Hello Dear Reader

Well last weekend I put on my Green Hat (this because helpers wear green hats) and headed to the Avon County Patrol Camping Competition, held at the county camp site, Woodhouse Park.

The camp runs every year with the main aim to develop/promote camping skills in the scout section. Once again I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of patrol camping in the county of Avon.
The event is run from Friday till Sunday, in this case the 11th – 13th June. Most groups arrive between 17:30 & 19:30 on the Friday and set up their camp, for those involved with the running of the event we were on site from 10:00 to set up the control center, mark our the camp pitches etc.

Campers are divided in to two competition, the Post & Press Trophy and the Tony Award – the Tony award is for first time entrance to the competition the Post & Press is for everyone else.

Saturday the scouts are split into two groups with one group heading off to take part in activities such as Archery, Adventure Course, Climbing, Backwoods cooking, while other half complete the setting up of their patrol site, including washing up all those left over dishes from supper the night before, constructing a gateway for the site and most importantly building their sedan chair. We have a round of judging just before lunch for those who spent the morning setting up their sites.

Following lunch the groups switch, with those setting up their camp in the morning heading off to activities and those who did activities in the morning staying on camp to set up their sites again with a round of judging taking place just before dinner.

Following lunch the groups switch, with those setting up their camp in the morning heading off to activities and those who did activities in the morning staying on camp to set up their sites again with a round of judging taking place just before dinner.

Dinner on Saturday evening is the competition meal. It needs to be three courses and the patrols are judged throughout the process of preparing their evening meal, from the creation of their menu to a tasting by the judges, how very brave of them.
It is very interesting that some patrols seem to think that having a table cloth and napkin rings and fresh flowers will swing the judges. The conversation usually follows something like:-

“Did you do this on your last camp”
“umm… No”
“Why did you do if for this Camp”
“umm…. Not Sure”

One day a team will respond Yes we do, and it will really flumix the judges.

I am not sure what the teams think we are judging, however it is really about is how they worked together as a team to prepare for the evening meal including the washing up afterwards. other items the judges look for are

• Did they work as a team to make sure one person was not cooking while everyone went out to play football
• Did they make sure the food was handled correctly so not to poison the patrol
• Was the meal Balanced – Crisps, Beans on toast and a Kit Kat is a three course meal but it is not really going to sustain you for a week-long camp.
• Did they enjoy what they were doing – there is not good the leader saying before the camp right you shall cook asparagus souffle to start followed by lamb in a red current jus with crème brûlée for desert when actually the scouts would prefer soup, Chilli and rice, and bananas and chocolate (Uck)

There is always a theme for County Patrol Camping Competition and this is shown no where better than the Sedan Chair Race on the Saturday evening, this year the theme was 100 year of the Bristol Airplane Company.
So all the sedan chairs had a plane theme, I was however disappointed that there was not one Biggles hat and goggles among them. Still a lot of effort then into their constructing, the chairs they need to be assembled on site but parts can be brought from outside. One group had gone to great lengths to paint up cardboard sides and wings, even propellers for their plane.

We finished up Saturday evening with a Camp fire and everyone had a good sing along. All the scouts found our that “Cecile is a Caterpillar, Cecile is my friend” “My one and only friend”

Sunday there are more activities which are judge, with the onus being on team work and fun. Activities included the Air Balloon Bounce – Race on Space hoppers, Missile Target Practice – Using Hand pump air Rockets, Drain Pipe Ball Challenge, Water Plane Race – a Race on Wood Skies were the team all have their feet strapped to a planks.

Following all the fun an excitement of this it leaves only time to cook lunch and pack away the campsite. ensuring you leave your site as you found it for the final judging. This always leads to a mad rush as marks are relayed to control and entered to calculate the final places in the competition. If you are interested you can go HERE to see them.

Now before I people start jumping up and down saying Patrol Camping, Open Fires, Wood Piles that is not how we camp now, I think there is still a place for patrol camping in scouting maybe not every camp but it has it place. We have reflected this in the competition we understand that Scouts now use both Icelandic patrol tents as well as modern multi-room dome tents, we are also well aware that cooking on fires is not something everyone does.
When this event ran last year it was identified that, although we had indicated to people that it was OK to cook all your meals on gas and camp in a dome tent. The scoring and judging did not reflect this, we still had marks in for wood storage, for ensuring the tents had their sides lifted in the day (kind of difficult on a dome tent). At the competition review after the event these items were identified and this year saw a major reshaping of the judging and scoring of the event to encompass these item and to ensure that the onus of the event was as it  always has been about working as a team. This is evident in so much as the teams that win are the teams that throughout the weekend work together to make sure that all the jobs around the camp are completed.

Well I have hung up my green hat for another year (although I think some people wear too many hats at these scouting events) and I am sure it won’t be long till we are planning the event in 2011.

TTFN