SUMMER CAMP - ITCHEN STOKE
22nd July - 2nd August 2002
THE SCOUTS
REPORTS ON THE CAMP
Older Scouts first days
We came to camp on the Monday so we had three days without the
younger Scouts. We didn’t set up our Patrol sites but we slept in hike
tents. Our first job was to get Simon a
cup of tea and after that we unloaded the lorry and van and set up the Marquee
and other leaders tents. After that we mucked about before having tea. Also we
helped Phill build his metal bridge across the stream
On Tuesday we built a rope bridge
across the stream, and extended the metal bridge across the boggy area. We also [planned a draw bridge with Phill
Bristow and helped by the young leaders and SPLs. On Wednesday we went go
carting (See Dave Kings report) and finished building the drawbridge and on
Thursday we took down the hike tents and prepared for the arrival of the
younger Scouts
Chris Wilson
aAPL Eagles
The Village of Hike Tents
For the first three days of Summer
Camp, it was the older Scouts here. So we slept in hike tents until the younger
scouts arrived. We made a village of hike tents as far as possible from the
marquee so they couldn’t see us doing our missions.
James Fairburn
Go Karting – The Winners
On the first Wednesday of
Scout camp before the younger ones had arrived. The older ones including helper
Mark Weingarth went Go Karting in Eastleigh. When we got there we had a safety
talk and our jump suits, helmets and gloves.
We were split into two teams and had a ten minute practice for each
team. After that we had a half an hour endurance race, swapping over after
fifteen minutes. I was with James
Fairbairn. James went first and got into second place by the time we
swapped. Then by the end of the race we
had done 53 laps with the best time of 28 minutes 35 seconds. We had WON.
The pair that came second did 52 laps.
After giving back our equipment we were awarded with a medal for coming
first, second and third (Tom Bennett & Andy Wilcox) places also got a
medal.
David King
PL Falcons
Younger Scouts Trip to Camp
On Thursday 23rd July
the younger Scouts arrived at PG Scout Hall in the morning, ready for their trip
to Itchen Stoke. The older Scouts were already at the site for a few days.
After a while hanging around we were given our camp booklets. At last Bob
arrived in the Bough Bus. All the
equipment and Scouts were loaded into the mini buses it was time to leave. The journey turned out to be shorter than
expected, especially when the service station stop, which had been cancelled.
Everyone ate their packed lunches on the buses, and after no time at all we
arrived at the site. Everyone was no at
the Site and the Patrols had to prepare to set up their site
Richard Bennett
APL Swifts
Setting up the Patrol Sites
Setting up the patrol sites is always quite hard, because
you need to get the tent (which the patrol sleep in), the dining shelter, and
the toilet tent pitched right. Otherwise if it rains all of your personal gear
and equipment could get wet, and ruined.My patrol managed to set the patrol
site up quite successfully, and quickly, although it was very hard work. I found the hardest part of setting the patrol
site up was to dig some of the grass out, so, when we put the altar-fire there,
the grass wouldn't get ruined. I found this very hard because, the ground
was very hard, and it was very hot and tiring.
James Wheeler
First Day of Meals at Camp
Our first meals of Summer Camp
were very nice. For Breakfast we had
fish fingers with hoops, which was properly the best one of the whole camp
(Apart from the day we had central breakfast, where the leaders cooked for us)
then we had a packed lunch. Then we cooked spicy curry, which was great. The meals were cooked in Patrols on a wood
fire, with the leaders eating with us.
Greg Carlyle
Day at the See Side
On Friday 26th July all
the Scouts and most of the leaders, except Simon who had to stay on site as security
and clean the toilets, went to the beach at Hayling Island. When we got there we were split into small
groups. Most of the groups went
straight to the amusement arcade and fair for a while. The other groups went to
the beach. We were very lucky with the
weather, because it was very hot , with a clear blue sky, and the sea water was
warm enough to go in.
James Wheeler
Day at the Coast
On Friday 26th July we
all went to the coast for a few hours. While we were there we could stay on the
beach and play in the water or go to the amusement arcade and fun fair.
There was a log fume, roller coaster
and lots more.
Chris Mitchell
The Tuck Shop
The tuck shop at camp was
EXCELLENT. It was open every day after inspection and had lots of different
things to buy like cans of drinks, and a big selection of sweets. It was very popular and there was often
quite a queue, but it was always worth the wait!!!!!.
The prices were very reasonable
for instance a can of drink was only 50p and an Irun bru bar was 10p. The SPL`s
made good shopkeepers.
By Graham Wolfe
The Rope Bridge
When we first arrived at camp in
the mini bus we were egger to get out!
The first thing I and many other Scouts noticed was a rather wobbly
looking rope bridge. After setting up our Patrol Sites the first contender
stepped up to try and cross the wobbling rope bridge. Please note he has got
wet clothes on (Tit was over a stream).
He fell in! The game know is to
try and cross the bridge without getting wet.
On Saturday we made another bridge only standing on one side of the
river. First we learnt how to do a square lashing, and then we got to wok on
the bridge. We put a pier in the middle of the river and then poles on either
side using our new learnt skills. It was tricky but fun. A great time.
Harry Ayre
First Time Campers Task
On Saturday 27th the
first time campers were given a
pioneering task. We were asked to build
a bridge over the stream, we (were told) we
weren’t allowed to cross to the other side and we weren’t allowed to get
wet. We thought that if we built a pier (triangular for strength) in the centre
of the stream, we could place poles from the bank to the pier, one of could
climb on the pier, lash the poles together and slide some more poles from the
pier to the opposite bank and lash those poles together.
Brilliant. But we to get the pier
into the stream.
The answer was to lash the first
set of poles to the pier on the bank and then swing the poles with the pier on
top, so that the pier nestled itself safely in the river. Then all we had to do
was to climb to the pier so we could slide the other poles onto the opposite
bank. We succeeded
Nicholas Jennings
The Drawbridge
At camp, the field was divided
into two halves – the Scouts + the leaders, by a stream. To cross this stream
different bridges were erected- the normal “metal” flat bridge, a rope bridge,
a pioneering pole bridge made by the younger Scouts and a rope bridge made by
the older scouts. We build a drawbridge, which consisted of an “A” frame on
each bank and a plank attached to the bottom of it. The whole bridge could be
raised and lowered on each side of the stream. The drawbridge was crossed by
almost all the Scouts and even Simon. After coping with a lot of use and coping with a lot of pressure
the plank snapped under Matt Collins
{11 year old) weight.
Richard Bennett
APL Swifts
Hike – Cobras
We set out on our hike on Sunday
afternoon. We got into the minibus to be dropped of at our starting point, as
soon as we got of the bus Grant was hungry so we ate our lunch then set off
walking down the road we walked for 45 minutes before coming to our first
challenge a wheat field, luckily the field was
down hill, but there was no shade and
the sun started to make the hike harder. Next was the sheep, we walked
through the sheep field then the last field was a corn field were the corn was
taller than the Scouts, luckily we got
through the fields but a wood with a few surprises was next two footpaths
didn’t exist one was covered in bird seed four foot high and the other was
flooded, but after a bit more walking
we got to the field where we put up our hike tents. Then we ate our Pot noodles
before settling down to bed. We woke up
early had breakfast and set of, a bit more forest then just before the main site we bumped into eagles patrol
walking a bit father we bumped into Swifts and got back to site. In total we walked for 7 hours, but it was
fun.
Paul McCormack
Eagles – Over Night Hike
The over night hike was fun,
because we got a bit lost due to some of the paths being over grown and very
difficult to find. We arrived at our
overnight site at about half past seven.
The Pot Noodles provided were class!
Me and Phil Howell slept in the same tent, Matt Collins and Oliver Shell
slept in the same tent, Nessy and Nobby slept in the same tent and Chris Wilson
decided to sleep out side in a survival bag.
The first day we walked about 10k and the second day we walked about
7k. Just before we reached the site, we
heard Fudges (Tom Godfrey's) patrol and Miles Willett's Patrols, after finding
them we all walked back into the site together at about 12.30pm
Greg Joys
Hike – Falcons
We left for the hike at about 3
o’Clock. After walking for about an hour we came to a pub where we bought a
drink and relised we were lost. We asked for directions. We followed them and
ended up in a field of stining nettles. We made our way through the field of
nettles for half an hour, before coming to another pub. Here we bought food and
a drink and walked till we got to our site.
Here we had supper and went to bed. The next morning we made our way
back to the main campsite, we stopped four a couple of hours. We were late back
and PL had to rush off with the other PLs to buy the food for the cooking
competition
James Dorrell
Hike Swifts
On Sunday morning we packed our
tents and sleeping bags. We had to
carry a bag with us with a drink and food in it. We were dropped off and walked ion our patrols to the site where
we were camping. We got there fairly
quickly and had to wait for the mini bus, which had our water as it 3was late
as they forgot some things. We pitched
our tents and had a pot noodle and went to sleep. We woke up in the morning and had breakfast. We then walked back to the main campsite and
meet with the other patrols at camp
Christopher Hopkins
Cooking Competition
The cooking competition was tiring
because we had to put lots of effort into it by collecting wood and cooking it
just right. For starter we had melon
boats (Cocktail stick, melon a& orange), for main course we had meat chilli
with Doritos on top with a layer of cheese, for desert we had summer pudding. The competition was judged by a visitor
[Dave Chesterman, Maidenhead Scout Council Chairman – who had driven down for
the day to judge the competition]. Luckily we won.
Thomas Hopkins
Cooking Competition
couple of hours after coming back
from the hike, the pl's and apl's went off to a local Tesco's to buy the ingredients
we needed for our meal for the cooking comp. My patrol panthers were going to
do melon boats, chile suprise and summer pudding. We were introduced to the
judge who had a few ideas about how to run the comp. The next 2 hours were a
mixture of hard work preparing the food and waiting for the stuff to cook.We
all liked our meal but struggled with the large amounts of washing up. Just
before the judge left he told us the results and we were slightly suprised that
we narrowly won as the others sounded pretty good. My patrol won an ammo
tin for their hard work. It was a good experience especially as i had so little
time to get it organised(i only knew i was a pl a week before camp).
Tom Bennett
PL Panthers
Raft Race
On Saturday we were having a competition
with the other patrols to see who could get down stream on a raft in the
quickest time, My patrol in order of when they started our race was Luke
Hoggarth, James Wheeler, myself, Chris Mitchell, Richard Bennett last. Was Luke
Hoggarth again? Eagles Patrol went first, followed by Falcons, Cobras and
Panthers. Eagles were in the lead with 7minutes 48 Seconds. But of course my
patrol won and had 18 seconds to spare. Overall the weather was nice the water
was very cold and every one had a
great time
Miles Willett
PL Swifts
Day at the Docks
On Tuesday the second week the
whole troop [Except Simon who stayed on Site to look after it] went to
Portsmouth docks. Portsmouth is the home of many ships New and Old, and many
museums and the like. We left for the
docks shortly after central breakfast.
The first thing we did was to visit Admiral Nelson’s flagship the
Victory that is in a dry dock. Inside the ship it had a very low ceiling so you
had to duck every five seconds. The
ship had two placks, one where Nelson fell and one where he died. And they
pickled him on rum (Sounds fun!) Then
we went to the warrior and got a guided tour off Phill Bristow who new a lot of
stuff. After THE Warrior we had lunch in a restaurant. After that we went on a boat tour of the
docks in a catamrang thing. There were about fifteen ships in all in the
docks. Then we walked back to the mini
bus and it had a flat tyre. We stood
around a bit and then went back to camp!
Nick Bristow
APL Cobras
Portsmouth Dock Yard – Action Stations
On Tuesday we went to Portsmouth
docks and went to a place called Action Stations. It had a simulator of a
harrier Jump Jet also a helicopter. It
also had lodes of computers to play on. There was a machine gun and handgun. You could also be a pilot flying a
helicopter. We all enjoyed it “and I
would definitely go again!”
Alex Jones
Portsmouth Dock Yard – Warrior
On Tuesday we went to a number of
exhibits at Portsmouth Dock. After we went on the Victory, we went aboard HMS
Warrior. This ship was more modern than Victory. We could easily see how
spacious in relation to the Victory. We went to the Captains end of the ship at
the stern and also to the workers area. We went down to the engine room and the
boiler room. When the motors were not in use they used sails. The riggings were massive with as many
ropes as you have ever seen. When we had seen all aspects of the ship, we disembarked
it and went onto a tour of the harbour. All in all a very good day out
Toby Ayre
Steam Train Trip
We arrived at Alresford Station in
the mini bus on Wednesday 31st July. We had a quick (5 minute) look
around the museum and shop before we boarded
the train. Wes at down in our
spring chairs as wee left6 the station. I ate my lunch while we passed the picnic site. We stopped at a station
while the steam train going in the other direction passed us. We got off at Alton. The terminal and
visited the shop. On the way back we
saw lots engines including one painted like Tomas the \Tank Engine and
James. I enjoyed the trip
Mark Courtier
Playing Cards on the Train
While travelling on the Watercress
Line Steam Railway, we started to play cards; top trumps (Football players) Andy Wilcox won the first
game. We then changed the game to pontoon. Andy Wilcox won, I lost. We then
played three blind mice with two SPLs Andy Tagg and Rob Stroud. It was good to have some free time
Olly Styles
PL Eagles
Camp Sports
On 30th July the Scouts
had a camp sports afternoon. We had to nominate members of our patrol to do different sports such as running 100m,
hammer, shot put sack race etc.. I had
o do the water relay, the shot put and the caber. I came second in caber. The water relay was a scam because the
whole patrol in relay were supposed to collect water from the stream and fill
up a bowl on top of their PL, but no one won. They tried to fill up the bowel,
but just soaked the PLs. In the end the PLs got the bowls and we had a water
fight.
Luke Hoggarth
Special Diet
As I came back from my Scout Trip
to Iceland Jamboree, I slumped myself on the coach and realised that tomorrow
it was off the Summer Camp. As I’m a
vegetarian I have to cook somewhat a different meal compared to the rest of the
Scouts, this can be a major disadvantage, but doesn’t usually make too big a
difference. Instead of the bacon, meat
and sausages that are the staple diet of the camp, I have vegetarian alternatives
to these. I sometimes cook on the patrol
fire, but generally there isn’t enough room on the altar fire, so I usually
cook the vegetarian food in the marquee, or sometime John Bannerman cooks it
for me. So all in all it’s not that big
a deal and doesn’t really affect the patrol.
Although at times it can be annoying going from marquee to the patrol
site, etc. The leaders sort out the
vegetarian food for me. That’s about it
from me about Summer Camp
Phil Howell
APL Eagles
Patrol Leaders Dinner
After a day on the Watercress line
{Steam Railway}, we wished our APLs the best of luck and handed command over to
them. We made our way over to the
marquee where we were treated to a three courses of John Bannerman's culinary
expertise; pâté and toast for starter; a full roast for main course; and fresh
fruit salad to finish. It made a nice
change to have the leaders cooking for us, but we still had to wash up
afterwards. It was a brilliant meal and
we’d all like to thank the leaders for organising it.
Tom Godfrey
PL Cobras
APLs in Charge
On Wednesday 31st the
PLs were given a break and given a slap-up meal with all the trimmings, this
gave the APLs a chance to take charge.
We had 1 hour to cook corn beef hash. This proved to be a difficult
challenge as one patrol could not light their fire this put them half an hour
behind. My patrol and Nick Bristow’s
patrol were also half an hour behind as our potatoes would not cook. The meal in itself was alright with only two
patrols on time they had a good advantage in the inspection. As the two on time patrols were working at a
leisurely pace, my patrol washed up like crazy and we caught up the
difference. We realised when we had
finished the PL’s had just started eating and we had time to burn. We made sure
that everything was done. All the patrols had a good inspection and we all were
glad to see our PL’s come back and take over
Andrew Wilcox
APL Falcons
Swimming at the Local Pool
On Thursday we went swimming.
T’was very enjoyable and we had a wale of a time. Lot’s of people went onto a
slide. However I think they all got a shock when they realised just who cold
the water was. We soon all got used to it, when we did the wildcat dive. After
another while ! – we decided to go in the bigger but shallower pool – the other one was 3 meters deep. A lifeguard ( a
well good looking one) told us to stop bundling each other in the water. After
about one and half hours we got out and went into the town. T’was a very enjoyable day
GWILLUM Charles
Inspections
This year the main camp inspections
changed from previous years, instead of having two full inspections. In the
morning, after the washing up for breakfast had been completed a full
inspection was done on the patrol site including the patrol & toilet tents
and the cooking area and equipment, plus the general tidiness of their
site. In the evening a general
inspection looking around the patrol area to make sure the washing up had been
completed
Mark Weingarth
Helper
A Trip to Town
On the way to town I was so tied I
fell asleep. When we got there Bob said
we only had an hour. I decided to go with Tom & Chris Hopkins and Mark
Courtier. First we went to a newsagent.
I bought some black magic chocolates and candy spray and some sweets. And Mark
like model trains so we went to the model shop and Mark bought some models. We
saw most of the other Scouts at the model shop as well looking for war
hammered. They are just little models you collect and play with. They cost lots and lots of money and I don’t
see any point in them. Then it was time
to go back to camp. I fell asleep on
the way back as well.
Craig Mitchell
A Wide Game
On the last night of summer Camp
we did a Wide Game, Which was were Miles Willett and Andy Wilcox hid in the
dark in the field and we didn’t have any torches and we has to find them. It took us quite a long time. So we went back to the marquee complaining
that we could not find them and Matt Weingarth a helper told us where they
were, but we couldn’t be bothered to go and look for them in the place where we
were told they were and they were over the stream in the bushes and in the end
they came back. Overall the Wide Game
was great fun as well as the camp has been
Matt Collins
Packing up Our Patrol Site
We woke up and cooked our last
meal on our Altar Fire. After breakfast we cleaned everything ready for the
last inspection. This included all the cooking Dixie's and utensils and
personal things. Matt & mark Weingarth and Adam Baker Inspected us. We did very well and only had to re wash two
things. We took down our Patrol tent
and dinning shelter and cleaned the wooden pegs. We then left for the local
Swimming pool and visit to town.
Mark Courtier
The Barbeque
On the last evening of camp we all
had a barbeque. We cooked sausages and burgers over one-use barbeques We only
got one sausage and burger each, they were very nice. For afters we had
trifle. Before we had the barbeque we
had to pack away our Patrol tent and dinning shelters. So we had to sleep in
hike tents. After we had eaten main and desert I had to get a jumper, when I
came back Paul was running around cleaning everyone cutlery and plates. But
most of the other Scouts were either cooking on the BBQ’s or reading things
they had bought in town. All in all I
thought the BBQ was very good fun.
James Kirk
Loading the Lorry
Loading the lorry was quite hard to pack. We all had to take
the tents over to the lorry. All the heavy equinti got pack away first.
Example: tents, tent poles, patrol boxes.ect. We kept go thorough until the
back of the lorry was full of chairs (the light things). After very thing was
pack, we did a litter sweep of half the field. We got change into are uniforms
and got on the minibuses, and set of for the scout hut. When we got to the
scout hut we helped to unpack from the lorry. We took all the chairs out until
we got to the big heavy stuff. We put all the ropes, poles away in their right
places. Until every things was away.
Oliver Shell
The Journey Home.
After all the equipment had been
packed away onto the lorry we did a litter sweep of the field. We all got onto the buses and at about 3pm
we started the journey home.
Everyone was talking to each other
all the way home, the only time it was quiet was about halfway home when we
were given a packet of crisps! We had a
good journey back and it seemed we reached the scout hut in no time at all. On
arrival we had to unpack the equipment from the lorry, before we could go home.
By Graham Wolfe
The role of being an SPL at camp
The role of an SPL (Senior Patrol
leader / Simons Personal Lackey) at camp is quite different to the roles of the
other scouts. Removed from our positions as patrol leaders, Andrew Tagg, Robert
Stroud and myself (Jon Sayer) were asked to perform various tasks that could
not be performed by no other scout or leader. This included the making of the
leaders tea, a frequent task, as all leaders required the brown fluid to reduce
the problems caused by the 40 odd scouts. Many get through 3 or 4 mugs an hour,
yet luckily all three SPLs were available to cope with the heavy workload.
Other tedious tasks included the digging of several “holes”, one for the
leaders “shower”, another as a cesspit and the last for the rest of the stuff…
However,
not all of our wearisome lives were as boring as this. With the appointment of
becoming an SPL all the scout duties go – The endless washing up, inspections,
and “early” nights were no longer part of our role, and we often found
ourselves with lots of free time. This was often spent in the marquee with
either a game of cards or draughts with one another. We also got to run Tuck
Shop every night, which was an enjoyable and reward able job.
Our other
tasks were not bad either. It usually involved supervision of the younger
scouts or the running of games. This involved us supervising a patrol on the
overnight hike, which was a valuable opportunity to get away from the leaders
regular tea ritual for a day.
So, the role of an SPL is
not that bad; you get your own tent, lots of free time and you get your meals
cooked for you. I found it a fun experience and a good way to spend summer camp
without the hassles of patrol life.
Jon Sayer
SPL
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