2002 Explorer’s Cub Badge – Runways End

Posted on November 30, 2002 by DJF

On the last weekend in November we took 21 Cubs and 11 Scouts to the Scout Activity Centre at Runway’s End near Farnborough.

The purpose of the weekend was to complete the Cub Explorer Badge (or Adventure badge as it is called in the new programme that we are starting in January). It was quite wet at times and the Cubs certainly went home with some very muddy clothes!

Akela had his little digital camera and took a lot of pictures which may give you a feel for some of the activities that we did.

One of the tasks in the badge is to build a shelter. We divided the Cubs into teams and gave each team a couple of Scouts to assist them.
When the shelter was built the whole team had to get inside while Bagheera checked for waterproofing by pouring water onto it.

On Sunday we did the final part of the badge. This is a 5km (3 mile) hike. The site at Runway’s End is very close to the Basingstoke Canal so we set off down there.

We all had a good, if tiring and rather soggy weekend. Special thanks go to Raksha for organising the weekend. We also need to thank the other leaders and helpers as could not have managed without them.

District Swimming Gala 2002

Posted on November 2, 2002 by admin

The District Swimming Gala took place on Saturday 2 November. Once again the District is grateful to the Licensed Victuallers School on London Road for allowing us to use their pool for the afternoon.

Unfortunately, we did not have much of a response for this District event so on the day the team was made up of just 4 Cubs – Matthew Molyneux, Ben Molyneux, Robert Morgan and Jonathan Dye. Special thanks to Jonathan who came along to the event after sitting an exam in Slough.

As usual the event was split into 2 age groups with the under 9½ races taking place first. However, this year there were additional races so that some started in the water while others had a diving start. This addressed criticism from previous years where it was suggested that those people who could dive were at an advantage. Diving was still not allowed on the width races as these took place in the shallow end of the pool.

As usual any one competitor was limited to a maximum of two pointed events plus the relay.

Under 9½ year olds

Because Matthew was our only swimmer under 9½ we were not able to enter all the races in this age group.

1 Width freestyle (crawl – start in water)	-
1 Length freestyle (crawl – diving start)	Matthew Molyneux (came 2nd)
1 Width breaststroke (start in water)	-
1 Length breaststroke (diving start)	-
1 Width backstroke	Matthew Molyneux (came 3rd)

Open

1 Length freestyle (crawl – start in water)	Ben Molyneux (came 5th)
1 Length freestyle (crawl – diving start)	Jonathan Dye (came 6th)
1 Length breaststroke (start in water)	Robert Morgan (came 5th)
1 Length breaststroke (diving start)	Ben Molyneux (came 3rd)
1 Length backstroke	Jonathan Dye (came 1st)
1 Width butterfly (no points for this event)	-
The Plunge (Cub dives in, makes no stroke and glides as far as he can)	Robert Morgan (came 4th)

The Relay

1 Length backstroke	Jonathan Dye
1 Length freestyle (under 9½)	Matthew Molyneux
1 Length breaststroke	Robert Morgan
1 Length freestyle	Ben Molyneux

Our relay team came 3rd.

In addition there were two MEDLEY events which are not pointed for the Palmer Shield but are for individual winners medals for the fastest times.

Under 9½ Medley consists of 1 width backstroke, 1 width breaststroke and 1 width freestyle swum consecutively. Matthew Molyneux entered this event and came 1st.
The Open Medley consists of 1 length freestyle, 1 length backstroke, 1 length breaststroke and 1 length freestyle swum consecutively. Robert Morgan and Ben Molyneux entered the heats for this event. Robert was 4th in his heat while Ben came 3rd overall. Places were decided between the two heats based on individual times.

Palmer Shield
The points from the events excluding the Medley and Butterfly are all added up and the winning team takes home the Palmer Shield. The positions and points this year were as follows.

Place	Team	Points
1st	1st Sunningdale	60
2nd	1st Binfield Seonee	58
3rd	1st Ascot (All Saints)	40
4th	1st Binfield Wolves W	31
5th	2nd Bracknell Stags	30
6th	1st Binfield Wolves X	25
7th	7th Bracknell	25

Very well done to all those who took part. It is very disappointing that we couldn’t find some other people to take part in this event as if we had entered more races we would have undoutably improved our score.

District Cub Camp 2002

Posted on July 16, 2002 by DJF

District Camp took place on 12-15 July. We took 8 Wolves and 9 Stags and hopefully all of them had a good time. Certainly the change in the weather came along at just the right moment. By the end of the weekend we were nicely toasted.

Because space on the site was a bit tight our tents were much closer than usual. In addition to the normal leaders – Akela, Bagheera and Raksha – we drafted in reinforcements with Rikki and Baloo also being joined by the Venture Scouts (Neil and Rhys). We also had help from Nathaniel and David – our Scouts that are going to the Jamboree in Thailand.

The camp was themed on the Golden Jubilee and Commonwealth. Each of the packs came as a different country. In addition to national dress they had to run a base based on the country as part of the Commonwealth Market. This took place straight after the opening ceremony.

Also during the morning the Cubs were given the chance to do either rifle shooting or climbing.

On Saturday afternoon we had the Commonwealth Games. It started with the parade of the flags with everybody in national dress. The Cubs were then split into groups and challenged to various activities such as throwing balls into buckets, a football slalom and a water carrying game. By the time it got to the finals things were getting quite exciting. The sack race final included two Canadians and it was almost a photo finish in the skipping race. The Canadian team earned the most medals – although none of them were gold.

After the medal ceremony it was time for tea. The organisers of the camp decided that it would be nice to have a group banquet with everybody sitting together. This made it easy for the leaders as they didn’t have to cook – the catering was done centrally by Margaret Kemp and her team. Cooking for such a large number wasn’t easy. We had chicken nuggets, roast potatoes and sweetcorn to keep the golden theme going. This was followed by apple crumble and custard.

On Sunday morning there was time for a Cubs Own church service before everybody headed to the 999 Day on the other field. This gave the other leaders the chance to get the tents down and packed away without having the cubs hanging about. It was very hot on the field and even the Venture Scouts needed to take a break sometimes.

All too soon the camp was drawing to a close and it was time for thank yous and awards at the closing ceremony. As usual, Bernice was in charge of proceedings with our leaders looking on and the Cubs waiting patiently for things to start. Before we could finish we needed to select somebody to do the Grand Howl and flag down. We chose Robert to lead the Grand Howl as this was his last activity as a Cub. After the Grand Howl we asked Ryan to lower the flag. Suddenly it was all over and after some last minute words from Raksha is was time to go home.

See our photo gallery for all the pictures.

Thanks to David Ferrington and Mr Wellington for some of the pictures used on this page We’d also like to thank Scouts Canada for all the badges and resources they sent us and the Canadian High Commission for the loan of the flag which flew so proudly over our site.

District 6-a-side football competition 2002

Posted on June 24, 2002 by admin

The popular District 6-a-side football competition took place on Sunday 23 June 2002 at Binfield Football Club. Both Stags and Wolves entered a team. Unfortunately many of the Wolves in the team failed to turn up on the day and so their team was assisted by 2 from Stags.

The Stags team consisted of Robert Wellington (Captain), Richard Seal, Craig Lock, Oliver Rhodes, Daniel Moynehan, Francis Albery, Matthew Molyneux and Ben Molyneux. Jonathan Dye and Christopher Seal from Stags played for Wolves due to their player shortage.

Thanks to Mr Wellington we have a rare team picture including Akela - who normally hides behind the camera!

Before they could start to play the team had to warm up.

The Qualifying Rounds
Wolves were put in League 1 with 1st Ascot A (who failed to field a team), 1st Binfield Wolves A, 1st Binfield Seeonee B and 1st South Ascot B. They won all their matches and went through to the semi-final as the winners of league 1. Stags were put in League 2 with 1st Sunningdale B (who failed to field a team), 6th Bracknell, 1st Binfield Seeonee A and 1st Ascot (All Saints) B. They first played 6th Bracknell although this was in lieu of Sunningdale. Stags won convincingly 9-0. The next match was against Seeonee A who proved to be good opponents. Stags lost 3-1. Then it was 6th Bracknell again with another 9-0 win for the Stags. Finally they played Ascot and won 4-2. The winners of league 2 were Seeonee A but with 3 wins behind them and a good goal difference, the Stags won the ‘best of the rest’ place.

We have some action shots from the Stags games:

A 6th Bracknell goalie stops it becoming 10-0.

Francis waits in our goal for the ball to come his way.

Our turn to take a goal kick

The other team take a corner

Richard kicks the ball back down the pitch

The Semi-Finals
Both 2nd Bracknell teams made it to the semi-finals. Wolves played 1st South Ascot A – the winners of league 3. The result was a 0-3 win to South Ascot.
Stags were up against Binfield Seeonee A – the only team to beat them in the qualifying rounds. The result was another win to Binfield with a 0-3 score.

The Finals
With both the 2nd Bracknell teams knocked out, the final was between 1st South Ascot A and 1st Binfield Seeonee A. The result was a 3-0 win for 1st Binfield. We got our certificates from the District Commissioner

and posed in the goal for one last picture.

Thank you to all the Cubs and parents who supported this event. The referee team made a point of complimenting the crowds on their good behaviour.

District Father & Son Camp – Space 2001

Posted on September 19, 2001 by DJF

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.