9th Feb
This was held, as it has been for several years, at Seymours Club. Last year was so popular with the Cubs that went that all of our Cubs with one exception, he was in Kent on holiday, put there money down and came along. Sadly Ella and Alex 2 did not make it as they were unwell.
We met up at 13:45 to start promptly at 14:00 so at precisely 14:15. Lots of excitement and they were brought to a peak by Rich. A spot prize for best dancer went to Becky. When nicely wound up the Cubs were sat down and organised into eight teams. Each team was named after trees, our tree was Birch although three of our girls were put into Willow. Then off they went on their tour of the bases.
Our first base was skittles - a game of 'killer' in which the bowler attempt to knock down whatever pins were left standing. Once the last pin has been knocked down all the pins were put back up and they can all be knocked down again. We, I mean the Cubs, managed to get 26 which we were proud of. Hathi was kept busy putting the pins up and returning the balls to the bowlers. (Hard work!).
Second base was colouring - While the Cubs were busy doing this Hathi was asked to help on base 1 as the Cubs did not have a leader with them. (More hard Work)
Third base is one that may not make it to next year Karaoke - The Cubs were given a lot of song titles to choose from and then practice. Then they were given live mikes so that everybody could 'enjoy' the music. Well the politest thing I can say about our Cubs is that they were keen and LOUD, VERY LOUD, but some were not very tuneful. However you couldn't beat them for enthusiasm or gusto. The song they chose was Robbie Williams 'Let me entertain you'.
Mercifully base four was quieter and nobody had to sit with their fingers in their ears. A Wooden hat-stand was used as a hoopla target and large aluminium rings were thrown to hook onto the coat pegs. Various points were awarded depending on difficulty. Dan got the hang of this quickly but in the end everybody contributed to the score. Ben found much better marksmanship when he climbed on a chair, to a very unsporting cry of 'Cheat' from, I imagine, another leader. Shame on her!
Base five Keepy-up This was to sort the footballers from the human beings alright. The bad sportsmanship from the boys when they failed was up to professional standards. Tom did very well with six bounces, Steph was best girl, and amazed herself, with five. Then with only minutes to go Alex scored seven, the best score of any pack to that time.
Base six darts - The idea was to throw a dart into the #1 segment then into #2, etcetera. Well in fifteen minutes they had progressed to #9, taking in the floor the table and the curtains. As darts players we are pretty good footballers. Not our best base.
By this time the Cubs were getting thirsty and a little fractious, Akela who had be seconded into the kitchen was called for and acquired drinks for the most severely dehydrated.
The seventh base was a quiz - fifty questions in fifteen minutes, what were the names of the "Banana Splits " Scooby-do is what sort of dog. Lots of pictures of TV programmes that even TV heads like our Cubs were hard pushed to recognise. we scored 11 in this and were one of the better groups.
Eighth base food - Chips and sausage or burger with as much drink as they could hold. For politeness and manners they scored eight out of ten. Well done.
Then as the scores were totaled up the Cubs were invited to go and jump about and dance some more. Steph2 managed to win a 'Christmas Egg' for best disco dancer.
The Results were that we placed 6th for the main group and 8th for the splinter group. The best Group were Chestnuts aka the 133rd, they have beaten us again! I wish I could say its all a fix but having seen them compete I can't, they don't. They just do it better.