Tim Burt (Norton Air - St. James Norton Explorers)
What the judges said: "It was a very detailed account of the day, and it'll capture the event well enough for everyone to remember for years to come."
"My Day at the Apex Challenge"
We didn't have the highest hopes in the world, never mind in the Peak District! We thought that we would have done well if we came in the top half of the teams.
Most of the teams at the Apex Challenge had the maximum number of people - four. In my team - Norton Air - there were only three of us. We were all thinking that this would be a disadvantage to our team, but would it? We were also one of the youngest and with only one of us having done the Apex before we thought we were one of the most inexperienced as well. The time was about 9:15am when we arrived at the starting point so we got ourselves signed in early and realised that we were being set off third. When we were given a map we planned a route which we thought would enable us to go to as many bases and punch points as possible and clash with the least people waiting in queues. Considering we weren't a team of people so serious to run round the whole thing, we decided that taking the most direct route from one place to another would be a good idea! But heading of to our first destination we discovered that this might not always be the most sensible thing to do as we found ourselves struggling through a mile of dense seven metre tall bracken. Eventually we realised that the going was just too tough and we decided to get going, and headed back to the path and lost about ten minutes!
The first base we went to was base F; it was the furthest away base so from here on it was all down-hill. After completing the marble run and taking our fifty points we headed across the cliff top, collecting numerous points from punches along the way to the next base which was abseiling. I had never done proper abseiling before so I decided to be one out of the two of us that actually did it. I went first and after getting over the edge it was easy going. My mate Richard came after me and had to punch the card half way down the cliff face. The base after was still on the cliff face, even if on this base we were climbing up it rather than climbing down! Since I'd done the practical climbing we swapped over and I did the belaying for one of my team-mates. After the climbing we headed down the hill only missing the most un-crucial punch points and whilst waiting for bases re-planning parts and going over the rest of our route.
The rest of the bases heading down the hill consisted of weaselling and bomb disposal. With only having to wait a maximum of 15 minutes for the busiest bases we must have had a reasonably good plan.
Going down the hill, we only missed one base - C. It was an hour's queue if we would have waited and I think we made the right decision leaving it out. We had a long walk to D but with the boost in points from the far-away punches that we collected we were on target for a place in the top half of the results. After D we had an expedition through some bracken where we had some five minutes of fun jumping into the overgrown mounds of the stuff before we decided we needed to make up some time and set off at a slow run to look for base G.
After a good 15 minutes searching, and time running out we made the decision to miss G and make sure we got the remaining two bases and punch points. These two bases were J and H. We found them both reasonably well and after some lawnmower madness and some disco dancin' we needed to run to receive the points for the two punches and get back in time.
When we reached the car park we were looking for the marquee and praying for the smell of hot dogs! And as we turned the corner (drum roll please) they weren't there!!! Not even the smell!!! We were re-directed to where the marquee had been put up and when we reached it we handed in our form with two minutes to spare. After a small rest and a hot dog or two, or three, or maybe four, as well as a few more which might have slipped past, we gathered round for the results to be read out. After a reassuring comment from base J, and I quote: "This is one of the best score sheets I've seen all day" we were looking slightly more towards the top ten than the top half (even if there were only three places separating the top half from the top ten.) As our group got awarded best base award for the dance mats we were already revved up for the places to be announced! As thirteen team names were read out we were still in there and that meant in the top half, so we had out-played our leaders' expectations at any rate! Three more names gone which meant we were in the top ten, top nine, top eight, then our name still didn't come out which meant we were in the top six. Before the next team was announced, the man with the mike told us that this was where we didn't want to finish because it was just out of the prizes, teams six and five had got the same number of points. We were one of those teams and the other was last year's winner. Points tied it all came down to how much time the teams had left when they returned. Would Norton Air the underdogs' two minutes be enough to steal them 5th place??? It wasn't! But we were sixth best out of the 28 teams who had entered, and to started off we were only hoping to be in the top 13. We had done ourselves proud! Even if we did miss out on the glow sticks!
We headed off back to our bus, and after a slight hold up waiting for my team mate to run back and get his bag; we were driving home (Not literally! The leader was driving of course) with big smiles on our faces, to go with the big blisters on our feet! Norton Air - sixth place in 'the biggest scout event in Yorkshire'.
Registered Charity No. 1102633 |
