This year our annual visit to the Mendips became an "old lags" weekend as ICCC members both young and old descended upon the Shepton for a weekend of Somerset caving. A resounding success with over a dozen old lags attending, many a tale was shared over a pint of cider, and hopefully old lags weekends become a regular item in the calendar!

The inevitable finally occurred; our KYW minibus gave out after enduring months of endless problems and fixes. Stranded in an Asda car park just outside Oxford, we eventually made our way home. A few insane individuals even pulled an all-nighter to reach Yorkshire, immediately embarking on a caving adventure upon arrival.

Derbyshire! Our annual pilgrimage to the land of mud lived up to its usual reputation: a JH - Peak exchange with high highs and low lows, a poke around Nettle Pot, a cheeky rigging trip to Eldon and a hangover cure in P8. Not to mention some hiking, bread and butter pudding, demolished Aldis and Chris being tied to a chair.

We hit up an impressive number of wet-weather classics over a week of poor weather for winter tour - plenty of trips into Easegill and King Pot - as well as adding new caves to the club repertoire: Voldemort Hole on Leck Fell and Knock Fell Caverns in faraway Cumbria. Little chaos meant more time for entertainment, including Christmas Dinner, covers of Last Christmas, frequent train journeys, and endless fun with the laminator.

A second trip to Yorkshire! Kevin's great birthday weekend at the NPC had all sorts of unusual trips: New Rift, F'ing Hopeless, Tatham Wife Hole. Lots of mud. Lots of pretties. Lots of birthday.

First trip to Yorkshire: classic West Kingsdale fresher trips to Bull Pot and Rowten (with another group in Alum Pot) on Saturday, and everyone on Leck Fell on Sunday.

The SWCC is under construction so, after many years away, ICCC returned to the Westminster Speleological Group (WSG) and their tiny white cottage. There were caves, fire alarms, and pumpkins galore for this Halloween weekend in deepest Wales.

The first trip of the year had us stomping through the mighty halls of Aggy, crawling through the unnecessarily tight squeezes of Eggy, and enjoying the beautiful Welsh countryside in good company. All the boxes were ticked: comforting damp darkness, minibus songs, and the finest games known to cavers. Also Chris invented a questionable new addition to the game repertoire, Laura got lost many a time, and of course Matti cooked the eggy bread to perfection.

As we begin the new academic year, let's give our new committee their much overdue welcome. Congratulations to the new committee for ending Matti's reign as Supreme Leader and for thwarting RON's rise to power.

And, as always, our commiserations to the winners of the following awards:

Herman Herz: Julien, nominated for staring into the face of death as he slowly but surely slipped off the ledge in OFD’s Edward’s Shortcut into the pit below. Credit to Astrid for leaping into action to prevent disaster.

For Evans' Sake: Chris, nominated for expertly watering the plants by the path in the Wormwood Scrubs with a perfect parabola of urine while gracefully in motion on his bike, even executing a corner effortlessly mid-piss.

Wretched Rabbit is open again so we had to go back! We exchanged with County Pot and were out in good time. A breakaway party had a FAAB trip to the bottom of FOUL Pot, also getting out before the forecasted heavy rain. Sunday held another successful exchange trip, between Boxhead and It's a Cracker on Leck Fell. A cracker of a weekend.