out.  This meant a walk up the hillside at 11pm, thrusting an arm into the cold stream and unblocking the leaves from around the water intake.  Not nice in January snow.

There were some riotous times at the hut, with the odd chair leg being used to start the fire, essential in the days before central heating.

I remember the first Bangers & Mash, when Tim Farnell brought up a barrel of beer in a trailer behind his car.  Sam from the Station Hotel used to let us have the barrel and all the gas equipment, glasses, etc. 

On the Saturday afternoon all the sausages were put on the metal wire grids in the oven and left to cook.  Being an all male committee, we soon realised that the fat running over the floor had dripped down from the sausages, and out of the oven.  So we decided to move them to trays.
In the mean time, the cauldrons of tomato soup and baked beans were bubbling away,  and the water heating for the smashed potato.  No expense spared.

After the food and several beers, the evening singing started, lead by Dave Walton and a gentle song about a young lady called little angeleen.  More songs in this vein followed. Towards the end of the evening, someone used to regale many non PC verses of Eskimo Nell.

During the 70's,  youngsters such as Dave Goodey,  John Sharp,  Harry Marshall and  Paul Willsher joined the club.  I was initially co-opted on to the committee as hut rep, progressing to secretary and eventually chairman, leaving the club in 1978 to go to Baghdad.  There I worked for ICL at the Iraqi MOD.  Luckily we got out before the Iran/ Iraq war.

I remember the HMC committee of 1975.  The members were Maurice Nicoll (chairman), Albert Sillwood (secretary),  John Sharp (Treasurer),  Dave Goodey (Indoor meets),  Dave Nicholson (Camping) and Robin Edwards (Huts). We used to agonise for hours over the constitution.  In those days, all club notices were printed on an old Getzner (?) duplicating machine.  

I first joined the Hertfordshire Mountaineering Club in summer 1969.

In April 1969, I graduated from Wolverhampton College of Technology, and armed with a Diploma in Computer Technology ventured forth into the real world of computers, with ICL Stevenage.

Here I joined a team of 3 other programmers as a trainee, and was surprised to note we were all left-handed.  John Colley, the Senior Programmer, introduced me to the HMC, which met on Tuesday nights at the Station Hotel, Knebworth.  It was on the Tuesdays that I met some of the other regulars - Tim Farnell, Peter Wesley,  Dave Walton and Maurice Nicoll.

In 1969, I lived in digs in Anderson Road, Chells, Stevenage, just around the corner from Peter Wesley.  Peter was kind enough to give me a lift down to the club, until I managed to buy my first red minivan.

It was in the Autumn of 1969 that I first went to the Hertfordshire Snowdonia Centre, with the coal fire and the cracked wooden floor boards upstairs.  These were quite useful for sweeping the dust down on a Sunday.

In those days the Kitchen was to the right of the main door (where the single room is now), the two toilets (one Gents, one Ladies) were to the right of the main door, either side of the present fire grate.  In the centre of the hut was an old garage containing a farmer's trap behind the sliding green door.  This is now the kitchen and dining room.

The water supply was from a dam, 300 yards up the local stream that passes the hut.  I remember arriving several times, switching on the water into the tank in the small room under the eaves, and no water coming

Well it's been a real pleasure putting this anniversary edition of Crux together. The idea behind this edition began at a committee meeting in early March '98.

Having read and re-read the articles I still find them fresh and amusing. Duncan Hectors tales of the sisters being rescued in Ogwen made my eyes water I laughed so much.

Phil Whitehurst (Secretary)