This years Camping and cooking Competition took place at Bentley Copse during the first weekend in October, the warmest October weekend ever recorded. Patrols from 1^st Staines, 1^st Goldworth Park, 1^st Charlton and two patrols from 3^rd Banstead competed this year 

Camping competitions in Surrey go back to 1932 so while we support the traditional camping skills, we also try to balance with the modern patrol camping. We welcome training teams (with a leader) but we will also offer advice and guidance to the competition patrols so they can learn new ideas from different leaders.

Patrols were required to pitch a patrol standing camp and cook some of their meals over open fires. All of the patrols did very well and the judges were impressed with the overall standards, the enthusiasm and the commitment of the scouts who took part. The patrols are regularly assessed and the judges also act as tutors to offer assistance and explain how things could be improved upon or maybe just done differently. The competition was very close and everything could have easily changed in the final striking camp and clearing up.    

We have to have a winner so many congratulations to 1^st Charlton who won both the Camping and Cooking competitions (and were glad they decided to go for it rather than try a training team to see how things went). 

Next year we hope for more teams and while this is a competition, we do encourage the scouts to have fun and enjoy camping for camping sake, which after all is what we have been doing for over a century now. Final thanks to Dave Shepherd and Mark Smith for acting as judges and tutors over the weekend and making the event run smoothly.

Paul Iverson

ACC Scouts