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RIP Scoff

Badlad

Administrator
Staff member
Just heard the sad news in the pub tonight.  Great bloke, funny, colourful - and that was just the sweater. 

RIP
 

Badlad

Administrator
Staff member
wl


CDG chairman, Scoff (on the left) and Geoff Yeadon, president (on the right)  Thanks for the photo Christine.
 

jonnyrocketboots

New member
No way, I'm gutted. Caving aside, such a friendly lad  to know..I really don't know what to say but I want to say something.

Just wish you tight ropes Scoff, I'll never forget our chats at HE or wherever our paths crossed.
Sweet dreams you legend.
 

Badlad

Administrator
Staff member
Fulk said:
Badlad ? RIP Scoff . . . what on earth?

Sorry Fulk, but Scoff, Brian Schofield, has passed away.  Lovely bloke and a bit of a legend. 
 

badger

Active member
my abiding memory will HE lectures, saw Scoffs name by the side of one and you new it would be good.
very sad RIP
 

DaveR

New member
Scoff's funeral will be at 3pm on Friday 25th August, Rawdon Crematorium, Leeds Rd, Rawdon, Leeds LS19 6JP.

There will be a wake, I'll pass on details once that's organised.

Dave
 

nickwilliams

Well-known member
A huge loss.

I will unfortunately be unable to attend the funeral. If there is a collection please can someone pass on details so I can make a contribution.
 

DaveR

New member
Further to Scoff's funeral on Friday 25th August, 3pm at Rawdon Crematorium; there will be a wake afterwards; all are welcome.

Guiseley Factory Workers Club
6 Town St, Guiseley, Leeds LS20 9DT

Around 4 pm onwards.

Parking may be tight, but there is parking around the corner at Aireborough Leisure Centre. The Green, Guiseley LS20 9BT (think it's free)

You can get a train to Shipley, then a connection to Guiseley Station which is 5 mins walk away. Timetable 39, Leeds Metro
 

kay

Well-known member
DaveR said:
You can get a train to Shipley, then a connection to Guiseley Station which is 5 mins walk away. Timetable 39, Leeds Metro

You can also get a train from Leeds direct  to Guiseley.
 

Pitlamp

Well-known member
The Cave Diving Group Newsletter for January 2018 will contain a comprehensive tribute to Scoff's life. (He was CDG Chairman for a decade of course, until April 2007).
 

rhychydwr1

Active member
Descent (260) Feb/Mar 2018  p 34-36 Bumbling in the Dark.  ?Brian `Scoff? Schofield was a legend in the caving and cave diving community, well known for his keen sense of humour.  Some of his closest friends here pay tribute to a life spent devoted to caves.?.
 

Benfool

Active member
In the Daily Mail :)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5511833/The-father-battled-brain-tumour-achieve-dream-family.html
 

irnbru

Member
Hi All,

Some of you may know of Scoff (former chairman of the CDG) he very sadly passed away last year and many a note was written about him in the last CDG newsletter.

There was a nice piece written and included in the Daily Mail - a link to which can be found here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5511833/The-father-battled-brain-tumour-achieve-dream-family.html

I'll write my own note to him on here in due course.
 

Ian Ball

Well-known member
Intrepid friend with genius for invention

My pal 'Scoff'
by David Haigh

"Scoff and I met 30 years ago. He was wearing a big smile, wooden clogs, a rather garish hand-knitted green and yellow sweater and a matching pompom hat.

He?d knitted them himself ? he said it helped to pass the time during undercover operations as part of his job for HM Customs and Excise.

He worked with a team from the National Crime Agency, tracking down national and international drug smugglers, often disguised as a tramp. But he was far too modest and discreet to talk about all that. So I got to know him as a kind, wise, brave, generous and very funny friend during many happy years at the Bradford Pothole Club.

He was an expert caver and hugely respected member of the club, spending any weekend he could in the Yorkshire Dales with his caving friends and his incredibly supportive wife of 30 years.

As well as caving, he embraced cave diving ? a dangerous branch of the sport which involves exploring flooded underground passages in caves. It?s not a hobby for the faint-hearted but Scoff loved it and became chairman of the British Cave Diving Group.

He was a gifted musician, playing keyboard in a blues band that performed in pubs and clubs, he had several of his innovative caving maps published and was a popular after-dinner speaker.

But it was his inventiveness that really set him apart. Using old plumbing parts, he designed several pieces of cave diving equipment that are now standard kit worldwide and created his own mountain tents and eclectic outdoor clothing using just his old sewing machine and swathes of nylon and Gore-Tex.

In 1997, during an international diving project in the Doux de Coly, a huge clear water cave in the Dordogne, he made his own electric underwater scooter (to ferry heavy diving equipment) out of odd bits of old lavatory plumbing and christened it the Bog O?Zepp. Later that year at Buckingham Palace, HRH the Duke of Edinburgh honoured him and six other divers for their part in the project.

It was in 2016, on his return from a diving trip in Spain, that his wife noticed his skin had developed a yellowy tinge. Doctors diagnosed him with terminal liver cancer and told him he had months, rather than years. As he couldn?t go caving or cave diving any more, he took up kayaking, spent time wild camping, hiking, biking and wrote a book."

Bryan ?Scoff? Schofield, born January 13, 1956, died August 12, 2017, aged 61.
 

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Pitlamp

Well-known member
Ian Ball said:
Joe Duxbury said:
Ian Ball said:
"Scoff ... wrote a book."

Would you tell us what it's called and when it's likely to be published?

A question for David Haigh, I would say.

Just to update this topic, with information now available elsewhere on this forum (and for completeness):

https://ukcaving.com/board/index.php?topic=24978.0
 
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