CUCC was founded in 1949, so it recently celebrated its 60th
anniversary with a reunion dinner in The Yorkshire Dales.

When initially formed the first task was building our own cable
ladders and scaling pole (from dumped aeroplane parts), as there was
no such thing as caving shops, and due to the difficulties of travel,
trips took place out of term time. This slowly changed over the years
as transport improved and since the 1970s the club has consistently
run trips to the 4 major UK caving areas during term-time as well as
extra, often longer, trips outside term, to both those areas and other
caving areas around Europe. Not until the 2000s could cavers afford
reliable transport, so many reports prior to that are full of tales of
vehicular failure, with some vehicles achieving club fame (or
notoriety) in their own right.

The club has, like most university clubs, been a significant source of
new cavers in the UK, providing inspiration, introduction and
training, both in basic sport caving and more advanced exploratory and
expedition techniques. A number of members have later gone on to take on
administrative tasks in UK caving bodies.

Within the UK we have collectively visited all of the areas and
probably most of the significant caves over our 63 year existence. The
club has quite strongly favoured Yorkshire over at least the last 20
years, despite it not being closest, due to the wide choice of caves,
relatively uncomplicated access arrangements and good accomodation
options. Many CUCC members have joined the Northern Pennine Club (up
until the 1980s) and the Red Rose cave and Pothole Club Trip (in the
1990s and 2000s), on leaving Cambridge.

As well as trips to the 4 main caving areas of South Wales, Yorkshire,
Mendip and Derbyshire, we also visit the Forest of Dean from time to
time, and Devon and Assynt very occaisionally.

CUCC is one of the longest-lived university caving clubs in the UK,
and one of the the few that has sustained a foreign expedition nearly
every year since 1956. In 1964 it was surveyed as the 2nd largest
university club in the country, which is perhaps odd given its
position 100 miles from the nearest natural cave.[1] The reasons for
this are complex, and also change over the years. One advantage we
have is a large proportion of the membership being postgraduates and
ex-students who live in the area and cave with the club. This helps
enormously with continuity and tides the club over lean times where
there is a shortage of undergraduate members.

Foreign, primarily sporting, trips have included Belgium(1981), France
(Ardeche (2001,2003,2005,2006,2007,2012), Pyrenees (1971,1981,1995),
Vercours (1981,1991), Alpes Maritimes (1991,1997), Jura (1971),
Cevennes (2008), Lorraine(2009)), Greece (196?,1981,1982,1997),
Hungary (1995), Ireland (Fermanagh(1970,1973,1999), and Clare
(1976,1979,1980,1982,1992,1993)), Slovakia (1993), Spain (Majorca
1988,1989,1990,1991,1995,1996,2009), Yugoslavia (1959, 1969), and even
an almost-successful 1976 attempt to bottom 500m deep caves in Italy,
Swizterland and France within a week. Clare, the Ardeche, and Majorca
have been the most popular for sport trips, largely because they are
cheap and provide lots of great caving as well as other outdoor
activities. Club members have of course also visited a huge number of
places in smaller groups, attached to other groups, or individually.

CUCC doesn't just go caving. Members partake of a range of outdoor
activites on trips or as groups of friends: Canyonning, Climbing,
Hiking, Biking, Mountaineering and Via Ferrate are all popular, with
others like Hang Gliding, Sailing and Mountain Biking, and even Punt
Jousting occurring from time to time. Club members often go on to form
lifetime friendships and an informal group 'ExCS' (the Ex-Cambridge
Speleologists) exists. This was formed (officially) in the 1975 originally to
keep tackle for non-club trips and provide a newsletter, but in recent
times exists simply to keep people in touch.

One of the most significant aspects of CUCC is the Expeditions. These
started with one each to Libya (Cyrenaica) and Greece (Pindus
Mountains), and 4 to Norway (Svartisen) in the 50s and 60s, moving on
to the PSM in the Pyrenees in the 1970s, before settling on Loser in
Austria since 1976, where we have explored over 100km of cave. Since
starting our work in Autria we have helped push forward the technology
of cave surveying with Survex and Tunnel, and expedition recording with
an early move to online documentation, and in recent years have
instigated some cave research projects on caver stress, moisture
transfer and speleothem dating.

The early years of the club also saw cave science undertaken regularly
in the UK. We were early adopters of the HKD 8mm drill-placed fixing
in 1990, and club members have been enthusiastic builders and
experimenters in ladders, SRT, lighting and charging technology since
the club was founded.

The expeditions have proved an excellent training ground for
expedition cavers, and many have gone on to world-class activity in
many countries, including Russia, Malaysia, China, Spain, Mexico and
Norway. Particularly notable is the setting up of the Hong Meguei
caving club in China by ex-members, which has done a huge amount
to make expeditins to China more accessible, and found over 200km of
cave in 10 years.

CUCC has had cave-diving members in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, responsible
for explorations in Yorkshire, Greece, Ireland and Spain, but by and large cave-diving
has not been something the club did much of. In the early years we did
a lot of exploratory work in Yorkshire, but since the 1970s we have
largely found new cave abroad. Some members have become keen diggers,
working on various projects over the years, including some doing
their bit in parts of the recent 3-counties systems connections, for
example.

We published a journal 'Cambridge Underground' most years between 1962
and 1999, which contains a great deal of detail on CUCC activities
over that time, and after a long hiatus there will be a bumper 2012
edition.

[1]There are artificial ones in Norfolk (Grimes
graves - iron age mines) and Royston ('Royston Cave', famously home of
the Knights Templar in <date>).