Luton Scouts In Action

On Saturday 4th July 2009, members of the Scout Movement took over St George's Square and put on a display of numerous scouting activities. Leaders and volunteers arrived at the Square from about 8:00 am and started to set up all the activities including a mobile climbing wall (provided by Aktiv Events from Welwyn Garden City) which was a very popular attraction.

By 9:50 we were almost ready to start with the first competition of the day which was a cooking competition, Leagrave Cubs verses Sells 7th Cubs. Unfortunately, Sells 7th were a no show. With the following ingredients; 2 chicken breasts, 2 medium onions, 2 carrotts, a small packet of mixed herbs, a tin of tomatoes, tomato puree, cooking oil, 2 cloves of garlic, and 200g of rice, Leagrave Cubs prepared a main course for 2. 30 minutes later cooking was over and the judging was to take place. Nigel Taylor (Deputy County Commissioner) had the task of tasting the food and marking them out of 20. By the end the afternoon and after tasting 10 dishes, Nigel was glad that he did not have to eat anymore.

The results of the Cubs cooking competition, the overall winners was 16th Someries with 18 points. Although they did not win a special mention has to be made for Strathmore Cubs for their presentation of their meal, it was by far the best that has been seen on the day.

16th Someries Cubs - 18 points
Strathmore Cubs - 16 points
Leagrave Cubs - 16 points
Lea Cubs - 14 points

The results of the Scouts cooking competition, we have 3 joint winners, 19th Someries, 16th Someries and Sells 7th.
19th Someries Scouts - 16 points
16th Someries Scouts - 16 points
Sells 7th Scouts - 16 points
Strathmore Scouts - 15 points
Lea Scouts - 15 points
St Augustine's Scouts - 14 points

All in all it was a very close competition and my congratulations to all the teams for doing their best and taking part.

Another competition that was taking place was the canon run. This involved the teams disassembling a wooden canon, taking the parts through an obstacle course, assemble the canon and disassemble again and go back through the obstacle course and assemble again and fire the canon.

The winners of the each heat of the canon run are Sells 7th, 24th Someries, Strathmore and Lea. Well done to all the teams. This seemed to be quite a fun activity that it was open to members of the public to take on the challenge. A number of adults 'volunteers' were press-ganged to taking part.

A group of Beaver scouts challenged others to a race and after a group of Cubs and Scouts were short of 2 members, the County Commissioner, John Duley and the Mayor of Luton, Councillor Mohammed Riaz were coerced into taking part.

With VIP members in the team it was inevitable that the Beavers had no chance of winning. One or 2 leaders were helping the Beavers out by making things difficulty for the other team by moving items. In the end the Cubs and Scouts team won.

The Mayor of Luton was shown round all the activities bases and even managed to taste some of the food from the last cooking competition. Spoke with leaders and members and had a go at using a cross bow. At the end of the tour, Peter Harry led a group of young people with Makaton signing to music.

The day ended with some camp fire songs led by Alan Burnham (ACC - Cubs). All in all the day went well and all that attended had a great day.