Tonbridge District Scouts

From Friday 25 May, Keith 'Lofty' and Joan Bunyon's address will be:

18 Seven Acres,
New Ash Green,
Longfield,
Kent,
DA3 8RN.

No landline at present; mobile phone and email address details remain unchanged.

With the new year comes a new County Commissioner for Kent in the form of Harvey Kennett.

Harvey has been involved in Scouting as an adult for 14 years having held roles including ASL, ESL and is currently DC in Maidstone East in addition to having being a Unit Leader at the recent Jamboree.

When Harvey's appointment was announced in November, the Deputy Regional Commissioner South East - Chris Doll - said:

I know Harvey will be keen to work his way around the County in the coming months to meet as many people as possible.  I am sure he will be a great asset to the County and to the Regional County Commissioners Team.

I would also like to take this opportunity to send my heartfelt thanks Kelvin for his hard work and management of the County of Kent.

You can read more from Harvey in the January edition of his County Commissioner's Communication on the Kent Scout's internet site: http://www.kentscouts.org.uk/pageview.php?menu_id=685

Eighteen friends came along to the Band's bring-a-friend morning and spent a couple of hours finding out what the band gets up to.  They all had the chance to try out our instruments and then had a crash course in marching.  Finally everyone joined with the remaining members and we had a band of 50 marching together.  The aim of the morning was not only to show members' friends what the band is all about but also to recruit some new members and initial indications suggest that at least eight will be joining us at the start of next term.

Anyone over the age of 9 can join the band, members stay in their own Scout Groups and come to the band as an extra activity.  The band own all of the instruments and we teach everything from scratch so there is no need to have any previous experience.

We are the cheapest way of learning to play a musical instrument in Tonbridge so if you would like more information please see the band website or email the This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

On 21 March twenty members of 17th Tonbridge Scout & Guide Band travelled to the West Midlands to take part in this year's solo competitions. Performing to judges from The Royal Marines they each had to learn a number of set pieces as well as demonstrating their own freestyle piece. In the six different classes the band entered they achieved three first places and five second places (below). Special mention should go to Chris Ditcham who only joined the band in January and achieved runner up on the fife.

Kent Scouts have an affiliate account with Cotswold Outdoor which gives 15% discount - you've just got to mention the account number at the till!  The account number has just changed to AF-KENTSC-T3 [from K2074] - simple!

The sun shone on over 200 young people in 41 teams participating in the 2009 Founder and Exploit trophy hikes.

The winning Founder team was the 'Banineapples' from 9th in Capel (one point separated the first 3 teams); while the Exploit winners (by just one point) were the 'Giblet patrol' from the Central Explorer Unit; click ‘Read more’ below for full results.

Well done to all the teams that took part and a massive thanks to the organising team and all the Leaders, Fellowship, parents and other helpers, who made everything run so smoothly on the day.

If you have any feedback on the day, or ideas of ways to make it even better next year, then please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

And there are some photos, here too.

The result of the Best Incident Trophy (BIT) should be announced very soon.