Dear all prospective and existing members of ICCC,

This is the obligatory COVID-19 declaration. It’s been (and still is) a rotten year, and things aren’t going to be business as usual for a long time. Deepest commiserations to this year’s freshers for their unacceptably sober start to university life. As things stand, with a 6 person cap on social activities, and a suspension of face-to-face-activities, minibus hire and overnight stays by the union, the club won’t be going caving again until spring term.

When the union rules allow, we will run our usual SRT (single rope techniques) training sessions in Princes’ Gardens using a booking system. New members are strongly encouraged to attend - it’s a great way to get to know each other and to gain skills that you’ll need when we go underground again. In the meantime, join us for virtual pub nights every tuesday from 6pm via the link which is sent out to our mailing list at 5:30 the same day (sign up to our mailing list here). Between pub nights we can spend all that free time our lecturers/ supervisors/ bosses seem to think we have getting misty-eyed browsing past trip reports and planning our glorious return.

Wishing everyone well,

ICCC committee

ICCCs first ever pandemic-fuelled video AGM involved many humans from the UK and beyond. It was a close election as ever but RON was inevitably defeated and we now have a shiny new committee. Excellent speeches were given, some featuring snakes. Presidential candidates had questionable opinions on the correct method of eggy bread creation but promises of a new breakfast menu and eloquent email writing give us hope for the year ahead.

Congratulations to the new committee:

And also commiserations to the winners of the following awards:

Herman Herz: Jimmy and Davey Dubz for an array of near misses this year.

For Evans' Sake: Davey Dubz for potential incontinence on a trip to Crescent.

A relaxed, manure-filled weekend in the Mendips.

A wild weekend in Yorkshire featuring black book trips and an unreliable minibus.

A glorious week in the NPC with much caving, a Christmas dinner and of course, hair cuts.

Dazzled by sunshine and frost, we abandoned our Notts plans and invaded other caves instead.

A weekend of caving, competitions and bus mishaps.

A weekend in Yorkshire at the Bradford Pothole Club. Epic plans for Alum Pot were made but thwarted by other overly keen cavers, and trips down to Kingsdale were made with little faffing.

Pumpkins were carved, games were played and caves were enjoyed on the second trip of the year. Despite torrential rain on Friday we introduced the freshers to the delights of OFD 1 and OFD 2 on Saturday, keeping well out of the main streamway. Brighter weather on Sunday saw us heading into OFD 2 and Cwm Dwr, and returning to Pant Mawr Pot for the first time in 16 years.

The first freshers trip to Wales saw many exciting and lovely trips down to OFD I, OFD II and Cwm Dwr.