8th Mag - Issue 8

8th Darlington Scout Group 2015 VIII

In this issue:

May Camp, Mad Murdock, and More!

Howling Mad Murdock editor-in-chief In the week building up to the 64th annual Garden Fete on Cockerton Green, members of the group nervously watched weather forecasts to see if the rain, which was predicted, would hold off so the fete could be held outdoors. The decision to hold the fete outside was made early on Saturday morning and thankfully, on this occasion, the weather man was wrong. (This decision was also influenced by Maddie’s petition for an outside fete which had a whole seven signatures.)

members of the group, one being Russ Wilkinson who praised the good spirits of the people in the group. Arthur Morgan, another exmember (and retired teacher), commented: “It's nice to see the Green being used as it should be used for everyone in the community.” He also explained that the current bell tent was used when he was a Scout!

“It's nice to see the Green being used as it should”

From around 8am, leaders, Seniors, parents, Scouts, and the committee worked together to prepare the usual variety of stalls, games, tents and – to celebrate the group’s centenary year – a bell tent with a replica camp kitchen. The kitchen, which was manned by the Seniors all day, was packed full of gadgets and cooking equipment so it was an accurate representation of life at camp.

The kitchen drew attention from ex-

The newly opened Milk Shak in Cockerton was kind enough to offer any member of the group wearing uniform a discount on their milkshakes. This offer was taken up by the Scouts … numerous times by some.

Although there were some intermittent drizzles of rain throughout the day, somewhere in the region of £4,285 was raised (and that’s not including program selling). Puffed out from packing away, Alec Llewellyn, leader-in-charge, said he was extremely pleased with and thankful for everyone’s efforts.

Seniors clearly hard at work in the mock kitchen

Words by Maddie Simpson and James Simpson

A

s part of the 100th anniversary celebrations of the Group, members from all sections met at the HQ on Saturday 11th July for a sponsored walk. Over 50 Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Seniors and leaders took part on the 12.87 mile hike starting and finishing at the HQ. Each section walked a different distance.

After a group photo, we started with a lap around Cockerton Green. Then we walked down through the cut and onto Staindrop Road heading towards Mowden Bridge. Following the footpath along Baydale Beck, we ended up at the Northumbrian Water Treatment Works at Broken Scar who kindly gave us permission to use their facilities. This is where the Beaver Colony ended the walk.

After a short break, the remaining sections headed towards Broken Scar Picnic Area. Once we arrived at Broken Scar, the Cubs, some Scouts and a Cub sized Senior (Maverick) instantly headed towards the play area. Scout leader John Newton said “I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed myself with such wonderful people”.

We followed the Teesdale Way along the river Tees for about a mile until we reached a large open field on one of the rivers many meanders. At this point, we looped around the field, with

Neil making sure that everyone went right to the end of field, and followed the same footpath back up to Broken Scar. Once we returned to the picnic area Neil swiftly made sure that no one went back onto the play equipment and quickly continued back towards the Northumbrian Water facilities where the Cubs completed their section of the walk.

the Cubs, some Scouts and a Cub sized Senior instantly headed towards the play area About 15 members continued on from the treatment works back towards Coniscliffe Road and then back onto the Teesdale Way heading towards High Coniscliffe. After about 45 minutes of walking the group stopped for lunch by the river, about half way between High Coniscliffe and Low Coniscliffe. During the lunch break some members of the group started skimming stones followed by a competition to find out who could hit a halfsubmerged log on the other side of the river with Tom being the first to hit it.

After sandwiches had been eaten and stones had been thrown, the group continued back along the path towards High Coniscliffe. On this leg of the journey the girl Scouts and Seniors

started chasing Chris Hewins leading to him tripping over a rock embedded in the ground and doing a rather good impression of superman and saying as he fell “Oh for God’s sake!”. Once in High Coniscliffe the group was met by Leader-In-Charge Alec Llewellyn who provided them all with water and copious amounts of penguin biscuits. A group photograph was also taken before 12 members of the group continued back to the HQ with the departure of the Robinson trio.

The group continued up past The Mill House and followed the footpaths up towards Hall Moor Farm. At this point the group could see the end of the walk as DSMS (previously Branksome School) came into view as the group crossed a bridge over the A1(M) motorway and followed the footpath down past the radio mast near Coniscliffe Grange and back onto Staindrop Road.

From here,the group walked down to Mowden Bridge and back through the wooded area towards the HQ. At this point, the Scouts and Seniors felt like Chris Hewins needed to cool down a little so proceeded to throw whatever water they had left over at him. Nevertheless everyone returned to the HQ to complete the walk. Tim Hewins, Panther Pack Cub Leader, said “I had an enjoyable time with pleasant company” and one of the Scouts was heard saying “I enjoyed the walk”.

May Camp

Words by Maddie Simpson

O

n a slightly rainy Friday 15th May, our group departed to Croft-on-Tees for the second year running. When we got there, the estate manager kindly brought all the equipment and personal kit through into the field where we would stay for the duration of the weekend. Despite the random bursts of rain as we were erecting the campsite, we managed

Liam and Maverick’s tent pitching advice: "if it's not a right angle, it's a wrong angle" to get everything done swiftly thanks to Liam and Maverick’s tent pitching advice: "if it's not a right angle, it's a wrong angle".

After sausage rolls and assorted pastries for supper, the Scouts and Seniors continued pitching kitchens and wood collecting before bed.

After a 7:30am start on Saturday morning, fires were lit and morning flag break commenced. Bacon sandwiches were cooked and eaten as the Scouts and Seniors prepared for the arrival of the Beaver colony and the two Cub packs.

Inspection took place shortly after breakfast during which Erika spoke some words of wisdom: “If you need to keep someone’s feet on the ground, you need to put responsibility on their shoulders”.

Shortly after inspection, that's when

Above: Scouts retrieve their food box from the top of the hill after they forgot to peg it down the night before Left descending: Newton’s cradle, the string trail, FENTON!

we heard the shouting and screaming of small children - and we knew the Cubs and Beavers had arrived.

We all gathered around the flag where Alec Llewellyn, leader-incharge, welcomed everybody to camp and where there was a going-up ceremony for members moving up to the next section.

The Cubs and Beavers were then split into three teams: Maddie's Mammoths (the best team), Maverick's Monkeys, and Liam's Loch Ness Monsters (the worst team) to compete in a number of relays including running, jumping, hopping,

“If you need to keep someone’s feet on the ground, you need to put responsibility on their shoulders”. skipping and taking your entire team there and back holding hands.

A game of three way football followed afterwards.

During this time, the Scouts cooked up a lunch of sausages, beans and bread rolls which Tuesday night Cub Elliot described as "very enjoyable".

The Cubs and Beavers then got a visit from the game keepers who

brought their dogs. Some Scouts hid a scented item in the field and the dog had to find it. However, when it was clear that the dogs wouldn’t find it Neil quoted "Well done!! The Scouts have broken the dog".

A game of tug of war followed where Maddie's Mammoths triumphed. Shortly after, the young visitors returned home after a very enjoyable day in camp. A Scout and Senior game of nonstop cricket was played to relax after a busy day looking after the Cubs and Beavers. Tea that night was spaghetti bolognese with apple pie for pudding.

Later that evening, we all gathered in

A Scout and Senior game of non-stop cricket was played to relax after a busy day looking after the Cubs and Beavers. the Senior kitchen for a campfire. Traditional campfire songs were sung such as: ‘Campfire’s Burning’, ‘The Great American Railway’, ‘Cow Kicked Nelly’ and ‘In the Quartermaster’s Stores (behind the door)’ and also some less traditional ones such as a mashup of ‘I Like the Flowers’, ‘Merrily-Sing-theDonkey’, ‘John Brown’ ft. ‘Ging Gang Goolie’. After all the singing, we fell asleep.

We awoke early on Sunday morning for a breakfast of bacon grill and vegetable omelettes. Inspection was very quick and afterwards everyone helped to take down tents, dismantle kitchens and return unused wood to the forest. Camp soup was for lunch which had been cooking all morning.

Once everything was packed away, the estate manager arrived with his trailer to take equipment up to the van and we all made our way back to the HQ.

Above Descending: Camp, Liam’s Lochness Monsters, Maverick’s Mallards and Maddie’s Mammoths in relay races, Cubs play with the dogs

The star trails above camp on Friday night

June Camp THANKS to the addition of three new girl Scouts who had recently moved up from Cubs, June Camp 2015 at Spennithorne was the first camp where there were more girl Scouts than boys. The campers met, as usual, at the Den on Friday evening and packed the van before setting off to the site where they have been camping most Junes since 2002.

There were three Scout kitchens which were led by Ben, Holly and Patrick (with Liam acting as a camp consultant as he was the only Senior). The ground at the camp was extremely hard thus difficult to penetrate with the spades to dig pits.

Despite this, kitchens were successfully set up and wood collecting along the river Ure commenced.

Whilst searching for wood, Scouts came across a dead bird which they immediately felt the need to investigate more closely with spades.

tempt not talking as a method of drifting off to sleep.

Scouts crawled out of their sleeping bags on Saturday morning and tucked into bacon sandwiches before packing a bag with their lunch and setting off on a 6.5 mile hike. During the hike, they took it in turns holding the map so they could practice their map reading skills. The weather was so glorious on Saturday, the group took a prolonged lunch so Scouts could paddle in the water to cool down.

Although almost all the Scouts returned from their hike exhausted and with pink faces, that didn’t stop them from playing football in their free time before tea.

For tea there were a ton burgers and sausages which were cooked on the barbecue. After they’d had their portion, Scouts could return for seconds, thirds and some even fourths. Despite their greediness, there was still food left over at the end!

Following the burgers, Scouts were given a chocolate biscuit to finish off with which Liam compared himself to since he had been deserted by fellow Senior Maverick who pulled out of camp only a few days before.

Just before midnight a bunch of Scouts were spotted wandering around the campsite

Scouts were sent to bed shortly after sunset however, much to the annoyance of leaders who wanted to sleep, they talked late into the night.

Just before midnight, a bunch of Scouts were spotted wandering around the campsite claiming that they couldn’t sleep so they had decided to get redressed and go for a walk! Once caught, they were sent straight back to bed and told to at-

Below left: Scouts leap over giant stepping stones Below: Middleham Castle

On Saturday evening, everyone in camp gathered around the campfire for a hybrid X-Fire/Campfire with a mix of traditional camping songs and modern hits. At first, some of the new Scouts were mortified by the loud, out of tune singing (95% of which was coming from Mark), but it wasn’t long until they were ardently belting out Hey Jude, In the Jungle, The Great American Railway and Music Man with everyone else. Holly, Holly and Caitlin even debuted their new song about biscuits and chicken nuggets.

inaccessible. He had also stolen the billies from all three kitchens and wrote his name out of them — consequently dobbing himself in.

The mess was hastily cleared away

by Ethan, Matthew and Kieran suspiciously without fuss early that morning.

Were they trying to cover for Patrick’s arachnid tendencies?

And might spider-Pat make a return at Summer Camp? If he does, read it first in the 8th Mag.

On Sunday morning, Scouts discovered something very strange had happened to the middle kitchen

On Sunday morning, Scouts discovered something very strange had happened to the middle kitchen overnight: Patrick had presumably turned into a spider because a web of sisal had been woven through shovels, watercarriers and kitchen posts making the kitchen almost

Scouts on their hike

For breakfast there was eggy bread and beans which was followed by an informal inspection to ensure high camping standards were being retained. Then they got some free time.

Scouts hadn’t only been creating food related tunes at June Camp, they also created a new game which entailed squatting down and grasping on to the

Above left: Liam’s replacement for Maverick Above: Spider-Pat makes his mark out of billys

grass on the hill as tight as they could then leaning back as far as they could before the grass tore and they fell down the hill backwards narrowly avoiding thistly injuries.

Throughout the morning, Scouts also completed badge work with some of them learning about the country code with Erika whilst another group were tested on their knowledge of British wildlife.

Reflecting on their first weekend camp, Nicole and Annabelle (exTuesday night Cubs) were quoted saying: “It’s alright”. If that verdict doesn’t class a camp as a success — wh at does?

On the morning of Saturday 11th July, Hannah Garget, a Cub Leader with the Group, passed away after a battle with cancer. To lose such a bright, articulate, vivacious and loving person is incomprehensible – and the loss will be felt by so many past and present members of the Group.

Hannah joined the Girl Scout Troop as an 11 year old and has been with us for the past 16 years. Even whilst working hard at medical school she always tried to find time to attend Group events such as camps or Rover activities.

On behalf of all within the Group, can I expressed our deepest sadness and regret at Hannah's passing, and I know that we will support Tom, Viv, Ken and Hannah's family, Steve, June and Rebecca, during the coming weeks and months as a Group, and more importantly as a loving and caring group of friends.

Alec Llewellyn (Leader-In-Charge)

From the Archive: Who's afraid of the British Bulldog?

“The game of the evening when it was invariably "Bulldog". A game traditionally 8th, traditionally Scouting, traditionally limb breaking. And we have [played] this game about 4 weeks out of 5 - Skip says it's too often and the walls of the room shudder when the game is on. Seriously though, boys who have studied all week need this game now and again (I had to put that as Skip reads this).”

To celebrate the centenary of the 8th, we are looking back over past reports from the original ‘8th Mag’ and log books to reflect upon some interesting moments from the group’s vast history.

This issue’s extract is from the 1959-60 log book. Illustration by Frank Beadle.

“Try to make sense of what you see, and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious.” ~ Stephen Hawking

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IT is with great sadness that we must pass on some devastating news.