63rd Derby Scouts

63rd Derby (Darley Abbey) Scout Group

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Field Day 2019 by our roving Scout Reporter Alex

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Persistent rain meant that the field day had to be in the hall instead of on Deans Field as planned. Everyone pulled together getting everything ready for the 11 am opening time. The tea and coffee were moved to the John Bentley room along with the Tommy Silhouette. The Blood bike arrived and the local police arrived to do bike postcode marking. The falconry display team got their tent ready. Meanwhile, inside, the stall holders were setting up and you could really feel that everyone was working together.

At 11 am the Field Day was officially opened by our ex District Commissioner Steph Argyle. Everybody poured in and immediately started having a go on the stalls. A lot of the young children liked the Lucky Dip and Poopla had a smile on many people’s faces. Before long most of the plates had met their demise on Smash-a-plate, a favourite among the leaders to let some stress out! There was also a stationary bird display outside.

  • Former District Commissioner Steph Argyle opens Field Day 2019
    Former District Commissioner Steph Argyle opens the 63rd Derby Scouts’ Field Day 2019

The first falconry display was at 12:30pm inside the hall. They had two owls, both of which I held. It was amazing to watch the owls fly around the hall with such ease. I never knew that there were 25 names for the barn owl! Luckily the other birds didn’t have quite so many names. I also learnt that the term “wise old owl” isn’t necessarily true and owls aren’t that wise.

At lunchtime there was the usual queue at the BBQ tent. I had already had my lunch but just the smell was making my mouth water. The John Bentley room was also full of people drinking coffee and tea or eating cake.

After lunch I spoke to Ben Breward, the owner of the birds of prey. He said that he had fallen in love with birds ever since he went bird watching with his Granddad as a young child. He said that one of the great things is that “you can never ever train a bird of prey” Ben owns a falconry business based in Risley.

After that it was time for the second falconry display. This time they had a Harris hawk and another owl. The owl liked perching on the Poopla sign and the hawk was just amazing to watch.

I then talked with Dave who had brought the blood bike. He explained to me how the concept works and what blood bikes are needed for. He explained that they supplied medical supplies very quickly if they are needed in a hurry. His motor bike looked well geared-up and more than capable for the job.

I ended the day by asking Chris Roe the Beaver leader what he thought about Field Day and being the Beaver leader. He said that Field Day was good fun and that he liked teaching the Beavers things they wouldn’t learn at school.

All in all, it seemed like an excellent day. Even though we are still not sure of a figure we are pretty certain we raised a lot of money for the hall.

  • Barn owl inside the Scouts Hall at Field Day 2019
    Barn owl inside the Scouts Hall at Field Day 2019
  • Small owl from the outside static display at the Scouts Hall for Field Day 2019
  • Harris Hawk in static display outside Scouts Hall on Field Day 2019
  • Hawks and owl in the static display outside the Scouts Hall on Field Day 2019

Sweet Valentine – concert on 9th February 2018

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The Valentine’s Concert given by the Derbyshire Constabulary Male Voice Choir on Friday 9th February raised a magnificent total of £655.

We had a full church on the night and were marvellously entertained by the Male Voice Choir, who included some special Valentine’s numbers, including solos and duets.  One of my favourites was “Perhaps Love?” by John Denver.  The compere Kevin Griffiths kept us laughing in-between the singing and, in keeping with Valentine’s Day, the Choir gave a rose to each lady and a chocolate to each gent.   Somehow, just after his solo, Tom Fleming from Scotland ended up wearing a large daffodil on his head, very generously donated by Mr Griffiths… something to do with a Rugby match… we’re saying nothing (but it did look very fetching)!

We have had some wonderful feed-back from members of the audience, in particular from one lady and her 90-year old mother who thanked us all for making their evening special.  Rev Peter and I thank the choir for their gift of banners, accepted on behalf of the Scouts and St Matthew’s, which will be treasured.  We cannot thank the choir enough for their support and generosity in giving their time.

Based in Derby, the Derbyshire Constabulary Male Voice Choir (now  Derbyshire Community Male Voice Choir) has been singing and helping raise money for charity since 1956. Their chosen charity for the season was the Derbyshire Blood Bikes, a very worthy cause and one close to our own hearts in Darley Abbey.  To find out more about the Choir and their fund-raising, see their web-site http://www.dcmvchoir.com/  or visit Facebook.

Many thanks go to the Rev Peter Barham, who let us host the concert at St Matthew’s Church and for all the support he, David Brierley and Clive Lemmon gave us along the way.

We are grateful too to Darley Abbey Wines who generously donated a half-case of red wine for sale on the evening. (For those who are interested this was a Mimic old vine Shiraz). Darley Abbey Wines has been selling wine on the internet for some time but recently opened a Wine Bar “1750” in the Mill complex.  It is currently open on Thurs-Fri nights and we have heard good reports of it. http://www.darleyabbeywines.co.uk/about-darley-abbey-wines.php

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Well-deserved thanks go to everyone who put up posters and delivered leaflets throughout the village and beyond, donated raffle prizes and baked and helped to run the event on the night.  As always, we could not have achieved this without them.

Jam tomorrow and jam yesterday – and always jam today (with apologies to Lewis Carroll) Feb 2018

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Pat is pleased to announce that the grand total for her 2017 Season home-made jam, marmalades and chutneys is £350.  Thank you to everyone who has bought preserves from Pat in the last year.  She has just started production of home-grown rhubarb and ginger jam, which will be available at the 63rd’s forth-coming Field Day on 16th June 2018.  As always, the jam and chutneys are made from home-grown produce, most of it from Darley Abbey.

Many thanks to Pat for her continued support as she goes into her fourth year of production. She has raised over £700 so far and still counting!

Christmas Bag-packing at the Co-op, Park Farm (late December 2017)

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As one of the Co-op Local Causes in the Community (https://membership.coop.co.uk/causes/16181/), we rang up the Co-op at Park Farm to ask if we could do some bag-packing at Christmas and were blown away when Dan, the Manager, offered us any day we liked in the run-up to Christmas, as part of his store’s support for us.  What a decision to have to make!  In the end we opted for Saturday 23rd December 2017 and asked our Scouting families for volunteers.  Although it was a late request we had enough Beavers, Cubs and Scouts (and their Mums and Dads and brothers and sisters) to cover the whole day.

What a day we had – chatting to the customers telling them about our historic Scout Group and our goal of buying the Methodist Hall as a permanent base in the village.  We had massive support from the shoppers there, some of whom were from ex-Scouting families (including a good number from the 63rd) and village locals pleased to hear our plans.  With their generosity we raised an astonishing £657.89 for the Scouts’ Hall Fund!  This was way beyond our wildest dreams and a great end to the fund-raising year.

Many thanks go to the Scouting families who bag-packed and held the collecting buckets near the door – you were awesome!

Special thanks go to Dan (Manager) and his team at Co-op Park Farm for making us so welcome.

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PLEASE SIR, I WANT SOME MORE – DECEMBER 2017

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The sale of plum puddings and sponge puddings from the Ultimate Plum Pudding Company by Helen L in the run-up to Christmas raised £176.68 (including a donation) towards the Scouts’ Hall Fund.  This is an excellent amount and represents lots of puddings sold.

Thank you to everyone who supported us by tucking into the puddings and especially to Helen L for organising the sale – as you predicted Helen, the feedback has been excellent:

  • Keith, Derby – “We had the large Plum pudding on Christmas day and everyone thought it was great, very zesty!!!”
  •  Jo, Derby – “Delighted with the pud – the family absolutely loved it and licked their plates clean!”
  •  Becky, Derby – “… gluten-free Xmas pudding – it’s great!”
  • Linda, Derby – “We really enjoyed the Christmas puddings”
  • Alan, Kenilworth – “Very good; lighter than other Christmas puddings”
  • Nita, Derbyshire – “Lovely, would definitely have them again”
  • Pauline, Derby – The sticky toffee pudding was lovely and the plum pudding excellent – I would have them again”
  •  Helen, Warwickshire – “Put my name down for next year.”