Gang Show Rehearsals Starting

The first Gang Show rehearsal takes place in Old West Kirk Halls from 2.00pm to 4.30pm on Sunday 29th August. Only cast members who attended the audition day should attend as there are currently no more cast spaces available. If you cannot attend please let Andy or Shirley know urgently so that we can make sure your place isn't given away to anyone in the waiting list. If you didn't audition before and you want to join the waiting list, let us know.

Blair Atholl 2010

The 32nd Scottish International Patrol Jamborette was held at Blair Castle, Blair Atholl in July. Four 85th Scouts and Explorers arrived on Monday 19th camping until Friday 30th July. The camp was open to Scouts over 13 and under 18 years of age.
Overseas participants included Scout contingents from Austria, Canada, Denmark, England, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Namibia, Northern Ireland, Norway, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland and USA.

The total numbers of Scouts and Leaders who attended the camp was 1250.

During camp the Scouts tried the Challenge of the White Cockade.
The White Cockade was the badge worn by the followers of Bonnie Prince Charlie during the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745-6. The Marquis of Tullibardine, son of the 1st Duke of Atholl, carried the Prince's standard when he landed at Moidart and gathered the clans at Glenfinnan. The White Cockade which was worn by the Marquis, can be seen in a display cabinet in Blair Castle. The Marquis' brother, Lord George Murray, was the General in charge of the Jacobite army.
Scouts won a Cockade badge by successfully completing 12 Activities (Adventure, Basics, Creative, Sport and Treks & Tours).

A great time was had by all, with friendships made with Scouts from different countries. Gone are the days when penpals were in fashion...now they just swap ‘Xbox Live GamerTags’ to keep in touch!

Check out some photos in the Gallery. August 2010

Summer Camp Ireland 2010

It's taken 2 days and a lot of extra sleep in between, but the pictures from Ireland are finally here!!!

Well done to all Scouts, Explorers (and the Cub) who spent the 1st week in August camping on the shores of Lough Derg in County Clare. During the week they went on a few boating trips, they reproduced Ireland High King Brian Boru's soldier training march, bivvying in not the greatest weather. They kayaked, sailed and played canoe water polo. They climbed Ireland Highest mountain and visited it's highest cliffs. They learned some Irish Ceilidh dancing - well, okay, they murdered some Irish Ceilidh dancing. They built and sank rafts and tried their hand at fishing. They posed for scores of tourists at the Giant's Causeway who wanted to take home memories of seeing kilted Scotsmen in Ireland, and they taught the Irish some good campfire songs. Some had a holiday romance with the staff (no names but you know who you are), others had the chance to drive a power boat, and some even managed to wreck a rescue boat for as day.

Whatever they did, everyone had a great time in Ireland and we'd like to thank the Scouts and Explorers for making the leaders' job easy.

You can view the photos in the Group Gallery as usual. If you have any more photos that we can share, please send them to Andy Yarr by email (use the Contact Us page) or drop a disk in at my house.

Once again you are welcome to make use of the enlargement printing services offered here. Each purchase gets us more space to display more photos. August 2010

District Parade 2010

Well done everybody for such a fantastic turn out at District Parade this year. You all looked extremely smart, and the Group received several comments to how well turned out you were. And thanks again to all parents who turned out your youngsters and came out to support them on the parade. It's great that we managed to beat the rain for the second year running, and we're looking forward the new snippet of news that the DC gave us during the church service. Cubs and Scouts can find a few snaps of the parade in the Group Gallery. June 2010

Group Camp 2010

The sun shone over Everton at the end of May as the 85th held a record breaking Group Fun Camp with more campers than we have ever had before, all in the same place at one time. The new activities at Everton helped make a fantastic weekend for no less than 157 Beavers, Cubs, Scouts, Explorers and Leaders.

Every age group had a go at Crate Climbing, Zip Wire, Slimy Slide, Car Pulling, Pillow Fighting, Human Table Football and even a dazzling glo-stick fuelled night-game in the forest. In amongst the fun, we managed to assemble 5 mountain bikes which we have donated to  a very worthy community project.

Thanks to Boston Scientific who kindly donated £100 to help make that project possible.

We are now looking forward to some more camps within our individual sections before we come together again in a few weeks for the Annual Group Barbeque. Here's hoping that's another fantastic day out.

As usual you can find a couple of videos and all the photo's in the Group Gallery. Once again we recommend that you take a look, there's some keepers in there that will make a great bedroom poster for some of you. May 2010

Glenkin Mountain Biking and Kayaking

Heading outdoors is great any time of the year, but it’s a rare treat when the weather is mostly sunny, and 16 of our Scouts and Explorers got just that when they went for an activity weekend of Mountain Biking and Kayaking last weekend.

The group cycled from Inverkip to Glenkin near Dunoon and spent Saturday cycling around the forest tracks before squeezing in some rock climbing later in the evening. They got a chance to top up their tans on another short cycle ride to Loch Eck on Sunday morning before kayaking there in the afternoon. Well done to all those who took part, especially the younger Scouts who have earned their Adventure challenge over the weekend.

You can find all our photos and a video clip in our Scout Gallery. We do recommend that you take a look at these pictures, Joe has excelled himself and there's some stunning shots among them. Remember each time you order prints or enlargements, we are given more space for more photos. The poster size pictures are very good quality too, and great for putting up in the bedroom (and no, we don't get any commission). May 2010

We're delighted to launch another new section to our website. We now have our own message forum which you can find by clicking on the link in the menu across the top of the page or by clicking here.

There's areas for each section and Parents are welcome to join too. You don't have to register, but we recommend that you do so that you can subscribe to the forums for your section. That way you'll get an email letting you know if someone's posted something new!

We do ask that parents register and act on behalf of the our younger members in Cubs and Beavers, but please encourage them to post their chat on the forum and to use it to find out who's doing what.

We hope you enjoy it. May 2010

New Online Payment Facility

Another first! We've had a look around and we think the 85th are the first Scout Group in Scotland, if not the UK to offer this as a regular facility to Parents.

Did you know many of our leaders also have kids in the Beavers, Cubs, Scouts or Explorers? We know it's a nuisance trying to find cash around the house to pay for that camp or for that trip on a weekday night.

So to make life easier, we've come up with a new online payment facility on this website. It uses PayPal so you can be confident the transaction is secure, and it uses PayPal's preferential charity rate, so the admin charge is pretty small. You child's leader will be emailed with the confirmation of your payment. For those bigger payments, we've also included a 'Spread Payments' facility so that you can spread payments like annual fees or summer camp over a number of months.

To use the payment facility, click here. We hope you find it easy and handy to use.

Archive Video

One for the oldies. Kenny Devlin recently showed the Scouts some old video footage including the old Inverkip and Wemyss Bay train stations with their 2 tracks and steam trains, as well as some sights around Inverkip from the 60's and early 70's. We're delighted to be able to include here some of the footage that is closest to the Scouts, dating back to when we were transitioning from Sea Scouts back to Land Scouts in the 60's. Can you name anyone who appears? Were you in the parade as a Scout or as a Guide? Let us know if you know anyone. April 2010

The Jamboree Explorers will start to run a Tuck Shop at the Inverkip sections this week as part of the fundraising towards their Sweden trip in 2011. They hope to be able to extend this to Wemyss Bay also later, but are limited for now by transport. March 2010

Jamboree Race Night

Congratulations to Callum, Lloyd, Andrew and Niall, the 85th's contingent to International Jamboree in Sweden in 2011. They have a lot of fundraising ahead of them over the next year and a bit, and kicked off their effort with a fundraising Race Night for their families in Inverkip Church Hall in March, raising a fantastic total of £1305 to get them started. A big thanks to everyone who helped, contributed a prize, or parted with cash on the night! They hope to follow up with more events, including a race night for parents, a sponsored calendar, collecting cans and other ideas. Please take any chance to help them in their efforts to raise a total of £2011 each. The Jamboree is one of the pinnacles of a Scout's achievements, and we are honoured to have as many as 4 Scouts and Explorers representing us in the 2011 event. You can use the 'Donate' button above to contribute to their fund at any time - please mention the jamboree fundraiser in your note. March 2010

Sainsbury's Active Kids

The Group is taking part in this year's Sainsbury's Active Kids scheme. This scheme is intended to help local youth groups such as Scouts aquire equipment for running activities.

You can help us towards our target by collecting Active Kids vouchers from the Sainsbury's store in Inverkip. You can collect 1 voucher for every £5 spent.

Please support this by handing your vouchers into your section leader. Why not ask family friends to collect the vouchers too! More details can be found in the new Sainsbury's Active Kids Section above or just click here. March 2010

Blair Atholl 2010

Following on from our 4 Scouts and Explorers who have been selected for the Sweden Jamboree in 2011, we are delighted to announce that 4 of our Group have been selected for the Blair Atholl Jamborette in 2010. This event has attracted Scouts from more than 50 countries to Scotland every 2 years since 1946. Congratulations to Lloyd, Niall, Jack and Ewan on being selected for the event. Lloyd and Niall are also going to the the larger Swedish Jamboree next year. January 2010

Happy New Year 2010!!!

And Welcome back for the new term. Below are the dates each of our sections are starting back. Looking forward to seeing you then.

Beavers (Wemyss Bay): Thursday 7th Jan

Cubs (Inverkip): Wednesday 13th Jan 6pm

Cubs (Wemyss Bay): Thursday 7th Jan

Scouts (Inverkip): Wednesday 6th Jan 7pm

Sweden Jamboree 2011

We are delighted to announce that no less than 4 members of the 85th - 2 scouts and 2 of our Explorers - have been selected to join the West Region contingent for the World Jamboree in Sweden in 2011. It is a big honour for so many members from our Group to be selected given the tight competition for places, and a reflection on the calibre of the boys involved. Well done to each of Callum, Lloyd, Andrew and Niall who we are told by the selectors have been a credit to the 85th.

Callum and Lloyd were part of our Scottish National Explorer Competition winning team this year and have both had a strong personal influence in the success of our Explorer unit in its early years. Andrew and Niall are Patrol Leaders in our Wemyss Bay and Inverkip

troops and rarely miss a chance to get in on the action. Andrew not only helps in our Cub sections, but also helps at Cubs in Rothesay as well.

Scouts Global Challenge - Russia

As our Scouts in both Inverkip and Wemyss Bay know, we have been linking up with some Scout troops in Chelyabinsk in Russia for our Global Challenge badge. So far we have compiled a list of questions for the Russians to answer, and we have also submitted a list of questions about the UK which we want them to find out about. Ultimately we plan to present to each other what we have learned about one another.

The next stage for us is to research the questions we are to find out about Russia. These questions can be found here. Each scout who wants to earn their Global Challenge should choose 3 questions (or more if you like) at random and mail in their answer (send to andy.yarr@virgin.net). Provide pictures if you can for the presentation. We'll pick the best answers. All answers should be submitted by Friday 8th January. Some of the questions may not be perfect grammar, but the meaning is clear enough. Remember our Russian friends speak English a lot better than you can speak Russian.

Glenkin 2009

Now that the Glenkin farmhouse and barn in Dunoon are open once more, we were delighted to be able to return with the Scouts and Explorers for their Christmas camp this year.

The Scouts worked on the Navigator badge as well as their Outdoor and Outdoor Plus badges over the weekend, learning mapping symbols and navigating around the area before returning to cook their own evening meals on stoves.

Well done to everyone who survived the quiz (pictured left) and it's penalties. Congratulations to the winners of the Chicken Shoot.

Unfortunately the Red Bull Race had to be canceled at short notice due

to the racing plane involved flying away over the treetops into the forests of Dunoon. We'll see if we can bring that activity back for a future camp after a bit more pilot practice.

Thanks to our new up and coming leaders Jordan, Mark, Alan and Graeme who helped run the camp. We hope to see more of them in the future.

Pictures of the camp can be found here, and a short video can be found here.

Note. We have noticed we are getting visitors to the website who are actually searching for Glenkin with a view to making a booking. To help those visitors we can confirm that, as of March 2009, Glenkin has been open for business again under a new partnership agreement, and bookings can be made as before via Scott Bryson at BrysonSM@aol.com

This year's Armistice day parade was held on Sunday the 8th of November. A total of 100 Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and Explorers came to this event. Everyone met at the church hall along with the Guides and councillors before parading into Inverkip Church. The parade went into the church for one hour where they took part in the service, sang hymns, heard bible readings and heard about people that had died during the two world wars. They then marched to the Centotaph at Inverkip beach where another short service was held and the wreaths were laid.

Thanks to all Group members and their parents for such a smart and well behaved turnout once again.

Mark Muir Challenge

Congratulations to all Explorers who took part in - and completed - this years first Mark Muir Challenge.

This challenge badge and competition has been organised by the 85th and leaders from the 32nd in tribute to our friend Mark Muir who would have been thoroughly embarassed to see his name on a badge.

This competition weekend was without a doubt one of the most demanding challenges to be laid down to the Explorers of Greenock & District in recent years. You can be sure that anyone you see wearing the badge has earned the right to be proud of it. Those who earned it climbed 4 mountains in the Arrochar Alps on the Saturday and camped out on those mountains before returning to complete a series of rafting challenges in the Daff Dam on the Sunday. Thanks to Karen, and the rest of Mark's family and friends who joined us during the weekend and presented the first badges and trophy. Photos are available here.

Tesco Bag Packing

Well done to everryone who worked at the Bag Packing event at Tesco. We managed to raise a total of £1555 towards our funds.

With the recent costs of installing electricity at the bothy, buying new expedition hike tents and these funds allow us to continue upgrading our equipment and subsidising activities over the coming months.

Dates For the New Term

The new term is almost upon us. Below are the dates for starting back up again.

Beavers & Cubs Enrolment Day (Inverkip only): Friday 11th Church Hall

Beavers (Inverkip): Friday 18th Sep. 5.45pm

Beavers (Wemyss Bay): Thursday 17th Sep.

Cubs (Inverkip): Wednesday 16th Sep. 6pm

Cubs (Wemyss Bay): Thursday 17th Sep.

Scouts (Inverkip): Wednesday 9th Sep. 7pm

Scouts (Wemyss Bay): Friday 11th Sep. 7pm

Minibus Expedition 2009

We are delighted to make available all the photos and a few videos from this year's Scout and Explorer Scout Minibus Expedition. 22 Scouts and Leaders travelled around the country from Arrochar to Aviemore camping wild and playing hard for a week. We camped at Butterbridge, Victoria Bridge, Glen Etive, Steall Falls, Ben Nevis and the Badaguish centre in Aviemore. We walked up The Cobbler, Buchaille Etive Mor and Ben Nevis. We kayaked on Loch Lomond and went boating there too. We saw the wallabies there. We golfed in Fort William and took a swim as well. We visited the Landmark Centre and tried out clay pigeon shooting. Well done to everyone for managing to complete a full week of scouting at its toughest!!!

Wow! 3 in a Row!

No pressure on the Scout secton, but the Explorers have just put the icing on the cake by completing the hat trick of trophies, After a fantastic effort of timed hiking and competing in challenges in Inverkip and the surrounding area, they have won this year's Scottish National Explorer Competition! This follows both the Beavers and the Cub sections each winning their District competitions the previous weekend.
The Explorer patrol fought off stiff competition from Units from as near as Greenock, to as far afield as Hawick, Edinburgh, Inverness, and Banff and Buchan to secure the trophy. They have been congratulated by staff at the event on their determination and their exceptionally strong teamwork. This is the first time the National competition has been based at Everton and the success of the event should put the District in good stead for hosting similar events in the future. Congratulations to all involved, and we hope the sleeping bags you each got along with your trophy keep you warm in the years to come. Photos are now available here.

Cubs Secure the Gordon Kerr Trophy

We are delighted to announce that the Cubs have won the Gordon Kerr Trophy this year. The Cubs had a great time with activities including a Battle Bar, a bouncy castle and Sumo Wrestling. The trophy has special significance to the 85th as Gordon Kerr was a life long Scout with the 85th, being responsible for keeping our history safe by writing many of our Troop's diaries through the late 40's before becoming Cub Scout Master in the 50's and growing the cubs for more years than most of us can remember. His wife Mary will be especially pleased we have won the trophy. More photos can be found at the District web site here.

Beavers Win District Beaver Day
























Congratulations to our Beavers who have won Greenock & District's Jean King Trophy this year. The Beavers had a great day competing with 300 Beavers from around the District. They tried their hand at climbing on Jacob's ladder, Sumo Wrestling, Skittles, Snakes and Ladders, crate climbing, parachute games, fishing, and lots lots more. They even found time to learn some new songs at a fun campfire. The winning team is pictured showing off their trophy. You can find more photos of the event at the District web site here. Thanks to all parents and Beavers who took part in a great day out.