Derbyshire Caving Association

Information Circular 2007/3, May / June 2007

NEXT DCA MEETING

DCA Open Council Meeting, 10am. Saturday, 20th October 2007 at Monyash Village Hall

The Hall will be open from about 9.30am with tea, coffee and biscuits available. The Old Smithy Cafe, next to the Pub, does an excellent breakfast from about 9am.

Meetings for the rest of this year -all at 10am on Saturdays at Monyash Village Hall:

• Council Meetings: 20th. October 2007
• AGM 2008: 23rd. February 2008

Remember that Council and Annual General Meetings are open to ALL members.

TRY CAVING GOES TO CLIFFHANGER - SHEFFIELD, 14-15 JULY
YOUR HELP IS NEEDED TO MAKE IT A SUCCESS

Sheffield's Cliffhanger event is at Graves Park on the weekend 14/15 July, running from 10.30am to 6.30pm on both days and BCA / SUSS will be there. Henry Rockliff of SUSS is "masterminding" the caving stand and would welcome anyone who can spare a few hours, or even a day, to help out. The Hidden-Earth "Speleo-Olympics" rig will be there for masochists to have a go at, plus a "squeeze machine" and demos. of SRT, etc. will also be going on. If you can help at all, please contact Henry direct on hrockliff at tesco.net or 07870-210546.

If you just want to go to the show for a good day out and take your kids, there is all sorts going on: adventure sports to try out, BMC's National Bouldering Competition, stalls and food. Price is £5.00 per adult (to include free parking and a programme) and kids under 14 get in free if accompanied by an adult. Graves Park is 3m south of the city centre, immediately to the east of the A61. More details on the Cliffhanger website: www.cliff-hanger.co.uk.

CONSERVATION & ACCESS

If you have any queries or problems about Conservation or Access in the region, please contact the Conservation Officer, Dave Webb, 0115-840-1109, conservation-off@theDCA.org.uk; or the Access Officer, Iain Barker, 0114-253-0112, 07710-689704, access-off@theDCA.org.uk.

Please note that, due to increasing quantities of "spam", the email address of access@theDCA.org.uk for general queries has been discontinued.

JH LID
There have been problems with the lid slamming shut in high winds, guaranteed to chop your fingers off and a risk to anyone on the rope below when the padlock dropped down the shaft. A stake and rope have now been attached, courtesy of Crewe C.P.C., so that you can tie back the lid when it is open, and a new lock has been supplied by Orpheus C. C., who were below when it fell.

NEW SHAFT OPENS UP NEAR JH
A new shaft has opened up about 50m away from the JH shaft top. It doesn't lead anywhere but is directly above the Cartgate in JH and, if it ran in, could cause damage down below. DCA will be capping this to keep it safe and prevent problems in JH. It's not near a public footpath or on open access land so only cavers approaching JH are likely to come across it - please give it a wide berth.

SUICIDE CAVE
There have been some unpleasant problems here involving vandalism and it being used as a toilet. Best avoided for the present while a meeting is set up between PICA, DCA and the National Trust to consider possible solutions to improve matters for everyone.

KNOTLOW PULL-THRO' AT MECCANO PASSAGE
It appears that cavers attempting a pull-thro' trip in Knotlow have been running a rope directly through the Eco-anchors at the entrance to Meccano. Maillons were installed to prevent wear on the Eco-anchors but these are now rusty and either need replacing (we have an offer of stainless steel ones - but past experience suggest these may well be nicked) or cavers should use their own maillons and be prepared to leave them behind. This may be a candidate for one of the cable-&-ring systems - we'll see.

INSTALLATION OF ECO-ANCHORS

If you have any queries about Eco-anchors installed in the region, please contact the Equipment Officer, Dave Cowley, 0114-255-1285, 07956-560055, equipment@theDCA.org.uk.

Work on testing the Eco-anchors installed in Derbyshire during previous years continues, using the tester supplied by BCA to "proof load" each installation. There still remain a few to be tested out of over 400 installed but so far ALL anchors tested have passed - including some dating back to 1992. We have already agreed on some new sites: Nickergrove, Giants (Filthy Five) and Winnats Head.

NEWS FROM BCA

The BCA Membership Administrator has now dealt with nearly 5000 CIM cards and the problem is pretty well cracked - apart from a few remaining clubs who don't seem to be able to provide a coherent list of their members! Any problems or queries, please contact Glenn Jones on membership at british-caving.org.uk. BCA Newsletter No. 8 should have been with members by now - but it's not and the Editor is being asked questions … However, by now members have received their copies of the new BCA Handbook, 2007-2008 and also Speleology No. 9 with reports on the Try Caving Event at the Outdoor Show and an interesting article on resin anchors in oolite, plus all the usual report from UK expeditions abroad.

BCA HANDBOOK UPDATES

List of updates for the BCA Handbook received since it was published in April

Record of Updates to Printed Version of 2007-2008 BCA Handbook

11th June 2007
P. 42 - Removal of Craven Pothole Club Cottages from Accommodation list (only available to members)
P. 54 - Removal of Jacquie Cowling from Index following above change.

10th June 2007
P.9 - CSCC Conservation & Access Officer now Les Williams
P.12 - Company providing BCA Travel Insurance Scheme now called "Towergate Risk Solutions"
P.30 - Ghar Parau website actually http://gharparau.org.uk
P.34 - Change to Steve Holding's e-mail address
P.37 - Change of NAMHO contact person to Steve Holding
P.38 - FoDCCAG incorrectly spelled
P.39 - Change of spelling of Lesley Davies and insertion of "on club-headed paper" for OFD1 Access Information
P.39 - Change of Dan-yr-Ogof contact person to Brendan Marris. Address, phone number and e-mail included.
P.42 - Change of CSCC Secretary to Carmen Smith. Address included.
P.54 - Spelling corrections - Anthony Day (not Dav) & Lesley Davies (not Leslie)
P.55 - Insertion of FoDCCAG (Page 38) in Index
P.56 - Insertion of Carmen Smith (Page 42) and Page 9 to Les Williams' entry.

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

HIDDEN EARTH 2007 -Tewksbury School, Gloucester, 21-23 September:

• The band is booked for the stomp: "Loose Change" - well known at cavers do's "darn saff"
• We have a new film from Sid Perou, Basher and the BPC to close with; Andy Pryke is doing an opening AV.
• Mark Wright training will be running the rope / ladder competitions again and is donating an Irata training course (again).
• As in previous years an ISSA Member is designing the T shirt. This year it's the turn of Wolf Anning.
• Dick Willis is the guest speaker at the Conference Dinner.
• BCA Rope testing rig will be present again. BCA will organise some SRT training for the weekend.
• BCA is also organising some novice cave / mines trips nearby over the weekend (nominally for interested non cavers, eg. Children, spouse, etc). These can be signed up for on Friday eve and Saturday morning at the conference or contact us in advance if you wish. (fieldtrips@hidden-earth.org.uk)
• There will be the usual Exhibition Hall and 3 lecture theatres and also some workshops. We have a swimming pool at the venue this year so there will be some diving sessions run by CDG (bring your trunks) during the weekend
• Usual competitions including the Photo salon, Art & Cartoons, t-shirt, surveying, etc.
• Mike Moore Books are offering a prize of £100 for the best Photograph with a mining or man made theme and Speleo Technics are again offering a prize of £100 for the best shot of a Speleo Technics product in use.
• BCRA AGM will be held at Hidden Earth as will some of the SIG's AGM's.
• The bar will again be run by cavers, so we are confident there will be enough beer.
• On line booking form,can be found on the web site at - http://hidden-earth.org.uk/info.fees.html

FOR YOUR NEWSLETTER / NOTICEBOARD

www.theDCA.org.uk

22nd June 2007