Messages from our scouting friends

Austrian Scouts, this August, will be hosts to some 15,000 members of their Movement from all parts of the world including a contingent of more than 30 from the North Riding. at the Seventh World Jannboree. Nine Middlesbrough boys are going.

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To be held at Bad Ischl from August 3-13, the jamboree will be near the 3,000-metres-high Dachstein and surrounded by a series of sparkling lakes, dark pine forests, salt mines, ice caves and giant glaciers.

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A hundred Australian Scouts and 83 South African will tour England after the Jamboree.

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More than 30 different countries have already agreed to send Scouts to the London International Patrol Camp in August. Before the camp opens, at Gilwell Park, guest patrols from the World Jamboree will spend a week in the homes of London Scouts, visiting Festival attractions.

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***** Some text missing***** and Vauxhall Motors. In just over a week, on June 2, two Middlesbrough troops will be sending teams to Leeds to compete in the North-East Counties’ quarter-finals. Other heats will be run off all over Britain, culminating in the final at Scarborough on September 15. Work on the cars must be done by Scouts, although technical advice can be accepted. No more than £5 can be spent on each car. Entries total 400 this year, against 180 last. Top speed last year—20.7 m.p.h.

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Huddersfield Scouts and Guides are holding a special Festival effort this week, ending with a pageant in Greenhead Park, depicting the growth and development of the woollen industry.

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Twenty-six English and 74 Scottish Scouts are visitingthe Danish National Scout Camp at Grena in July. Eight others are flying to Sweden in August

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Spotlight on the show…..

by HILLARY CZIMANOVSKI

When, on Tuesday, March 28, last year-10 years after the original ” Gang Show ” idea had been abandoned because of the war-Middlesbrough Scouts’ first large-scale ” Gang Show ” took the stage in St. John’s Hall, the hall was about two-thirds full. Wednesday brought almost a capacity audience. Thursday saw the hall packed-and for the rest of the week it was a case of ” house full.” The ” Gang Show ” notion had caught the imagination of Tees-siders; its success was assured. Even before the curtain fell on the last performance there were murmurings about ” next year’s show ” and by November thoughts were being turned into actions. It was decided to stage a second revue and one chilly winter’s evening an executive committee went into a huddle in the Pine Room at Levick House to formulate plans for an even more ambitious production-this time to be held, if possible, in a ” pukka ” theatre. The foundations were laid. Since then it has been blood, sweat, tears-and fun- for a much bigger gang than you see on the stage tonight

Rehearsals two and three nights a week, in schools, in the Co~operative Hall, and finally in the theatre itself (helped along, it has been estimated by a total of something like 150 gallons of tea!). Scenery preparation in a large Middlesbrough garage; the securing, fitting and altering of costumes and wigs; the obtaining of music and its arrangement; ” hunting ” advertisements and matter for this programme, transport for the younger boys after performances and hospitality for those travelling from afar to see the show-to mention just a few of the tasks.

Over-riding all these efforts, however, has been the boundless enthusiasm of ”the Gang ” itself-the 140 or so boys and Scouters who make up the rest, and who have never flagged in their determination to produce ” only the best.” Doubtless it will be the lighter moments that will be longest remembered by the ” Gang “. One Scouter recalls, somewhat dubiously, the time when, after working late on a show job, he arrived home in the early hours and had to throw gravel at his brother’s window to get in !

Then there was the incident in which the vehicle carrying two show officials back from a ” confab ” with our helpful Newcastle friends broke down out in the wilds about midnight. Not to mention the Scoutmaster who shook the producer one Saturday evening by asking if he might be excused the following week’s rehearsal–as he wanted to get married ! Or the spectator at another rehearsal who almost scalded his nose when an enthusiastic Scout knocked the arm holding his cup of “char.”

Problems ? Yes, dozens of them, Where were we to find nine umbrellas and brief cases, for instance ? How were 500 Scouts-cast, helpers and visitors- and adults going to be catered for between per-formances on the last day ? And who were to replace the two boys in the cast who had the mis-fortune to break their arms (not through rehearsals)? All have been solved somehow, however-thanks largely to very many local supporters who have rallied to our aid. One of the most encouraging features about these ” Gang Shows ” has been wealth of goodwill displayed by so many of our Tees-Side friends towards Scouting. We do appreciate it. And after you have seen the show, we sincerely hope you feel it was all worth-while. WE DO.