Various people emphasised that there was little or no role for a leader on the earlier expeditions. Dave Brindle summarised the first decade of expeditions: "there was the first group who went to Austria in the late '70s. Almost the same people every year for a few years, the people that later formed the nucleus of EXCS. So they all knew each other, they had caved a lot together in England, and worked easily together, Then they stopped going when they left Cambridge, and a new group (the one I was in) started going. During 1980 to 1983 that new group was again stable; we knew each other well, so again, working together was easy. We had done a lot of hard caving together in Yorkshire. Then we all stopped going to Austria, and a new wave went from 1984 onwards. At that time, once you left Cambridge, it was more difficult to maintain contact with CUCC, or to stay involved with the planning for Austria, hence the tendency to stop going".
Phil Townsend said "I'm not sure if we had a leader on either 81 or 82. Decisions on what to do were collective, and fairly haphazard", whilst Pete Lancaster said "In our day the leader was someone still at Cambridge, but obviously whoever was technically nominated as leader made no difference in Austria!".
In the list below, Leader, age, Co-Leader, age of co-leader, notes. Download as spreadsheet: leaders.csv
2024 Jonathon Lester 27 2023 Sarah Parker 27 Nadia Raeburn-Cherradi 28 2022 Nathanael Dalton 27 2021 Lyds Leather 23 Mike Butcher 29 – no Austria expo due to COVID but there was a small trip to N Ireland that Mike organised 2020 NO EXPO DUE TO COVID but Lyds Leather and Mike Butcher were the leaders during the planning phase until the Expo was cancelled NA NA 2019 Crossley 20 2018 Ruairidh McLeod 19 Haydon Saunders 25 2017 Elaine Oliver 27 2016 David Walker 22 – co-opted at a late stage when Matt decided not to come Matthew Watson 37 2015 Matthew Watson 36 2014 Matthew Watson 35 2013 Alex Crow 25 2012 Serena Povia 31 First woman leader (at least back to 1989 – probably ever) and first leader in their 30s 2011 Christopher Smith early 20s First non-CUCC Expo leader 2010 Martin Jahnke early 20s 2009 Edvin Deadman 25 2008 Oliver Stevens early 20s 2007 Aaron Curtis 20 2006 Mark Shinwell 26 2005 Stuart Bennett early 20s 2004 Oliver Madge early 20s 2003 David Loeffler early 20s 2002 Steve Bishop early 20s 2001 Martin Green 22 2000 Mark Shinwell 20 1999 Paul Hammond (GPF form) or Andrew Ketley (from CUCC email Olly found) early 20s 1998 Tim Vasby-Burnie 19 or 20 (first year) 1997 Julian Haines 26 1996 Julian Haines 25 1995 Steve Bellhouse 21 1994 Nicholas Proctor 21ish – but got glandular fever a month before Expo started so from then there was an Expo committee (Anthony Day, Pete Lord, Ali Morris, Mike Pigram) 1993 Wookey 20s 1992 Olly Betts 21 1991 Tony Rooke 26 1990 Wookey early 20s Last year with online GPF application which was used to specify the Expo leader unless anyone remembered a different leader (true in quite a few cases) – earlier years leaders are inferred based on CUCC Journal reports unless I had info to the contrary 1989 Mark Dougherty 22 1988 Keith Millar 20s 1987 Mike Richardson 20s 1986 NO EXPO NA NA 1985 Mike Martin – main report and Descent article 20s - not clear who, if anyone was leader 1984 Mike Richardson main report – Pete Lancaster wrote Caves and Caving 20s - not clear who, if anyone was leader 1983 Dave Brindle 23 1982 Pete Lancaster 22 1981 Tim Parker 24 approx 1980 Nick Thorne – Descent article; Julian Griffiths and Steve Perry both wrote UBSS articles 22 - not clear who, if anyone was leader 1979 Nick Thorne – Descent article & Andy Waddington – wrote Caves and Caving 21 - not clear who, if anyone was leader 1978 Nick Thorne – Descent article & Andy Waddington – wrote Caves and Caving 20 - not clear who, if anyone was leader 1977 Jont Leach as organiser as he was the only German speaker 24 - not clear who, if anyone was leader 1976 No leader? Initial recce trip NA