Reading University Caving Club

Back from Another Wales Trip

Cavers covered in mud

This weekend, the club went on another very successful trip to South Wales, staying at the Croydon.

Even before we started, we knew that it would be an eventful one – an astonishing 18 people turned up for it – unprecedented for the summer term?! And that indeed turned out to be the case…

Among other things, we:

  • Saw some spectacular helictites in Pant Mawr – well worth the hour’s walk to get there!
  • Indulged in our usual pastimes of Sock Wrestling, The Box Game, etc
  • Navigated our way intrepidly through a non-existent forest, attempting to find our next cave…
  • Once we eventually found it, spent the next hour inside the most pointless, stupid, ridiculous and muddy cave ever – but also one of the most entertaining! See the photo above for the aftermath…
  • Learnt the best techniques for preventing copious amounts of mud getting smeared in the interior of the minibus, whilst attempting to travel somewhere we could clean off …
  • … spent an hour cleaning the interior of the minibus, after said techniques failed spectacularly!
  • Learnt that the best answer to any question is invariably “SAUSAGES!!!”

In short, it was another excellent trip! Thanks to Elsie and the rest of the committee for organising it…

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Tribute to Jenn

The Tribute to Jenn

The Tribute to Jenn

Mesh (our president during the last year) prepared this fantastic tribute to Jenn, which we presented to her during our most recent Monday evening gathering, as she prepared to leave Britain for the USA… Click on the image to see a full-sized version.

Jenn: you’ve been a huge part of this club over the past year, and we’ll all miss you a lot! Best of luck for all your future endeavours – and if you find yourself in Britain some time in the future, you know where to find us 😉

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Beerfest 2011!

Yesterday we went on our annual club expedition to the Reading Beer Festival. As always, the weather was absolutely perfect – and so it was a fantastic chance for us to relax outside, socialise, and sample more than enough of the array of beers, ales, ciders, perries, and wines etc on offer…

We ended up crawling away quite late at night and turned up at the Global Cafe – where we had a lot of fun dancing to the live music.

Not sure if any photos were taken – if they were, they’ll end up on this site. A fantastic event as always – roll on next year!

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New Committee for 2011/12!

On Monday 21st March 2011 we held our AGM at Sweeney & Todds pie shop, where our new committee for the 2011/12 academic year was elected.

Here are the details of who was elected to each position:

President: Elsie Brooks
Secretary: Chris Holt
Treasurer: Alice Dale
Social Secretary: Kathryn Hooper
Tackle Master: Florence Goodwin
Webmaster: Patrick Hathway

And last but not least, we have a new very important position:

Cake Secretary (!) : Chrissie Picken

This was one of the most eventful AGMs that the club has had in many years – indeed, I think I’m right in saying that virtually every position was seriously contested by at least two candidates!! I’m sure this is a very healthy sign for the club.

So congratulations to everyone who was elected – I think we’ve got an amazing year ahead of us!

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New photos!

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It seems like an age since any new photos have been put on this site, so I thought it would be an idea to add some of the ones that have been floating around over the past year or so!

Hopefully this will also give any new cavers an idea of the kinds of crazy things we get up to…You have been warned!

Here are the photos that have been added – many thanks to the people who created them:

Enjoy!

P.S. there should also be some more dramatic developments on this website within the next few weeks or so – watch this space…

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News! Reunion Retro Event Type News Shock

cavers.JPG

In case you are an ex-RUCC member and in a state of unawareness (quite possible this) the current and oh-so-vibrant club are organising a reunion event. It will be taking place on the weekend of 13-14th March, at the South West Caving Club. I think the intention is that newer members drink from the font of wisdom of the older members and the older members look at the newer kit and say things like ‘it was never like this in my day. The cave almost rigs itself!’ Although recreational drinks may also be involved. If anyone wants to go leave a comment/contact me/the current Secretary Jo.

Currently rutting down for a good frolic:

1              Kevin Welch      

3              Andy Kuszyk + Mesh

5              Henry Dawson + Shiv

6              Jonathan Majewicz

7              John Kitching

8              Joel Newnham

9              Jon wichett

10           Tom Foord FB – actually not due now

11           Charlotte Harris

12           Tim Morgan

13           Steve Chalker

14           Joel Newnham

15           Jo Hardy

16           Simon Sutton

17           James Thatcher

19           Jon Martin + Caroline

21           John & Lisa Methven

22           Richard Haylen

23           Nikki Connors FB

24           Duncan butler

25           James Bouchard

26           Paul Fellows

27           Jude Haigh

28           Andy ‘Bob’ Burns

29           Alastair Starnes

30           Katharine Goddard

31           Henry Patton

32           Chris Seal

33           Henry Bonham

34           Julie Robertson

35           Patrick Hathaway

36           Lucy Evans

37           David Wyn Jones

38           Helen Magoriam

39           Robertson, Julie

40           Slug

41           Anthony Roberts

P.S Can I do ‘Play Your Grapes Right’?

P.P.S I still have control of the caving club home page…… wah ha ha ha… By the way, is this a good idea?

P.P.P.S If you’re reading this Mr Kitching, I’ve just seen the photos of the Burlesque evening on Facebook and the one of you fondling Jon’s bottom will stay etched in my memory forever.

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AGM Election Results and Caving Hoodies

As everyone’s probably aware, we now have a new committee! They were elected during the AGM on Monday, and are as follows:

President: Martyn

Secretary: Lucy

Treasurer: Ben Whetton

Tackle Master: Ben Wilson
Social Sec: Penny
Webmaster: Duncan (oh dear…!)

Permits and Access: Jo Hardy

The committee page will be updated shortly with these details; and some photos of the AGM should be appearing also…

Well done to all those who were elected, and good luck in your new roles! We’d all like to thank Andy for the effort he’s put in as our former president, and for everything he’s done for the club.

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In other news, Jon W has kindly agreed to sort out caving hoodies for us! Send him all thoughts, ideas, possible slogans / designs etc by the end of this week, so we can vote on which we like best. This page might provide some inspiration! Click on the image on the left for a useful template to start that creativity flowing!

Finally, you can expect to see some more recent trip photos on this website, before I hand it over to Duncan next term…

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And another term begins…

Cavers_group_shot_1 Welcome back everyone – we’ve a term full of amazing caving, socials and all kinds of other things to look forwards to!

This term, a trip to Wales and 2 trips to Yorkshire are planned; details of these are on the trips page… SRT training for the Yorkshire trips begins on Tuesday, so it’s a good idea to turn up to the pub tonight if you’re interested!

In other news, I’ve FINALLY got round to adding the photos from the Mendips trip last term – view them here.

Many thanks to Lucy, Jon W, and J for taking all these pictures – there are quite a few, so I hope you all enjoy them!

Photos from CHECC and the socials last term will also hopefully appear here shortly.

P.S. Newer cavers will notice the homepage is a bit different this term – the website is now in ‘standard’ mode, and will continue to be until around the end of summer.

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South Wales trip photos


I’ve just added LOADS of photos from the recent weekend caving trip to South Wales. View them here.

Many thanks to J, Chris and Thomas for making this possible!

The club is going on another trip to the Mendips this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Expect lots of caving, fireworks, fancy dress and alcohol. I’ll look forwards to seeing you all there.

There’s also an upcoming social on Wednesday 7th November at the Student’s Union with a ‘Caveman’ theme – if you need inspiration about what to wear, check out the photos from last year. Meet at the Upin Arms around 8.15, before proceeding to the Union around 9.15. For more info or union tickets, email Helen.

See you Friday.

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