Explorer Scout Night Hike 2007

Planning for the 2007 Explorer Scout Night Hike began as is usual around May. The small team of Neil McLauchlan, Derek Chaplin and myself gathered to consider venues, routes, prizes etc. and sallied forth to complete our various tasks.

After looking at a couple of new venues to base the hike around, we decided on financial grounds to return to West Horsley where we had been 3 years previously. Neil & Derek planed a route and I sourced new 1st, 2nd & 3rd trophies along with a personal prize for each of the team members of the Gold Route winning team.

With just weeks to go before the event and all arrangements made – semi-disaster struck. Foot & Mouth disease broke out in Surrey adjacent to our proposed walking area. Many e-mails were exchanged and after consulting with Defra, we decided to go ahead with the hike but on a much changed route which encompassed more road walking than we would normally plan for. Even this was subject to last minute change as a final check revealed a couple of footpaths had been closed since our last walking of the route just the previous weekend.

To get the correct distances for the Bronze, Silver & Gold routes we needed to use a remote start instead of our usual practice of starting & finishing at the village hall we use as base and mini busses were arranged to do this.

At last the day arrived, the weather forecast was dry & mild and we looked forward to the 4th running of this event since it’s inception. 14 teams arrived, booked in, had kit check and plotted their routes on the maps provided. Check point staff were deployed and the mini busses took the teams out to the start point as planned.

After that things went pretty much according to plan. Vicky Tullet took text messages from the checkpoints recording the teams arrival and Chris Sowden did his usual job of inputting all the info on his spreadsheet which was projected on the big screen so that we could monitor each teams progress.

It did not take long to see which teams were proficient at navigating and those who were going to complete the hike at a more “sedate” pace and in some cases taking in much more of the scenery! But the Bronze (approx. 8 miles), Silver (approx. 10 miles) and Gold (approx. 13 miles) routes format means that there is a distance to suit all abilities, experience and age.

The final results and timings are here for you to peruse at your leisure, but the winners were:-

My thanks go as always to Neil, Derek, Vicki and Chris. Also to all those who manned checkpoints, checked kit or routes, drove mini busses or helped in any way to ensure the success of this years event.

Ian Newbery, County Commissioner

Results

The teams that completed the Gold Route were:

1. Last But Not Least (Belmont) in 4 hours 10 minutes
2. Hampton in 4 hours 21 minutes
3. The Toffee Puddings (Voyager) in 4 hours 46 minutes
4. Where’s Lucy? (Magellan) in 5 hours 29 minutes
5. Freaky Friday (Edge Hill) in 5 hours 39 minutes
6. Team Awesome (Edge Hill) in 6 hours 38 minutes
7. Team Neon (Edge Hill) in 7 hours 23 minutes
8. Alf Alpha, Greasy Greasy (Edge Hill) in 7 hours 38 minutes
9. Purple Monkey Peanut Butter Clan (Merton Park) in 8 hours 54 minutes

The teams that completed the Silver Route were:

1. Double Dragon in 3 hours 41 minutes
2. Best in the World (Edge Hill) in 7 hours 37 minutes

The teams that completed the Bronze Route were:

1. Your Mum (Drake) in 3 hours 13 minutes
2. New Kids on the Block (Discovery) in 4 hours 50 minutes

Also taking part were:

1. Colliers