Spring 2002

The 1st Oxshott Scout Group is 90 years old this year. If you are an ex-member of the group then we would like to hear from you, particularly if you have any 'interesting' anecdotes.

For those others of you who do not know much about us, each of the three sections meets regularly every week in the Verrey Hut HQ in Waverley Road; Beavers on a Monday, Cubs on a Wednesday and Scouts on a Friday.

Despite being one of the smaller groups in the Esher District, the Scout Troop has achieved a number of successes in competitions. In April we won a closely fought 'Cooking competition' at Polyapes which required us to plan a three-course meal for five and cook it over an open fire. We and the judges survived without food poisoning! This was closely followed on Sunday 22nd April by a short St George's Day parade for us, and two other groups, from the Royal Kent School to St Andrew's Church where Rev Jeremy Cresswell conducted a ceremony to mark the occasion.

During the summer evenings we spent as much time as we could outside including a 'Wide' game and 'Mountain Biking' in and around Oxshott Woods. We finished for our holidays with a one-night camp on Polyapes. We had the whole campsite to ourselves and it's amazing how quiet it is bearing in mind the proximity to the railway and the M25. There's nothing to beat sitting under the stars around a campfire swapping stories about past exploits.

Towards the end of the year we entered two six man teams into a 'Night Hike' competition with varying degrees of success. The hike began at 6:30pm and it took one of our teams three hours to find the first check point positioned, as it was, just three kilometres from the start! Our second team were more fortunate; they only missed the last checkpoint, at 1am on a pitch-dark night. Bearing in mind the fact that the team members were aged only twelve to fourteen it was quite an achievement.

Christmas was celebrated in normal Scout tradition with a party and a (very) messy games evening.

There were obviously many more evenings and weekends at which less exciting activities took place but our emphasis continues to be on teamwork and developing organisational skills.

Oh, I nearly forgot, two Oxshott Scouts have been selected, along with one from 1st Hinchley Wood and one from 1st Claygate, to represent Esher District at a Jamboree in Thailand at the end of 2002. They need to raise £1500. Can you help?

And finally if you think Scouting is a little out of date I recommend that you keep your eyes on the press from mid?April. A whole new national programme comes into existence from September. And we need more helpers. Interested? Phone Neil Heather on 01932 864630 or e-mail niheather@yahoo.co.uk