Excitement surrounded the Stockade in St David’s Way as Ilford Northwest District Explorer Scouts fought to retain the Kilmuir Trophy for the third year running. Kilmuir is a much anticipated annual Explorer event which encompasses elements of quizzes, treasure hunts and amusing tasks.
Preparation began at 7pm on Friday when this year’s questions and tasks were released to all Groups. An evening of frenzied activity saw a start to a number of the tasks and the allocation of jobs to ensure everything could be attempted in the time allowed. Saturday was an early start with teams visiting various locations in and around London with 2 members undertaking separate park runs and others attending the Oval in cricket whites and the Olympic Pool in snorkel gear, and a quick visit to Heathrow’s arrivals board to check on the arrival of BA 1541 from Chicago. Saturday evening and Sunday morning were spent building a topographical map of Gilwell Park, Scouting Centre in Chingford, headquarters of the Scouting Association, out of Lego, the leaning tower of Pisa out of Pasta and an edible Taj Mahal.
Teams were summoned at 2.15 Sunday afternoon to attend Hargreaves Scout Camp in Little Heath, to produce evidence of their accomplishments with 3 members of each team having to dress as a Minecraft character.
Despite their best efforts the team could only manage 3rd place this year with 111 Points losing out to Chingford with 125 Points. Although defeated, a great weekend was had by all participants with Group Scout Leader Mark Carter saying, “All the team worked extremely hard and achieved a very respectable score which was only 14 points from the winning team with 111 out of 150. I think the effort was best summed up by one of the team members who said “well done guys, we may not have won but I have had a great experience””. The group are already looking forward to next year’s event with a view to bringing the trophy back to its rightful home.
Daniel Gatty Debden Park High School
