April 12th      Priddy

C. Wildgoose. (Meet Leader) A. Eaves. T. Widdowson. J. Dempster. A. Harrison.

A very enjoyable trip was made to Priddy Somerset, at Easter. We camped as usual at Mineries Pool. We made three trips:- Longwood,Swallet Swildons and Cuthbert's. Longwood was wetter than we anticipated and we all got throughly soaked on the main chamber pitch which we abseiled. Swildons was tackled on the Saturday in rainy weather but it was'nt too bad, and a good trip was made to Sump 1, some photo's being taken in Barnes Loop. Sunday was Womens day wiyh a visit to Cheddar- just like Blackpool on August Bank holiday. Monday lam sure was enjoyed by all with a very interesting trip in St Cuthbert's with the leadership of John.Cornwall of The Bristol Exploration Club. A large quantity of photo's were taken And we are now waiting to see how these have come out.

C. Wildgoose.

April 20th      Birchin's Edge

J. Dempster (Meet Leader), A. Marshal, T. Wright, M. Batchford, G. Tyas, L. Potter, C. Barron, A. Harrison, J. Musson.

The weather the whole of the weekend was terrible, it rained all day Saturday and nothing was done until the Sunday morning when a few hours climbing on the edge was achieved, before a very heavy downpour, caused a hasty retreat down to the Rohin Hood Inn. Not a very good weekend.

J.Dempster.

May 12th      Nettle Pot (Derbys)

The idea of the trip down Nettle Pot was to ladder the 180ft. Elizabeth Shaft, which starts from Elizabeth Chamber 200ft; down, as the majority of the club had not done that particular pitch, and as it was free hanging, provided a good training jaunt if nothing else.

It started off quite well, with some of our members, who had gone up friday night, setting off to ladder up on Saturday afternoon, they successfully tackled up Elizabeth Chamber, also made a roaring success of dropping 125ft; of ladder down 30ft of shaft, which was supposed to he the 180ft pitch of Elizabeth, anyhow nothing daunted, three of us (Jack Dempster, Derek Tipping and myself) reladdered the correct pitch, with the right amount of ladder, and left all set for a good session on Sunday morning ( early).

The rest of Saturday, and part of Sunday by some, was spent in a convivial evening at the Devonshire Arms with Orpheus Club who were to join us on the morrow in an epic descent of Nettle, their talented musicians and choir added much to the enjoyment of the evening.

Sunday morning dawned fairly bright for some, and decidedly black for others, some were suffering from bar room exposure and others looking for a broody hen to nestle under, this cut the intended party by about half, but the arrival of Pete Nicholson & Bob Dakin direct from Nottingham made the party visible.

By some stroke of luck the Pegasus Club arrived at the hole first (the Orpheus obviously having similar difficulties) so I set off down to Elizabeth Chamber followed by J.Dempster, A.Harrison, M.Batchford, B.Dakin, P.Thompson from Peak District Historical miners Association, all but one of which eventually bottomed the cave before ascent, were followed immediately by the Orpheus members who had by that time arrived on the scene.

At the bottom of Elizabeth shaft I had a look round whilst waiting for Jack to descend, and found that what l had previously known as a dig had been pushed and was now a shaft of a reasonable size, as soon as Jack arrived we started to investigate more thoroughly, and found that it was about 60ft deep.

By now Paul was down, so we laddered up with the spare tackle that had been lowered, obtained a lifeline from the Elizabeth Chamber by much shouting and raving, and Jack and myself went down, we found ourselves in a rift, with a strong sound of water coming from somewhere.

After digging for about ½hr. we found that we could climb over our dig which we did, and found another shaft of about 20ft; which by re-rigging the tackle we got Jack down, inside was the water we could hear, plus a fast flowing canal, as I could'nt get down the hole, owing to its dimensions, and also that it was a Goon-suit job, we decided to postpone further investigation until a further meet.

Getting Jack up through the small hole was, a champagne cork job, he emerged with a satisfactory POP, most of the rest managed to get through also, credit due to them. At this point we started to go out, I climbed the 180ft; and went almost straight out, owing to failing light, as the batteries had been down the previous day.

I was closely followed by Jack, who emerged battered and triumpant, reported that he had had a spot of bother, it was obvious, as he stood minus one overhall leg, which he had apparantly amputated hanging from the ladder 100ft; up Elizabeth Shaft (decided to make the trip difficult).

The rest of the party gradually detackled and regained the surface, organised mainly by Melvin and Mick Dakin, it was 8pm before all were returned to the hut. B.B.B.

It was Melvin who was unfortunate enough not to get to the bottom, he got somehow stuck with a marathon life-lining job on the Elizabeth pitch, which in itself was a far more strenuous task than actually climbing the pitch, a very unselfish effort and I offer thanks on behalf of the blokes who got down. It had turned out to be a very interesting meet, in many ways.

P.Watkinson