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Mark Langley's Article on the Rayner 1996

This year the theme of the competition was “Goldeneye” and our team - Neil Shelly, Adam Schafer, Mark Ferry and myself fell in for inspection at the starting point at Grabouw forest station. One by one the teams were inspected. After we were inspected we were given our team numbers and starting position.

The competition took the form of a long hike with many Bases to do along the way. Our first Base was to hand in our pre-written lists of the information of our team members. Four of the teams that had fallen in before us had not written out their lists. We gave the judge our list and were given further instructions and carried on hiking, having gained four places! At another Base we were told to get our kits to the other side of the river within 5 minutes. We had to get undressed, pack our uniforms into our rucksacks and blow up the two lilos that we had brought with us. The water was brown and cold. The river was approx. 20 m wide and we got to the other side, staves, lilos, rucksacks and all, in a time of 5 minutes 20 seconds. At this Base we overtook many Patrols. We had to evaluate a sand story at the next Base. As we hiked we worked on the STA puzzles. Next we had to scramble down a steep slope over pine needles to get to the river where we were greeted by a scene like the opening of “Goldeneye” where 007 bungi-jumped from the dam wall. We were given two minutes to climb up a boulder with a rope that was provided and then jump off the boulder ± 8 meters high. After this challenge, we hiked on along the road, doing more Bases such as a snake knowledge quiz and pellet gun shooting, on the way. Eventually we reached the overnight camp where we were given more STA’s and puzzles. Neil cooked a delicious chicken dinner. After supper we had to complete seven Bases in three hours, finishing at midnight. The night bases included stalking, compass trails, knotting and pioneering.

The next morning we got full marks for a music test - not only contemporary music. We quickly cleared our campsite up and were the first team to set off, hiking along the road. Along the way we were required to do a panoramic sketch amongst other things. At the next Base, which was Nigel’s, we had to pinpoint where we were on the map that he gave us. This was quite difficult as the distant mountains were covered by cloud! After a few more tests such as knotting, we scrambled down to the river for the First Aid Base. Then we had to boulder hop down the river. Each of us took a fall somewhere along the way, some worse than others. Bases along the way were pioneering, swimming, rescuing someone from drowning and a rather obscure Kim’s game with the objects placed in the water. We had lunch along the way whilst waiting for other Patrols to catch us up. At the last Base of the day, we were required to make a cup of tea.

After the tea, we changed into our uniforms and started walking the last 30 minutes. When we arrived at the end point we relaxed, waiting for nearly 40 minutes for the last teams to arrive. All the teams were then given score sheets. We scored 374 out of 500. We were sure this did not include our last Base - the tea. Neil walked past one of our main rivals - 1st Pinelands - and noticed that their score was 375 out of 500 - one point ahead of us! The only chance we had of winning was if we scored 5 out of 5 for the tea and Pinelands scored 3 - highly unlikely. There was nothing we could do but wait. Eventually, the final ceremony started. Teams’ scores and positions were read out one by one until the top three were to be called out. 2nd Bergvliet’s B team was placed 10th. Our team had not yet been called out and tension was rising!. Third place was read out - not us. Then Richard Goldschmidt, the Chief Judge of the 1996 Rayner (a huge task) read out 2nd Bergvliet “A” - we were placed 2nd. 1st Pinelands had beaten us by two points! We later discovered that Pinelands achieved 4 out of 5 for their tea whilst we achieved 3 out of 5. We knew we had done very well to get so far - the highest position 2nd Bergvliet has ever achieved.

Mark Langley - Patrol Leader.