Charity football match for Tadcaster boy who died in cave flood

The siblings of a boy who died while caving on a school trip in the Yorkshire Dales have said they visited the underground system site to get “closure” after his death.

Joe Lister, a pupil at Tadcaster Grammar School, was 14 when he became trapped by rising water at Manchester Hole in Upper Nidderdale on 7 November 2005.

His sister Laura Steelyard said: “Going there you don’t want to imagine what it would have been like for the other school children.”

Laura and brother Ben Lister have organised a charity football match at Tadcaster Grammar School on Saturday afternoon to raise money for the Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association, which helped Joe and supported the family afterwards.

Ben said: “Joe loved football, he was really well into it. He played all the time.

“So, it’s a good way to get all of his old teammates and school friends back together again while making sure we raise money for the Fell Rescue at the same time.”

Joe, from Steeton near Tadcaster, was on the first day of a week-long visit to Bewerley Park Outdoor Centre when the group he was potholing with got caught in rapidly rising flood water.

He was trying to make his way along a passage known as the Crawl with the other pupils and three adults when he got into difficulty.

Joe, who would now be 34, was later found by a rescuer with his head torch still on but minus his Wellington boots.

North Yorkshire Council was found not guilty of breaching health and safety laws over Joe’s death.

Ben said the visit down the cave was “quite an experience”.

“It was something I had to do. I went down with a friend, which was nice. Just to see where it had all taken place gave me closure,” he added.

Laura said: “It can’t have been an experience that they don’t remember now, and I’m sure it plays on their minds in the way it does ours.”

Laura said Joe was “lots of fun all the time”.

“He was a typical brother, caused trouble, silly, enjoyed his football,” she said.

She added the family had decided to raise money for Upper Wharfedale Fell Rescue Association because its volunteers has been so supportive after his death.

She said: “They helped on the day but even after that they were really supportive of all of us as a family and they took us down the cave to help us as the years went on, and the court cases played out and all of that.

“As a volunteer organisation you can’t speak highly enough of them.”