Hidden Earth
National Caving Conference

EK Tratman Award (Awarded by GPF)

The Tratman Award is presented annually by the Ghar Parau Foundation, a charity associated with BCRA.

Rules

This is a summary of the rules. A more detailed discourse can be found here.

The Tratman Award was set up in memory of Prof. E.K. Tratman using surplus money from the 7th International Congress of Speleology, held in Sheffield in 1977, Tratman having been president of the congress.
The Tratman Award is presented annually to the person that makes the best contribution to British speleology in print. This can be in the form of an article, report or book. For literature to be eligible it must have been published by BCRA, be submitted to one of the judges via BCRA or the Ghar Parau Foundation Committee, or be brought to the attention of one of the judges.
Judging is on the basis of 'clarity of expression, interest value, quality of presentation, availability and the information nature of the contents.' The aim is to encourage improved standards of writing and publication.
The prize was initially set at £25, being raised to £50 for the 1990 award. The rules of the award were published in Caves & Caving (5) and Descent (44); these notes are taken from those rules. Initially stating that multi-authored journals were ineligible (as the prize was to be given to an author for a specific publication), the rules were modified in 1990 so that multi-author publications would then be eligible (see Descent 100)

Previous Winners

Also see Reports of past events

1979 Stephen Worthington: Sheffield USS Expedition to the Tymphe Mountains, Greece (SUSS Journal)
1980 Martyn Farr: The Darkness Beckons (1st edn)
1981 Charlie Self (ed): Caves of County Clare
1982 Juan Corrin (ed): Caves and Caving
1983 Ben Lyon: Venturing Underground
1984 David Judson (ed): Caving Practice and Equipment
1985 Rob Palmer: The Blue Holes of the Bahamas
1986 Ray Mansfield: Current Titles in Speleology
1987 David Rose & Richard Gregson: Beneath the Mountains
1988: No award *
1989 Howard Limbert (ed): The Caver, the Northern CC journal
1990 ULSA: Explorations Journal II
1991 Martyn Farr: The Darkness Beckons (2nd edn)
1992 Queen Mary College Speleo Expedition: Below Belize expedition report
1993 David Gibson (ed): Cave Radio & Electronics Group Journal
1994 Yorkshire Subterranean Society: YSS 3 journal
1995 Paul Monico: Northern Sump Index
1996 Kym Price and Paul Peppiatt (eds): Underground Photographer
1997 Chris Howes: Images Below
1998 & 1999: No Award
2000 Trevor Shaw: Foreign Travellers in the Slovene Karst 1537 - 1900.
2001 Pamela & Tim Fogg: Beneath our Feet - the Caves and Limestone Scenery of the North of Ireland
2002 David Yeandle: The Adventures of Another Pooh
2003: Calendar adjustment: The awards listed above, were announced in the year following the date of the award (e.g. the award for a publication in 2002 was announced in 2003). The dates given below refer to the year of the announcement (e.g. the 2005 award to John Gunn refers to a publication in 2004).
2004 Jerry Gibbs and Rick Stewart: Moorland Caver
2005 John Gunn: Encyclopedia of Caves and Karst Science
2006 - no award: For 2006, GPF decided to postpone the award of this prize, whilst the scope and re-definition of the award was still being discussed.
2007: The GPF has not made any report to this office regarding the 2007 award for a book published in 2006
2008: The GPF has not made any report to this office regarding the 2008 award for a book published in 2007

* For 1988 the statement was issued that the Ghar Parau Foundation committee 'agreed that no book or article came to, or had been brought to the attention of the Committee, for which it was felt that an award could be made.'

Commended Publications

On occasion additional publications have been credited as 'runners up' as they were noted to have special merit while they did not win that year's award.

1982: i) Pozu del Xitu expedition report in OUCC Proceedings. ii) Phil Chapman for his cave biology articles in Caves and Caving
1984: Howard Beck for History of Gaping Gill
1991: i) OUCC Proceedings (13). ii) 'A History of the WSG 1950-1990' by Duncan Minty in WSG Bulletin Vol 9 (6). iii) The Descent Index issues (1)--(100) by Chris Howes
1992: i) An Exploration Journal of Llangattwg Mountain by Chelsea SS. ii) Richard Witcombe's Who was Aveline Anyway? iii) International Caver, edited by Tim Stratford
1995: i) 'Long term quaternary uplift rates inferred from limestone caves in Sarawak, Malaysia'; a paper by Andy Farrant, Pete Smart, Fiona Whitaker and Donald Tarling in Geology Vol 23 (2). ii) Irish Speleology (15)
1997: i) Slovenia Cave Guide by Ian Bishop. ii) The Caves of Fermanagh and Cavan, by Gaby Jones, Tim Fogg and John Kelly