Belfry Bulletin Number 335

87

Vol XXIV No.10

B B

October 1975

No. 335

QUODCUMQUE FACIENDUM : NIMIS FACIEMUS CONTENTS List of Club Officer’s, Committee members etc.

Editorial Beginner and friends Hon. Secretary’s Report Letters to the Editor Mik’s Peregrinations At the P.S.M. – 1975 Committee Meeting Crossword No. 61

Page 87 Page 88 Page 89 Page 90 Page 91 Page 92 Page 94 Page 95 Page 96

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.

CLUB HEADQUARTERS The Belfry, Wells Rd, Priddy, Wells, Somerset. Telephone WELLS 72126 CLUB COMMITTEE Chairman Minutes Sec Members

S.J. Collins G. Wilton-Jones Chris Batstone, John Dukes, Chris Howell, Tim Large, Mike Wheadon, R. Marshall, Barry Wilton.

OFFICERS OF THE CLUB Honorary Secretary Honorary Treasurer Caving Secretary Hut Warden Belfry Engineer Tacklemaster B.B. Editor Publications Editor B.B. Postal Spares Membership Sec. Climbing Secretary

M. WHEADON, 91 The Oval, Englishcoombe, Bath. Tel : BATH 713646 B. WILTON, ‘Valley View’, Venus Lane, Clutton, Nr. Bristol.

Tele : TEMPLE CLOUD 52072 TIM LARGE, 15 Kippax Avenue, Wells, Somerset C. BATSTONE, 8 Prospect Place, Bathford, Bath..

J. DUKES, 4 Springfield Crescent, Southampton. SO1 6LE Tele : (0703) 774649 G. WILTON-JONES, ‘Ilenea’, Stonefield Road. Nap Hill, High Wycombe, Bucks.

Tele : (024) 024 3534 S.J. COLLINS, Lavender Cottage, Bishops Sutton, Nr. Bristol.

Tel : CHEW MAGNA 2915 C. HOWELL, 131 Sandon Road, Edgebaston, Birmingham 17. Tele : (021) 429 5549 BRENDA WILTON Address as for Barry T. LARGE, Address already given Mrs. A. DOOLEY, c/o The Belfry. TO WHOM ALL SUBS SHOULD BE SENT. R. MARSHALL, 7 Fairacre Close, Lockleaze, Bristol

88

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 subcommittee 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�

89

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 fedupness 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.

90 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.

91 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'.

92 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 ÂŁ100,000 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

93 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”

94

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 JeanBemard/Luive system has a depth of 1,310m (4,298ft), with further potential.

95 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.

96 MONTHLY CROSSWORD – Number 61 Across: 1

2

3

4

1. Disorganised Mendip feature at Wells? (6) 5

6

7

8

9

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

10

11

12

13

14

Solution to Last Month’s Crossword S

T

T C A

A

W

O

O

R

L L

I

T

G

R

E

N

O

E

N G

S

C R

S I

A

O S

N

R I

T I

L

O E

S

T O

M

E

N

L S

E

A C

F

A W

E

E B

R

R

O A

K

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)