Reading University Caving Club

As some of you may know RUCC has a long history of undertaking underground expeditions in foreign parts. We have now consulted with the club’s caving elders before their memory goes into terminal decline, and are now able to post an outline and photos of all the expeditions over the years on this site. You can also use the expeditions button on the left.

It’s a true tale of heroism, sleep deprivation, mud, carbide, burst tyres and entertaining trousers. And interesting caves. If anyone wants to add, dispute or delete anything let me know. Thanks to Lisa in particular for archiving duties, even though entire years seem to have slipped her memory. Here’s to continuing this expedition tradition….

On a separate note, message from Ann-Marie: For this Friday’s beer festival we will be congregating in the Monks Retreat at 6.00 pm to talk tactics and formulate a festival game plan, before moving on at 7.00 ish. There may be diagrams involved.

Also – rumour indicates that this weekend in Yorkshire may be the first appearance of ‘Chez Paul’s – On Tour’, with a special mobile drinking unit set up to meet everyone’s special cocktail needs.

to Andy & Esther who have recently announced their engagement. This will apparently bring the RUCC wedding tally into double figures. We should start charging more for membership.

In unrelated news future plans for the junkyard sale have been slighly derailed by the news that someone else has got there first…

UPDATE: Apparently the rope went for £31.00. Arse. And we have a whole hut full of dodgy old rope. RUCC online crapometer latest: £60.00.

It’s a news orgy!

1) New Committee!

Congratulations to the new committee. Nikki was voted in and won the president’s post by a single vote (and I checked). Charlotte and Harriet took the other two posts hence RUCC IS AN ALL FEMALE CAVING COMMITTEE!  This may be a world first. In celebration I have taken the liberty of temporarily changing the design of the main page. Full profiles for the committee will be posted shortly.

2) A few photos of the AGM (or ‘testaments to togetherness’ as I prefer to term them) are available here.

3) Fantastic news from the Great RUCC Junkyard Sale! Sales are well above expectations. Check our sales and progress using our online crapometer here. Phase two starts next week. After a fierce round of bidding, our dear pound coin eventually sold for 96 pence. We will of course be selling this 96 pence again through ebay as we feel it would be an interesting experiment in the mechanics of online supply and demand.

4) There are plans afoot to attend the Irish Student Caving Seminar on 17-20th March. Contact John W if you are interested.

5) John K has today announced a ‘gear amnesty’. If you have old gear bring it on a Monday or let John know or otherwise he will find out that you have gear squirelled away and come round and beat you with sticks.

Details of next week’s highly important elections can now be found here. They will be held at next week’s AGM, which is due to take place on Monday 7th March at Sweeney & Todd’s Pie Shop, Castle Street, Reading. 8.00 ish, probably in Pavlov’s beforehand but no doubt an e-mail will go round. This means we will NOT BE IN THE COLLEGE ARMS NEXT MONDAY. New posts are now available.

NEWS FLASH! In a major upset ‘Chez’ Paul & John ‘Fully Fitted’ Kitchin accidentally won the Queens Head pub quiz this week.  Winning actual money they immediately demanded a recount and then vowed to reinvest the winnings at the Queens Head. We suspect it’s because Henry wasn’t with us.  If anyone is still around we will be there next Tuesday. With money. On the silly drinks front you will be gald to know that we discovered that the bar staff have now bought Martini glasses and a cocktail shaker and that Guinness shandy really doesn’t work. Looks good though.

Marie has told me that she is doing a sponsored skydive for charity on 5th March. The charities include Cancer Research, Childrens hospice and more. So if you would like to donate some money then let Marie know; Please dig deep as it is a worthy cause and i think its a very brave thing to do! thanks

(Slightly edited) photos from the inevitably successful CHECC weekend are now available here.

Quick reminder that Saturday is Christmas Party night, round at John’s. As it’s Christmas we are going for a Hawaii theme – bring coconuts.

UPDATE: As part of the Tuesday night pub quiz we now have an arrangement with the Queens Head bar staff over silly drinks.  So far we have discovered the following cocktails:

DIRTY VIMTO: Blue WKD & Port
DIRTY DR PEPPERS: Amaretto & Coke
DIRTY CHOCOLATE: Guniness & Tia Maria.

These are well worth a go.  Bar Staff have promised to do extra research for next week.  If you want to come along and help us please speak to Henry/Dave/Paul/John K, or turn up at 8.15.   This week we lost again. It turned out that the answer to the question ‘ which large animal has  a yellow underside formed of algae’ is apparently not ‘Cilla Black’.  Help needed….

Just to announce that the CHECC (Council of Higher Education Caving Clubs) website is now live – it can be found here.  CHECC was driven by Southampton & Reading Clubs (Chris J & J to be precise) and some of you will be attending its third annual conference on 26th-28th November. Enjoy.

Hello. We’d like to take the opportunity to welcome anyone new to Reading University this year. Please come and see us at Freshers Fayre which is taking place on Wednesday 29 September from 11.00 to 17.00 in the students union. Henry, John, Oli, Nicki and er, another John will be manning the stand (possibly along with a supporting cast of dozens) and will be happy to have a cozy chat with anyone about what makes the caving club such a marvellous thing, and what trips are planned. We will also probably do some sort of ‘show & tell’ event the following Monday, and will post any details here. In the meantime please feel free to roam around this site to find out more or email our president Henry with any questions. And if you’re already a student or from the outside world you are more than welcome. Where have you been?