Today (Saturday 7 October) was the perfect morning for the Annual Crawley District Cub Scout Conker Competition. Beautiful sunshine, gloriously warm and a wonderful array of cakes to go with the coffees and teas on offer. Numbers were quite a bit lower than we have seen in the best years, but what we lacked in numbers we truly made up for in enthusiasm. Our mix of contestants included at least one from last year, several who had barely played the game and one who had only just joined her pack – but seemed to have the greatest fun taking part!
The standard was higher than last year and there was no Cub who won less than 5 of their matches. It was so competitive that we even had a four-way play-off for a place in the semi-finals! But after an hour and a half of the competition, the semi-finalists were Connor (4th Worth), Dougie (2nd Ifield), Selene (5th Crawley) and Ted (2nd Ifield).
After a pair of tense semi-finals, Dougie and Selena made it through to the final and the 3rd place play-off saw Connor beat Ted for the bronze medal.
It was great to have Ian Head join us (I somehow inherited the baton for organising this event from him many years back) and he and Helen Ives refereed the final which was closely fought. At the finish it was Dougie who came out victorious and Selene who finished a very worthy silver medallist. Big congratulations to Dougie, not only on achieving the gold, but who had consistent form in the league matches, only losing two of his games on the day.
Best of all from the day, though, was the wonderful sportsmanship of all the competitors. All the matches were played with enormous enthusiasm and everyone was pleased for everyone else’s success. Scouting at its best.
As with all these events, none of it would be possible without the help and support from leaders, supporters and parents; all of whom seemed to enjoy themselves too. Special thanks to Dominic for helping me set up and Sally who sourced all the conkers. Great job team!
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