Camping Competition – Scouts

Although a Group camping competition had previously been one of the elements that contributed points towards the Cadogan Shield, it was not until 1943 that the event became a stand-alone competition.

At a Scoutmasters’ meeting in February, it was agreed to accept Mr Bell’s suggestion for an outdoor inter Patrol competition. At the same time Jack Alvarez, the Group Scoutmaster of the 19^th Finchley offered to provide a trophy in memory of the late Mr Alexander. Philip Alexander, along with Jack Alvarez, had been the original leaders of the 19^th when they started in 1938. He had been a fireman, and after being seriously injured in November 1941 he was taken to the Royal Northern Hospital, where, two weeks later on the 21^st, he died at the age of 34.

The inaugural competition was held in May at Victoria Park, as part of a District Rally which contributed to the Borough’s Holidays-at-Home programme. Thirty Patrols entered with the 15^th Finchley Stag Patrol being declared the winners. Interestingly though, the Patrol Leader (David Butler) was actually one of the 5^th Finchley Scouts who were being looked after by the 15^th during the war years.

The 11^th Finchley Wolf Patrol were the runners-up and were presented with a cup, later to be known as the Smith Cup, that had been donated by Mr Clifford.

At the February 1944 meeting of the District Scouters it was agreed that the 1944 camping competition should be run on similar lines to those adopted in 1943, although a date for the event was not agreed.

At the July meeting it was confirmed that no arrangements had been made and the subject was not mentioned at the November meeting. It could therefore be assumed that the competition did not take place that year.

In May 1945 the event was back on the agenda and there was a debate about how many Patrols could enter. One proposal suggested that only one regular Patrol from each Group should enter and another for a combination of boys from different Patrols. In the end it was agreed that every Patrol from every Group could enter if they wished.

The event took place over the weekend 22^nd/23^rd September at the Camping Ground but we have found no report and do not know who won.

The following May the organisers again wanted to restrict the number of Patrols that entered. They were concerned that the Camping Ground could not cope with about 200 Scouts camping at the same time. On this occasion it was agreed to limit each Group to one Patrol, provided it was not a Senior Scout Patrol that may have been formed following the introduction of the new section. It was suggested that the Senior Scouts could, if they wished, hold their own camping competition at a later date.

The competition took place over the weekend 14^th/15^th September and Scouters from Hornsey District were the judges. Although we have again been unable to find the result in the District records, the local press provided a report of the event. The 4^th Finchley, who according to their history book were represented by the Seagull Patrol, won and were presented with the Alexander Trophy. The 15^th Finchley came second.

The District wanted to revive the Inter Group competition for the Cadogan Shield, which had not taken place following the start of the war. The competition to find the most proficient Group was determined by awarding points to Groups for a variety of reasons, including competitive events during the year. Plans were made for this to start on the 1^st April 1947 and end on the 31^st March 1948.

A knock-on from this decision was that the Scout Camping Competition would no longer be a stand-alone event and also resulted in the Alexander Trophy being passed to the Senior Scouts for their use.

The 1947 competition, with only one Patrol from each Group permitted, took place over the weekend 11^th/12^th September with Hornsey District again providing the judges. Although the result is not known it is thought, from previous Scoutmaster meetings, that the winners were presented with only a pennant as the event was considered to be part of the Inter Group competition.

The 1948 competition again formed part of the Inter Group competition and followed a similar format to 1947, although on this occasion Scouters from Hendon District acted as the judges. Although we have been unable to find a report that immediately followed the event, the result was included in the 1949 District AGM report. That stated that the 10^th Finchley had won the Alexander Trophy with the 4^th Finchley as runners-up and received the Smith Cup.

No record can be found as to why the Alexander Trophy was again being used as the Trophy for this event, although we have been unable to trace any record of the Senior Scouts making use of it.

The revival of the Inter Group competition did not last long and was cancelled after just two years. This meant that the camping competition was once again a stand-alone event.

The 1949 event was scheduled for September and it was agreed that only one Patrol from each Group could enter. That Patrol though could not have more than two Scouts over the age of 15, with neither being more than 15½ years old.

Nine Patrols entered the event which was held at the Camping Ground and judged by Scouters from Wood Green District. From a local press report it is known that the Eagle Patrol from the 10^th Finchley won the Alexander Trophy and the Smith Cup was shared by the 3^rd Finchley Sea Scouts and 6^th Finchley who were joint runners-up.

More text to follow. In the meantime, the table below provides details of all the competitions that are currently known about. Associated press items and photographs can be found in the Gallery (click here).