The Magazine of the North Cheshire Cruising Club

CELEBRATIONS FOR

MARCH

WE WISH THE FOLLOWING MEMBERS HAPPY BIRTHDAY

5th Mo Spooner – Lazy Days

7th Taylor Winstanley

10th Jim Ling – All J’s

12th Gill Ling – All J’s

16th Lorna Maloney

18th Barry Stanton

23rd Eric Sutton

28th Sheila Barlow - Calluna

AND

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

TO THESE MEMBERS

4th Sheila & Bob Barlow – Calluna

13th Babs & Bryan Roberts

21st Marilyn & Graham Speechley

23rd Ruth & Roy Pickford

25th Hazel & Brian Bowker – Cleopatra

25th Bet & Peter Stonard

26th Chris & Geoff Lamb – Ganda

If you are not on the celebrations pages and would like to be, please

contact Jan Tattersall.

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CELEBRATIONS

If you would like to be included on the CELEBRATIONS of ‘The Ditchcrawler’ please fill in

the details below and give it to Jan or Martin Tattersall

NAME_____________________ BIRTHDAY(day & month)____________

NAME_____________________ BIRTHDAY(day & month)____________

ANNIVERSARY_______________________________________________

BOAT NAME_________________________________________________

Hi Bernie

I thought it might be a good idea to have the current month's celebrations

plus the next month for those members who wish to plan ahead with their

card sending!

So I am sending April and May celebrations.

What do you think?

Janx

Following on from Jans suggestion we will be running two months

celebration dates per issue stating with March / April Ed.

CELEBRATIONS FOR

APRIL

WE WISH THESE MEMBERS

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

3rd Susan Yorke – Louis D’Or

3rd Peter Wright – Miss Liz

4th Fred Pennell

4th Keith Wright – Hirondelle

9th Noel Christopher – Columbus

12th Glenys Critchlow – Wild Rose

17th Doris Pennington – Destiny

19th Jean Pennell

22nd Audrey Meecham

24th Geoff Lamb – Ganda

26th Tabitha Winstanley

28th Pat Christopher – Columbus

30th Marilyn Speechley

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ANNIVERSARIES

Do you celebrate your anniversary in April?

If so let us know – Jan & Martin –Quantum

*Also any new members who wish to be included on the monthly

celebrations page please contact us. J & M

Commodore's Letter

Many thanks to everyone who helped to make the Fitting out Supper successful The singer Matt Philips was new to the Club, but we will certainly be asking him back The opening cruise on Saturday 21st March will leave the Club at 11am with me as commodore taking the lead followed by the Chairman and the rest of the boats All know about the Easter weekend is that there will be a beer festival ad a Band on at the Navigation on Saturday night We shall be having a Quiz and we now have our own Karaoke On Sunday we shall have an Easter Bonnet parade and Decorated Ties and Eggs Happy Cruising Edna

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Club Nights

As you are all aware ‘Club Nights’ have been held on a Friday night

during the non-sailing season and to a great extent has been very

successful.

You will also be aware that the sailing season is now upon us

heralded by the ‘Fitting Out Supper’. In view of this the board has

decided that ‘Club Nights’ should now revert back to a Thursday night

beginning on the 9th April until the end of the sailing season.

Please note that Fridays will continue until then, but that there will be

no meeting on the Friday of the Easter weekend (3rd April).

The first Thursday meeting will be the 9th April.

The Board

Friday April 3rd to 6th Easter Cruise Bugsworth

Thursday 16th April Greetings Card Demonstration

Friday May 2nd to 4th May Day Weekend to Fools

Nook

Friday May 22nd to Sat 30th Spring Bank Cruise to

Chester

Saturday 6th June Wine Cruise

Friday July 24th Summer Cruise Strafford on Avon [

River Avon & River Severn ] Aprox 4 weeks

Friday August 28th to 31st Bank Holiday To be

arranged

SUNDAY LUNCH and BAR

Why not come along for lunch on Sundays, 12.00 – 1.30.

The bar is also open 12.00 – 2.00.

PUB CLOSURE

Hi Bernie, Please can you let our fellow boaters know that the Kings Head at Gurnett is closed. Following on from this Jen and I found a good pub about a mile from the Kings Head going towards the the Church. The Church House, good selection of food and drinks a busy little pub. Be advised to take a torch if out after dart as there is no street lighting in the vicinity. Ed. CHANGE OF DETAILS

If any members have changed their address or phone number please could you

let me know.

Pam Russell

BOOKING THE SLIPWAY

Members are reminded that requests dhould be submitted to Brian using the

slips available in the workshop. Once confirmed dates will be shown on the year

planner. Ed.

MEMBERSHIP CARDS Hi Bernie for the Ditchcrawler Membership cards and boat stickers are ready and can be collected from the club on a club night Pam Russell

New limit of £50 for cash payments.

In an effort to reduce the amount of cash club officers have to store at home until

it is banked and also to reduce bank charges to the club, the board has decided a

new cash limit of £50 will be applied to any single transaction for services

provided by the club. This includes payments for moorings, membership, social

events, diesel and Calor etc. but not for bar transactions. Beyond that limit all

transactions will have to be either by cheque or online banking whichever is more

convenient.

The new cash limit will come into force from 1st February so please be prepared

and if necessary, bring your cheque book along.

Members have been able to pay for club services such as moorings and

membership by online banking since November 2014.

The club’s bank account details are shown below:-

Bank: Santander

Sort Code: 09-01-28

Account No: 66308303

Account Name: North Cheshire Cruising Club Ltd.

and supersedes any previous club bank details you may have used. If you intend

to use this facility then please double check you have copied the above details

correctly and not made any mistakes.

Please use your boat name as reference for moorings and initials & surname for

membership.

If you do not wish to use online banking then payment by cheque is required for

all transactions above £50.

Please note: The club does not have the facility to accept card payments.

Garry Dockerty Chairman

at

on

at

Members are invited to come along and express and discuss their

opinions with the board members and each other

Boat For Sale

Jenny Wren

35 ft 2008 Trad Staffordshire narrowboat. 25 HP Isuzu engine, twin

alternators. Calorifier supplies hot water. Reverse layout, spinflow

cooker and 12v. fridge. 4 berth with two make up doubles. Thetford

cassette toilet + spare cassette. Full size shower and vanity basin. 240v.

landline. I starter and 3 liesure batteries. Solar panel to liesure

batteries, inverter fitted. LED lighting. Wooden flooring throughout,

cratch cover. Solid fuel burner in saloon. TV ariel fitted. Gas locker

houses two cylinders with switchover. Blacked and serviced January

2014. BSC to May 2017. Moored NCCC. £28,000 ono.

Please contact Jen or Bernie on 01925 764377 or see us on the

moorings.

Attention All Moorers in the Club Arm

Please not that it is one of the conditions of mooring in the arm (which

everybody signs) that you must purchase your ‘Canal & River Trust’ licence

through the club. Failure to do this is in breach of your mooring conditions and

will put your mooring in jeopardy. The club as you are aware are given a 5%

commission on these licences and therefore are losing revenue. The board has

decided that as it is a condition of mooring in the arm, that, the amount of lost

revenue will be recouped from the offending moorers and a bill will be issued for

the relevant amount i.e. 5% of your licence fee.

NB This only applies to moorers in the arm who have not bought their licence

through the club.

Pam Russell

Dog Owners

To all dog owners in the arm . PLEASE can you make sure that you cleanse up after your dog. Despite notices around the yard some people are still failing to do this . If this continues the board will have no option but to insist that all dogs be kept on a lead at all times. Thank you for your co operation in this matter. Pam.

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Help us keep our ducks healthy Every year over 6 million loaves of bread are thrown into our canals and rivers by well-intentioned people feeding the ducks. However, this bread isn't great for them or their habitats and so we’re asking you to swap the bread for healthy snacks and to exercise some portion control.

Our canals and rivers provide homes to hundreds of thousands of ducks and other waterfowl and it’s our job to safeguard them. Here are a few tips to help you feed the ducks in the right way. CART.

Archive Corner March 2015

Between 1963 and 1972 the tunnel tug ‘Worcester’ one of the most ‘iconic’ working craft

ever to grace the narrow canals was owned by former NCCC member Philip Murray

who lived in nearby Chinley. At this time, ‘Worcester’ was berthed in the wide stretch of

the Macclesfield Canal main line immediately outside the Club Arm. Currently she is an

exhibit within the Historic Boats section at the Ellesmere Port Boat Museum. I have

endeavoured to piece together what happened both before and after the time she was

based at High Lane.

Having been constructed in 1912 as a 45ft long by 6ft 6ins wide iron tunnel tug by

Abdela & Mitchell Limited of Queensferry on the River Dee, she was fitted with a 36HP

British Kromhout 2R01diesel engine which was built for Perman & Company at the

works of Plenty & Sons of Newbury. The cost in total was the princely sum of £766.

Though she was capable of towing a train of twelve boats totalling 400 Tons

displacement at a speed of 2 mph, the crew encountered difficulties with engine fumes,

whereupon attempts were made to improve the emissions, no doubt prompted by the

threat of legal action. In 1920 Perman & Company lost the contract to build Kromhout

engines, this perhaps being one of the reasons that in 1929 the original engine was

replaced by a 30HP Bollinder at a cost of £422.

Club Members’ on board ‘Worcester’ on the Bridgewater Canal in the 1960’s

Whilst the precise extent of her towage responsibilities are unclear, it would appear that

‘Worcester’ worked the summit level of the Worcester Birmingham Canal. Work boats

were horse drawn from Diglis Basin to the summit of Tardebigge Locks where

‘Worcester‘ took over as far as Kings Norton. Within this eight and a half mile length of

canal there are three tunnels, these being Tardebigge (580yd), Shortwood (630yd) and

Wast Hill (2726yd). She sported a black hull, a cream superstructure and a red oxide

roof until 1948 when the canals were nationalised and all their craft employed a

distinctive blue and yellow livery. In 1955 when all horse-drawn traffic on the Worcester

Birmingham canal ceased, she was employed as an ice-breaker until 1959 when it was

decided that she should be scrapped. Thankfully, a precision engineering company

based at Tardebigge Wharf decided to purchase her and she was retained by them for

little more than ice breaking duties until 1963 when Philip Murray acquired her and

moved her North. Though Philip used her as a pleasure craft for a few years, her deep

draught made for difficult cruising locally, especially on the Upper Peak Forest where

whilst attempting a passage South during one of the Marple Boat rallies he managed to

get no further than Brick Bridge. Sadly Philip suffered poor health during later life and

around 1972 following his passing, the executors of his estate presented ‘Worcester’ to

the Boat Museum. Since that time, thanks to the specialist museum staff, she has

undergone extensive restoration. Now resplendent in her original colours she has

represented the Boat Museum at events staged in Manchester, the Midlands,

Gloucester and Belgium.

The above model of ‘Worcester’ was crafted by Mr. Ronnie Taylor who served as the Marple Lock

keeper between 1982 and 1994, using hardwood (circa 1795) obtained from Swing Bridge No.1

located at Dukinfield on the Lower Peak Forest Canal

The model which is displayed in the NCCC club room offers a measure of the

admiration of ‘Worcester’ in the eyes of the waterways (then BW) staff. I suspect that

you may agree that she offers an excellent example of how elegance, clean lines and

utility may be embodied in vessel design, a trait which rather sadly is seldom found on

the working boats of today.

Whilst it could be argued that it was nothing short of ‘sacrilege’ that she was relegated

to an ice breaker role in her later working life, one can see that her curved stem would

ride above sheet ice allowing her forward mass to exert sufficient downward force to

shear the ice. This technique was employed by custom built powered ice breaker craft

which often incorporated a chamfered stem both above and below the waterline. An

example of a powered ice breaker from this era was the narrow boat ‘Shackleton’

owned and painstakingly converted for pleasure use by one of our honorary club

members, Mr. Gordon Briggs.

‘Jolly Boat’ type Ice Breaker featuring ‘sacrificial’ stem

The older ice breaker craft worked on the ‘Jolly Boat’ principle where a gang of men

rocked the boat in unison (laterally) as it was pulled along often by a gang of horses.

Though a laborious process, it was without doubt essential to keep the canals

operational throughout the Winter months. This is similar to the ice breaker which I

referred to in last month’s edition as being berthed in the warehouse at Marple Wharf,

thankfully now resident in a purpose built museum.

John Suggitt, ‘Evenlode’

23 Mar c h 201 5

7,500 recycled tyres create new

towpath in Northampton We have completed an eight-week project to resurface a stretch of towpath along the Grand Union Canal, Northampton Arm between East Hunsbury and Sixfields.

Grand Union Canal towpath in Northampton

The project involved removing the existing towpath surface and laying a mixture of recycled shredded tyres and gravel, bound with a clear resin, to create a smooth towpath surface for the thousands of people that visit the canal each year.

The work totalled £300,000 and was jointly funded by the Trust, Northamptonshire County Council and the Borough Council.

James Clifton, enterprise manager for the Canal & River Trust, said: “This is the last stretch of canal towpath to be resurfaced in the Borough and I’m really pleased with how good it looks. I hope local people notice the difference when they’re enjoying a nice stroll or bike ride. Using recycled tyres has also meant we’re doing our bit to protect our local environment and reduce the amount of waste being sent to landfill.”

Quick & easy hot-and-sour chicken noodle soup

Ingredients

140g dried wholewheat noodles

1 tbsp groundnut oil

2 tbsp grated ginger

1 medium red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

4 skinless, boneless chicken thighs, chopped into small chunks

1 tbsp Shaohsing rice wine

700ml hot vegetable stock

4 chestnut mushrooms, sliced

1 tsp dark soy sauce

2 tbsp light soy sauce

2 tbsp rice vinegar

1 tbsp cornflour mixed with 2 tbsp cold water to make a paste

1 handful beansprouts

2 spring onions, sliced

Method

Bring a small pan of water to the boil and cook the noodles following pack instructions. Drain, rinse under cold

running water to stop them cooking further, then drizzle over a little oil to prevent them sticking together. Divide

between 2 deep bowls.

Heat a wok over high heat and add the rest of the oil. When it starts to smoke, add the ginger and chilli, then stir-

fry for a few secs. Add the chicken and stir-fry for 2 mins. As the meat starts to turn brown, add the rice wine and

cook for 3 mins more. Add the vegetable stock, bring to a simmer, then add the mushrooms. Season with the dark

soy, light soy and rice vinegar.

Bring back to a simmer, then add the cornflour paste. Simmer and stir until thickened. Stir in the beansprouts and

most of the spring onions, then ladle the soup over the noodles. Serve immediately, scattered with the remaining

spring onions

NCCC Board of Directors 2014 / 2015

The Board

Chairman Garry Dockerty 01663 767810 chairman@nccc.uk.net

Company Secretary Pam Suggitt 0161 427 9906 secretary@nccc.uk.net

Finance Director Bill Jewsbury 07812 368887 finance@nccc.uk.net

Bar Director John Fenton 0161 998 0391 bar@nccc.uk.net

Land & Water Space Director

Eric Roberts 01457 855929 landandwater@nccc.uk.net

Membership Services Director

Pam Russell 0161 998 0391 membershipdir@nccc.uk.net

Premises Director Brian Bowker 01663 763595 premises@nccc.uk.net

Director without Portfolio Geoff Lamb 0161 483 7943 dwp@nccc.uk.net

Commodore

Edna Roberts 01457 855929 commodore@nccc.uk.net

Company Officials

Archivist John Suggitt 0161 427 9906 archivist@nccc.uk.net

Assn of Waterways Cruising Clubs Rep

John Suggitt 0161 427 9906 awcc@nccc.uk.net

Ditchcrawler Editor Bernie Budworth 01925 764377 dc@nccc.uk.net

Food Safety Officer Janet Tattersall 01457 861085 Foodsafety@nccc.uk.net

Fundraising Co-ordinator Sheila Barlow 01663 765731 fundraising@nccc.uk.net

Health & Safety Officer George Griffin 0161 355 6830 health@nccc.uk.net

Kitchen Supervisor Pam Russell 0161 998 0391 kitchen@nccc.uk.net

Licensing Agent Jen Budworth 01925 764377 licenses@nccc.uk.net

Membership Secretary Pam Suggitt 0161 427 9906 membership@nccc.uk.net

Moorings Officer Bob Barlow 01663 765731 moorings@nccc.uk.net

Quartermaster Vacant

Web Master Garry Dockerty 01663 767810 postmaster@nccc.uk.net

Wharf Supdt. Brian Bowker 01663 763595 wharf@nccc.uk.net