REVIEW OF THE SHANNON CUP COMPETITION OF 1965
During the period from the 1930s to the 1960s, the Shannon Cup was considered the most prestigious of the District's Annual Scout Competitions and was held at Everton campsite over a weekend towards the end of May or the beginning of June. External examiners were called in from another District to devise the programme and to assess the patrols. In 1965, the examiner was a Mr. Alexander, but no other information about him is known .
The 70th managed to win the cup on three occasions (1935, 1956 and 1965) and also came second a number of times. The winning patrol in 1965 was led by Robin Crawford who was Troop Leader. The full patrol was as follows.
Patrol Leader: Robin Crawford
Second: Alex Aitkenhead (Mowgli)
1st Scout Robert Morrison
2nd Scout David White
3rd Scout Jim Barr
4th Scout John Martin
Five of the six 70th patrols were represented in the team - the Fox by Robin Crawford, the Seagull by Alex Aitkenhead, the Kingfisher by Robert Morrison, the Falcon by David White, and the Curlew by Jim Barr and John Martin. Only the Seal patrol lacked a representative. During the weekend, the patrol identified itself as the Seagull Patrol, mainly because that was the cleanest patrol flag that it could lay its hands on!
Twelve patrols entered the competition and faced a number of challenges on the Saturday once the patrol sites had been set up. The first of these involved distinguishing between a reef knot, thief knot and a granny knot. Only two patrols (including the 70th) succeeded in this. The next challenge was to track down and retrieve playing cards that had been distributed around the campsite, with the points gained depending on the value of the card. This was won by the 1st Gourock (6th Renfrewshire) who scored 38 'pips', while the 70th did fairly well in gaining 18 'pips'. A version of Kim's Game then followed where the patrols were shown 24 objects, but, instead of being asked to identify what the objects had been, the examiner then named each object and asked the patrols to identify its colour.
This was followed by a stunt where each patrol leader was to stick a Scout staff into the ground and then conceal his patrol such that an examiner standing at the staff would not be able to spot any of the Scouts. The patrol that managed to get its Scouts closest to the staff without being spotted would gain the most marks. The 70th did well at this by placing their staff near the lip of an overhang, then hiding everyone undeneath the overhang.
This was followed by an activity where one of the patrol members was taken away and used as a casualty for the rest of the patrol to treat. John Martin was the victim from the 70th patrol and had a placard placed on him that told the rest of the patrol that he was 'ON FIRE'. The day's programme finished with a campfire where the patrols could win points by producing 1 sketch, 1 mime and 1 song.
On the Sunday, there was a Scouts Own, led by Mr. Alexander. The programme then rolled back into action with a rapid-fire number of activities and challenges sprung on each patrol, such as the following;
*Build a flagpole three staffs high
*Build four camp gadgets that could be transported to the examiner for inspection
*Create a sundial
*An envelope puzzle (The patrols were given 6 envelopes all addressed by different people. The Patrols were to try and assess the age, sex and occupation of whoever had written each address)
*Create a strip map of the campsite perimeter with compass bearings taken from each point, and use that to produce a proper map (This was a challenge aimed specifically at the PL of each patrol).
*Write each Scout's name (woodcraft style)
*Boil water in a paper bag
*Identification of various knots
*Walk a certain distance in exactly one minute
*Build a coracle
The last challenge was the most demanding of all, and the patrols were given all day to produce a vessel that could be paddled across the swimming pool and back again while remaining afloat. Most of the designs clearly had design and construction flaws as they sank to the amusment of all spectators. The 70th did no better with their first design, but eventually succeeded by lining their coracle with the groundsheet from their tent. David White was charged with testing the vessel's sea worthiness and it passed with flying colours, so much so, that Bob Miller and Albert Runcie later completed two circumnavigations of the pool.
Needless to say, the patrol's success was celebrated in Inverkip on the way back home. In addition, there was a troop celebration on the following Friday night meeting when all the Scouts were treated to ice cream, jelly, cakes and lemonade.
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