OK - hope everyone had fun on Sat instead of explorers! The prog is back, for one last finale for the term, with Karting with Scouts (hmmm... that doesn't scan quite as well as 'Karting with Kubs' which was always the scouts' summer finale...) We will have then actually done everything you put in the prog! It was a bit random at times but I'm getting better...!
You need to be there early on Friday! (so no Unit meeting on Thurs this week). The forms and event booking are all on the scout blog (boreattonscouts.blogspot.com) and I'm still trying to get time away from the uni to be there but it is an uncertain world, beset by the shifting sands of fate and fortune... maybe I'll drive Pete off the track and storm to the podium, maybe I'll ponder the problems of potable water supply... It's set to be a dry weather race and there is a charity b-b-q so should be good! Book up asap and hope to see you there! Note that this costs £10 - cash or cheques payable to Boreatton Scout Troop!
Just in case you didn't get the message - there's no meeting this Thurs as most of you are at Cosford all day and with the rest of the county trying to go home all at the same time, you might still be there at 8 :)
Finally! Here are forms for our summer expedition! The Itinerary is just for the Fiji leg as we are organised for our Korean Jamboree (they meet us at the airport and look after us until we go!). Since the draft itinerary I have been talking to their HQ and they have basically sorted out all the transport and accomodation so everything else we can manage once we get on the ground. The UK International Commissioner (who visited us the other week) is doing our recie for us and will report back on his return from Fiji so all is looking to be sorted! As ever, if you have any questions, just give me a call!
The BEASTs (Boreatton
Science And Engineering Team) Racing Team invited us to join them at
the 73rd National Scoutcar Championships with BERP their
newly engineered pedalcar that they’ve been working on over the
last term or two. We therefore had a practice on our
Explorer-sub-unit-thingy-night meeting on Thurs. It was forecast to
be a wet race and as the skies stay resolutely dry, we thought we had
better bring our own water (pistols) and we invited the older scouts
to join us – bad idea – we all ended up very wet (although the
pedalcar and track stayed dry so that plan didn’t work...). Not
much preparation for racing but fun in a soggy sort of way...
Anyway, we thought we
would combine it with a trip to the Cliffhanger Outdoors show and
make a weekend camp out of it seeing as we were travelling so far.
However, the organisers turned out to be a bit more indoorsy than
scouts and cancelled the show when there was a spot of rain forecast!
Arghh! – plan B! We managed to book dirt-buggies for the Sunday –
dirt-buggies love the rain!
I must admit, that I
didn’t really know what the pedalcars would be like and thought it
might be a long day just doing a couple of races, but I was wrong
(just like when the scouts persuaded me to go to the national rifle
champs – I should have known – national scout events are always
great fun)!
BERP (Boreatton
Experimental Recumbent Pedalcar) was a new entry so we had to start
at the bottom of Division 2 for scouts and Division 1 for the
explorers, but from the start you could see that the BEASTs’
dedication and engineering skills had created a winner – BERP is
small and low, but in smart Boreatton Old Gold and Blue livery, he
looked sleek and fast on the start line.
As the lights turned green
he slid seemingly effortlessly into the lead and continued to
accelerate away from the rest of the field. Almost silently, compared
to the other racers, he stunned the commentary team as the scouts lapped and re-lapped the opposition – Way to
go BEASTs! Winning, and in style!
With such a car, how
could the explorers fail? Ah – hadn't accounted for the explorer's
total lack of mechanical empathy and they managed to break BERP...
the chain came off three times for the explorers – I think we need
to practice more next time, but even with lost time in the pits we
won the Division 1 Team competition and came second in the Division 1
Grand Prix! We lost at least a couple of laps in the pits as Pete
repaired BERP and then repaired him again(!) but each time we came
back out we cruised through the field and we were catching the
eventual winners in the final laps, but not quickly enough... despite
the largest, brightest (cool team T-shirts) and noisiest support in
the paddock...
So – a triumph for
Pete and the BEASTs – we won all but 2 of the qualifiers (one when
a scout took BERP flying over the tyre wall and when he rejoined he
came back to 2nd running out track as he tried to overhaul
the leader) and the eventual trophy haul was: Scout Division 2 Team
Champions, Sprint Champion, Grand Prix winners, Explorer Division 1
Team Champions,
Explorers Division 1 Grand Prix 2nd place, Leaders race 2nd
place (hurrah for Pete – of course I’d have beaten him if I
hadn’t been protecting BERP in the wheel-to-wheel battles after
being boxed in at the start ;P )
most travelled entry :) and, of course, the main prize for the event - Best Engineered
Pedalcar.
Wayne Bulpitt – the
UK Chief Commissioner was there to present prizes (mostly to
Boreatton!)
and sit in the BEAST Pedalcar!
Way to go BERP and
Boreatton Racing scouts!
After that, the next
day’s dirt buggy racing seemed destined to be anticlimactic – but
hey – they’re Dirt Buggies! – you can’t do anticlimax with
dirt buggies!
Lots of Mud and grippy carts at the limit. Great fun...
OK - I've cheated... I've pinched the blog post from the scouts, but you need to know the same stuff! Those that are going to the peddle car champs and cliffhanger, please bring consent forms and cheques to exporers this week, or Pete's for 5pm on Friday. If you need a lift to Pete's I can probably (if the Fartsac lets me) get you there from Leaton, leaving about 4:30pm.
We've almost got a pedal car ready for the National Scout Car Races, so here's the camp details... We are happy to take any explorer who wants to come and will arrange transport to suit numbers. Saturday will be race day at Rufforth Airfield, York, there will be hundreds of cubs, scouts, explorers and leaders as well as the UK Chief Commissioner, (Bear's Boss) who has promised to come and try out our car. If you are not racing we'll have a few bits to do between races but mainly you'll be spectating. On Sunday we'll break camp and head to Sheffield for the UK's biggest outdoor festival, Cliff Hanger, http://www.cliff-hanger.co.uk/whats-on/ where you can have a go at loads of outdoor activities, archery, bushcraft, caving, climbing, cycle speedway, disc golf, geocaching, kite flying etc. Most activities are free, but if you want any kit, bring your purse. Watch their video...
Fill in this camp form and get it back to us ASAP.
