Scouts cook up a win

THE 79th Oldham scout troop tuck in (from the left): Emily Duthie, Matt Lawton, Alex Newell, Aimee Mahoney and Frances Taylor

FORGET Bear Grylls and Ray Mears, Oldham scouts have it all sewn up when it comes to survival skills after winning a unique cooking competition.

The 79th Oldham troop, based in Denshaw, and the 10th Knolls Lane, made the most of all the resources the great outdoors have to offer to win first and second place in the county backwoods cooking competition.

The competition, which involves troops from across the organisation’s Greater Manchester North division, asked the contestants to cook a two-course meal without a kitchen at Bibbys campsite, Bolton.

Using only a shovel, a knife, a cup and some foil, the scouts got busy making a fire to create mouthwatering meals including mackerel, leeks and scallops and carrot and sweetcorn to win the top spots.

Barry Radcliffe, leader of the 10th Knolls Lane which scooped first place, said: “This really is back to basics and a test of very traditional scouting skills.

“The youngsters proved themselves to be very resourceful in using whatever the environment has to offer to survive in the wild.”