Beavers | 2nd Bracknell Scout Group

This event, which is held every 2 years, took place at Ascot Racecourse on Saturday 18 May. We had almost 50 Beavers, parents and leaders and everybody seemed to have a good time. Don’t forget that the badge from the fun day may be worn on your uniform – it goes just above the purple world membership badge and may be worn until the end of the year.

The day started a little bit dull and damp but that didn’t affect the Beavers who were waiting paiently in the stands for the day to begin. Eventually there was the sound of music and the Bournemouth Carnival Band appeared – all dressed as Batman! (They have their own website if you would like to know more about them.) There was even a Batman on a scooter. The band was lead by the Penguin. After the opening ceremony the Beavers were allowed to go off and explore the site in their groups. So much to see and so little time. There were loads of bouncy castles of all shapes and sizes including a big bouncy jungle and a haunted house. Although there were queues at some of the attractions they seemed to move quickly and other things had no queue at all. The two Matthew’s must have had 10 goes on the bouncy slide before they moved on to other things. One of the more unusual activities was caving. Kingfisher managed to catch Akela waiting with the Beavers. When it was time to go in you had to wear a hard hat with a light on it. After exploring the cave system Matthew burst back out into the fresh air - a little muddier than when he went in!

After what seemed like no time at all the hooter sounded for lunch and it was back to the stands again. While we were eating we were again entertained by the band who were this time joined by Spiderman.

After lunch it was back to the activities again. The Scouts who are going to the Jamboree in Thailand were running an obstacle course. We sent Jonathan to test it out first before letting the Beavers have a go.

Even though there were loads of people about we still managed to bump into other Beavers from our group. In addition to Beavers there were also dragons about. This one seemed fairly friendly – at least there were no reports of anybody being eaten.

During the afternoon we were also joined by the Berkshire Air Ambulance which flew in for a brief visit.

As well as face painting, one of the tents was providing tattoos which were painted on by a clown. Although there was a whole range including flowers and butterflies it seemed that the fierce snake was more popular.

Another popular activity was the swing boats.

After all those activities it was time for a drink and a bit of a sit down. It gave us the chance to have a look at the face painting on some of the other Beavers. The group from 2nd Easthampstead looked very scary.

All too soon it was time to go home and we joined the weary but happy Beavers making their way to the exit.

Thanks to Kingfisher (Michelle Dye) for providing the photographs and to all the parents that came on the day – we hope that you had an enjoyable day.

The 34th annual Father and Son camp took place from Friday 14 until Sunday 16 September. It was held at Earleywood Camp Site in South Ascot. The theme this year was ’2001 A Space Oddesey’. Thanks to Michelle Dye we are now able to publish pictures of the event.

This year 2nd Bracknell was by far the biggest group at the camp. We had over 80 campers. However, with the tents spread out under the trees it didn’t look that many. It looks lovely with the sun shining through the trees but it was quite chilly at night.

Catering for 80 people when you have no refrigeration facilities or running water and your cooking is limited to 4 gas burners is no mean feat. Unlike other groups which made the parents cater for themselves we decided to call in our Summer Camp caterers – the SMICCTSO team. Although they didn’t stay overnight they were there in time to cook the bacon rolls for breakfast. Once the rush had died down even Akela couldn’t manage another bacon roll. He was helping out the SMICCTSO team – note his ‘trainee’ badge on his very smart SMICCTSO T-shirt.

One of the tasks put onto the caterers was the preparation of a theme meal which is judged as part of the ongoing competition. June and Lesley from the SMICCTSO team had done their homework here and had watched the appropriate section of the Space 2001 film to see what they ate. The result was quite a work of art, although some of the 12 lucky people who had to eat it didn’t seem quite so sure.

Of course there was more to the camp than just food. One of the keenly fought competitions was go-karting. Although the Cubs seemed to fit into the go-karts nicely it was a bit different when the parents had a go and almost disaster whenone took the corner too fast.

Another event involved flying saucers. There was also an ongoing task to make various space themed objects from everyday materials although insparation seemed to have left some of the people gathered around the craft table.