Belfry Bulletin Number 349

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Editorial HARD LUCK STORY

QUODCUMQUE FACIENDUM : NIMIS FACIEMUS THE BELFRY BULLETIN VOLUME XXX1 NUMBER 4 & 5

APRIL AND MAY 1977 No 349

CONTENTS List of Club Officers Contents, Editorial Well, well, well, Letter from America Growth of the B.E.C. (Part 1) Letters to the Editor Notices Committee Notes Monthly Crossword No.74

Page 33 Page 33 Page 35 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 40 Page 41

The views expressed by contributors to the Belfry Bulletin, including those of club officers, are not necessarily the views of the committee of the Bristol Exploration Club or the Editor, unless so stated. The Editor cannot guarantee that the accuracy of information contained in the contributed matter, as it cannot normally be checked in the time at his disposal.

A glance at any typical B.B. will show that far too much space is taken up in explaining just why the club' s journal is once again in some sort of trouble. It would seem that we might almost take it for granted that things will not go smoothly, and leave it at that without wasting space in explanations.

Fair enough. But the recent troubles have gone on for so long that members, who after all expect their fair share of B.B.’s: are entitled to know just why they haven't been getting it often enough of late.

In January, just when we had got all the team working away - with plenty of stuff to print and lots of willing hands to help out generally, the printing machine started playing up again. This time it was the feed - the mechanism that puts one sheet of paper at a time into the machine for printing. By the time we had reluctantly decided that we wouldn't be able to print the B. B. for January, we had wasted a lot of paper; wrecked several plates and got a whole pile of badly printed copies.

Out first expert arrived and fiddled with the machine.

It seemed to work. In the meantime, we had got desperate and given the plates for February to a professional firm to print for us. They were not used to dealing with paper plates, and the result was not very happy. It was now the end of March and we had only produced a rather badly printed February B.B. and some even worse stuff towards January.

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

S.J. Collins M. Wheadon C. Batstone, P. Christie, J. Dukes, R. Jenkins T. Large, Barry Wilton, G. Wilton-Jones.

OFFICERS OF THE CLUB Hon. Secretary Hon. Treasurer Caving Sec. Climbing Sec. Hut Warden Belfry Engineer Tacklemaster B.B. Editor Pub. Editor B.B. Postal

M. WHEADON, 91 The Oval, Englishcoombe, Bath. Tel : BATH 713646 B.WILTON, Valley View, Venus Lane, Clutton, Bristol. Tele:Temple Cloud 52072 TIM LARGE, 15 Kippax Avenue, Wells, Somerset R. JENKINS, 10 Amberley Close, Downend, Bristol.

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. COLLINS, Lavender Cottage, Bishops Sutton, Bristol. Tel : Chew Magna 2915 C. HOWELL, 131 Sandon Road, Edgebaston, Birmingham 17. Tele : (021)4295549 BRENDA WILTON Address as for Barry

34 However, the committee decided that since we had a lot of plates already typed, and they would all have to be re-typed on to stencils for the Gestetner, the best thing would be to get the printing machine going.

The only difficulty seemed to be the general shortage of, and retiring nature of the experts. By a sheer stroke of luck, I eventually found one, who came out and did things to various springs. When he had finalised, the machine fed anything from thin bank paper to reasonably stiff card. Now that we had the feed going properly, it was possible to adjust the pressures to get the right printing density. Even so, there are still some small snags, but at least we have a machine which will print. Even better, we now have a tame expert who we can call on straight away if we get any further trouble.

This episode has taught us a lot of things. Firstly, the cost of professional printing is very high, and a professionally printed B.B. (as some people had suggested at the last A.G.M.) would drain club funds to the extent of stopping almost any other use of club monies. Secondly, hybrid schemes like us typing the masters and getting someone else to run them off is full of dangers, and so on.

As a result of all this, it is natural that people have stopped writing for the B.B. until they can be assured that it will once again be regular. This is very understandable, and the B.B. will be kept going by printing various things, like the minutes of the last A.G.M. to keep it to size while the contributions pick up again.

I hope that, after all this, it will not be necessary again to have to spend time and space on the subject of what has gone wrong with the B.B. N.C.A. AND ALL THAT Another subject which seems to go on for ever, and with which we keep threatening readers of the B.B. is that of the N.C.A. and what is happening with the ideas put forward so long by the Southern Council to make sure that the whole thing doesn’t get out of control in the future. The whole thing grinding its slow and painful way, but a meeting is going to be held late in June and there is some chance that agreement might actually be reached. When we can see through the fog, we will let members know what has actually happened. Meanwhile, it all goes on a bit like the fictional University of Charterhouse, which members may remember from a Christmas B.B. of not so long ago.

DINNER We hope to bring you news of the Dinner as soon as possible this year. One thing is certain - there will be a deadline on the date for booking, so this is a first warning to watch out for details and get cracking when they appear. _______________________________________________________________________________________

Secretarial Once again there are a few amendments needed to your BEC address list 1582 Chris Hall – 117 Lower Ashley Road, Bristol. BS5 0YL 348L Don Thomas – Pendant, Little Birch, Herefordshire.

830 John Dukes – 35 Cowl Street, Shepton Mallet – Tele 314933 823 Andy Sparrow – 2 Grosvenor Place, London Road, bath. BA3 6HH New Members: 917 R Hervin - 75a Murhill, LimpleStoke, Bath BA3 6HH 918 R Round - 131 Middleton Road, Banbury, Oxfordshire.

Congratulations to Pete and Joyce on the birth of yet another son and potential BEC Member born Saturday 16 April 1977. Benjamin Somerset Franklin.

35 Our weekend's entertainment was set in motion by a telephone call to me from a Farmer who, after the usual pleasantries said "I have been told that you are a Potholer". I answered in my best non-committal way and owned to a passing interest in the sport so the Farmer went on to say that "I have a dead dog in my Well which I would like you to remove - can you do it?

My reply was well, yes, how deep is your well? - 330 feet with a 20 ft depth of water. Slightly staggered by this I replied that I would 'have a go' the next evening - I put down the phone and headed for a drink.

After some reflection I came to the conclusion (inevitably) that there was only one person who could take charge of this venture so I picked up the phone again and called up Scrag (Wilton-Jones) the great Cave Explorer and SRT expert after all he possessed all the rope which would be needed.

Saturday morning saw our arrival at the Farm with the car fully loaded down with tackle, SRT gear and Acrow Screw Jacks, a few hammers and chisels and all the other caving type gear. Whilst we were entertained to coffee by the Fanner we learned that the dog was a Golden Retriever and the W-J (who is something of an animal expert) informed us that it would probably weigh somewhere around the 50-60 lb mark.

When we arrived at the Well we found that it was surrounded by a 6 ft iron fence and to me this seemed to be the ideal time to leave the SRT expert to it but, typically Scrag immediately started issuing orders about the belays and ropes. An iron pipe was placed over the Well and I was given 100m of rope to lower down the pitch. I managed to get half of the rope lowered before the inevitable tangle appeared. Naturally the expert instantly noticed this and moaned about it as though the end of the world had arrived or as if I’d left club tackle, in an unwashed condition. Laying the rope on the grass would have avoided a tangle he said XX off! and sort out the other ropes whilst I sort this out. Having solved that, there were then metres and metres of rope laid out on the grass just in time for the spectators to arrive to walk and jump all over (he's a clever lad that way) Eventually, the Well was rigged with its 100m rope, hopefully to the bottom, and a 40m rope. We were intending to place Screw Jacks across the Well at approx 30m stages to form extra belays for the ropes and to act as work platforms. The top ten feet of the Well turned out to be a confusion of metal supports where part of the old pump equipment was fixed. From the top the Well was brickwork to a depth of 41 ft and from there down it was in rock chalk. The average diameter was 5 - 6 ft and about 1/3 of the area was taken up by the water pipes and pump linkage running down into the water. These pipes and linkage are supported (1) on wooden leaves let into the chalk - many of them now rotted away at the ends and the metal work was not in its prime condition.

Scrag was kitted up first and decided to go and have a look into the Well so with various comments from the weeg he disappeared into its maw. When he reached the position decided for the first jack he found a suitable point, locked off and asked me for the tools. Conversation from this depth to the surface was normal but below the first 30m it became more difficult. I sent down the tackle bag and whilst Scrag proceeded to cut holes in the Well side and I chatted with the spectators in the sun. After a suitable time of grunts and groans Scrag suggested that I now send down a jack on the hauling line and then come down myself to cut the second hole. I carefully lowered the jack such that it would only strike him a light blow and then with trembling legs I connected my shiny new rack to the 40m line and thought of the nice kind practice pitches at Split Rock and Local tree - I launched myself into the shaft trying hard not to think of the 330 ft below.

I met up with Scrag - rather unavoidable really as the Space tended to be a bit limited and after removing his boots from my ears I obtained the tools (not his) and hacked out the second hole for the screw jack. The screw jack was then fixed in place and to the tune of a couple of choruses of 'Rock Bottom' we both climbed back to the top to sup some ale and listen to the Boat Race.

Soon Scrag felt the need to exercise his leadership with, "You go on down, pick up the tool bag at the first jack, carry on down and start cutting out the holes for the second jack." Whilst all this was going on Scrag

36 would fix the some rope to the first jack, lower the second jack and see that we had twin ropes at the bottom.

I left him tut-tutting and descended to a lock off at approx 220ft and started to cut out the jack holes. Whilst I was busy cutting the jack appeared beside me and the 80m rope tangled itself around my gear. Scrag was only trying to help as usual.

With the second screw jack in place, Scrag joined me and before he could disconnect his rack, I suggested that he carry on down to the water and see if the dog was within reach. After a further 50ft he stopped and said that he had run into a pipe ruckle and I should come down. I slid down and joined him on a substantial platform which was supporting the old pumping gear. This pipe work contained pipes up to 6in dia and required ž of the available space. At this point a section of the wall had been hollowed out to allow more space. The ropes were sorted out and lowered through the hole in the staging. Below this staging the pipe work consisted of 2-6inch and 4-4inch pipes running down into the water, about 50ft below, restricting space quite considerably although the pipes were strong enough to use as supports.

Scrag descended to the water to see if the dog was visible and found that on first sight there was no sign of it. After a bit of a search behind the pipes and under the surface he said that he could see it about 1ft below the surface - he prodded the dog and, said, "you'd better come on down, it seems to be caught up in something." I descended to the water complete with the hauling line and after a bit of a struggle decided that it was not caught up and managed to fix the hauling line around its middle - whilst doing this, gas bubbled from its mouth which did nothing to improve the local atmosphere. At this point Scrag beat a hasty retreat muttering something about fixing up a jumer pulley. When Scrag fixed the rope we hauled the (past tense) dog up to the pump gear platform – Scrag Sorag looked at it with loving eyes and said "that dog's in fine condition." I thought to myself he's finally flipped and said "fine condition my left foot! The bloody thing's got a broken neck" - besides which I was a bit fed up with the noxious fumes the thing had been exuding at me on the way up.

The sack which the Farmer had given us was not really large enough for the dog so we decided to pack up for the day and return with suitable wrapping on the morrow. Scrag was now going to demonstrate his Gibbs Rope Walkers for the ascent so I had to hold the rope taut, for him to start off. Off he went with a big grin on his face "see you at the top old bucket in about 1 hour," he said chuckling. Speed hog I quipped back feeling slightly despondent and as soon as he was out of the way I clipped onto the second line and started upwards. As I approached the bottom jack, where a change of rope was called for, I heard Scrag ahead muttering "siding rope walkers". As I approached the scene I pointed out that I had not expected to see him again until the top and politely enquired if I could assist in his trouble. The clogs which I was using have been much adapted and allowed for a high speed rope change and as I ascended Scrag reappeared from behind, his legs going like pistons, and rapidly left me behind again - these are just the things for big pitches he said. I plodded on paying not much attention to the above until I found that there was suddenly a boot in my face - I had reached the first jack and G W-J was still there doing his high speed change over. As his boot was at a level with my head and his face was very red I wisely (I thought) held my peace until he had once again started on the ascent.

Sunday morning found us with an extra large sack from the Farmer at the top of the Well and we quickly descended to the platform where we had left the dog the day before. Scrag with great command fixed a jumer to the pipe work and a great debate then arose as to who should be the one to manoeuvre the dog into the sack. After much unprintable language Scrag prevailed and it fell to me to get the dog into the sack.

Having done so, we quickly tied the dog to the hauling rope ready for its ascent. Whilst Scrag was retreating up to the screw jack I examined the wider section of the Well and found that there were a number of names and initials carved in the surface some of them had dates and the earliest of these was 1899. I decided to carve B.E.C. 1977 but there was not enough room for the 'Gets Everywhere'.

When Scrag had rigged up the jumer as a clamp to stop the dog going down again after we had hauled it up we set about the long haul. The system was for me to precede the dog by approx. 15 ft at a time, pull the dog up to me and then repeat the process. After a long time and a lot of hard hauling work the dog was hauled out onto the surface.

After some liquid refreshment we both descended again and made our way out bringing all the gear as we ascended. Apart from the ropes tangling up a couple of times this was accomplished with only a slight fuss.

After we had cleared away all the ropes into the car we paid a final visit to the Farmer who expressed his thanks by presenting us with a bottle of Whiskey to share - good spoils!

37 LETTER FROM AMERICA SUE LORD'S LATEST MISSIVE WITH SLIGHT EDITORIAL MODS

Greengates School Apparto Postal 41-659 MEXICO 20th March 1977

Dear B.E.C. Members (Home Section) This letter ain’t going to be easy as a little kitten keeps attacking me and the paper keeps on flapping (in the breeze) as I lie here on the lawn, soaking up the sun. Talking of lawns, my diary recalls that a year ago today was a Belfry working day and some of you fine fellas (I think that’s right - omitting Hannam & Co who didn't even get as far as leaning on a shovel) set about the levelling of the Belfry 'lawn' whilst I sat idly on Batstone's bike, in its days of service, doing my tapestry and occasionally making the odd cup of tea.

Anyway you'll gather that the weather's great now - too nice to go caving. We were due to go off at 6.00 this morning for two days, but last night was the annual rugby dinner and - well, you know how it is.

Actually whilst the speeches were on we said with a sigh how different to a caving club dinner some singing whenever the band stopped - but that was the French club and I only understood the polite words! - no silly games to amuse the young and needy (? Ed).

Last weekend we had a lot of success out at Cuetzalan (the usual area in Puebla State) we get a lot of enthusiasm from people wanting to tryout this daring new sport, but our best convert by far yet is a beautiful and intelligent Mexican senorita who is over the moon about it - she is going to buy a wet suit in the D.S. at Easter (any volunteers to make up a foursome when we tackle some of the wetter caves) - anyway, last weekend we went back to my favourite find - Chicicasapan - a fair stream sinking into an impressive cliffbottom entrance, which continues somewhat like a cross section between Swildons without its pots and O.F.D’s traversing passage, except just 3ft above the stream (guess I'd better leave the descriptive writing to Pete the way I'm rambling on).

Anyway, whilst surveying aside passage (a terrible habit we've caught from the Americans - but as there ain't no pubs here we've plenty of time for it) we found our way into our first find of old dry passage and at first glance it seems really promising - such excitement! We are aiming to explore about a km of new passage each weekend we go - we're only working in an area of around 1sq mile and there’s enough to keep us going for another year at least yet. Get over here some of you and help us out.

Many thanks to Chris for the letter and congratulations to the T.T.T.S. - just don't fallout with the Farmer till after we get back for our holiday next Christmas - we're really excited that the merry Mendip Hills still have the odd something up its sleeves - did anybody ever go back to Pete & Jeff’s push in G.B. or is that left till Christmas for us too?

Don't think we'll quite make Cobbett's wedding, we're planning to join with Boon and those (expletive deleted) 'hippes from Austin' as he calls them, either in Chiapas at Yo-Chip (ah well) or on the Hualtla Plateau at San Augustin which recently 'went deep'.

In the last 6 weeks we have had many visits from people going south which really cheers us up but 'bugs' the neighbours. After getting in from a party at 3.00 am the other week, an Austin group took our 'any time' invite literally and called for ½ hour at 4-30am. Boon amused us for 2 days and set off down south with a pot of fried beans to last him to Chiapas and £1 a week for food. He came all the way down from Calgary with a friend in a 50 Datsun.

Good to get the December BB with the great literary masterpiece by Sue Jordan in it and we still need lots of help out here with a few English type caves (boulder chokes and pitches) which are holding us up because of lack of backup. Come on out and see.

Sue

38

The GROWTH of the B.E.C.

How does the growth of the club to-day compare with past years? Should it be growing as fast as it once did? Is it still healthy or has it run out of steam? This series of short articles examines these and other questions and comes up with some answers.

PART ONE - INTRODUCTION Our insurers, as most members know, are insisting that we close the list of club members on the 30th of April each year, and that any members who have not paid by that date have to re-apply for membership. This may well result in a few people deciding not to bother any more. How much this may matter in the end can be argued but in any case, it would be interesting to know how much this, or any other sudden change actually affects the total membership of the club and whether the membership is still in a healthy position even if it drops.

The B.E.C. have kept more of less complete records since the first of September 1943 – and thirty four years is a longer time than many of its younger members have been alive. It would be hard luck if we could not learn something from these club records. It so happens that we can.

These jottings, which may appear in the B.B. from time to time under this title, are not going to be an excuse for ramming a whole lot of mathematics down the throats of unwilling members. It is enough to say that the way that the club records work out is enough to make any forecaster green with envy. The theory fits the practice so well as to be almost uncanny. The reason for this is because the average values of everything stay beautifully constant over the years. Thus, one can construct a model based on these averages and compare it with what actually happened. To give an example of the way the averages remain steady, if anyone had thought, fit to work out the average rate of new members joining the club up to 1949, they would have come up with and answer of 26.4 new members per year. If the same sum was done today – some 28 years and nearly between, this average has never risen above 28 or dropped as low as 25. Thus we have a new bloke appearing once a fortnight or so ever since 1949.

Any given patch of new members who all joined in the same year will dwindle away as the years go on. Once again, the rate of decay is very consistent on average. Half of them will be gone in three years on average, while only a quarter will be left after 8 years, and so on.

With these steady figures as a background, it is possible to work out how big the club ought to be at any given time. For example, in 1959 it should have had 151 members. In fact, it had 148. All was well, then, in 1959. However, two years earlier, in 1957, the total should have been 144 and was in fact only 117. What went wrong in 1957?

Whatever it was (and hopefully we shall examine it later) the actual total varies quite a bit although the average stays steady. This is due not only to the number of new members in any year varying, but also due to the differences in 'staying power'. The new members of one year might tend to keep going while in the next year, they might leave much quicker. The odd thing is that a batch tends to keep going the way it started. This is probably due to the fact that some groups of new members tend to stick together and form friendships, while others do not.

Bearing all this in mind, the next short article in this series will look at the initial expansion of the club, which lasted until 1951.

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29/4/77.

To the Editor, Belfry Bulletin.

I should like it known that the survey of Heale Farm Cave, which appeared in your most recent B.B. is a second rate copy of my material, copied without my knowledge by someone only tenuously concerned with its making.

D.A. Walker Editor's Note: On behalf of the B. B. we apologise to Mr. Walker and to Durham University Spelaeos. As it currently says, at the beginning of the B.B., it is not possible far submitted material to be checked for accuracy of content or other features which might preclude publication other than those which may obviously come to the notice of the editor. Whenever there appears to be any reasonably doubt, the editor tries to resolve this, but must otherwise depend on the person submitting the material and take it in good faith. We are sure that our readers will be pleased to know where they can obtain the original information on this cave, and thank Mr. Walker for his letter.

The next letter is unsigned, but as it contains much good sense, it seems reasonable to publish it.

To the Editor, Belfry Bulletin.

A PLEA FOR COMMON SENSE In recent months, Mendip has become increasingly popular among walkers. One has only to travel between Priddy and Burrington to see a marked increase in the numbers of walkers and ramblers using an already overcrowded hill.

With summer just round the corner, the Mendip farmers are facing an increasing battle to keep their properties from damage by careless visitors and no farmer is going to be pleased to see his dry stonewalls broken or his fences pulled down. Trampled crops; litter; broken bottles and gates left open are just some of the problems a Mendip farmer has to face annually. Who ultimately gets the blame? "It's they cavers!"

I dare say that cavers are responsible sometimes, for we are none of us saints, but I am sure that a majority of blame rests with the casual visitors many of wham do not realise the waste of time and money which has to be put in repairing the damage they do.

Those of you who cave or walk regularly on Mendip should therefore make an effort to keep the goodwill of the farming community by using commonsense and if you see anyone doing damage, shout at them yourself. It may work, as they will probably think you are the farmer - that is, unless you happen to be dressed in a wetsuit!

Let us show the farming community that not only are we careful ourselves but that we are concerned about damage that might reflect on our good name as cavers and walkers.

40

No t i c e s FRIDAY NIGHT CLUB Richard Kenney sends us the current list of meets for the Friday Night club and asks if any further volunteers for leading Cuthbert’s trips would come forward. Dates from June onward are as follows:June 10th June 24th July 9th July 22nd August 5th August 19th September 2nd

Stoke Lane.

Burrington Meet (West Twin) Wales.

Box Stone Mines.

Eastwater.

Lamb Leer.

Coral Cave.

September 16th September 30th October 14th October 28th November 12th November 25th December 9th

Manor Farm.

G.B. Hunters and Thrupe.

Swildons.

Wales.

Cuthbert’s.

Longwood.

Paul Hadfield is organising regular trips to Yorkshire and would be pleased to hear from anyone interested. All meets are at 7.30 p.m. except those to Wales. Further details from Richard Kenney, 'Yennek', St. Mary's Road, Meare, Glastonbury, Somerset. BA6 9SS. Telephone Meare Heath 296.

ASSISTANT HUT WARDEN Since Bob Cross has departed again for 'furrin parts' up north, the Committee would like to appeal to any member who feels that he or she could help out as Assistant Hut Warden. Please get in touch with Mike Wheadon or Chris Batstone" IMPORTANT NOTICE - MEMBERSHIP Don't forget that if, for any reason, you have not yet paid your annual sub for 1977, you will not have been included in the list of members sent to the insurance company. The only way by which you can become either a club member or insured is now to GET A MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION FORM FROM MIKE WHEADON AND FILL IT IN TO RE-APPLY FOR MEMBERSHIP OF THE CLUB. This, as you know, is not a nasty move on the part of the committee. It has been made a condition of our insurance, and we are bound to treat it seriously because otherwise we might well be invalidating our policy.

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Committee Notes

Jottings from some of the more recent Committee Meetings

Graham Wilton-Jones reports that Cave Notes 1975/6/7 are about to be issued. The sections of the Cuthbert’s Report on Cerberus Series, Maypole Series and September Series are practically ready for publication. Roger Stenner has offered the use of an offset printer for the publications, and supplies of paper are being sought at a reasonable price.

The Tynings Barrow Swallet publication is to be completed in conjunction with the Grampian Cave Club.

At present, it is not considered to be practicable to carry out the central heating proposals, although there is no question as to its feasibility. The snag is that the best estimates to date lie outside our financial capability. A 'near miss' occurred when Alfie located a complete central heating system which was being taken out of a small block of flats, but unfortunately it was all thrown on a scrap heap before the club could lay their hands on it. The chairman has, all through the discussions on this subject, reminded the committee that they have got to answer to the next A.G.M. on the subject.

The Dinner is now definitely confirmed. We are going back after a lapse of many years to the Cliff at Cheddar.

Older members will no doubt recal1 that this was the setting for the Song Competition and also for the highly successful mannequin parade - also for the flame throwing act put on by the Bradford Pothole Club.

Plans to modify the central core of the Belfry are to be put to the club members, and the committee have given John Dukes the go-ahead to clean up the bunk room.

The Hut Warden says that the experiment to remove the utensils from the Belfry Kitchen has been a success to date.

The Belfry will be used for accommodation as part of the International Congress of Spelaeology during the first week in September.

41 MONTHLY CROSSWORD NUMBER 74 1

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1. Get there quickly? (3,2) 4. Gated caves are supposed to this the unauthorised caver. (5) 7. Part of Pitch ‘A’ in the Maypole series? (5) 8. Foot oil for old boots? (5) 9. Steam lit gas (on cave floor, presumably). (11) 10. Les is wicked to make a friction mark on rock. (11) 14. A division of gear, perhaps. (5) 15. River associated with brewing. (5) 16. Presumably found in Bigbury according to the maps of Mendip. (5) 17. Cave surveyor gets the edge with this. (5) Down (Pitches)

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1. An unstable on of this does. (5) 2. Initially, a digging team. (1,1,1,1,1) 3. One of those fancy desk top writing sets may have one.

North Bristol certainly has it. (3,4,4) 4. Is this a man who suggests who shall NOT stand for the committee? It will cause a division, certainly. (11) 5. A feature of most club dinners – they have a rack for it in O.F.D. (5) 6. Swallet water does eventually. (5) 10. Device to put under cartwheel to make it slide downhill. (5) 11. Place underground or between. (5) 12. Optimum state of affairs in Hunters hole. (5) 13. Eastern headed version of 11 to go in. (5)

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