Thursday 21 September 2017

Kingswood part 2



Day 2

6.15am the first sound of quietened voices emanates from the boys room next to mine.
6.17am a word that I can make out - ‘snoring’
6.20am a sentence - ‘Mr Pibworth is totally awesome!’ - well at least I think that is what they said!!
6.21am a thud as someone jumps out of bed
6.23am a creak of the door
6.25am a flush of a toilet
6.26am lots of thuds, an iPod plays out some happening tunes, loud excitable voices and the boys are all up!!
8.00am all is quiet in the girls section, face makes still on, cucumbers undisturbed - TYPICAL!!
8.01am the remnants of midnight feasts are cleaned up.

Activity 2 - Archery



Robin Finn steps up, the crowd go silent. He carefully places the arrow into the drawstring, slots it into the holder and takes a deep breath. There's a tense atmosphere now amongst the gathered throng, anticipating Robin Finn to strike the gold and gain the fair Maid Marion’s PlayStation console. Deep breath over, Robin Finn slowly draws the bow back, slowly, slowly, come on Finn we getting bored now!! At last the bow is drawn back to its fullness and Robin is ready.
His pulse quickens, his biceps ripple under the strain of the tensed string, thoughts race through his head - ‘I would love the prize’, ‘I am the arrow, be the arrow’, ‘I wonder if Mum has cleaned my room’, no concentrate!! His fingers release the arrow and like a rocket out of Cape Canaveral it flies through the air. Time stops, the arrow twitches and twists on its way to the target. The crowd gasps, Robin Finn strains his eyes to see his score, is it gold, is it victory, has he overcome……Noooooo, its red!!!! Maybe Robin Hood will be better at Aeroball!!!

Hold on, we have a challenger! Cliff Scarlet steps up. The arrow is placed in the grip, the bow is pulled, oh no, calamity, the arrow drops to the floor. As cool as you like Cliff picks it up and places it correctly, lessons learnt well. He draws, no stalling with this competitor, straight to it. The draw, the release and it hits the……..blue, the crowd go wild, it may be less than Robin but as a novice his handicap counts double and Cliff wins the event. An amazing competition and the crowd goes home happy. That is all from the archery station.



Activity 3 - Fencing
This is a great opportunity to continue the medieval games theme but that would be too predictable so why not a Star Wars version?
Obiwan Browne entered the throne room of Queen Amidala Chatwin with a serious look in his eye. Standing next to the reigning monarch of Kingswoodtopia was Boba FettMalik, the bounty hunter from the Norfolk atmosphere. The tension heightened as Obiwan closed the gap on the waiting welcoming party, but how welcoming will they be he thought. He recognised FettMalik from a previous encounter and then began to wish he had brought his light sabre rather than the plastic foil he had attached to his waist, budget cuts he muttered to himself!!!!
‘What news did you bring of the war against the DfE’ Chatwin asked.
‘The Empire is fading’, Obiwan replied, ‘but one renegade is still at large…..Boba!’
‘You will never take me alive!’ FettMalik replied and in an instant his foil was in his hand and he was lunging towards Browne, ok - he ambled towards the line with a care free attitude - you can't get the actors these days!!



Using his Jedi powers Obiwan quickly realised his opponents weakness and lunged, - ok prodded, at FettMalik who just laughed at him, it did tickle a little. Browne prodded and prodded but to no avail.
Queen Chatwin said ‘This is ridiculous, Guard Bowyer, use your foil on me!’
Many, many moments later after a lot of en-guard, forward thrusts and bending foils the four of them sat down, exhausted but without a scratch on any of them.
‘How about we settle this with a leap of faith instead?’ The wise narrator suggested, and with that they all warp sped (sorry, mixing my sci-fi terminology) out of the gym and to a strange universe with grass, blue skies, sun and a strange looking pole with climbing supports.




Activity 4 - Leap of Faith
Welcome to the tower. This menacing test of skill, courage and faith challenges the best of men and women, boys and girls. In this arena actions speak louder than words so please check out the photos and videos.