Shooting

H.M. The Queen and H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh visited the Jamboree on 3rd August and toured the camp site.

On the night of Monday, 5th August, at about 10-30 p.m., it began to rain, by about 11-45 p.m. there was a very severe thunderstorm in progress, and it was soon discovered that water was seeping under the walls of the tent and flooding it. Soon the water was an inch deep and rapidly becoming deeper, and so it was decided to evacuate our tent and sleep on tables. At one point during the night the water in the tent was four inches deep, but by morning all the water had disappeared into the ground and we were able to carry on normally and read about the catastrophe and the mass evacuations which one daily newspaper reported as having taken place. In actual fact, according to the official camp newspaper, Jubilee Journal, only 1,000 Scouts were moved and no-one was evacuated from the camp site into Sutton Coldfield at all.

There were many other attractions, including excursions, "The Gang Show" at The Hippodrome, Birmingham, an open-air cinema and, of course, "swapping", and this became also the black market of the Jamboree.

The final ceremony of the Jamboree was performed by the World Chief Guide, Lady Baden-Powell, and in her speech we were given a text to take away from the Jamboree. It was : "The end is only the beginning."

Then everybody swung out of the arena with arms linked and the 9th World Jamboree, 2nd World Indaba and 6th World Rover Moot were at an end.

A.D.B.

This term thirty-four boys have taken open-range shooting as a major sport, about half of them newcomers. The Saturday practices at Strensall have suffered somewhat from weather, though only one was cancelled and one had to be abandoned. The results of using wet ammunition were clearly demonstrated, however, on more than one occasion.

Members of the miniature range 2nd VIII trained for the "White Rose" competition for C.C.F. teams of the East and West Ridings. This is for teams of four, and the Ashburton VIII is not eligible, which means that it is virtually our third team that competes. Our position as third was therefore reasonably good.

An innovation this year was our entry for two competitions at the County of Lancaster Schools' Meeting at Altcar. In the Fletcher Challenge Bowl (a fire and movement competition) we were fourth, with 321, four points behind the winners. In the main event, the 52

C.L.R.A. Challenge Cup, shot under Ashburton conditions, we were third. Individual scores were :

Maxwell (Captain) Peverley ... Newbigging ... Butler Baxter Lowley Lennox High 200 yds. 500 yds. Total 28 31 59 30 32 62 26 30 56 31 35 66 34 33 67 29 31 60 28 30 58 29 30 59

235 252 487

This was rather disappointing, and the effect of having to shoot immediately on arrival from a four-hour drive is very obvious at the shorter range.

Choosing a Bisley team proved very difficult as far as the last two or three places were concerned, as a number of newcomers improved sufficiently to make a challenge for places. In the end a promising team emerged and shot well up to form in both the Marling and Ashburton. In the former we were tenth with a score of 327, eighteen better than last year. It is an indication of the rising standards at Bisley that this score would have been about fifth last year. In the Ashburton we had a very good shoot at 200 yards and were, in fact, lying fifth at the lunch interval. At 500 yards our score was sound, but not quite so good, and our final placing was ninth. This, in the third year of serious shooting, is quite a creditable result. Details scores were :

Maxwell (Captain) Peverley ... Newbigging ... Butler ... Baxter Lennox Lowley Garbutt 200 yds. 500 yds. Total 35 32 67 30 29 59 32 32 64 33 34 67 33 31 64 33 28 61 32 32 64 30 32 62

258 250 508

Maxwell and Butler were awarded "Schools Hundred" badges (twenty-fifth and eleventh respectively), while Maxwell was fourteenth in the "Gale and Polden" and won a prize. Hodgson, in the "Ninth Man" competition, did well to be eighth out of about ninety competitors.