Scouts

The Halloween Hike (established in 1995) is an event for teams of Guides, Scouts, Explorers and Rangers.  The hike is to encourage teams to work together, to put their map reading skills into practice and to take part in various challenges along the way; most importantly we want them to have fun!  The route for Guides and Scouts is approx. 5-6 miles; the route for Explorers and Rangers is approx. 8 miles.  The challenges take place at checkpoints manned by Scouting and Guiding adults.

The hike is day and night event wrapping up at midnight; start times are based on which class a team enters (see below).  The hike takes place on a weekend close to Halloween each year. 

Event Categories (revised in 2022):

Class 1:                 Any age of team (Scouts or Guides, no visiting Cubs or Brownies please) who will walk accompanied by a leader or unit assistant.  This is a training group so please make sure your adult is suitable to teach map reading as they go.  These teams will all walk mostly in daylight.

Class 2:                 Any age of team (Scouts and Guides) who will walk unaccompanied. These teams will start in daylight but most likely finish in the dark.  We will reserve earlier start times (i.e. less night walking) for younger/less experienced teams.

Class 3:                 Age 12+ (Scouts, Guides, Explorers or Rangers) who will walk unaccompanied. These teams will start in the late afternoon and walk predominantly in the dark with the last team in by midnight.  These are expected to be older, more experienced teams.

Trophies are awarded for classes 2 & 3 based on points scored on activity checkpoints around the route.  There is a 3rd trophy for the fastest team in Class 3.

Along the route there will be a number of check points with activities for the guides to take part in; the guides can score points for completing the activity.  Activities at checkpoints are designed to test team work and to be fun.  One checkpoint that needs a little planning is cooking.  The idea is to make a quick, simple and filling meal; everyone should be involved and points will be awarded for teamwork, quality, effort and edibility.  Ideas for the meal could be macaroni cheese, quesadillas, corn beef hash, stir fry, the list goes on.

The hike is a lot of fun and many young people take part year on year, we mix the activities up every year and the route is never the same twice.  The weather also plays its part, it’s been warm, dry, wet, cold, foggy, frosty and in 2023 we had to move the whole event 6 hours earlier to avoid a yellow weather warning! (just after the last team came in, the lightning started).

For more information you can contact the organisers here

Roll of honour

Petworth and Pulborough District Scouts shooting and archery competition

On 28 January 2024 we held a district shooting and archery competition at the Billingshurst Scout HQ. The shooting and archery competitions were held as separate competitions with the Scouts choosing which discipline they wanted to compete in, or they could do both. There was no limit on number of competitors from each group therefore everyone could have ago. The top 4 scores from each group would decide the winning group.

We had a great turnout with 28 Scouts from 6 groups from across the district. 26 Scouts entered the shooting competition and 22 entered the archery competition.

The Shooting competition consisted of 2 cards sitting and 2 cards standing. The archery consisted of 2 rounds of 6 arrows.

The scores were very close for both competitions with some very talented shooters in both disciplines. So close that we actually had a tie for highest individual score in the shooting and 4 Scouts tied for 3^rd highest individual score in the archery. But the main competition was to find the highest scoring group team.

First place for the shooting went to Pulborough Sea Scouts with 362 points, they also won the archery with 396 points.

The top four Scouts from the Shooting competition have been selected to represent Petworth and Pulborough at the county shooting competition on 18 February 2024 in Worthing.

Well done to all that took part

Thanks to Allan Brown of 1st Billingshurst for providing this report

P&P Scouts and Petworth Division Guides have just finished the triumphant return of the Halloween Hike. The hike has been running since 1995 and is a night hike for Scouts, Guides, Explorer Scouts and Ranger Guides. The hike route is usually 5-6.5 miles long and there are checkpoints along the way where the teams complete activities to try and win one of the event trophies. The route this year was a circuit from Billingshurst to Wisborough Green and back and the activities included cooking, brainteasers, archery and shelter building plus trying to fill a bucket from the canal (it took a while for them to realise the bucket had holes in it!)

A new format for 2021 started the younger teams walking during the daytime and finishing in the dark while the older teams competed in full dark. We had a total of 20 teams taking part (over 100 young people) supported by over 35 adult volunteers. This was our first big post-covid event and thank you to everyone (especially the young people who came back muddy and smiling!)

We would also like to say a special thank you to Bellman’s Auctioneers for letting us use their car park and to the Wey & Arun Canal Trust for gaining us permission to place a checkpoint near the canal.

If you would like to know more about getting involved please email info@pandpscouts.org.uk

Here are the full results:

Points earned on checkpoints in italics

Class 1

Walking with a leader – mostly in daylight

1 Pulborough B (89)

2 Ifold (87)

3 Arun Alpacas (80)

4 S&S Cherokee B (74)

5 Plaistow Prancers (69)

6 Billingshurst Fireballs (69)

7 S&S Cherokee A (66)

Class 2

Walking unaccompanied, starting in daylight and finishing in the dark

1 Billingshurst Cookie Monsters (80)

2 Fittleworth (80) Missed Checkpoint

3 Billingshurst Hedgehogs (76)

4 Downlands B (74)

5 Billingshurst Jungle Cats (73)

6 Midhurst B (48)

7 Easebourne (18) DNF

Class 3

Walking unaccompanied in full dark

1 Downlands A (103)

2 Silver Stags (102)

3 Arun Antelopes (90)

4 Pulborough A (81)

5 Phoenix Omega (78)

6 Midhurst A (73)

Here are the results of the time trials:

Only time spent walking is counted, all checkpoint time is deducted. Classes 2& 3 only

1 Downlands A

2 Fittleworth

3 Phoenix Omega

4 Billingshurst Jungle Cats

5 Silver Stags

6 Arun Antelopes

7 Pulborough A

8 Midhurst A

9 Downlands B

10 Billingshurst Hedgehogs

11 Billingshurst Cookie Monsters

Additional Hike Report from Adam, Billingshurst Scouts

On the Halloween Hike we first did a kit check and then we had some grid references and we had to plot them onto a map of Billingshurst.  Once we had done that me and my fellow hikers set off on our trek around and about Billingshurst.  Along the hike there were 6 different checkpoints which we had to do different activities which included cooking a meal which we had already prepared and had in our bags.  Other activities included archery, shelter building, stacking dice with chopsticks and solving tricky puzzles on the spot. 

On the hike we encountered lots of mud, darkness and losing our sense of direction as our team came adrift of the hike route twice. Whilst losing track of where we were going, on the second time this happened we met up with another team and at the next checkpoint we saw another scout team.  The hike was about 6 and a half miles in total yet it took us roughly 8 hours, this was because of the checkpoints taking up more time. 

Scouts throughout the district are always trying new and exciting activities and It's fair to say target shooting has always proved a popular choice as proved each year at Petworth Park Camp. There are Scouts that are happy to just have a go, Scouts that want to progress their skills and Scouts that have a natural talent for Shooting.

We’re a team of Scouts that all started shooting at a taster session. With years of hard work and dedication two of us now shoot at international competitions, representing Team GB in championship matches as far away as Luxembourg and even setting a new British record! Around this time every year we represent the district and county at the National Scout Rifle Championships. With that cancelled this year we thought we’d promote it instead.

The National Scout Rifle Championships is a 3 day event open to all UK members. Each year it attracts over 700 participants of all abilities and ages from all over the UK. It’s been running for over 40 years and is held at The National Shooting Center in Bisley, Surrey. There's a main competition and several other events too.

Those of us that attend from P&P tag onto the Worthing Scouts Shooting Squad.. We train with them every weekend, fine tuning our skills ready for the next competition. For us it's the highlight of the year.

The main competition comprises of 4 events - 

• 6 yard air rifle
• 6 yard air pistol?
• Field target
• Knockdown

After that the choice is yours! Other events include

• small bore rifle
• full bore rifle
• archery
• crossbow
• target sprint

With upwards of 700 competitors it's fair to say the P&P contingent have had some fairly impressive finishing positions in recent years. Most impressive for us was coming 4th overall team in the main competition.

• 2019 - 4th - main competition (team)
  Marcus Barnes, Jack Lovett & Maddy Barnes
• 2019 - 15th - field target
  Marcus Barnes
• 2019 - 7th - own pistol
  Jack Lovett
• 2019 - 9th - own pistol
  Maddie Barnes
• 2018 - 3rd - crossbow
  Robert Whitling

If you’ve got a passion for shooting, a scout showing potential, or would like to get involved please do get in touch - dyc@pandpscouts.org.uk
.

You can find more information on the nationals here - http://hampshirescoutrifleclub.org.uk/national-scout-rifle-championships/

You can see Maddy and Jack's accomplishments here -

https://www.airgunmagazine.co.uk/news/new-record-set-at-intershoot-2020/ 

Special thanks to the amazing leaders at Worthing District Shooting Squad for all your help and support with nationals and training each year.