Chief Scout Award

Cub Scout, Amrit Sian, received the Chief Scout Silver award from Group Scout Leader Simon Theobald at this year’s Cub camp.

This badge is the highest award available in the Cub Scout Section. It is gained by completing the Outdoor Challenge, the Promise Challenge, the Creative Challenge, the Fitness Challenge, the Global Challenge and the Community Challenge.

Well done Amrit, fantastic achievement.

Jumble Sale

The Jumble sale raised in excess of £3000. This is a fantastic achievement as our target until recently was to raise £2000. Many thanks to Deirdre and all the other helpers for the time and effort they put in organising the event.

Special thanks goes to the few who stayed behind after the event to help clear up. A great job done well.

Cub Camp

The annual Cub camp was again a massive success this year. It was held at Lees Wood this year from Friday 23rd to Sunday 25th Sep 11. Many thanks to Brian, Louise, Roger, Jamie and everyone else who helped ensure the Cubs had a terrific time.

Some pictures of the camp can be seen here.

Rickmansworth Society - Watersmeet

The Rickmansworth Society will be holding their annual Autumn Market at Watersmeet on the 8th October 2011. The market will be open from 10am. A large number of local groups and societies will be there with an array of interesting tables with items for sale and lots of local information.

Refreshments will be available. Look forward to seeing you there!!

Beavers News

Beavers has started the new term with a bang - or to be precise, 7 new members!

We've had an exciting start to our autumn programme: crab football, marshmallow modelling, an exploration evening in the local woods, and looking into the future!

The really bright news for Batchworth Beavers is that we have a new Assistant Beaver Leader, Claire Campbell (to be known as CC), and we'd like to extend a very warm welcome to her.

Christmas Panto – Cinderella

This year the panto is Cinderalla starring Jonathan Ansell as Prince Charming and Michael Otton in the shape of Cinderella’s best buddy Buttons Cinderella’s carriage will be bringing all the cast to Rickmansworth on 11th December at Watersmeet.

There are still some tickets left for the pantomime. Anybody who's interested should contact Jane Spurr (jane.spurr@kcl.ac.uk; 01923 776936).

Grand Jumble Sale - Saturday 24th September 2011 - Volunteers Needed

Please remember to come down and help with sorting for the Jumble Sale on Monday (19 September), Wednesday (21 September) or Friday (23 September) between 7:00-9:00pm.All families are asked to help – many hands make light work!

We also need lots of people to commit to helping on the day of the sale – Saturday 24th September – setting up from 9:00 and selling the jumble from 10:30 and helping with the clearing up from 1pm. The sale is over and everything is cleared up by the early afternoon.

If you can help please phone our Jumble Organiser, Deirdre Edwards, on 01923 771626.

Handyman/Builder Required

The Headquarters building has some cracks that need filling with mortar or cement. If you have the necessary skills and are able to help please contact Keith Wall on 01923 777 340.

District Pantomime Trip - Cinderella

The Scouts and Guides have booked the whole of Watersmeet Theatre for the 1.30pm showing of Cinderella, starring Jonathan Ansell as Prince Charming, on the Sunday 11th December 2011.

Tickets are priced at £12.50. Please contact Jane Spur on jane.spurr@kcl.ac.uk or 01923 776936 for more information.

The clock is ticking…

Dave Long

One of Batchworth Sea Scouts dearest friends and helpers, Dave Long, sadly passed away on 7th July 2011. Dave passed unexpectedly of heart failure, in his sleep, while on holiday so it would have been very peaceful for him.

So many people knew Dave, who had an association with Scouting dating back over 40 years and remained very involved not only with Batchworth Sea Scouts but also at Croxley Scouts and with the District explorer group. We currently knew Dave as our Quartermaster, others knew him as a recent explorer leader, however, it seems everyone knew him as Good Ol’ Dave. Good Ol’ Dave was a nickname that not only Dave embraced and many others used but it was also fitting, to so many people he really was Good Ol’ Dave.

On Sunday 17th July, at the Batchworth Family Sailing Day many of Dave’s friends gathered on shore and as a mark of respect to Dave, a man who was respected as a legend at Batchworth Sea Scouts, paid tribute with a minutes applause.

Dave Long went by many names, Quartermaster, Good Ol’ Dave, Explorer Scout Leader, Legend, etc. However, everyone that has spoke of his untimely passing also used a further name, that of friend.

Batchworth Sea Scouts, past and present, will miss our dear friend.

Simon Gowing awarded a Queens Scout and a gold DofE

Explorer leader, Simon Gowing, was awarded a Queens Scout award and Duke of Edinburgh's (D of E) Gold Award at a ceremony held during the annual Family Sailing day at Rickmansworth Aquadrome in July.

The Queen's Scout Award is the culmination of everything you can achieve in Scouting. Obtaining the top award in scouting required more effort then was needed for the Duke of Edinburgh's (D of E) Gold Award!

Many congratulations to Simon for a marvellous achievement.

Batchworth Sea Scouts link up with Northwood Headquarters

Northwood Headquarters is the UK’s principal military HQ site. It is home to 4 Operational HQs (Permanent Joint Headquarters (including the JFHQ), the Commander Naval Forces North (one of NATO's three major Commanders) and Headquarters of Commander in Chief Fleet) and was almost completely rebuilt between 2006-11, resulting in a purpose-built HQ site for 2000 personnel.

However, most people will just know it as the big base surrounded by razor wire. As part of an outreach programme Batchworth Sea Scouts are being given access to various tours of the base and use of certain recreational facilities at the base. Further information regarding the cooperation between Batchworth Sea Scouts and Northwood Headquarters, which is in its infancy, will be forthcoming throughout the coming year.

Batchworth Polo Shirts and Hoodies

We now have a great range of personalised polo shirts and hoodies available. In navy blue, they’re available in all sizes and personalised with the Batchworth Sea Scouts logo. To get hold of your shirt contact Mike Read on seascoutleader@hotmail.com.

Scout Jamboree

Tom and Judy Smith from Batchworth Sea Scouts are attending the fortnight long Scout Jamboree in Rinkabe, Sweden. They both had to raise about £2,000 for the whole trip, and part of the money helps people from poorer countries who otherwise would not be able to attend.

Tom's fundraising efforts included organising quiz nights, bag-packing at supermarkets, making cakes and selling them at a Swedish-themed coffee and cake session. He also made and sold greetings cards.

Tom said: “I enjoyed all the effort. It was great fun. I'm very much looking forward to the jamboree and the trips to Copenhagen and Croatia.

“I'm looking forward to seeing different sights, tasting different foods, learning different languages. It should be the experience of a lifetime.”

There’s an excellent article about the Jamboree in the Warford Observer here.

Family Sailing Day

A big thank you to everyone involved in the Family Sailing day. It was a great team effort and the whole day passed off smoothly. More than that, we achieved all our objectives in terms of delivering fun, adventurous and sociable activities to our members and their families. There were over 100 Batchworth related folks on-site.

Please also see the note below from BLYM endorsing our efforts. We’ve also had messages from the other groups on-site yesterday thanking us for our co-operation in working around their events.

Autumn Term

With the exception of the summer camps regular meetings have now ended for all the sections. Regular meetings for Beavers, Cubs and Scouts will resume in September.

Have a great holiday. See you all in September.