What on earth did John Parry just say?

On the stage in the mess hall at Ullenwood in 1979. Plainly, from the fact that everyone is falling about laughing JP must just have said something hilarious to Randal Motkin who clasps a ceremonial block of oolitic limestone (probably that season's 'Personality of the Year' award. Why John is wearing a crash helmet is lost in the mists. Back row, L to R, Dmitri, C-H-M, Bernard Dawson, Randal, Terry Courtney, JP. Front row, David Hole, Zoya Spivakowska, Ros Cleal and Anna Collinge.

Stop press: following a recent straw poll of Crickley veterans this year's reunion will be on the weekend of 16 to 18 July, holding the picnic on the hill on Saturday 17th. This at least gives Noakesy a chance to hotfoot it from his foreign tour just to make it in time ... I will email the usual suspects soon about the arrangements.

All in a good mood

High good humour all round at the award, it would appear to Randal Motkin, of the 1979 'Mr Crickley' title. Back row, L to R, Dmitri, Terry Courtney, Julian Parker, Bernard Dawson, Dave Southwood. Middle row, Training, The Skeleton, John Parry congratulating Randal, Mike Taylor. Front row, David Hole, Zoya Spivakowska, Ros Cleal, and Anna Collinge. The Skeleton is wearing C-H-M's father's demob suit from 1945.

What is Mr Motkin doing to Dr Cleal?

A 1979 assembly by the huts featuring, L to R, C-H-M (lining Anna Behan up through the viewfinder of a camera of a type which he has never owned and does not recognise), Ros Cleal, Marion Barter, Paul Noakes, Randal Motkin, Sarah Roberts and someone I'm not sure I can identify under a broad-brimmed green hat. But the main curiosity of this picture is figuring out what Randal is doing to Ros's footwear. He appears to be checking whether her foot is attached to the rest of her leg by jiggling the toecap of her left boot. I've enlarged the photo to a high magnification and it doesn't look like an optical illusion. But Dr Cleal's withers appear quite unwrung by whatever Randal is up to and she seems to be ignoring it.

A Medley from 1979

I've created this 1979 collage from a series of Dr Phillpotts's photographs, some of which, alas, are not quite in focus: see if you can spot Marion Barter, Elsa Charlot, Maryam Ghaffari, Guillaume, Anna Collinge, Ros Cleal, Paul, Ranging Rod, Zoya Spivakowska, Randall Motkin & me. Most of these photographs were taken on the cuttings which were supervised by Ros Cleal, Marion Barter, and Sarah Roberts.

Well it did get a bit messy at times ...

I have hesitated for some months, agonising about the advisability of posting this photograph: it shows, late one night at Ullenwood, why you might be chary about letting your child go and dig at Crickley Hill.  Left to right, Crickley Hill Man engaged in that evening's entry for a gurning competition, Mike Taylor, downing what was doubtless a bottle of GL cider or possibly some Newcastle Brown ale, Dr Phillpotts, serenading him with a kazoo, whilst accompanied by Mandy Hatherly and Randell Motkin.  The names have not been altered to protect the innocent.

Dr Ferris writes "I was shocked to discover, on close inspection, that this recently-posted photo of late-night carousing on Crickley Hill Man's blog was not in fact a still from Mickey Rourke's excellent film 'Barfly', as I had first thought, but rather a depiction of some sordid scene from Crickley Hill Man's dissolute youth. CHM, the gurning Charles Bukowski-type character in the forefront of the revels, and his inebriated cohorts had evidently failed to pay heed to Richard Savage's annual pep-talk about the dangers of drugs, drink and adders and were now paying the price. Perhaps it was the next day that Crickley Hill Man fell asleep in a posthole, as he has recounted elsewhere on the blog?"   Quite possibly so, Iain, but lost in the mists of time ...

Do you need a few more people, Dr Cleal?

 

Sure you couldn't squeeze another half dozen in? F3351 seems to have been labour intensive at the start: L to R: Rosemary, David Hole, Guillaume, Dominique, Ros Cleal, Randel Motkin, Rob and a few others begin the task of working their way down to the bottom of the pit. The line of the baulk can be dimly discerned where the tape measure runs across the pit.

Tea break 1979 ...

Another contribution from Bernie Dawson: identifications with assistance from Dr Phillpotts L to R: ?, ?, Corky Gregory, Paul Noakes, Rowena Dutton, Terry Courtney, Dave Southwood, Anna Collinge, Arwel Barrett, Randel Motkin, Mike Taylor, Frank Green, Ken Collier?, Clive Anderson?, Ros Cleal, Marion Barter, Julian Parker, and others.

Motkin & Ferris by the wire ...

Different evenings in 1979: Randel Motkin contemplates escape whilst a long-haired straw- chewing Ferris looks wryly at the camera. This was taken just outside Dorm 4.

What a cheerful crew...

Following a tipoff from Dr Ferris, I'm delighted to have found Bernard Dawson again: he's still teaching but now in North London rather than Coventry. Bernie has sent me the above gem from his 1979 archive with a challenge to name the guilty parties. So here goes: back row, L to R, Mark Spivakowski [update from Dr Phillpotts: it's not Mark, it's Dmitri whose surname escapes both of us] , Terry Courtney, Julian Parker, Bernard Dawson, David Southwood, middle row L to R, Training (sorry I can't remember your real name but I do recall that this was how you were known), the Skeleton clad in Randel Motkin's jacket, John Parry, Randel Motkin, Mike Taylor, front row, L to R, David Hole, Zoya Spivakowska, Ros Cleal and Anna Collinge. Hope I've correctly spelled all the names. Why is RM clasping a large slab of limestone? Can anyone help answer that connundrum? Was it the Personality of the Year award or some such oddity? That rings a very faint bell. It looks as though the Skeleton is also wearing trousers as I can detect a hand that appears to be holding them up.

Update from Iain: "Yes it was the investiture of the Crickley Hill 'Personality of the Year', with all nominees on stage together. The 'PotY' competition was, I recall an idea of mine probably after one too many Gold Label ciders at the Air Balloon, which was surprisingly taken up enthusiastically by all present. The inspired idea for the actual award being a lump of limestone came from Dave Southwood, I think. What I cannot remember is what on earth was the significance of the piece of paper that 'Training' is holding in his hands and what had brought about Randel Motkin's 'thousand yard stare'. I don't know if this competition was held in subsequent years."

Party in 1979 - Chipper provided the scrumpy...

Party in Dorm 2 (correction: 4)  in 1979. Two photos from this curious sequence, where the name of the game seems to have been to get as many people as possible of both sexes and any denomination into a single cubicle equipped, for the party alone, I seem to recall, with two single beds. Persons or part-persons that I can identify include in the top photo Randel Motkin (?), Marion Barter, me, Dave Southwood, Paul Noakes, JP. In the lower, Anna Collinge, Ros Cleal, Bernie Dawson, unknown, and Iain Ferris. Suspect this photo may have been taken by Dr Phillpotts.