Group

?By Daniel  Wolves Patrol Leader (Monday Scout Troop)

 

On Saturday the 17th of May, three Totley Scout groups and eighteen other scout troops set off across Sheffield in the Scout Scarper. The Scout Scarper is a scout competition which consists of teams using buses to get across Sheffield, while earning points for travel and completing tasks at bases which give you a score out of ten points depending on the teamwork and skill portrayed by the team.

In my team, we started off by taking a bus to the Millhouses Scout hut where we completed our first task. We then took another bus to Totley where we raced one of the other Totley Scout group to the hut and got there first narrowly and competed in an archery competition. We proceeded to get an average of four points per arrow out of fifteen total arrows (which we were very happy with).

 

After the archery we went on even more buses to more bases such as the ones in Hillsborough and the city centre and managed to sneak in a trip to McDonalds in between bases. After completing seven bases we had thirty minutes left and no buses were available to any places that we would have found useful, so we had to run to the base at the Children’s Hospital. We arrived with two minutes to spare before it closed and completed the task hurriedly. We were then able to stroll towards the finish line and still arrived around twenty minutes early, before watching the trophy presentation to find out that our team won the competition!

All the other teams also did brilliantly with one finishing in fourth place finish and only two points away from second place. Our other team got distracted by convenience stores and chip shops and so didn't do so well, but still had a great time.

 

It was such a fun day and I’m sure all the scouts will participate next year if they can and a huge thanks to all the leaders that helped set the event up.

 

 

Two teams from 1st Totley Scouts entered Scout Scarper 2024 on Saturday 18th May which, in total 15 teams of 75 Scouts took part. In this annual competition for Hallam District Scouts the teams visit as many Scout HQ’s in the District, plus other venues in town. They must use public transport and they complete certain tasks, such as guessing the parts of a body on a skeleton, carrying water in a leaky bucket and archery, and gain points for how well they did.

 

One of the Totley teams came a creditable 5th place, only a few points away from a podium finish; just one more base visited would have made all the difference.

 

Josh, one of our Scouts, told us about the day:

 

I love Operation Scarper, it’s one of my favourite events of the year. You get to work as a team completing fun activities such as archery, and you get to ride the buses from base to base. There are different challenges to do at each of the bases and you have to try and score as many points as possible. The more bases you visit and the further you travel, the better your team score. I’d really recommend giving it a try, you won’t regret it!