On 7 May, 15 of our scouts took part in the regional Upton Shield competition. This is a hiking competition, similar to the Rayner Trophy earlier this year, where scouts hike outdoors, completing bases that test them on scouting skills along the way.
Our scouts came 18th, 9th, 2nd and 1st, out of a total of 84 teams.
This is a phenomenal achievement. To have 4 teams in the top 20, let alone 3 in the top 10 and further 2 on the podium is insane. Positions one and two were separated by a mere two points. This is our 4th consecutive win of the Trophy, and our 5th win ever.
The scouts taking part:
• 1st Place: Juliet DE, Emily G, Saskia B, Frank W (9th/16th Cape Town)
• 2nd Place: Julia W, Tristan S, Sudi E, Matthew DE
• 9th Place: Laura H, Oliver VZS, Axel VBD, Simon H
• 18th Place: Avila VBD, Kupa M, Bridget H, Kiran CB
Our winning team was one member short at the start of the competition, and the team was joined by a scout from 9th/16th Cape Town at the last minute. A special congratulations to Frank for joining a team that wasn’t his troop, and contributing to winning the competition.
These achievements are not the work of any single scout. Beyond the Patrol Leaders and team members, there lies a whole bunch of people to whom some credit is due.
I’d like to single out two such people: Holly Raine and James Webb. Without the efforts of these two scouts, I am confident to say that not only would we not be sitting with such amazing results, but we would not even have had any teams entered into the competition.
Holly planned, coordinated, and ran the whole of the 1st Claremont Upton effort, from team allocations to organizing equipment, from sorting out transport for the day to coordinating training. Holly went above and beyond in her role of organizing the competition, to which we owe her many thanks.
James took care of the training for the teams, putting together an entire “mini Upton” a few Saturdays ago (in pouring rain), that I am sure helped prepare our teams for what was to come. Thank you to both Holly and James and for their efforts that contributed to these amazing results.
To close, I’d like to thank the organizing team of the Competition for their hard work. This composition of the core team was largely 1st Claremont based, with David Knight as Chief Judge (overseeing the running of the whole competition), assisted by Susan Gammon, Jonathan Webb, Caleb Serafin, Junior Kathe and Justin Cheney.
– Daniel



