Club News as of

Remembering last years highly successful fund raiser:-

If you want to visit WMRT on the web then point your browser at http://www.wasdale-mountain-rescue.org.uk/

Kern Knotts Auction 2002

105th Anniversary - Fund Raising Event

in Aid of Wasdale Mountain Rescue Team (WMRT)

The RAF Sea King at Wasdale (If you want to download an *.avi movie of the helicopter click here. 3 minutes download )

The Kern Knotts Weekend was a great success and to prove it here's a message from the guy (with a small 'g') who organised it, Guy Newbold:-

THANK YOU ALL!

Thanks a million for coming to the do, Sorry I didn't get chance to talk to you or even have a drink really, nothing personal it was just a tad hectic my end. The two call outs didn't help either. Next time you meet up I will come to you and do it properly!

ANYWAY the good news is the weekend managed to raise just over Eleven THOUSAND pounds!

MANY thanks

Guy

Guy Newbold soon to work for Marks and Spencer!

I pass over to John 'Fornside' Paterson for a description of the weekend as I fear my prejudices might just tinge the occasion. To find out more about the 'good' the 'bad' and the 'ugly' read on..................

The good, the bad and the ugly! Hi all, back in Plymouth. I made it to the Wasdale MRT weekend and my report is below.

The GOOD It was good to meet Peter Burgess and Andy and I THINK I met or saw Alex Ford but we never got round to being introduced. Guy was working like a Dervish and Saturday saw over £6,000 raised for the MRT. Andy (and I think Alex) met up with the Outdoors Magic crowd and did a long walk over the Scafells. No doubt he will publish details. It was touch and go if I made it (got wet gardening on Sat am) but I finally got there about noon. Soon after me Peter arrived and we had a look at the helicopter and spoke to Guy and bought a few things in the outdoor gear marquee. Guy told us that Andy et al had set off on their walk at 9.30. Peter then got itchy feet and went for a run up Kirkfell returning by Black Sail Pass. I loafed about in my tent and took a picture of the famous Joss Naylor chatting to the winners of the fell race.

"Great Gable looked good for, well, er, about two minutes."

The evening was taken up with eating, drinking and the auction. Peter bid for about half the lots - he said it was just to up the bids but he seemed to end up buying an awful lot. Perhaps his star buy was a rock climbing course. He got it at a ridiculously low price as he was the only one brave enough to bid! Both of us bought super new bivi/survival bags guaranteed to cut your chances of death by a huge percentage. Cant wait for a near death experience to try mine out! Andy was not camping so he had to be back at his B&B for 11.30 but the rest of us merry campers were not far behind.

Thousands were after that 5 gram pack of mint cake. Peter bought it for £1200!!

The BAD It rained cats and dogs for most of Saturday and the early hours of Sunday morning. Guy was unlucky to have picked by far the worst 24 hours in the past 8 days - still the attendance at the auction was sufficient to get a proper bidding war for most of the lots. The lady who had played a major part in organising the fell race took a fall and was injured and had to be helicoptered to hospital where she is on the mend. Unfortunately, she will miss the start of her planned trip to New Zealand as she will not recover in time for the booked flight. Peter was very taken by a plum coloured Paramo jacket and tried it on before the auction saying it would go well with his yellow trainers and turquoise tracksters. Unfortunately the bidding went too high for him and he didn't get it. However, he got so much else that he could hardly get it all the in the Land Rover.

"......and they're off!"

The legendary Joss Naylor talks to competitors.

The UGLY

Peter and I were in our tents at about 11.30 ish. Just as sleep was arriving at midnight the noisiest bunch of layabouts you have ever heard arrived and started putting up a tent. They were with a much larger party but the late arrivals were about as anti social as you could get. One of them (a trans continental lorry driver) also had only one volume to his voice - mega loud. He had also failed to appreciate that, to be effective, swearing should be rationed. He appeared to have a vocabulary of about 20 words - 10 of which were expletives. Surprisingly, I managed to get to sleep but was woken up soon after 1 am when Peter, who couldn't sleep - EXPLODED! For a mild mannered bloke he sounds remarkably frightening when he is roused.

"Is the inside of a tent really the place to be?"

He never managed to get an apology from the layabout who basically said that he often made a noise outside clubs at 3 in the morning so why should he be quiet at 1 am. If people wanted to sleep they should not come to Wasdale????? However, when Peter refused to come over and sort him out he got bored and at about 1.30 he shut up. This left Peter derived of sleep and he headed to his mum's at Staveley very early - planning to walk Kentmere later in the day. I was as sleep deprived as Peter but It seemed to take me an hour longer than Peter to get myself sorted. When I was packing up the camp site started to stir and everyone was talking about the pigs who had kept us all awake. The consensus was that Peter had needed some courage to speak out. During this discussion the pigs remained in their tents - asleep or sheepish, I don't know. I have just had the bleariest journey back to Plymouth ever - 3 stops when I usually take 1 or 2 and cat naps in the service station car parks which is something I never normally do. I am glad I went but it annoys me that morons can spoil it for everyone. Cheers (sleepy) John }-)

If you want to visit WMRT on the web then point your browser at http://www.wasdale-mountain-rescue.org.uk/