The conversation must have been scintillating ...

L to R: Rowena Dutton, Terry Courtney, Philip Dixon, Anna Collinge, Jane Dineen's legs. Anna was plainly so gripped by the elevated conversation during this break that she is deep in her book. From her own photo collection, probably from the 1980 season.

What are these people doing?

Jane Dineen supplied this photo from her 1982 collection with the entirely appropriate question 'What are these people doing?' as the file name. C-H-M can identify Gail Boyle, standing on the left, the Chronicler, Dr Phillpotts kneeling to her right and, I think, Dr Nick Snashall second from the right. The location seems to be the Long Mound. There appears to be an unturfed portion from an earlier season in the foreground with one or two thistles growing out of the limestone. But what are they up to? Is this an impromptu rehearsal for the Below Average White Band? The cast list is not quite who one might expect but there are various shapes that might be (sub-) musical being thrown ...

Crickley New Year Prize Crossword

It's the time of year when newspapers produce their prize crosswords and C-H-M thought the Crickley blog readers, especially those of a strong constitution, might enjoy the crossword set out above.

I'm very grateful to Jane Dineen and Terry Courtney who tested it for me and have proved that it is (very nearly) soluble. They've got 3 clues to go ...

It is vital to have a working knowledge of the wit, wisdom and aphorisms of John Parry but many of those who dug at Crickley will have obtained the necessary familiarity.

Jane kindly points out that a better clue for 3 across would be 'Thy' rather than 'Thine' and also points out that there are 7 letters, not 6, in 12 across.

A prize will be offered at the 2010 reunion for the best solution submitted. Teams are permitted so that Jane & Terry have a chance of winning the prize, which will doubtless be food or drink related ...

Ullenwood crowd

A group shot outside the mess hall at Ullenwood, belonging to Corky Gregory, taken during the 1981 season. L to R: Rowena Dutton, Terry Courtney, Julie Lancley, Jane Dineen, Julie Fissenden, Corky Gregory and Mike Taylor. "Is that Ros's mini in the background?", asks Corky.

An inadvertent fashion statement?

Jane Dineen sporting a ?dancing injury during the 1980 season in this Anna Behan shot. Jane doesn't appear too distressed by her injury and had perhaps been enjoying the benefits of the National Health Service ...

Fixing the limo & Jane's fashion notes

Anyone who dug at Crickley will recall Terry Courtney's passion for limousines: he rarely appeared with less than 2. Jane Dineen stands by highly amused in this Anna Collinge 1980 photo of Mr Courtney trying to get one of his limos going again after some mechanical or electrical collapse. Assisting Terry are Jane Fitt and Julie-Ann Souter and C-H-M in person. What I am doing trying to help is not entirely clear to me as my knowledge of car engines is not fantastic now and was certainly non-existent then. Maybe I was getting Terry to talk me through it.

Jane writes: "Me in 1980 demonstrating an early fascination with engines. Fashion notes: I think that's a black silk t-shirt that I eventually wore to bits, and a little purse (who was that designer with the lion?) that I still have. I don't wear flip-flops now but apparently did then (I guess Dr. Scholl's weren't easy to find in the '80s). I love the other Jane's pink overall/dungarees. And the ultimate accessory (even when momentarily disabled), the Vanden Plas limo." Lucy Loveridge supplies the answer: "I think Ann Klein used the lion as her logo back then. Very high fashion." Jane: "That's it!"

Roll call for the finds ...

Fresh from his latest peace-keeping mission in his UN beret, giving the shorts an outing and the legs an airing, Arwel Barrett has spotted Rebecca Chambers with the camera: Jane Dineen is concentrating hard on recording finds information properly. Let's hope Arwel's sitrep met with approval. My guess is that this is c 1980, based on the location of the cutting right by the fence between the National Trust and the Council land, the length of Jane's hair and a dendrochronological fix on Arwel's knees.

Work scene 1980

Jane Dineen must have got her magnifying glass out to manage to spot even Naomi Jackson, Philip Dixon (examining) and Anna Collinge in this atmospheric 1980 shot. C-H-M had forgotten a feature of digging when the site is dry and dusty: all diggers face away from the wind to stop the dirt blowing into their eyes: the breeze must have been from the south that day as most people are facing north.

Wheelbarrow lunch

A 1980 Sunday lunch break. L to R: a wheelbarrow recently vacated by photographer Jane Dineen, Bernie Dawson (with newspaper), Ros Cleal (applying suntan lotion?), Anna Collinge and Melanie Cook (who know Jane's there with her camera), Frank Green, Rowena Dutton, Terry Courtney and Julian Parker (who don't all know she's there.) I look as though I've been decapitated and attached to the finds hut door.

I'm quite sure Jane is correct in identifying this as a Sunday lunchtime as it was the only day of the week when, feeling deprived of news and a good read, someone would whiz into Cheltenham and acquire the Sunday newspapers. We never did that on a weekday, as far as I can recall.

Oops! C-H-M has had an 'early-middle-aged' moment: Jane Dineen points out: "Pickings must be getting slim if you're reduced to repeating photos! [She's right - March 29th - tsk, tsk.] I have dug 1981 out from behind the furniture and will dispatch the few worth scanning (one a corker) as soon as I've excavated the scanner." Ooh, yes please, Jane - use a 4" WHS forged-tang trowel to excavate your scanner - and sorry, team, for the inadvertent duplication ... I'll fire the blog administrator.

The Open Weekend 1980?

From the angle of the shadows it looks as though Anna Behan took this photo during the afternoon teabreak during the Open Weekend in 1980. In the foreground, L to R, Philip, Dixon, Julian Parker, Jim Gale, Jane Dineen, Bernie Dawson. In the background I spy Richard Savage's Volkswagen bus of sainted memory, many grockles, a marquee (doubtless erected for a small exhibition and to provide refreshments to said grockles) a camper van with the roof up and the shelter. Behind the marquee is the hornbeam tree, unless I am mistaken.

The Management thinks it through ...

How far shall we go down next? A huddle on cutting AXVII in 1982 as Big Les, Steve Vaughan, Mike Taylor, Phil Dixon and Terry Courtney chew the fat in this picture by Jane Dineen. They got the answer right, as this photo of Jane's I posted a few days ago shows.

Dinner at the Royal George, Birdlip, 3rd July 2009

A series taken by Malc White during the dinner at the Royal George, Birdlip on Friday, 3rd July 2009. Amongst those shown, in varying degrees of focus, working left to right and then top to bottom, are Joanne and Steve Vaughan, Bernie Dawson, Lydia Savage, Lucy Loveridge, Philip Dixon, Julian Parker, Richard Sanderson, Becky Sanderson, Penny Hart, Kate Dumycz, Richard Savage, Liz Williams, Trevor Jones, Paul Noakes, David Griffiths, Kate Gilbert, Rebecca Chambers, Terry Courtney, John Parry, and Jane Dineen.

Dormitory 3 in 1980

From Jane Dineen's collection, but not taken by her as she's in this photo of the inhabitants of Dormitory 3 at some point during the 1980 season. Jane is next to Gloria Polizotti with Anna Collinge on the other end of the front row: help needed, please, in identifying the others.

During the 2009 site tour after the picnic

During the picnic PWD took us on a site tour. This Dumycz shot captures just over 40 of the 60-plus who attended, grouped on the National Trust side of the hill. Apologies if I miss anyone in the following list: Jane Dineen, Ros Cleal, Marion Barter, Paul Noakes, Philip Dixon, Terry Courtney, Andrew Powell, Anna Behan, Chris Phillpotts, Nick Snashall, Bernie Dawson, Corky Gregory, Les Capon, Malcolm White, Alan Ford, Richard Ozanne, Rebecca Chambers, Jill Hummerstone, Emma Turner, Dave Foster, Penny Hart, Steve and Joanne Vaughan, John Parry, Julie-Ann Morrison, Penny Hart, Kate Dumycz, Lydia Savage, John Boden, Iain Ferris, Richard and Becky Sanderson, Lucy Loveridge, Dave Butler, Miriam Vallely and Mike Sims. Phew - who did I miss? PWD finished the site tour with a call "Back to drinking!"

Would you buy a rusty clout-iron from these men?

Messrs Noakes and Parry, at their most alluring, halfway though the picnic on Saturday 4th July 2009; behind them, in the background, Nick Snashall, Corky Gregory and Jane Dineen. Not a catbasher or a clout-iron in sight ...

The rampart cutting in 1982

Soft focus, or should that be out-of-focus shot from the Phillpotts archive: the rampart cutting in 1982 with, left to right, Mike Taylor, Angie, Phil Dixon, Duncan and Jane Dineen.

The rigours of returfing - 1980

A medley of photographs from 1980 from the Parker collection: in varying states of exhaustion after re-turfing the cuttings at the end of the season, Jane Dineen, Rebecca Chambers, Frank Green and Anna Collinge.   I remember this particular day quite well: it was very sunny as can be seen from the photos and we all got absolutely knackered carrying dry dusty turf about in all that heat.  The water consumption of the team must have been pretty good as well.

Party night in 1980

I rather suspect that a dig party was combined with the Personality of the Year and the Mr Crickley and Ms Crickley competitions. Variously depicted above Arwel Barrett, Sarah Murphy, Jane Dineen, Julian Parker, Louise Austin, Dave Fine, Mike Taylor, John Parry, David Southwood, Ros Cleal, Jim Gale, Julie-Ann Souter, Training, and Jane Fitt. it looks as though Arwel is trying to remove what little remained of my hair even in those days.

Miss Crickley 1980 ...

Jane Dineen says that the inscription by someone else on the back, slightly interpreted by me, reads: "Birmingham girl, Jane [Dineen], Anna [Collinge], Ros [Cleal], Jane [Fitt], Suzie the Cook; Front row: Gloria [Polizotti], Sharon the mouth, Julie Ann [Souter], Sue, ?." This cheerful group were the contestants in the 1980 'Miss Crickley' competition held at Ullenwood. Some may feel that the holding of such competitions tended towards a trifle of political incorrectness (and that would never do ...): but we always held a 'Mr Crickley' competition as well, and the 'Personality of the Year' competition was, of course, open to both sexes. Dungarees were commoner than bikinis it would appear. Dr Ferris would have me believe, doubtless, that one year the skeleton painted on a bit of hardboard was a contestant: he's probably right. Update: Dr Ferris opines: "I might be able to help Crickley Hill Man in identifying one of the 1980 'Miss Crickley' contestants, beyond informing him that I'm sure they were all sincerely working for 'world peace'. The 'Birmingham girl', as it describes her in your photo caption, was, I think, Debra who might have been one of Bernard Dawson's pupils at the time."

Wheelbarrows or deckchairs?

Another snap from the Dineen CH 1980 assemblage.  On site, Sunday lunch break -Barrow recently vacated, Bernie Dawson with newspaper, Ros Cleal, Anna Collinge, Melanie Cook, Frank 'The Soil' Green, Rowena Dutton, Terry Courtney,  Julian Parker's head, Philip Dixon (hands).  That's pretty good, Jane - I'd have got everyone else but not recognised PWD's hands alone ... Those wheelbarrows really were dual purpose - they did make excellent and surprisingly comfortable deckchairs.