We are the Champions!!!

Sunday 6 October saw the annual District Football Competition and as the reigning champions of both the Cub and the scout competitions we were all particularly keen to defend our trophies.

With our two teams picked and raring to go the matches got under way. Over the course of many matches in the group stage throughout the afternoon both the Cubs and the Scouts were unbeaten. As the group games finished we were left nervously wondering if we had done enough to make the semi finals. We needn't have worried. Both the Cubs and Scouts made their respective semi finals.

Henry Raynes 'battles' for the ball....

The Scouts were up first in their semi final. This was men against boys! Literally! As our team of eleven year old scouts fought valiantly against a team of 25 year olds (well they looked like 25 year olds!!!). Unfortunately they lost by a single goal. So nursing their wounds, the Scouts prepared to cheer on the Cubs in their semi final. And they won! 2-0! So the Cubs were through to the final for the thrid year in succession.

Our keeper, Amy Tapper, surveys the scene in front of her...

But who were we to face in the final? Only our old rivals from up the road - 7th (St Johns) - who we had drawn 0-0 with in our opening match. So putting their nerves aside the maatch got underway. Our cubs quickly gained a 1-0 lead. But as the clock was ticking down the final seconds... DISASTER! 7th scored! And this was how the game stayed until the final whistle. So now it would be down to the dreaded lottery of penalties.

And neither team could be split on the penalties as all members of each team took a penalty - and it finished 4-4. Tense? Nerve wracking? You bet! So now it was a sudden death penalty shoot out...

Up first for 224 - Jack Edmonds.... shoots! scores!
Next up was 7th.... Amy Tapper in goal for 224 stand nervelessly awaiting the penalty kick.... 7th shoots! SAVED!!!!
Amy Tapper saves the penalty and 224 Cubs are victorious for the third year in a row!!! 

Cue many celebrations amongst the teams and the parents who had come along to help or support.

So the cubs were champions again whilst the Scouts unfortunately just missed out. But what was most pleasing was the sportsmanship shown by our teams who never failed to shake hands with the opposition and the referee.

Well done to you all.

Our two teams - Cubs in white, Scouts in Orange

Cub Team: Amy Tapper; Jacob Chalmers; Jack Edmonds; Joseph Taylor; Luke Mackey; Sam Whitehead; Elliott Aitken-Clarke.

Scout Team: Spencer Bowker; Ben Smith; Zack Smith; Kyle Bickerton; Thomas Reeves; Henry Raynes; Joe Dobson; Aaron Collins.

Particular thanks to our coach - Darren Bowker and his assistant Kevin Smith.


Phil
Assistant Cub Leader

 

A Guiding Star!

On Thursday 26th September, the cubs were visited by an honoured set of guests - Katherine and her guide dog, Bea.

In order to give the cubs an insight into the life of a blind person and their guide dog we invited Katherine to come along and tell us all about it. Along with her helper Caroline, Katherine brought her very special canine friend and assistant Bea. 

With all the cubs sat in readiness on the floor, Katherine went on to explain her blindness and how Bea makes her life so much easier, including how Bea has possibly saved her life on a number of occasions!

The talk was scheduled to last about 30 minutes. But thanks to the cubs countless questions and obvious interest in Bea the talk went on for about an hour! It went on so long that the cubs had no time for any games that evening - and they did not even seem bothered.

As a thank you to Katherine and Bea for coming along to speak to us, the cubs subs were added to a donation from the group and £50 was given to Katherine to raise funds for more Guide Dogs. 

Our letter of praise from Katherine!

On the night, Carl and myself were very pleased with the behaviour and atiitude of the cubs towards Katherine and Bea. But even better was the letter we received from katherine praising the cubs! Praise like this is always welcome and the cuibs deserved the praise.

Phil
Assistant Cub Leader 

Sleep(!!)-over time

The Scouts get up to many exciting things. One of the most exciting is when they get to sleep out overnight. Whether that is at a full blown camp or just, like this one, a one-night stay at our local cricket field.

So on Friday June 14th, 14 scouts brought their fully packed rucksacks to the cricket field for the start of their stay. Some neatly packed into one bag... others with various plastic and bin bags bringing along extra gear! 

Sleeping (!) facilities are up

Things got underway with the putting up of tents! Three tents, two for the boys in the troop and one for the girls in the troop, were soon put up (well done to the girls for being the first tent up - despite their being fewer girls than boys! Maybe the phrase is true about too many cooks spoiling the broth etc!) and the rest of the night's activities could begin.

First up was to get the fires lit! That's right - fire! That attractor of all scouts! It's strange how in all my years of Scouting the attraction of fire to scouts has never diminished! They all want to stand around it, stare into it, prod it with a stick or put bits of rubbish on it! But with the fires lit it was time to start the 'Camp Doughnuts'. With a recipe that will remain a secret (you will need to come and help on camp if you want to know the secret!), the scouts quickly mastered the art and were soon tucking into jam or chocolate camp doughnuts.

Scouts and fire! Cooking the camp doughnuts.

Camp Doughnuts on the go...

Then, still licking the sugar off their fingers, the scouts had a quick 'wide game' before the next part of their camp cookery - a demonstration of cooking in hay! A pot of porridge was prepared and slightly started, and then the pot was placed inside a box of hay and covered and then left overnight. I'm no scientist and I would struggle to give you the finer details but basically the porridge cooks from the heat generated by the hay. 

Then, after a quick drink, it was time for the scouts to go to bed. Now, usually on a camp the scouts are very excited on the first night - so a little bit of late night chatter is accepted. But this night was different! At about 3.45am, (some of!) the leaders were woken by a couple of scouts stating that that they were going home!!! Bags packed... all ready to go! And virtually every other scout awake as well!!! At 3.45am!!! Once they had been sent back to bed, the leaders were now wide awake! So fuelled on a diet of coffee, they kept sentry, making sure every scout stayed in their tent until the required get up time of 7am! 

When morning came, it was time for breakfast. But this was to be no ordinary breakfast for the scouts. It was to be a 'backwoods' breakfast. In scouting, 'backwoods' is a term used for cooking on a fire when you have no utensils or pans etc. So the scouts were cooking sausage, bacon and beans in tin foil envelopes place in the embers of the fires from the previous evening. And they all seemed very pleased with the outcome! And then it was time to try the hay cooked porridge.... hmmm... not as warm as it could be. But it was certainly cooked!

Porridge?! Cooked in HAY!!!???

Then it was time to drop the tents - trying to avoid the oncoming rain (it's a nightmare having to dry tents before we put them away!!)! With tents quickly dropped, their was still time for a spot of pioneering. So, in groups, the scouts made their own camp tripods (that can be used for holding kettles or pans over a fire etc) using hitches and lashings. 

"So that bit of rope goes under here... and then over there..."

As 11 o clock neared, it was time for parents to pick up their tired scouts. And with them all gone - it was then time for the leaders to finish clearing up before heading home. Most of those leaders spent the day either dropping off or struggling to keep their eyes open!

Phil
Assistant Cub Leader

www.224manchesterscouts.co.uk

The Gazebo and Trailer....

It's Carnival time... again!

Its that time of the year when the Failsworth Carnival rolls around again. The question is... what would the weather be like this year??

Glorious!!!! Sunshine!!! Not a cloud in the sky (well possibly one or two!). So after a couple of years of dodgy and wet weather, the carnival was blessed with good weather. And the good weather brought out the crowds.

This year the Scout Group moved away from our recent stalls of the 'Splat the Rat' game and this time held a Jam-Jar Tombola. The beavers, cubs and scouts had, over the last few weeks, been filling empty jars with whatever they could lay their hands on (mostly sweets). By the time of the carnival we must have had at least 100 jars filled to the brim. 

Lots and lots of jars!

So early on Saturday the 8th June some of the leaders picked up equipment and trailers and headed off to the carnival field. With at least two hours to go before the start of the carnival we had to get the gazebo up, get the trailer ready, set out the stall, stick raffle tickets on top of each and every jar and, last but not least, fold over 500 raffle tickets!

With a smile and a polite 'thank you'

And then they started to come... slowly at first but then more steadily. With helpers from all our sections, we manfully served every last person with a smile and a polite 'thank you'. At £1 for 5 tickets - we ended up with a lot of change!

And still they came! Jars of sweets must obviously be very popular. 

The girls with their eyes on certain jars!

By the end of the day, when most of the cub and scout helpers were gone, it was left to the leaders to pack up and take everything back from where it came. We were left with about 10 jars including the one with the coffee beans!! (The jars of tea and pasta went early on). At this point we had a group of tired but happy leaders and helpers - who, no doubt, went home and had one celebratory cold drink (I think we deserved it!).

Oh... yes.... I almost forgot. How much did we raise? At the end of the day we had £269.64p and one US cent! Once we have taken out any bills we have with that we should have raised about £150 for the group funds. Not bad for a days work and a pile of sweets in a load of old jars!

PS - we also managed to get our District Commissioner, Les Cowell, onto the Oldham Community Radio which was broadcasting from the carnival field!

Les Cowell making his OCR radio debut?

Phil
Assistant Cub Leader

www.224manchesterscouts.co.uk

The Scouts doing their bit...

 Doing our bit...

Do you ever get that thought when you're walking around Failsworth - "I wish somebody would clean up these streets?". 224 Manchester Scouts had exactly the same idea...

As part of their Community Challenge badge, the Scouts decided to find an area to clean up. With the help of the local Police force (who asked their Twitter and Facebook followers - it's the modern age!) a suitable site was decided upon. The location would be the walkway between Oldham Road and the Metrolink Station at Hollinwood.

Bin Bags and grabbers in hand...

On Friday 19th April, the Scouts assembled at the station - gloves and grabbers in hand. Heavy Duty Bin Bags were duly despatched and off they went. Everybody was really keen to pick up as much litter as they could - and there was enough to go round!!

Even Carl got his gloves dirty...

After an hour or so there was almost ten bin bags teeming with litter and other bits of rubbish (including a flag, a childs scooter and a pair of knickers!!). 

Then with thanks from the Police Officer in charge, the Scouts made their way back to the church to finish off their Scout Night.

Just a sample of the rubbish gathered!

 

Phil
Assistant Cub Leader

www.224manchesterscouts.co.uk

Fund Raising for our Scout Group

Anthony (Scout Leader) will be attempting to complete the Welsh 3000's Challenge on 8th June 2013.

In order to complete the Welsh 3000's Challenge you are required to have been at the top of all 16 of the mountains over 3000 ft in North Wales within the space of 24 hours, without using any form of transport.

The length of the walk is just over 26 miles, but if you include the walk to the start point and down from the finish point it is over 30 miles in total. The route starts at the top of Snowdon and finishes three mountain ranges to the north later on Foel Fras. Around 13,200ft / 4023m of ascent is covered over the route. In order to make the most of daylight hours we will have to start our ascent of Snowdon at around 03:45am on the Saturday morning having travelled from Manchester the previous evening.  The route is:

Snowdon Massif

Snowdon/Yr Wyddfa (1,085 m) Garnedd Ugain/Crib y Ddysgl (1,065 m) Crib Goch (923 m)

Glyderau

Elidir Fawr (924 m) Y Garn (947 m)Glyder Fawr (1,001 m) Castell y Gwynt (972m) Glyder Fach (994 m) Tryfan (918 m)

Carneddau

Pen yr Ole Wen (978 m) Carnedd Dafydd (1,044 m) Carnedd Llewelyn (1,064 m) Yr Elen (962 m) Foel Grach (976 m) Garnedd Uchaf (926 m) Foel-fras (942 m)

A just giving page has been created for on-line donations. (link to page) Alternatively sponsorship forms are available from any of the leadership team - this really is a tough mental and physical challenge, think of it as completing a marathon over 16 mountains in under 24 hours!

http://www.justgiving.com/Tony-Hanlon 

All proceeds given to this link will go to Scouts UK, and i have requested that they be passed on to our group for use with future planned trips to the Yr Hafod (Wales) Activity Centre and for some much needed kit!

Please spread the word and encourage people to give generously!

Thank you very much for your support and kindness.

Anthony
224th Macedonia 
Scout Leader

Dunham Park Scout Camp - Jan 2013

With a flurry of snow just before we set off, proved to be a proper winter camp.
A joint adventure with 7th St John's Scouts, good fun was had by all.

God was watching over us when we set off just in time to miss some awful driving weather, allowing us to arrive at camp just in time.  Otherwise, we would have had to cancel as conditions ended up too bad to travel.

After a tour of the camp site and a short wide game, activities centred inside, with Action-twister being the most competitive  along with a card school (no gambling!!)

After a wholesome breakfast it was outside to partake in some Archery and Rifle shooting.  Daniel was a dab hand at the Archery! (must be all the cowboys and Indians he plays with Carl?).

Some outdoor Pioneering projects followed on the Saturday afternoon in preparation for a night 'Attack The Base'!  Some excellent teamwork on the wig-wam base!

After another games night to warm up after attack the base, it was a display of 'one-sies' and some amateur dramatics by some....

Sunday and the weather had cleared the snow, but left a lovely day for some Navigation through the deer park in Dunham Massey...

 A quick history lesson about the mills...

 a photo opportunity outside the Massey

Aarron made this in his lunch break ;-)

And then time to break camp and head home...... for some well earned sleep!


Anthony
224th Macedonia
Assistant Scout Leader