A FILM about the Wyeside Otter Hole cave system has come third out of 19 films entered in a prestigious Italian caving film festival.

The top placing is all the more creditable because the first and second entries in the first Speleo Movie WebFestival were taken by Italian films which had enormous local online voting support.

Otter Hole Cave, about the return earlier this year of one of the cave system's first explorers, Dave Parker, to the cavens under Chepstow racecourse, was made by Paul Taylor and Redhouse Productions. It had its first viewing at Cinderford's Palace Cinema in October.

It showed not only Dave Parker's return to the caves but his first sight of new galleries opened since he was last there in 1984.

The festival, organised by the Napoli Underground website, was won by Grotta delle Colonne d'Ercole (The Cave of Hercules) produced in Milan, and Underground Rome took second place.