1st Harpenden Scouts come 2nd and 22nd in County Green Beret Competition
22nd November 2016
Dear Scouts and Parents,
It is with great pleasure and immense pride that I write a few lines about our recent Green Beret challenge weekend.
Green Beret is a County level scout competition with 155 teams entering this year.
After parents helping to pack the trailer on Friday afternoon the Scouts arrive to settle into camp, hot chocolate and ready themselves for the next day.
By 7:30am on a freezing cold crisp Saturday morning the whistle blows for their first challenge of the day - Assault Course.
They return to camp to warm by the fire, a quick bacon & eggs, then swiftly move on to their Day Bases.... the scouts choose from over 100 different challenges which they
complete as a team with 50 marks for grabs on each base. Their top ten scoring bases contribute to their overall score.
In the middle of the day they have an Orienteering challenge...a mix of skill, speed and timing.
Day bases finish at 5pm...time for a rest, more warming by the fire, a hot dinner, and swapping of stories and helpful tips.
With waterproofs donned and hot chocolate flasks despatched, the Scouts head off yet again for what would be a sopping wet evening completing Night Base challenges from 7pm to
11pm.
Sunday morning is another hot breakfast, striking camp, and presentations at the closing ceremony.
The cavalry arrive...Parent Help...to pack the trailer and we slip and slide across the muddy field and back to Harpenden to off load and dry out the tents (well, tents still
to be hung up actually!)
Our teams.....
GOLD - Ollie J (Captain), Max H, Arthur, James, Fraser, Jack
GREEN - Joban (Captain), Erin, Henry, Charlie, Ollie S, Ben W
I'd like to thank a few key individuals without whom we simply would not have been able to offer Green Beret to our Scouts this year.
This camp is not only tough for the scouts but for the adults and Explorer helpers too. Nigel Pearce and Andy Whiting worked tirelessly to cook, clean, washup, guide and support our scouts from Friday afternoon through to Sunday afternoon. Our Young Leaders Callum Haward and Max Wrentmore gave their all in wood and water collecting, moral boosting and fire-keeping. They are definitely invited back next year simply to re-create their comedic washing up routines. Please join me in thanking Andy and Nigel and Max and Callum.
Our organising leader for this event was non other than our own Group Scout Leader, Paul Bedding, who agreed to step in and run the whole event when the scout leaders were unable to guarantee their own availability. A huge shout-out for Paul. The simple truth is that without Paul, Andy, Nigel, Callum and Max this camp would not have gone ahead at all, so
again, many many thanks to them all.
I'd also like to thank the parents who helped with packing and unpacking the trailer, and special mention to Guy Haward who towed our trailer to and from camp...thank you Guy
!
Our Green Team achievements...
Overall place 22 out of 155...Well Done as for most of the team it was your first (and hopefully not your last !) Green Beret.
Came 14th in the Assault Course and 17th in the Orienteering (higher than our Gold team), and yes this is out of 155 teams !
Huge effort in the Night Bases...completing 11 bases in the wet, wind and cold.
As the weather got worse and worse we were quite surprised and extremely proud of how long our Green team battled into the night.
And our Gold team...
Completing 24 Day Bases and 12 Night Bases...36 bases altogether !!
In the Day Bases coming 10th. Coming 3rd in the Assault Course and Winning the Night Bases Silver Cup !!!
The leaders running the night bases gave up before our scouts, and our Gold team ran out of bases to complete !
Overall result...2nd place and the Runners-Up shield.
And for achieving the highest place in the District we retained the District Trophy.
This is a huge achievement and very special for the 1st Harpenden.
All our team members and adult helpers should feel very proud of what has been achieved...last year our Gold team achieved 3rd place and the District Trophy, so to come back
with even more silverwear is such a bonus on top of the fun and experience had by all.
Photos on our Group website: http://www.1stharpendenscouts.
Russell Brooks, our District Commissioner, and Rikki Harrington, of GangShow fame and previous Herts Scouts County Commissioner, have kindly agreed to make a special visit to
our Hut to present the Green Beret badges, Night Bases Cup, Runners Up Shield and District Trophy to our Green Beret teams Thursday 24th November at 8:45pm.
If you would like to join your scout at the presentation, please arrive at the Hut for 8:40pm.
See you all on Thursday,
Yours in Scouting
Andy Wrentmore
PS....We are selling Bistro tickets NOW for our evening of Food, Fun and Games on Friday December 9th
