April 10th - Presidents Hotpot - Susan Brooke
By Sue Brooke
Walk: Froggatt, Curbar, Gardom, Birchens and White Edge.
Members: Christine Beeston, Sue Brooke, Andrew Croughton, Joe Flynn, James Hartley, Bob Haynes, Alan (Hyde) Jones, Colin Maddison, Craig and Sue Marsden, Iain McCallum, Lester Payne, Alan Peck, Brian Street.
Guests: Kate Sparks, Roisin Maddison, Phoebe and Thomas Marsden.
A slight delay at the start to wait for young Thomas, who was suffering from travel sickness, was followed by a crafty move by Craig and Colin who waived Sue and the children off then drove round to the crag to sneak in a few routes. With Iain in the party the president led from the back and managed, despite a recci of the route, to lead everyone astray on the only occasion that she got near enough to the front to issue directions. Joe and Lester laid claim to having walked to the crag from Curbar Gap, missing the main party whilst they were off route and in the circumstances I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt!
The KMC breed their youngster's tough and despite the keen pace set by Mr McCallum they did us proud. Tired childitus did not set in until the pull past Gardoms, which was perfect timing, giving the adults a good excuse for a stop at the Robin Hood!
A division in the party took place, with Alan and Bob rushing to get back to bathe and spruce up for the evening whilst those that chose to stay sweaty sat around in the sunshine socialising with fellow club members. There were claims made to people having done a lot of climbing but little was witnessed, however we did see Duncan doing a fine impression of the pied piper of Hamlin, but, unfortunately for the parents, he managed to get that wrong, bringing the children back again!
Despite there being plenty of time to spare Mr McCallum continued over White Edge at his usual fine pace, which unfortunately saw us back to the start with time to kill, so we just had to visit The Grouse and force down another pint!
Meal
With 48 people attending I am not going to try to list everyone, but thanks very much for such a tremendous turn out and such good company.
I'm please to say that Elsie was right and The Swan did us proud. For the princely sum of £5.75 there was a plentiful supply of hotpot (both met and veggie varieties) and bread, followed by a generous helping of apple pie and custard. The committee I was so impressed that we're tempted to book again for next year!
Slide Show
Jenny and her team of projectionists did a tremendous job, particularly given the tight time scale they had for putting the show together. Jenny was seen collecting the majority of entries on the Thurday night and had to arrange them into categories for judging on the Friday. Stuart Eyres, the Photographic and Reprographic Manager at CCLRC Daresbury Laboratory, judged the pictures, but unfortunately could not be with us on the night because of a family commitment (neice's first birthday party).
Winners
- Rock Climbing Action: Sean Kelly
- Mountain Action: Sean Kelly
- Mountain Landscape: Andrew Croughton
- Human Interest: Kevin Anderson
Once again thank you very much to everybody for such an enjoyable day and a wonderful evening. Particular thanks go out to Andrew for recci-ing the walk with me, the committee for all their support, the photographers; for yet another impressive display and without whom the evenings entertainment would not be possible, and to Jenny and her team of helpers for pulling things together and getting it right on the night!
