Weekend Wide Game North V – November 2004
Fractured Fairy Tales
20-21st November 2004, Cataract Scout Park
Is a Rover’s fairytale a Scouts’ nightmare? Will the opportunity to hunt Scouts always be a drawcard for Venturers? Around 150 Scouts, Venturers, Rovers and Leaders gathered at Cataract Scout Park to answer these and other questions. Setting a new record for attendance, the roster of competitors was drawn from across the SC&T region, as well as guests from Wagga Wagga and Sydney:
- 1st Balgownie
- 1st Mt St Thomas
- 1st Figtree
- 1st Bulli
- 1st Roslea
- 1st Hurstville
- Wagga Wagga
- 1st Denistone East
- 1st West Wollongong
- 1st Korrahill
- 1st Helensburgh
- 1st Turramurra
- 1st Asquith
- 1st Austinmer
- 1st Meadowbank
- 1st Warilla
Figtree Rover’s fifth annual South Coast and Tablelands Weekend Wide Game saw civil war erupt in the land of fairytales. War raged between those who sought to maintain all that was good and pure about fairytales, and those who sought equality for the oft-maligned members of the fairy tale community – evil stepsisters, dragons, robots and the like.
Scouts were assigned to a Faction, and sent into the bush to find “Story Sites†where they could attempt to influence the course of certain fairy tales. From tug-of-war with Rapunzel’s hair to attempting to knock Humpty off his wall, the different patrols competed against each other to display their dominance. In addition, different Factions were able to hunt down and capture each other.
To further complicate matters, a “rogue element†of Fairy Tale society had decided to simply hunt down and capture everyone they could find. Naturally, this role was assigned to an eager group of Venturers – some of whom entered into the spirit of things by showing up dressed for the occasion (Can anyone else think of anything more scary than being hunted through the bush by a bunch of Venturers dressed as fairies?).
The Patrols had 24 hours to score as many points as possible. Some patrols approached this task with only limited success, finding out the hard way that it is very hard to outrun squads of Venturers on mountain bikes. Others elected for the stealthy approach, which tended to produce much better results – except when the Venturers took this evasion personally, and made it their mission to track the offending Patrols down.
At the end of the event, the scores of the 16 competing Patrols the Scores were interestingly placed. 1st place was taken by a clear margin by Korrahill “Alpha†led by Jabe Nightingale. Coming in second were the Mt St Thomas Wombats, led by Craig Davis. From 3rd place down, each position was hotly contested. In the end, the top three Patrols were:
| 1st Place: | 1st Korahill – “Alpha” | 4956 pts |
| 2nd Place: | 1st Mt St Thomas – “Wombats” | 3940 pts |
| 3rd Place | 1st Roselea – “The Phantoms” | 2778 pts |
And coming in with the Wooden spoon trophy were 1st Austinmer “Kookaburras†on 1759 points.
As always, the Weekend Wide Game could not have gone ahead without the support of the Region’s Venturers, all who went above and beyond when it came to their duty of hunting Scouts. Special thanks also go to Tim Dawson (http://www.dragon-tails.com/) who lent us the use of his artistic talent for the event.
And yes, based upon the results of the weekend, the opportunity to hunt Scouts will always appeal to Venturers…
Andrew Clark
SC&T WWG Committee