In memory of Tony Jarrett – BEC caver, legend and inspiration

I met Tony when I started caving on Mendip with Soton Uni and we would always visit Bat Products and stay at the Belfry.

Later on my involvement with the Dachstein expedition gave us another connection as he was involved in some of the early trips out there. I remember hearing the story of how they were caving on ladders in an area where sudden thunderstorms can be dangerous – so they ran a telephone cable down the cave in order to communicate about the weather and help logistics. Tony recalled being underground when the phone rang – he answered it only to be struck by a bolt of lightning travelling down the wire and out of the phone!! Apparently it took him some time to convince the people who found him dazed and confused what had actually happened. Then despite what they say – lightning does strike twice – as the same thing happened when he picked up the phone at the Belfry!!

More recently Tony has been our chief sponsor for the work in Wigmore – he was the first person I went to see when I found Young Blood’s inlet and he’s always wanted to know how we got on after every trip. He was as enthusiastic about the cave as I was!! 
 
One of the things I will miss the most are his large supply of stories from ‘back in the day’. Tales of ‘gonad wrestling’, eating competitions and nights in the hunters where it used to be so busy every Saturday night that “blokes had to climb out of the window to go for a piss!”. These stories inspired me and I’ve always wanted Mendip to busy like it used to be – so when we have the BEC BBQ and when we had CHECC on Mendip it was great to see Tony in his element with the place heaving!! At the BBQ in 2006 he proved he could go one better than the youngsters – who were dancing with their tops off – by dancing with his trousers off!!

He was a long standing BEC member (honorary life member in 2000) and he’d said to me on several occasions he was pleased to see the club so busy and popular and hoped it would long continue!! He played his part in this as well by proposing and seconding lots of new members and always encouraging people he thought would ‘fit in well’ (or not fit in elsewhere I suspect!!) 

Of course then there was his encyclopaedic knowledge of the Mendip caves which you could always call on and not forgetting that he vast quantities of written material and records he kept. Every edition of the BB must have something from him in – plus of course the guide book we use ‘Mendip underground’ was co authored by him.

At the same time he was amazingly active – in recent years he was the driving force for Hunters Lodge Inn sink, Rose Cottage and Caine Hill to name a few. He was also active in Scotland with the Grampian and on his annual expedition to Meghalaya.

I last saw him at the BEC BBQ where he opened the new tacklestore and provided a barrel of beer for everyone. Later some of the old guard sang songs from the old days when every Saturday night in the Hunters the place would be full of people singing their hearts out. All wonderfully rude and crude!!

No more than anyone else I know – Tony lived the BEC motto – “Everything to Excess” in the end this probably put him in an early grave – but I doubt he would change any of it!!

An example to us all – “Everything to Excess!!”