The Big Kickabout

Like so many others, we saw the Scout Association's publicity for "The Big Kickabout" so we asked the Pack who'd be interested in going. 11 Cubs said they would, so on the appointed Sunday morning, we loaded up the van and set off for Shepherd's Bush.

All was going fine until we ran into the celebrations for Chelsea winning the Premiership when we were just outside Putney. We sat in traffic for 25 minutes and had to turn off for another route. We arrived at Loftus Road without further incident, and found it surprisingly easy to park.

We walked round to the front of the ground to get in and promptly bumped into the Chief Scout! Needless to say, he was asked to stand in some pictures with the Pack and he was a great sport - as you can tell from the photo, he joined in the party atmosphere without a second thought. Great guy. He shook hands, and went back to organising the event! We made our way to our appointed seats and watched the entertainment. This was a very interesting combination of items - cheerleaders, bands, and a match between football club mascots in all their regalia - some from ‘major’ clubs - Fulham springs to mind - (well, you know what I mean) and some from the Ryman League I have to confess to not having heard of.

Their football match wasn't exactly of the highest standard, but it was amusing at times watching them trying to run while being dressed as a computer, a fox, a city gent, etc., etc. There followed a demonstration/competition of footballing skills with teams led by former footballing stars - Ray Wilkins, plus the Chief Scout. The Chief Scout is actually very good at football - he scored several goals, and showed how happy he was to join in. While we were in the stands, we met another celebrity - Tessa Sanderson, a former Olympic star. She also showed what a sport she was by coming over and signing autographs. I think she expected to sign one of two and ended up signing about 50 - but she didn't show anything other than good humour while being thrust programmes to sign by children, I suspect not all of whom actually knew who she was!

The feature match had teams of celebrities playing. The Chief Scout was back on the field, along with various former footballing stars, Tessa Sanderson (who, during the match, was being encouraged to pick the ball up and throw it for a better effect) and members of the EastEnders cast. They all played very well, although the refereeing suggested a shade of bias to have the match result in a draw but, hey, although denying Peter Duncan his hat-trick, it was for fun and charity.

All in all, a good afternoon. I think the Cubs would have secretly preferred to have been able to join in rather than just watch, but as a spectacle for a good cause, I think the Association deserves all credit for staging what I hoped raised a lot of money for the selected charity, Cancer and Leukaemia in Childhood.