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As July arrived and the minibus we’d had booked for months was deemed as unfit for the road, we began to think that we’d never break free from the Dragnet doldrums. Enter Roger Mitchell, a well connected deputy head with a fleet of luxury minibuses (or at least one slightly odd smelling one) at his disposal! Our knight in shining armour once again, cheers Rog. So, with a fully laden minibus containing 3 teams, the majority of which had never walked the event before, we began our journey to the Lakes in earnest. And somehow, and we really don’t know how, for the first time in many a year we managed to make it in time for the pre-event briefing, a mere hour and a half later than we should have arrived, surely this was a good omen. As midnight drew nearer, our 12 pepped, psyched and undertrained explorers headed off into the wilderness. That was the last we’d hear from them until Sunday afternoon…
…or until 6am Saturday morning when us leaders were awoken from our spine twistingly good night’s sleep on the minibus by a mobile phone which almost sang ‘We want to drop out’ as the ring tone. A worried Pinto took the call, and sure enough a lack of sleep and some unfortunately placed nails in boots meant that one of our novice teams were contemplating calling it a day. However with some words of encouragement and a threat or two about being ousted from the unit, they decided to trundle on.
It was at this point that we decided to do some trundling of our own – up to Yoke, High Street and Kentmere Pike with a fell-side paella stop, an overnight summit camp and plenty of tea and sunshine along the way! As we headed back to Cartmel Race Course on Sunday morning we wondered what would await us?!?!
Sadly team Tish, Rob, Joe and Keith had thrown in the towel, though to their credit they had continued to hobble on until Saturday night. But what of the other two teams, both were still out there somewhere, and both reportedly still had lives! In 9 years of Centurion ESU entering Dragnet, we’d never been in this position before.
Time ticked on and just as 11 o’clock loomed, a hint of rustiness, a glimpse of blonde, the reflection off of a pair of glasses, a flash of a multitude of knees…it was team Calum, Izzy, Chris and Richard waddling to the finish line and still clutching hold of a life, yay!!! Meanwhile there were tales spreading about the whereabouts of our other novice team which consisted of Queeny, Mike, Swine Flu and Scott – an unlikely foursome to be contenders with 2 lives left but these were the rumours. 11:30 came…no sign, 11:45…no sign, 12:00…no sign and sadly their late arrival meant they were out of the running. However when they did arrive at 12:30pm and proved the two life rumour to be true, we were as proud as proud could be. Not only had they finished, but in true “Centurion at Dragnet” style they were late. Had it not been for lingering for a little too long in the (slightly out of bounds) village of Lindale they would have placed in the top four teams – not bad going for first time entrants. As the official results were announced our senior team finished in 9th place – fantastic work guys, they’ve all waited a few years to get there but have at last set the unit benchmark.
Well done also to the Hornchurch Network Ferrocious Ferrets team who managed to finish the event though sadly lost all of their lives. Who’d of thought a Network team would get caught twice in the pub?
Thanks to the organisers as usual for another fantastic (and very well attended) event.
Jul 2010
After over a year of planning, confusion and people sleeping in, Andrew, Izzy and I had finally made it to the Isle of Wight! And it was obviously worth the wait, with blue skies ready to welcome us to the island. Sadly though, our good fortune was short lived as Izzy succumbed to the gut wrenching power of a dodgy cornish pasty she'd bought on the mainland. Despite the fact that over the course of our first day she repeatedly had to duck into hedges and recreate said pasty, we managed to walk about halfway to our destination before finally catching a bus in the hope that now the sordid snack was spread liberally along the IoW coastal path, tomorrow the whole team would be fit and raring to go! Our first night was spent in the lovely East Cowes, with an outstanding view across to Fawley Power Station.
After a good night's sleep it was up bright and early for the longest walk to Yarmouth and the Needles. A bit of sunburn, some ice cream and smiles were the order of the day. Much cliff top fun was had!
After a ludicrous night with everyone showering
(unheard of on any explorer trip ever), we had reached our last day of
walking. And what a way to start...straight up a hill to what I think
was the highest place on the island. Most of the island could be seen
from the top, not too dissimilar to a modestly proportioned campsite well
known to Centurion.
A pleasant walk along the coast, and a quick geography lesson from Izzy
about stacks, stumps and arches and we had finished walking!
We spent the final night at Izzy's grandparent's house (they weren't there, but they knew we were...honest) and enjoyed fish and chips as well as the Arsenal vs. Tottenham match which will henceforth not be mentioned again. The last day was spent finishing our noughts and crosses challenge in Ryde.. again ending with a similarly unmentioned result.
A great hike, and a sorry goodbye to Andrew on his last Centurion ESU trip.
Calum Finch
The planning for this expedition had many ups, downs and uncertainties so well done to Calum, Izzy and Andrew for finally managing to get it done. They've now completed the expedition section of the Chief Scout's Diamond Award, lovely job.
May 2010
As in previous years, by luck rather than judgement, we’d planned Crow for the same time as the District Swimming Gala. So after ensuring our finely tuned athletes were full of gut wrenchingly good goulash, we all bundled down to Hornchurch Sports Centre to cheer on Many Knees Morris, Chris and Rob in the explorer swimming events. Exactly where they finished escapes me (sorry chaps) but they all swam their little arms and legs off in the name of the Hog. Rob managed to change out of his camos for the occasion, Chris threw his waterwings aside and Many Knees got beaten by a girl…after adding in a signature mini dive move about 5 metres in, in order to maintain his modesty and not to blacken the reputation of explorersany further. When all the points were totted up on the
2010 compared to way back when!
Following this crushing defeat, Sunday morning didn’t start much better. A seriously chilly night meant that all the water on site was frozen solid and with two thirds of a roof still to construct, that all important morning cuppa was a long time coming. But once it had hit the spot we were off! A few hours of hardcore hammering, speedy sawing and ferocious felting meant that our biggest job on site to date was finished in the nick of time!
Mar 2010
For many, last year’s expedition to Russia seemed like a jolly jaunt, but little did our explorer minds know that we were in fact secretly training them up for the Southern 50 Challenge! Combined with some top notch navigation training under the watchful eye of the starry starry nanny, hopes were perhaps higher than normal for the two 30km teams - the Backscratchers (Rob, Mike, Swine-flu and last minute super-sub Scott) and The Girly Whirlies…and Keith (Rachel, Tish, Jane and, well, Keith). These hopes though seemed quite distant when we were told by organisers that two teams had stood out in particular, one went off to play on the swings by a village hall checkpoint and the other turned left where every other team had turned right! Yep, you guessed it, both of these teams were ours! But maybe they knew something we didn’t as both managed to get round the course in a none too shabby 10 hours 53 minutes and 9 hours 16 minutes respectively (that time posted by the Girly Whirlies being the third fastest by a Centurion ESU team!). Good going gang!
Meanwhile our more senior explorers – Izzy, Calum, Richard and Chris under the guise of Marmalade of the Llama’s Armpit were stepping up to the next level by taking on the 50K. The competition over this distance is always fierce, and amongst the 34 other entries were two rival teams from Hornchurch Network (full of veteran Centurions and our current chairman no less!). But some tough knee pounding saw our guys finish not only ahead of the Ferrets, but also beating the Suicidal Potato Munchers 2008 time with a record 11 hours 54 minutes, and making this the first year that all our entries in both distances have finished, well done guys!
....
With everyone doing so well, it was up to the leaders to put in a good show over the 50 mile course, and Ten Gallon Dixie (Sugs, Pinto, Glenn and Al) didn’t disappoint, romping home in a record smashing 15 hours 7 minutes* and finishing in a satisfying 6th place, and all without wearing an ounce of lycra!
All our efforts were justly rewarded at Sunday morning’s presentation as the joke machine that is Chris ‘Fozzy’ Foster was joined on stage by none other than UK Chief Commissioner Wayne Bullpit! Oooh er missus! Coming all the way from Guernsey (the obvious central-hub residence for someone in charge of scouting across the British Isles) he congratulated us for taking part in the Challenge 50 (something we didn’t even know we’d signed up for) more than once during a lovely speech. And whilst he may have to wait a little longer to receive his Hog badge, it did notch up another member of the top brass for our scout hierarchy hunting explorers!
Feb 2010
* subject to drugs (or more specifically Ibuprofen) testing