A good year; at first sight the Club appears to have followed its usual, well-tried course, a course common to most University Caving Clubs - hordes of novices arrive, throwing everything out of gear, and are gradually initiated until, just as they are finding their feet and the Club is getting back into the swing of things .... crunch! Another year rolls in, and with it more hordes of novices - but in reality a new trend has emerged this year, and more people are setting off in small, informal car-loads and caving in a way which has not previously been possible on Club mini-bus meets.

The year started as usual with P8; the long drive up, the long, wet waits at the pitches and the long drive down disposed of most of our novices; those who survived were later dragged up to Yorkshire to face the rigours of Sunset, Hardrawkin, Middle Washfold/Great Douk and a rapidly flooding Sell Gill, where one member was observed to abseil a pitch upside-down. Not suprisingly a number of brown paper parcels from Aquaquipment reached Cambridge before the Mendip meet, in the course of which Swildon's was totally over-run by scurrying figures in brand-new - and not-so-new - wetsuits. 2 a.m. on Sunday morning saw a group of four cavers staggering towards Eastwater, with the intention of doing Primrose Pot. Fortunately, the pot was in flood and by the time they reached Primrose the flying spray had sobered them up sufficiently for them to respond to the call of their sleeping bags. Strange to say, they were still game for a longer trip down Eastwater and Shatter Cave in the grey, hungover morning.

The Christmas Vacation started with an East Kingsdale session followed by Pippikin which was found to be nothing like as hard as it was rumoured to be, nor as pretty. Innumerable tourist trips preceded the standard New Year's Eve jaunt down Penyghent, which had to be abandoned at the 70' because of flooding. Three people went into Douk Gill to warm up after this fiasco - and one came out in a stretcher, his leg broken by a boulder which peeled out of the roof; the CRO were not alerted.

Several more trips saw us in Mendip again, then a Simpsons/Swinsto exchange, plagued by flooding and minor accidents; the next day the Club's dig provided some fun. Gill Garth and Fell Close Caves, as well as the whole of the bench between Nick Pbt and Alum, were thoroughly investigated; there's some strange stuff up there. Pikedaw Calamine Caverns were also explored.

In March a huge party did a Bar/Whitsun/Dis exchange, a straightforward trip enlivened mainly by the chaos afterwards, with wet-suited figures wandering forlornly round in circles on the dark, snow-covered fell, plaintively asking each other if anyone knew where Trow Gill had got to...?

Easter brought OAA, LNRC, PYO, DYO, OFD, OFD, OFD, OFD, ... and so on. Later two members returned to Aggie to help in the Fourth Boulder Choke Extravaganza, bumping bottles along Southern Stream, finding the main river in flood, digging for hours among the teetering boulders and getting oh! so close... but not quite making it. The whole affair was organised by a member of CUCC, and when the through trip was finally pushed, members had participated all the way. Later, two members completed the first ever figure-of-8 in the cave. Thank you, Eldon.

A great deal of caving took place during the summer, Car Pot proving to be particularly enjoyable. Howden Lodge Sink (in Coverdale) was visited three times in all and yielded some cave. Far Waters was visited twice-- the discoverers say we were the first party there since it's discovery; very strange - and two madmen did Alum on ropes. Undaunted by this experience, they were later to be seen doing a one-way Grange-Rigg Christmas through-trip on ropes - work that out if you can. The following day they met this feller in the pub ...But that's another story.

After the expedition - described later - we somehow found ourselves back in Far Waters, following up a small discovery dug out on a previous trip, the Cavern of Unparalleled Splendour, so-named by the BPC's Jim Abbot, with his tongue well jammed into his cheek. Unfortunately, it would go no further without bang. Two members then poked about inside the narrow entrance to Strans Gill, while one lonely member studied it wistfully from the outside and nursed his injured pride.

And then suddenly P8 was on us again...

Other recent events;- Rod and Carol are now Mr & Mrs Leach. Our congratulations and best wishes to them both, and we trust that Rod will stop dislocating his shoulder in bed...

Vic's selfless devotion to Newcastle Brown finally paid off and she was included in the British canoe slalom team at the Munich Olympics, coming sixth (fifth?) in her event. Congratulations Vic.

As far as can be seen, the trend has continued since this year's P8, and many more trips have taken place, among them, Strans Gill (very fine), Aggie, a Derbyshire session, Pippikin (twice), Earby extensions (three times), Penyghent, Marble Sink, , , ,.... and so the list goes on. I think I may sum up by saying that CUCC, in it's 51 st. year, is more active than it has ever been.

Postscript to Aggie:- very shortly after one of our parties had been through the 4th. Boulder Choke it collapsed again - easy come, easy go!