Pedalers are you ready? Timers are you ready?
Last weekend 16 Scouts (4 Teams) and 4 Leaders headed to Thriftwood Campsite in Brentwood, Essex for the National Pedal Car Olympics. No problems with the minibus this year now we have our own, we left almost on time and had a easy journey to Brentwood. Point 5 must ring ahead to the Dartford Crossing because for the last three years at 6pm on a friday there has been no queue, it’s amazing!
Gadget was amazed to see the minibus head off the motorway at junction 29 when Brentwood is just off junction 28, thought it was
just Point 5 having a moment, he was even more amazed when he got to Thriftwood and the minibus was already there! Point 5 blamed Lucy as she had set the Sat Nav up even though it was quicker. Once at Thriftwood we went up to our site to unpack, there are two to small parking areas on the site so Point 5 put the minibus in the same one as last year. Having said “look at the size of that puddle” he went straight through without any problems and got stuck in the mud the other side of it. Gizmo and Gadget managed to get him out, he turned round and had a go at getting out and on to tarmac. This time he hit the mud, the bus went sideways and sank to over half way up the front wheels. (don’t panic there were no Scouts were on the Bus!). A huge thank you to the service crew that arrived in a pimped out land rover covered in lights and a winch and dragged the bus out.
So the tents were put up, we had our evening meal, then hot drink and off to bed with a frost already setting. Saturday morning was not as cold as Friday night (but was still cold), it was an early start, up just after 7 for breakfast at 8 and competition starting at 9. Over the course of the weekend there are 9 events, Blind Driving Skills, Penalty Shootout, Triathlon, Endurance, Team Relay, Sprint, Tractor Pull, Pursuit and Individual Track Race. The Triathlon and Pursuit are only for 2 team members so over the weekend the Scouts all do 8 of the Events. The one event they all dread is the Endurance. It’s approx 600 meters up and down a woodland path made worse this year by the stream that runs along side it having overflowed onto the path. They get points for times and distance depending on the event and it’s all added up at the end for the final results.
After the evening meal on Saturday (we think Point 5 may have consumed 3 french sticks worth of garlic bread, but at least he didn’t mop up his custard with it!) there is huge party on one of the sites with large inflatables and a disco. Sunday saw the remainder of the events the Scouts hadn’t done on Saturday. Fortunately the Girls team had the Endurance Race first as it was in a really bad way by the close of competition at lunch time.
After lunch it was tents away and of to watch the last couple on finals before the presentations. There are two sections of the competition, Junior – Scouts/Guides and Senior – Explorers/Rangers. There are awards for each individual event as well as the overall Team results and a special award for the highest placed all girls team.
A huge well done to Cameron, Joseph, Lewis, Sam, Tom, Aidan, George, Oliver, Geena, Lauren, Jasmin, Olivia, Ryan, Shaun, Presley and Brandon who all took part, you all did an amazing job in very tough conditions.
So the results were in, how would we do after last years first place?
It all started Saturday night when Point 5 won the raffle (Lucy picked the winning ticket out!!)
Well done to Cameron who took 3rd place in the Tractor Pull, a huge well done to Geena, Lauren, Jasmin and Olivia who took the award for the highest placed all girls team and a massive well done to Cameron, Joseph, Sam and Lewis who took 1st place in the overall competition.
Another incredible weekend with 70 teams of Scouts taking part. On behalf of Point 5, Gizmo, Lucy and Gadget, thank you Scouts for another great weekend, we are proud of you all.
A big thank you to Colin and the team at Thriftwood for another fantastic weekend. We can’t wait for 2014!
Final Results:
1st – Team Bravo
30th – Team Alpha (All Girls Team)
55th – Team Charlie
66th – Team Delta
We attached a video camera to the handle bars for a couple of the events and try to get as many pictures of everyone as we can. Below are some of the pictures and links to the video pages.
Blind Driving Skills video page here.
Endurance Race video page here.
If you hover over the picture area it stops the slideshow
Tom appears to be directing a Hamster round the Blind Skills course!
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