The morning after - everyone could still stand
but you should have seen them trying to walk!
On Saturday, 2nd April, 1st Hinchley Wood entered 3 teams in the Four Inns walk, a tough competitive walk in the Peak District, extending 45 miles (72km) over some of the roughest moorland in Britain.
The Walk takes its name from the four Inns along its route: The Isle of Skye (site of), Snake Pass Inn, Nag's Head and Cat and Fiddle.
1st Hinchley Wood has been entering teams for the 4 Inns Walk every year since 1984 having also done so a few times in the 1970s. This year as with every other year we were, aside from the not inconsiderable feat of completing the hike, attempting to set the fastest time in Esher District. The previous best time was set in 2004 also by 1st Hinchley Wood - you can read about it here.
With the District Four Inns trophy virtually guaranteed, as unusually there were no entries from other Esher District Scout Groups this year all we had to do was have one of our 3 teams finish. Usually it is the lashing rain and gale force winds that do their best to stop us but this year for the first time that anyone can remember we started the hike in short sleeved shirts at 6am. It wasn't long before the heat and pace took its toll on what was hoped to be the fastest of our teams. The initial fast pace soon slowed and after 10 miles the blisters had already appeared allowing our other teams to close the gap. The blisters got steadily worse until the first aid kit and painkillers came into play allowing the team to pick up the pace again and come storming home, knocking 8 minutes off the record in a time of 12 hours 25 minutes.
The winning team of Chris Beaney, Simon Evans, Chris Platt and Ian Broderick is pictured together with the other members of 1st Hinchley Wood Scout Group who also set fantastic times of less than 15 hours. With 2 of the 3 teams finishing complete we were able to achieve our best results ever taking 4th and 8th places out of all the Scout teams based outside Derbyshire, over 90 teams entering the competition.
Full results are available here.