Editor: guilford@ermine.ox.ac.uk
Editorial
Nobby wants to remind people from the 1997 expedition that the account
will close on 31st March. If you owe money (like me), or are owed it by
the expedition, please help Nobby out by doing the decent thing and either
bring your cheque book or forgetting all about what you are owed...
How lamentable that that old faithful of club sporting weekends, The
Southerscales, was cancelled through lack of, well, whatever it takes.
Still, at least a few people went caving (report below) and didn't even
stop for a spot of trench filling (see this month's Descent for OUCC's
demise into cave politics). If, like me, you prefer reading Descent to
working in the morning, you may have noticed the instigation of two new
awards on the caving scene. The Caving Indoor Instructor Award, and the
Indoor Caving Supervisor Award. Yes, its true, and I'm not sure it has
anything to do with squeezing through the cartwheel in the Hill Inn, or
behind the Shower at the MNRC. So, if you are feeling the need to get yourself
properly qualified for the sport, courses are available at the Rock Face
in Birmingham I believe.
Post-Exam Celebrations
Alison and I will be finishing our finals at Tuesday lunchtime (8th week)
and we plan to celebrate by going for a meal and drinks on Tuesday evening.
For anyone wanting to join us, we will be at the Bar Celona on Little Clarendon
Street from 7:30pm and will eat at about 8pm. The food is good and not
too expensive so I hope that at least some people will be able to come.
Jo Whistler
Last call for Fermanagh
If you want to come on the club trip to Fermanagh at Easter, then please
let me know ASAP. Dates: 10-19 April. Transport: Van Rouge
(please?) plus cars from Midlands & SWales. Accomodation: 2
luxury chalets on the shores of a Lough, nr Belcoo, except for the first
2 nights (TBD). Costs: £60 plus food, petrol and booze (van
occupants).People going: All your best friends. Caves: Great
- vertical, horizontal, big streamways, fine formations. Gear to take:
Beg/borrow wetsuits, anyone got a dinghy? (whats wrong with condoms? -
Ed.) Books to buy: New ed. of Caves of Fermanagh. Ferry booked
for van: (13:45 10 Apr out, 09:45 19 Apr back). I'll be after money
soon. Lots of love,
New Variant CJD
OUCC goes caving
It might have been just like the old days of 96... The sun was shining,
the start was earlyish, the roads were empty and the plan was to slam down
to the far end of the Dollimore series. Except that this was probably the
last throw of a die distinctly loaded in favour of finals rather than the
start of a new campaigning season, and there were other changes. No caravan
these days, and the legions had a distinctly provincial feel to them, the
old hands of me and Fleur supplemented by a real veteran in Rod and the
boy Hyams as the young philosopher at the opposite end of the experience
and pragmatism spectrum.
There are some very strange things going on at the entrance - the trench
was half-excavated again, a note from the surveyors saying that the lock
was broken and not to use it (we did) and the smell of WD40 in the air
with Huw's name in the logbook immediately before us. Continuity and change
in the Draenen republic... Ours not to reason why.
Down the cave, we did something of a tourist trip for those who had
never been further than the turn off for the round trip, but still got
down there in three hours or so. Very little water about, and Keith, inspired
by Tim's talk on Wednesday, was identifying prospective dig sites left,
right and centre. A quick brew was made more difficult by problems with
the stove at Camp Piton - take a spanner or a new stove top to be on the
safe side next time - and we went for a look around. Is it the case that
the Mouldy Bat passages around Camp still need tying up? The young tiro
was keen, but we pursued the increasingly laboured classical metaphors
by splitting into two groups, one for a quick jaunt towards Medusa's children,
and the other to Circus Maximus, where I got to see the formations in the
little chamber that I'd missed on the first visit, and which were truly
awe-inspiring. Even Rod said he'd never seen anything like it, which was
nice.
The tourists were suitably impressed by the size of Hall of the One,
and we headed out slightly more slowly, to reach the surface at about nine
in clear but very cold weather, in time for a burger and a beer with Huw.
p.s.: we identifed a good greasy spoon at the Symonds Yat services.
Venimus, Vidimus, Gustavimus, or something.
Nobby
Channel 4 news controversially issued an unconditional apology to Lemmings
last week for describing the suicidal tendencies of major British financial
institutions as resembling those of lemmings. Apparently the much-maligned
lemming does not commit mass suicide, and the most that can be said of
it is that occasionally one might tumble to its death ACCIDENTALLY in the
process of taking the most direct line between two points during migration.
Where, we may ask, does this leave the constitutional position of our club
lemming, elected in good faith in virtue of his repeated attempts at suicide?
More to the point, why have our resident animal behaviouralists kept this
startling information to themselves, preferring to leave the rest of the
club in a state of blissful ignorance? I sense a cover up.
Nobby Mumford
A behaviourist's reply
Oh dear. Scientists on the spot again. All I can say is that I have personally
seen piles of dead Lemmings at the bases of cliffs, and frozen half way
across glaciers wearing tiny wetsuits. But of course, these were Norwegian
Lemmings, so perhaps the Canadian Lemming mentioned on the C4 News, is
different and, like Canadians generally, more sensible. But anyway, who
said that Lev (or any of the recent incumbents of the
award) actually meant
to throw himself into Cow Pot with no light, ladder, rope, or firework?
Yours authoritatively,
Dr Tim Guilford,
resident OUCC Ethologist.