Call goes out to rock pioneers as cavern club hits 50 with reunion

Now, however, members of the West Yorkshire-based Northern Cave Club (NCC) are preparing to celebrate its 50th anniversary with a get-together above the surface.

A reunion of NCC adventurers past and present is taking place at Clapham Village Hall in the Yorkshire Dales on May 18.

The anniversary party is being organised by Ruth Smith, from Farsley, Leeds.

Her late father, Alan “Drus” Drury, was a member of the club until his death in 1996.

She said: “It should be a great event – there are certainly a lot of memories to share.”

She has made contact with about 50 people who have caved with the club in the Dales as well as further afield.

Another 50 or so former members, though, have still to be found.

For more details about the reunion, email [email protected].

The NCC’s achievements include the extension in the 1970s of a cave called King Pot, near Ingleton in the Dales.

Its intrepid members have also been instrumental in putting countries such as Mexico and Vietnam on the world’s caving map.