Members: Dave Wylie, Dan O'Brien, Duncan Lee, Vicky Alderton, Jim Symon, Andy Stratford, Gareth Williams, Stuart Hurworth, Steve Graham, Mark Ashley, Ding, Colin Maddison, Clay Conlon.

Guests: Jo Cowley, George Williams, Oscar Pope, Hannah Godden + 2, Isabel Prause, John and Fiona, Steve Hill, Kieran Lee, Nikki Hamerton

It was definitely BBQ weather!  This week saw an almost record turn-out for a Wednesday night meet.  A total of 13 members and 12 guests took full advantage of the great weather and accessible climbing at Troy Quarry.  Even the midges had the common decency to stay away…

Dave and Steve H climbed the excellent Severe Left Siamese Twin (the crux being avoiding the Right Twin), Stacked Deck (HS) and One Way Street (S); the latter being led on Steve’s shiny new gear and all routes followed by Jo.  Oscar led Sounder (HVS) and Dovetail (his first E1 though strangely coming after his first E2 over the weekend…) both followed by Dan.  Dan led Jussy (HVS) and Grane Wall (E1), the latter having been heavily chalked by a top-roping team earlier in the evening to dry out the early season seepage – it didn’t really work…

Mark led Right Siamese Twin (the crux being avoiding the Left Twin), Open Sesame (VD) which was very dirty and Stacked Deck, followed by Ding, Isabel and George.  Fiona and Jon also climbed Left Siamese and Open Sesame.  Gareth climbed  Jussy and Mucky Pups (HVS) followed by Vicky while Duncan sprinted around the Quarry after Kieran who devoted most of his substantial energy to manufacturing stone tools and collecting mummified frogs…  After leaving his mobile office in the car park, Colin climbed Sounder and the tricky Curlew (E1) which had some pretty bold climbing; followed by Stevie and Duncan.  Jim and Andy climbed Rapunzel (VS), Stacked Deck, Left Siamese Twin, Troy Groove (VS) and Little Sneak (VS) - unfortunately the volume of routes resulted in them arriving late to the pub and almost missing the vote!  Stuart and Clay climbed Overlooked Crack (HS) and Updraught Corner (S) and Troy Groove before also nearly missing the vote! 

It was genuinely fantastic to see so many members and guests out enjoying the rock so early in the season!  Please accept my apologies if I missed your ascent off this report – with nearly forty people at the crag it was pretty tough to keep track!

Luckily (certainly for the unsuspecting locals in the Holden Arms) there was some attrition between the crag and the pub.  This did, leave us with an even number which led to some discussions on various methods for breaking a deadlock.  Surprisingly, Windgather fell in the first round of voting leaving a straight run-off between Cadshaw Rocks and Alderman which Cadshaw won by a significant margin (indeed even some Chew Valley locals voted for it!)

So Cadshaw next week.  Bring head torch and midge repellent and if someone can order the same weather we had yesterday that would be grand.  Thanks!