3rd Billericay Scout Troop

• Kestrel: 1123
• Cobra: 920
• Bull: 1063
• Seagull: 741

The Great Worldwide Easter Egg Hunt

To keep you amused over the Easter holiday, Skip has been busy hiding eggs all over the world for you to find. Begin your search here

Once you have found all the eggs, and unscrambled the message, send it to Skip. The first correct answer will earn 50 points for your patrol, and a chocolate egg for you!

26/03/2010: Two More Scouts make their Promise

Tonight the troop witnessed Harry of Kestrels, and Joshua of Seagulls making their Scout promise.
We are very pleased to welcome them both to the troop.

Wide Game, Smugglers vs. the Customs Men

The first game had the Bulls and Cobras working together to defeat the Smugglers. (Kestrels and Seagulls)
At half time they changed sides and found out what it was like on the other side of the law.
Our champion smuggler was Ben, Patrol Leader of the Cobras. He managed to smuggle two bottles of tomato sauce and an apple. A special mention goes to Matthew, the only smuggler to actually get his hands on the Chocolate, and only just out of time at the end of the game.

Well done to the winning team, Cobras and Bulls.

• Cobras - 50 points
• Bulls - 50 points

This weeks puzzle, for 10 points

Every other day, a suspicious customs man stops the same cyclist as he crosses the border. He searches him each time, but never finds any contraband.
This goes on for three years. The customs man suspects he is smuggling, but can never find anything.

The customs man was right to be suspicious, the clever smuggler had been smuggling all the time! The question is, what was he smuggling?

Peter was the first to solve this puzzle, and earns another 10 points for the Kestrels!
Click here to see his answer.

19/03/2010: Night Hike

Cobras and Kestrels took the Ingatestone to Billericay route.
Bulls and Seagulls took the Stock to Billericay route.

Points are awarded for getting the most correct answers:

• 1^st: Kestrels - 50 points
• =2^nd: Bulls - 30 points
• =2^nd: Seagulls - 30 points

This weeks puzzle, for 10 points

Some Scouts leave the Scout Hut to go on a hike. They travel 8 miles due North, then turn East for 2 miles.
They then travel South for 2 miles, east a further 3 miles, before heading back to the Scout hut, which is 6 miles south.
What is the exact location of their Scout Hut?

Peter was the first to solve this puzzle, and earns 10 points for the Kestrels!
Click here to see his answer.

12/03/2010: A Chinese Lucky knot for Mothers day

Tonight we learned how to tie this decorative knot. The WonderHowTo website has an excellent animated tutorial.

We whipped the ends using a West Country Whipping, and attached it to a metal key-ring. A nice gift for Mothers Day.

Map Skills - Map References

This weeks challenge is to decipher a coded message. You can decode it by using the Roamer on the Map References Page

Message reads:
677943 694963 665937 699960 683942 676967 684945
688943 683956 689956
663937 673936 684961 694952
696960 661968 697960 671963

Another 10 bonus points for the Bull patrol!
Henry was the first to decipher the message. Click here to see his answer.

05/03/2010: Three New Scouts are Invested

Our first investiture of the night was Cameron of the Seagulls.
Jerome and Nathan of the Kestrel patrol then made their Scout promises together.
All three are now official members of the Orion Troop.

Luke picked up another award tonight, the "My Faith" Activity badge. This earns 10 points for the Kestrels.

Welcome to the Troop

Tonight we welcome two new members. Miles and Matthew are the newest recruits of the Cobra Patrol. They are both Cubs from the Jeebi pack, working on their moving on badge.

This weeks puzzle, for 10 points

You are in the Scout hut, looking at a row of three switches marked "Outside Lights". Each switch controls one of three security lights outside the hut. You cannot see any of the outside lights from your position in front of the switches. You can turn the switches on and off and leave them in any position. How would you identify which switch corresponds to which light. You are only allowed one trip outside.

Another 10 bonus points for the Bull patrol
Henry provided the solution this time. Click here to see his answer.

Wilderness Survival Strikes Back

Retaking the survival exercise, every single patrol has significantly improved upon their previous score.
Kestrels improved by 36 points, Cobras were up by 21, the Seagulls increased their score by 36. The Bulls raised their score the most, with an extra 48 points.

Well done to all the patrols

You can review the exercise by following this link.

26/02/2010: Two Scouts make their promise, and join the Orion Troop.

Henry and Edward of the Bull patrol made their promise tonight, and officially became members of the Orion Troop.

Edward was awarded his Swimmer Stage 3 badge, and earned 10 points for the Bulls.
Luke was awarded the Fitness Challenge badge tonight, and earned 20 points for the Kestrels.

Emergency Aid

Many thanks to our special guest tonight, Nurse Imbert. All of the Scouts who have been working through their emergency aid training over the last 3 troop nights have earned their Emergency Aid stage 2 badge:

• Tom, James and Henry - 30 pts
• Ben, David and Lincoln - 30 pts
• Luke, Peter, Nathan and Jerome - 40pts
• Matthew and Cameron - 20 pts

Another chance to pick up some points for your Patrol

Your patrol of 4 Scouts must cross a rickety old bridge at night. But you only have one torch in the patrol.
The bridge can only support two people at once.
The Scouts walk at different speeds:

• PL - 1 minute to cross the bridge.
• APL - 2 minutes to cross the bridge.
• Tenderfoot - 5 minutes to cross the bridge.
• Injured Scout - has twisted his ankle, and will take 10 minutes to cross the bridge.

So, the simplest approach is to give the torch to the Patrol Leader, and have him/her guide the slower Scouts across one by one.
This takes 19 minutes.

However, there is a faster way to get the patrol across.
Can you figure it out? (And no, it doesn't involve throwing the torch!!)

10 bonus points for the Bull patrol
Joseph came up with the solution. Click here to see his answer.