Mote Park, scouting,innocent scouting games, police and old ladies

To those Togs who remember the scouts and the scouting movement let this be a lesson to you. As all good stories begin, once upon a time- I was a scout with St. Francis troop and on occasions, we would be marched from Week Street to Mote Park to play something called a wide game.

We were divided into two groups, the first group of scouts would tie their neckerchief onto the back of their belt and then they were given about ten minutes to hide, after which it was the job of the opposing team to find them and recover as many neckerchiefs’ as possible. The scout with the most neckerchiefs’ would be the winner and probably the one with the most boxed ears.

Now we all know Mote Park is quite a large area and not too easy to find if someone wants to make themselves scarce. On this occasion after searching for what seemed hours, we, including the scoutmaster, decided to hide behind an embankment near the Mote Avenue gate end and just wait for the second group to tire themselves out before going home.

Now it was getting nicely dark when we heard voices approaching from the far end of the footpath. "Keep your noise down lads" the scout master said "and we will surprise them". As we were some way down the embankment we could hear voices but not so clearly as to know who was doing the talking or what they were saying.

When they were nearly on top of us the scoutmaster shouted, "Get em lads" and the chase was on. Unfortunately it was not the other scouts, that we had by now lost entirely, but several ladies out for a quiet walk before retiring. They all proceeded to run away from us shouting "You dirty old men", “Leave us alone you dirty old men". It did not seem appropriate to follow them but shortly after the police arrived and spent some time questioning the principals of our scoutmaster.

As it turned out by the time we jumped out on the women it was probably nine thirty, on speaking to the other lads when we met the following week most of them through boredom had gone home by eight thirty.

quin

Country: Australia Maidstone I remember it well: the scouts were great . I was in mgs scout group and our main rivals were Loose Swiss we had mortal combat in moat park and fantastic camps at hamlet wood near East Farleigh