Belfry and not to the
individual’s home address.  This will, it
is hoped, prevent the loss of mail through non-delivery to the Club Officer
responsible for its action.

During the year there were two resignations from the
committee or official posts.  First was
the resignation of Gerry Oaten as Climbing Secretary – he was replaced by Tony
Sharp.  There was another member prepared
to stand and he is now on the 1975/6 committee due to the fact that Tony is
moving away from the

Bristol
area.  The second was myself, who
resigned from the post of Club Secretary in July, as it was not advisable to be
seen as a club officer while at the same time being Hon. Secretary of the
Council of Southern Caving Clubs.  In
addition, the work for the Southern Council has proved to be much greater and
more time consuming than was originally thought.  Tomorrow, in fact, I have to be away from
Priddy at 7am for an N.C.A. meeting in
Stafford
and so it’s early to bed to-night!  Later
in the year, Andy Nichols resigned as Caving Sec. and was replaced by Tim
Large.  The replacement for the Hon Sec.
was bravely taken on by Mike Wheadon.

As a result of discussion at the last A.G.M., a special
committee was formed to look into the question insurance.  A group comprising of Alfie; Joan Bennett;
Andy Nichols; Bob White and myself met in January.  Later meetings saw this committee enlarged by
two invited specialists Mike Thompson and Tim Reynolds.

The committee drew up a report and submitted its findings to
the club committee in June of this year – a summary has been published in a
recent B.B. and it was decided that instead of going through the procedure of
modifying and reprinting the entire constitution for the sake of adding two
clauses, the Club Rules should be brought back into existence.  These will be placed before the meeting today
for your approval.

When the inflation rates were found to be rising well above
the 20% on a national level, the committee requested Barrie Wilton and myself
to look into the financial position of the club.  This we did, and it was found that there was
no real need to raise the subscript for the coming year 1975/76.  This was done on the basis that income to the
club from whatever source (i.e. the Belfry; publications etc – with the
exception of surveys which are a special case – would be pooled in the general
account rather than keep the monies in separate accounts for expenditure in
that particular department of the club. This is not to say that subs will not have to rise in the year 1976/77
but only the next year’s committee will be able to assess the situation.

Two members of’ the club managed to make the inter-national
headlines; Graham Wilton-Jones and John Dukes in the discovery and exploration
of SC3 (Belfry Pot), a 350m deep pothole that connected the upper reaches of
the P.S.M. in the Pyrenees, while on the home front Roy Bennett has been
involved with the exploration of an important discovery in the Chepstow area –
Otter Hole – which the Royal Forest of Dean Slelaeos pipped him by breaking
through first at another dig point.  The
cave is now over 3,400ft long and instead of the usual guidebook, the Avonmouth
tide tables happen to be your ‘bible’. Congratulations to all three.  On
a smaller scale, work at Waldegrave, East Twin valley, Wookey Hole and Fairy
Cave Quarry are all helping to keep the club’s name in a good light.

The Climbing Section is going through one of its unfortunate
lulls, but we’ve seen this before in both the caving and climbing areas and it
is hoped that the club can attract more climbers into the section in the near
future.

The political scene is one of those unfortunate events in
the caving world that can no longer be ignored. Your committee has been only too well aware this year of the forces that
are arising and, unless they are damped down immediately, the whole face of
caving in the country will change to the detriment of the pastime.  Even the B.M.G. are finding this influence
testing.  As a result of the appearance
of several diverse views – two from the South from Tim Reynolds and Alfie – the
N.C.A. executive have realised that the N.C.A. cannot continue along its
current lines without the need for an investigation at grass roots as to what
the caver expects from N.C.A.  A special
working party has been set up made up of a representative from each of the caving
regions, with Phil Davies of the

Wessex being the Southern
representative.

This year, the B.E.C. has resigned its membership of the
Cambrian Caving Council as it believes that a club should only have voting
powers on one regional council and not have such powers on as many regional
councils as it desires to belong. However, the club committee for the opinion that it is not opposed to
associate membership of another region – we are, in fact, associate members of
the Council of Northern Caving Clubs.

The Cambrian Cave Rescue Council has been reformed and
although we are actively involved here on Mendip with M.R.O., Roy Bennett has
volunteered to act as liaison bod with B.E.C. for rescue work in
South Wales.  This
is for the reason that he is active in the little-known Chepstow area and also
because he is situated near the
Severn
Bridge and can be in
South
Wales as quickly as he can reach Mendip.

This report has been compiled to the end of July and any
future work will be explained by Mike Wheadon A.G.M.

 

Letters to the Editor

Dear Alfie and Company,

Well done, ‘Sons of Bertie’ for another excellent B.E.C.
dinner – again, well attended by members and guests alike – unlike another well
known Mendip club with whom we often PITTS our wits against and who I am
assured, due to a greatly reduced attendance at their dinner in Wells this
year, are to hold their next dinner in the phone box on Priddy Green to cater
for the demand.

Talking of where clubs hold, or may hold, their dinners, may
I express purely my own point of view and urge that next year we have a change
in location of the dinner as two years on the trot in Wells may well be dulled
by a third.  This is in no way a
condemnation of the excellent cuisine and the pleasant and friendly service of
our caterers, but rather more due to a yearning to ‘roam around from pub to
pub’ to other pleasant locations.

A little bit of plushness once a year – as opposed to a reminder
of one’s short-trousered and gym shoe days in a lofty school hall never hurts
the club – indeed I feel that it adds a little more sense of occasion.

I know well from previous service on the committee that
people will argue that we cannot find large enough places, but I feel that we
need only cater for the club as a whole, and not the myriads of others who come
because it is THE dinner.  Places like
Cheddar and Wookey change in three and four years respectively you know.  We can still cater for members and guests up
to a total of 200, and you can’t please all the people all the time!

Best wishes to the club dinner for next year!

“Mr” Nigel.

Editor’s
Note:     The Committee are, as usual at
this time of the year, holding an inquest on the dinner and making basic plans
for the next.  Already, some members of
the club have made their wishes known to the committee.  If YOU have any strong views – or feel that
the existing arrangements are what you prefer – PLEASE let any member of the
committee know, so that your views can be taken into account.  As many members will know, some places have
to be booked many months in advance, so there is no a lot of time for decisions
to be taken, so shout NOW if you want to be heard’.

*****************************************

Townsend Cottage.

Dear Alfie,

It is a great pity that the important clause re the
insurance resolution, presented at the A.G.M., was turned down.

I am surprised that the major points were not amplified or
understood by all concerned.  Insurance
companies are not keen to insure cavers though, if the conditions seem fair to
them, they will do so.  Three of the
major clubs in the area, S.M.C.C.; W.C.C. and ourselves are insured with the
same company who has not carried out a full actuarial investigation thus
relating the premiums paid to the risk involved.  To protect themselves, they have written into
the policy a clause enabling them to cancel unilaterally on 14 days
notice.  Now, to reduce the risk of a
claim being made to the insurance company but keeping the club (as distinct
from the individual) fully protected, it was felt necessary to delete the
‘member to member’ clause.  Altering the
policy will not eliminate a member suing another member, as this can still be
done.  However, by incorporating a clause
in a set of club rules or in the constitution and by highlighting this rule in
the application form, members would be prevented from suing each other.  There are good reasons for this.  We’ve all joined a club to enable us to go
caving – it’s just not safe to go underground alone – and its good fun to cave
with people one knows.  It is also
recognised that caving is a hazardous sport and that accidents will
happen.  This being the case, if we can’t
trust each other and have to go underground feeling that if a mistake is made
that could be interpreted as ‘negligence’ then we all might as well stay at
home.  To prove negligence is extremely
difficult.  When does ‘foolhardiness’
become ‘negligence’?

Individuals can take out independent insurance cover quite
cheaply – a few pounds a year for £100,000 but though this might answer the
problems, the only proof of being insured is by production of a ‘cover note’
each time we come together.  This is
messy and completely unnecessary.

I would sign this clause in the rules any day.  If member still persist in retaining the
right to sue another then a simple rule must be applied to conditions of
membership.  On applying for membership
of the club or renewing membership by paying one’s subscription, the application
form or cheque for the annual subscription must be accompanied by the
individual’s insurance cover note.  The
main problem is that of life members, as new conditions of membership cannot be
made to act retrospectively.  What does
one do?  The problem, of course, applies
whether we eliminate ‘member to member’ clause or keep the right to ‘member to
member’.  Having said that, I would
personally sign the clause as proposed by the committee though we have some
fifty life members, many of which have given up active caving.  I would guess that they would no be too
worried about signing the clause. However, that remains to be seen. Incidentally, the M.C.G., S.M.C.C. and W.C.C. all have this clause in
their respective rule so be warned!  If a
B.E.C. member belongs to any other club, he’d better check their policy – he
might not be able to sue a member of his second club!

Yours,

Dave Irwin.

 

Mik’s Peregrinations

Following on from the ‘Thrilla in Manilla’ – on Saturday,
4th October at the

Blue
School in Wells came the
B.E.C.’s all-ticket sell-out dinner. Since there were so many satisfied customers last year it seemed to be a
good idea to opt for the mixture as before, as we asked Arthur Laws if he could
get his catering organisation into gear and provide a meal similar to the one
he laid on in 1974.  The menu this year
was Soup, followed by Prawn Cocktail; Beef Jardinière (with carrots, runner
beans, creamed and roast potatoes) and then a choice from Blackberry and apple
tart; trifle or cheese and biscuits.  I
noticed that Dan H. managed a helping of the whole lot again.  Coffee was not served at table this year, for
no reason that I could establish, but was available in the entrance vestibule
which also doubled as the Mobile Hunters where Roger and Ben held court.

As usual, there was a considerable company assembled before
the dinner for a quick pint (or two) and whilst it would not be possible to
list all those present, I think we should note that Stella Hasell was there
despite only recently recovering from a fractured hip.  Angus Innes returned after an absence of 25
years.  Tom and Rusty Neil turned up with
their daughter Edwina and your very own Bobby Bagshaw was there without his
famous beer tankard (cries of ‘Shame!’). There was Blogg; Ransom; Ginger Thomas; Beryl Ifold and many
others.  Our main guests were Gerry and
Valerie Brice (for the older types, he is Casey’s replacement) and
representatives from the Shepton Wessex and U.B.S.S.

Of course, there were many other guests and after Sett (who
was this years A.G.M. Chairman) had dealt with the Loyal Toast, he called upon
Zot, who rose on his dainty and pretty clogs to propose that the club drink a
health to the guests.  Actually, Chris
started his toast by delivering a very original Irish joke and then went on to
point out the guests – giving generous comment in praise of their clubs.  He then went on to praise (and perish) the
fuzz, ending his build-up to the toast with the first verse of a new song.

If you go down to the Wig’s
today, you’re sure of a great surprise,
If you go down to the Wig’s today, you’d better go in disguise.
For all the fuzz that ever there wuzz
Is gathered there for certain becuzz
To-day’s the day that somebody nicked his Hi-Fi.

Gerry Brice then replied on behalf of the guests, pointing
out, that although he knew we were all a lot of (decent) rogues, the times had
changed because once he could call at the Belfry and be offered coffee – now he
gets offered a ‘tot’.  He did not tell
any risqué jokes nor sing any short songs about policemen but in response to
his toast – the B.E.C. – there was quite a response.  Now, if you’ve been paying attention, you
will recall that this was an all-ticket dinner, and Roy Pearce had photographed
and enlarged one of the tickets and suggested that we could present it to our
principal guest with suitable endorsements on the reverse of the ‘ticket’ Mike
Wheadon presented it to Gerry at the close of his speech.

After all this, there could not be much left, you would
think, but once again, Alan Thomas produced a piece de resistance in his now
familiar toast of absent friends. Although Alan usually precedes his toast with a tale or two (and this
years was as successful as is usual) I always find my thoughts tending to drift
at this time to those not present and whom I remember, so I only noticed that
Alan mentioned George Honey.  He must
have mentioned others, since he concluded by making the point that the B.E.C. could
well claim to be the club on which the sun never sets.

At this point, we usually turn to our entertainers and
Barrie Wilton and Butch had planned to take us on a journey to the centre of
the earth, but unfortunately Butch ran amok last Saturday (Sept 27th) and got
married so he had to cry off entertaining us. (Anyway, congrats to him and Aileen). Alfie then volunteered to sing us a selection of his caving songs of his
own composition, but as we had not prepared the stage beforehand, and people
had settled down to serious drinking and chattering so quickly, it was thought
not to be a good idea after all so we already have the choice of two
entertainments for next year.

One of the major disadvantages of the Blue School is that
you get thrown out at midnight, so we had to climb back into our pumpkins and
go back to the Belfry where there were a couple of barrels waiting to be tapped
and a couple of songs waiting to be sung. In conclusion, I found the dinner very enjoyable, as did the great
majority of those I have since researched. Once again, Patti’s relations proved that whatever your profession,
nepotism wins.  See you next year – I
hope.

Members’ Addresses

Next month, traditionally, the B.B. produces the up to date
list of addresses of club members.  If
you are about to move, or have any information about your address which you
want to have corrected, please get in touch with our Membership Secretary –
Angie Dooley.  You may write to via the
Belfry if you wish.  There are always
some club members who find that the reason they have missed some B.B.’s etc. is
because their address is not correct in some way or other.  If you have any reason to believe that your
address is not correct, please get in touch.

 “Alfie”

 

P.S.M. 1975

Or ‘Whatever is worth doing!’

Graham Wilton-Jones writes ‘This
article is basically to put the record straight and give a brief account.  More detail information will be published
later as a Caving Report.

I should emphasise that I am dealing with this years
discovery, ‘at the
Pierre’, because several
people are mistakenly thinking that we connected PSM and Arphidia (sorry,Wig)
‘in the

pierre‘.  There is a strong possibility that this
connection will be discovered or made before long.  Indeed, it is one of our intended projects
for 1976 to examine closely the upstream area of Arphidia and the high level
passages off the Salle Chevalier in PSM. No connection between the two has yet been made.  In point of fact, we have provided the PSM
with another entrance – its fifth (If the M prefix entrances, including M3, are
counted as one).

We had been prospecting on that vast plateau of bare
limestone, known locally as lapiaz, which stretches up to and across the
French/Spanish border from the col de PSM to the impressive cliffs of the Pic
de Soum Couy and Pic d’Anie.  We were
using stereoscopic aerial photographs by courtesy of ARSIP and USAF to identify
positions of interesting sites.  Having
worked there for several days we were becoming relatively familiar with the
area, and I took a short cut one morning to reach our geographical reference
point, a cairn and pole which we had placed on a low hill.  Almost at our prospecting starting point at
the end of this low, rounded hump of limestone, I came across a deep joint half
a metre wide and about 5 metres long (1’6″ by 16′).  Stones I dropped down it rumbled away for 15
seconds, with several free falls.  It was
significant that no other pots were known in this area, apart from those we had
discovered and investigated during the previous week or so.

By the end of the day John and I with
Cher
(a caver from the American group who were also working on the plateau) had
reached the head of another series of drops descending about 120 metres (394′).  On the second day much time was spent in
re-rigging and, in putting in extra bolts, three of us reached a depth of 175
metres (574′).

The following day was rather short, as we had to go back to
the valley to restock our provisions. The Americans had completed the M3 inlet survey and some had recovered
after their three days underground.  In
the late afternoon, three of them (sorry, two, Editor!) Jim Smith and Fred
Wefer came down with us.  Most of the
time was spent as on the previous day, putting in bolts and re-rigging.  However, John managed to free climb down the
next pitch for a few metres and look at the way on.

On the fourth day, Bill Combs joined us and the survey was
restarted.  John and I had nothing to do
with this, and were more than thankful for American help and expertise
here.  On this day, I managed to get down
to about 300 metres (984′), while John was never far above, hammering in extra
bolts wherever the rope touched the rock. Once again, we left the place with another inviting and un-descended
pitch below us.

The weather was bad the next day, so we decided to sort out
survey notes, then go and meet three of the American group who were doing the
PSM through trip (Tete Sauvage to EDF tunnel). Until this time I was firmly convinced that the cave was heading roughly
East, but Bill insisted that his measurements showed it to be trending just
East of South.  Even so, this would make
it almost the opposite of the PSM water flow (approximately
West
North-West).  Furthermore,
we were working in an area in which the nearest known pot, over a kilometre
away, has a water flow presumed to be Eastwards, away from the Pierre to
resurge in an entirely different valley. I thought we were to the East of the underground watershed.  However, while stuck in the car in the
pouring rain halfway up the track to the EDF hut, Bill realised from grid
references worked out from the survey that our new pothole was within a hundred
metres (328′) of the Bassaburuko inlet of the PSM.

One more rest day, dictated by the weather and then, after a
further descent of 54 metres (173′) and a thrutch through a nasty loose rift,
the connection was made at last at a depth of about 350 metres (1,148 ft).

In all, we have increased the depth of the PSM by a mere 58
metres (190ft) to 1,332 metres (4,370ft). We will all have evil memories of an incredibly wet, windy and cold day
tramping about the lapiaz in the mist with altimeters and walkie-talkies just
to confirm this with 10 feet (3m).  M3
had increased its depth by 103 metres (338ft) to 1,274 metres (4,180ft).  We believe, but we have had no actual
confirmation, that the Jean-Bemard/Luive system has a depth of 1,310m
(4,298ft), with further potential.

The name of the new pot is Belfry Pot when translated into
English.  It is a considerably more roomy
pot than the Tete Sauvage and provides an easy route to the upper and
little-known reaches of the system.  It
could be considered as an all-weather entrance, but this only applies once you
get underground.  The final section of
the 100m (328ft) penultimate pot is damp in wet weather and there is some drip,
but a wet suit is not necessary.  One is
far more likely to get wet walking up to the entrance than actually descending
the pot.

 

Committee Meeting

The 1975/76 committee met for its first full meeting (apart
from that held during the A.G.M. to appoint club officers for the coming club
year) on Friday, 7th November.  A number
of club members were also present and took part in the discussions.

The committee picked up several items of unfinished business
from last year.  One of these, the
alterations to the Belfry, produced some lively discussion.  Following another suggestion from the floor,
alternative venues for the 1976 Annual Dinner are being investigated by the
Hon. Sec.

New items of business included all the topics passed on to
the committee by the A.G.M.  On the
subject of club insurance, Alfie volunteered to see Bob White with a view to
seeing how the wishes of the club might be incorporated into the club’s
policy.  This will be reported on at the
next meeting.  On the subject of
affiliation, the committee decided to try to obtain more viewpoints from
members before discussing the matter among themselves.

The next meeting of the committee is on Friday, 5th December
at 8.p.m. at the Belfry.

1976 Paul Esser Memorial Lecture

This lecture will be given on Wednesday, 18th February 1976
at 8.15 p.m, in the Arthur Tyndall Memorial Lecture Theatre Physics Dept,

Tyndall Ave,
Bristol
8, by Dr. A.C. Waltham on the subject of ‘Caves and Ice’.  This is the first time we have had a caving
subject for the lecture.  There will be a
further reminder somewhat nearer to the actual date.

Notice

The Hut Warden would like to appeal for items of cutlery,
crockery and furniture for the Belfry. If you have anything you think might be useful, get in touch with Chris
about it.

 

Monthly Crossword – Number 61

Across:

1. Disorganised Mendip feature at
Wells? (6)
6. Belays begone? (4)
8. Alternative initial description of S.R.T. (1,1,1,1)
9. A Stoke Lane Crawl. (5)
10. Useful for away trips, or sounds like afternoon meals for 10. (5)
12. Detectors of aural connection underground. (4)
13. A half road. (4)
14. Sets off chemical persuader? (7)

Down

2. Pretty?  Wet? (4)
3. Current phenomenon in stream perhaps. (4)
4. Rock Les on
Eastern Mendip. (7)
5. Abrupt first letter in cave formation. (7)
7. Cheddar cave. (5).
8. Staid form of underground passages. (5)
10. Short cave dweller. (4)
11. Dried up. (4)

Solution to Last Month’s Crossword

 

Club Headquarters

The Belfry,

Wells
Rd, Priddy, Wells,

Somerset. Telephone WELLS 72126

Club Committee

Chairman          S.J.
Collins

Minutes Sec      G.

Wilton-Jones

Members           Chris Batstone, John Dukes, Chris
Howell, Tim Large, Mike Wheadon, R. Marshall, Barry Wilton.

Officers Of The Club

Honorary Secretary        M.
WHEADON, 91 The Oval, Englishcoombe,

Bath.  Tel :

BATH
713646

Honorary Treasurer         B.

WILTON, ‘Valley View’,

Venus Lane,
Clutton, Nr. Bristol. Tele :

TEMPLE
CLOUD
52072

Caving Secretary            TIM
LARGE,

15 Kippax Avenue,
Wells, Somerset

Hut Warden                   C.
BATSTONE,

8 Prospect Place,
Bathford,

Bath..

Belfry Engineer              J.
DUKES,

4 Springfield Crescent,
Southampton. SO1 6LE  Tele : (0703) 774649

Tacklemaster                 G.
WILTON-JONES, ‘Ilenea’,

Stonefield
Road. Nap Hill,
High Wycombe,
Bucks. Tele : (024) 024 3534

B.B. Editor                    S.J.
COLLINS, Lavender Cottage, Bishops Sutton, Nr. Bristol. Tel : CHEW MAGNA 2915

Publications Editor         C.
HOWELL,

131 Sandon Road,
Edgebaston,

Birmingham
17.  Tele : (021) 429 5549

B.B. Postal                    BRENDA

WILTON  Address as for Barry

Spares                          T.
LARGE,  Address already given

Membership Sec.           Mrs. A.
DOOLEY, c/o The Belfry.  TO WHOM ALL SUBS
SHOULD BE SENT.

Climbing Secretary         R.
MARSHALL, 7 Fairacre Close, Lockleaze,

Bristol

 

Any contribution to the Belfry Bulletin, including those of
officers of the club, are not necessarily the opinions of the editor or the
committee of the Bristol Exploration Club, unless explicitly stated as being
such.