Lots of the activities in this report are linked to the reports on our web site. Just click on it if its underlined and in blue.

It would be quicker to tell you what we haven't done with the Scouts this year.

Starting in June, we took part in the District Raft race. This was a great day out and was made even better with the fact that we won both the traditional and freestyle races.

We took part in the Stotfold carnival with the topic of TV adverts.

We have an excellent summer camp in the Swiss Alps, at the international Scout centre in Kandersteg. Here the Scouts and Ventures were able to take part in activities such as climbing, hiking, abseiling, mountain biking, swimming, tobogganing, as well as staying in a mountain hut for an evening and watching the sun rise over the top of the alps.

We went to the Water Adventure weekend at Longridge in September. Here the Scouts had a go at sailing, canoeing, dragon boat racing, rafting, power boating, rowing, climbing, assault course and much more. The weather was lovely considering the bad weather we had before the weekend.

We took part in the District Pathfinder and Challenge hike in October and achieved 2nd in the Pathfinder and 3rd in the Challenge hike.

We held a camp in November at Boyd field. The online report of this camp contains details and photos, plus an interactive 360-degree photo of our campsite.

We held a Games night in aid of Children in need in November and a games night in aid of Red Nose day in March. We managed to raise between £60 - £70 at both events, with the boys taking part in activities such as table tennis, football, computers, darts, snooker, TV, hockey and more.

We managed to come 1st and 3rd in the District shooting competition. This was the first time the District has run this event and we hope it will continue.

We did our bag packing over the Christmas period at the Co-Op. This is a great fundraiser and good fun.

We went to Gilwell Winter camp 2001. Another great camp enjoyed by all. The boys did laser shooting, clay pigeon shooting, bull riding, climbing, archery, computers, assault course, and much more.

Some of the Scouts braved the cold District survival camp at Boyd field, where they learnt a whole range of survival skills.

Other evening activities have included taking 30 Scouts to the Bassingbourne Ski Centre in September. Here we had 2 hours of skiing tuition on a slope with just us on it.

We also held a 'Ready Steady Cook' night where the Scouts were given a whole lot of ingredients and they had to make a meal out of them. The Scouts managed to work together and make some very tasty meals. We had an evening of Golf at the Willian way golf course and we also held a Valentines disco with the Stotfold Guides. We ran an egg race, which is where the Scouts were given some bits and pieces that they had to make into a self-propelling device that had to carry an egg the furthest distance. We had a 'Who wants to be a Millionaire' night where we had a patrol in the committee room answering the questions and we had the rest of the troop in the hall watching their progress.

We held a couple of Radio hikes over the past year. This is where the Scouts go of in patrols with a radio. Each patrol is given a point to get to. When they get there they have to answer a question over the radio and they then get their next checkpoint to get to.

We took the older Cubs, the Scouts, and the Venture Scouts to Activity world in April. This is a large indoor ballpark, similar to Carters in Stevenage.

So to condense everything down, our Scouts have done: - Swimming, skiing, canoeing, rafting, rifle shooting, archery, hiking, mountain biking, tobogganing, rowing, dingy sailing, dragon boat racing, karting, quad bikes, climbing, abseiling, golf, assault course, backwards cooking, football, sledging, clay pigeon shooting, computing, table tennis, darts, hockey, disco, bull riding, laser shooting, snooker, power boating, cooking, baseball, rugby, camping and much much more…

Our thanks to Paul Major, Andrew Brember and Ray Baverstock for their leadership over the past year. Also thanks to Keith and Maureen Brooks for their help and support over the past year.

Here's to another very full and active year.

Charles Kilby