Midlands divers have an ice time

Two groups gathered at Eccleston Delph inland site near Chorley, Lancashire, in deep-frozen conditions but brilliant sunshine. The five-acre lake was covered with ice some 10cm thick.

One pair, Simon Mason and Matt McCairn from TSUBA Underwater Adventures, broke through the ice at a shore steps entry point.

Backed up by shore cover and rope handlers Tony and Eileen Bithell, they enjoyed a 20-minute dive with a difference, the ice above them illuminated by the bright daylight.

“The water temperature was between 0 and 4 degrees, and viz 15 to 20 metres,” Tony Bithell told Divernet. “There were lots of large trout, perch and roach, all in a semi-comatose state due to the cold!”

Mason and McCairn reportedly climbed out “with beaming smiles”.

The other group of four people moved out a short distance from the shore for their entry. One diver, Stewart Tattersall of Chester's Dee Sports, used an axe to chop a triangular-shaped aperture.

Tattersall and two other divers, Julia Hipkiss and Andy Waterfield, then enjoyed their own special 20-minute foray, tended by rope man Ray O’Grady.

It had, said Bithell, been “very cold” but “a perfect day for ice diving”.

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Eccleston Delph