Author: davespikings

Dates For Your Diary

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DATES FOR YOUR DIARIES – PARENTS AND FRIENDS

 

SUNDAY 2ND NOVEMBER 2pm – 4pm – PIONEER HALL AUTUMN CLEAR UP

Please come down to the Pioneer Hall and help clear the grounds- bring any tools that you feel would be useful (loppers, rakes, hedge trimmer, strimmer etc). Dress for the weather!

 

SUNDAY 9TH NOVEMBER 11.15 am – 1 pm -REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY

Join the Group at the Chesham Bois War memorial, in this special event to commemorate 100 years since the start of World War 1 and afterwards at our own service in the Pioneer Hall. Please gather at the Pioneer Hall at 11:15. Members of the Scout Group (in particular young people) should come in uniform, with a poppy. Followed by soup and rolls.

 

SUNDAY 7TH DECEMBER 2pm (young people) 4pm (adults) – 5.30pm -CHRISTMAS ACTIVITY AFTERNOON AND SHOW

Our annual activity afternoon at the Pioneer Hall from 2pm- 4pm, followed by our world renowned Show and Raffle draw. Uniforms not necessary.

 

THURSDAY 18TH DECEMBER 6pm – 7.30 pm -CAROL SINGING AT TESCO AMERSHAM

Join the Group at the main door of Tesco in Old Amersham to sing Christmas Carols (songsheets provided!) and raise money for charity. Members of the Scout Group (in particular young people) should come in uniform.

The Trail – Edition 85

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trail 85 preview

 

 

We’re Back!
For many of you this will be the first edition of The Trail that you’ve read, but as you can see in the header this is in fact edition 85.
The Trail was originally published during the First World War to allow the Scouts and ex Scouts of 1st Chesham Bois to keep in touch with what was going on back at home. It was also published during the Second World War and afterwards
We also published several editions between 2004 and 2006, which were our last editions.
The aim has always been to allow members of the group, their families and other interested parties to get to know what the Group and the various sections that make it up have been up to.
So here is our re-launch edition. We would welcome your feedback, future articles and suggestions.

A Plea for Help

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Any parent is welcomed to join the committee and help out with fund raising activities that help provide new equipment for the young people to enjoy and to help maintain the hall. Please contact me if you are able to spare a small amount of your time.
Jeremy Ensor
Chairman

Skern Lodge 2014

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Andy Honour reports on Columbus Explorer Scout Unit’s summer trip to the coast:
Skern Lodge is an adventure centre on the north Devon coast. We have visited a number of times before, but this year it felt like the fullest programme we have ever had.
It started Sunday afternoon with surfing. The wind was in shore and making loads of great waves for us amateurs to ride. We took the largest group ever, there were 18 of us and everyone stood up on their board even if only for a brief moment.
That evening we did the tunnels. This was something we have not had as an evening activity before, so day one already felt full. The tunnels system is claustrophobic and designed to test our courage. Everyone got stuck in and tested themselves, some going into spaces they had not previously managed.
After a good night’s sleep and cooked breakfast Monday morning was river Kayak and bridge jump. There was a great sweep of confidence as everyone jumped the bridge three times with barely any hesitation; of course there were plenty of screams. skern 2014
We had the two man sit on Kayaks, great fun to paddle, but we also spent plenty of time falling or jumping off of them as well. The slalom race between the bridge arches demonstrated a wide range of skills with plenty of action between the boats.
The afternoon event was high ropes. There are many events on the high rope and we seemed to get through so many events including our old favourites of crate stacking and the trapeze. We also did the scramble net the low and high bar and the caterpillar climb.
In the evening we had team building games. Brad our instructor worked really hard to find us a ton of entertaining stuff to do. An old favourite game, Place the Egg, gave us all plenty to think and laugh about. The Zen wrestling games were also new to us and great fun. We finished the evening with six man ski racing, where the leaders team demonstrated terrible coordination.
Tuesday was our last day and we were back in wetsuits and down on the river in inflatable rafts. The activities included some paddling but with the usual silliness, boarding other boats and generally messing about. A new game with the rafts was to slide from the bank. So much fun from such a simple game.
The last activities were the climbing and abseil wall and the zip wire. Alex and Ali provided us with great entertainment pulling everyone up to the top of the zip wire. After the all-important team photo it was time to say another fond farewell to Skern until next time.

Griffin Troop Summer Camp 2014

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On Saturday of the August Bank Holiday weekend six Griffin scouts joined another six from 7th Malvern to camp at Rough Close just outside Coventry.
We pitched camp on a fine afternoon and the sunshine continued as the Scouts took part in shooting and archery on Sunday, but in true Bank Holiday fashion the remains of Hurricane Cristobal dropped in on Monday. By 6pm a new stream had appeared and the Wombat patrol’s tent was hastily moved as the stream headed straight for it. Fortunately we were able to obtain the key to a small hut and the heaters were soon hard at work drying wet clothes.
Having spent Tuesday preparing, the whole camp set off for a day’s hiking on Wednesday, well almost. Having dropped the day hikers I returned to camp to find that the Warden (who was in sole possession of the codes for the locks) had left site, marooning the overnight hikers in the car park. They quickly transferred to the minibus and we set off for their drop point somewhat later than planned. I returned and met up for lunch with day hikers just in time to hear the scouts singing “One pound beef” to a herd of bullocks (from the safety of the other side of a gate).
Thursday found us (and a layer of mud from the campsite) in the swimming pool in Coventry, before the (now clean) scouts went shopping to buy ingredients for the meals that they had planned for the next 24 hours. Back to camp for some tasty and creative meals, with extra points for the week long patrol competition on offer and the scores neck and neck, the scouts were eager to find ways to impress the leaders.
Friday night is ‘bivvy’ night with the scouts sleeping out in shelters that they build in the woods around camp, with Monday night’s downpour on everyone’s minds and more rain in the forecast, the shelters were constructed with great care.
When the final scores were added up on Saturday the patrol competition had been won (by the narrowest of margins) by the Malvern Eagle patrol.
Mark Firth

 

griffin-summer-camp-2013

Does it fly?

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You may have noticed that the Amersham Carnival did not take place in 2014, but that did not stop our team of float builders continuing our tradition of building something to impress the people of the town. With the various events commemorating the centenary of the start of the Great War we were approached by Amersham Town Council to see if we could help them. They wanted a WWI aircraft, so discussions started and Andy and Doug decided it should be an SE5a, one of the most successful fighters of the war and naturally they would be making it exactly the same size as the original.
And so the ’back room’ became an aircraft hanger and gradually it appeared, made from wood and cardboard and covered (like the original) with painted fabric. Detailed plans were used to make it as authentic as possible, the only real change was the cockpit had no seat or floor to allow visitors to climb in from below to have their photo taken.
The plane made three public appearances in Amersham and the leaders looking after it had constant praise from visitors.
Click on the picture to watch our video on YouTube:
se5a
The plane has been stored in Amersham by the Town Council as it has been very hard to transport, but we are delighted to say that it will have a permanent home in RAF Halton. Where it will appear in some of the events they are staging to commemorate the First World War. If we get any details of where it can be seen we will let you know.

Experiment Badge

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The Beavers who meet of Wednesday evenings worked on their Experiment Badge in the Spring. We started by looking at what makes plants grow by doing experiments with cress. We also attempted to make rockets using vinegar and baking soda whilst we didn’t get the height we wanted they were still fun. For this badge we also looked at static electricity which resulted in some wild hair styles and we wrote secret messages using invisible ink (Lemon Juice).

 

experiment-badge

World War 1 Commemoration  27th July 2014

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 Old Amersham will hold a day in the Memorial Gardens to commemorate the songs and memories of those involved in the First World War on Sunday 27th July.

The centre piece of the commemoration will be a life-size re-creation of the SE5A1 Biplane, brainchild of Co-creators Andy Honour and Doug Miller. The two are both Leaders at 1st Chesham Bois Scout Group in Amersham, Buckinghamshire and have contributed their painstakingly produced models over a number of years at Amersham Carnival, including a scaled-down Lancaster bomber, complete with bouncing bomb and dam to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of VE Day; a Diamond Jubilee Coronation carriage and a life-size inflatable blue whale.

1st Chesham Bois Scouts was formed in 1908, the same year that Scouting started nationally under the guidance of Robert Baden-Powell. It is one of the oldest groups in the county and country and sent both Scout Leaders and Scouts to the trenches in the First World War. The Group contributed much to the War effort both at home in the village and overseas in the battlefields.

Each Remembrance Sunday, after parading at the village memorial service, the group returns to its home at the Pioneer Hall to remember its fallen brothers at our Remembrance Wall. A plaque erected to Scouts lost in the ‘Great War’ survived a massive fire in 1931, was restored this century, and now proudly displays the names for current Group members to honour.

For more information contact:

John Hummerstone