lore. Any officer daring to act foolishly in the week under canvas was eligible and it was the youngest officer there who won a very special award. The Lord had blessed us with hot and sunny weather so many
people took the opportunity to top up their tans. This included Chris Hart who is rather fair of skin. He soon became very red of skin as the Broadstairs sun beat down. It was therefore decided that he
should receive a special Red Cabbage Award.1996, the summer when football came home we went to Portland for camp and the Cabbage award came with us. Now all too aware that an act of foolishness could
result in an extra piece of luggage to take home, the staff were on their guard. However, it's at times like this when inanimate objects appear to conspire against you. And so it went that Mr Peter Laycock
was helping to load the coach. As he opened the door it came off in his hand. As he stood clutching the broken off door his name was being added to the roll of honour.
When things pass into greatness they
are often imitated. By the time we came to Wroxham in '97 the Mallet Award for boys was in it's third year and the upstart 'Donkey of the Week' appeared. But the Cabbage reigned supreme, evolving into the
Cool Cabbage. This year it was won by Mr Martin 'Cabes' Cable for buying 'Cool' shades for his tent and asking everyone if they were cool. The Cool Cabbage of course was wearing cool shades.
Some would say
camp is an easy life for staff. They don't have to get up to prepare for inspection every day, the only day any one really has to get up is on their orderly day. This is when they are in charge of the smooth
running of the camp site. It therefore helps if they do not sleep through their alarm clock. This was the crime of Mr Richard Laycock at Broadstairs in 1998. The Cabbage was given for being a Disorderly
Orderly Officer.
When in 1999 we returned to Sandown, IOW, the place where the cabbage award was born, staff were anxious not to be the one holding the cabbage at the dawn of the new millennium. However,
Brian Crowe took a firm grip on the cabbage as he failed to take a firm grip on the canteen cash tin, sending it's contents flying all over the room.
Tension can be seen to grow on camp amongst the staff
as the days tick by and no one has yet made a claim for the Cabbage. Not so in the year 2000 at Sheringham. The Cabbage Award was sewn up, in the bag, done and dusted by Sunday evening.
Junior section
officer Peter Hart was enjoying his game of Pitch & Putt in Cromer, until he reached the 17th hole. A 'slight misjudgement' off the tee led to his ball sailing into the road adjacent to the course. Not
to worry, thought PH. It looks like a good lie, I'll play on from here. However, his judgement was again flawed as his shot failed to clear the perimeter fence. The assembled golfers were alerted by a 'ding'
of golf ball on steel bar as the ball ricocheted back into a neighbouring drive, narrowly missing a parked car. Fortunately no damage was done, much to the relief of the irate house/drive/car owner, but it
meant staff could relax as they knew that from that moment, Peter Hart was the Cabbage Award Winner for the Year 2000.
Alas by 2001 Staff v Boys football had been ruled out by the 'Too Much Fun Police, BB
Insurance Division' years before, so a new, safer contest had to be found. The Company Section competed on the lanes at the bowling alley whereas the Juniors took to the rounders field, what could be safer
than that?! That depends on where you were fielding and whether you were likely to be squashed by a marauding Bernard Broughton. Quickly dashing to first post, Bernie failed to notice Adam and
completely flattened him. He continued to flatten him until help arrived to roll him off the horizontal junior boy. Happily the only injuries sustained were laughter related.
The Cabbage Award, like Bernie
once he got moving, was unstoppable!!! (Indeed rumour control said that we nearly had a repeat of the previous years award winning moment in last year's rounders game!!) But as in Sheringham in 2000,
Weymouth 2002 saw an early and decisive claim for the cabbage as early as Saturday teatime!
Kind-hearted Rick Laycock thought he would let some fresh air into the dining room as the sun had begun to shine
and temperatures were rising. He opened a window and feeling good about what he had done, he opened another. Window number three was opened soon after without incident. Window number four was a little
stiffer than the rest and as the Safety Officer pushed the window frame his hand slipped. The glass was shattered and crashed noisily to the floor. Blood dripped from his arm as a hilarious individual called
out, are you in pane?! He wore a glazed look on Friday night too as the Current Custodians of the Cabbage Award tradition presented him with the vegetable.
Apparently more cabbages are grown in
Lincolnshire than anywhere else, so it is appropriate that when we went to Wainfleet in the Cabbage County, there were more nominations than we have had anywhere else too! Eric Hempstead made a late claim on
Friday morning as rather than carry someone else's bag the long way round a fence, he tried to throw it over. The bag became stuck on top of the fence and coated in anti vandal paint too. It was retrieved by
the Hempstead but he wondered for the next few hours what else he might be retrieving! Heather Gardner, more used to preparing cabbage in the kitchen than trying to win one also picked up a nomination.
Despite cooking numerous excellent and complicated dishes during the week, it was a piece of toast that tripped her up. Flames were seen leaping from the top of one of the toasters in her command at
breakfast time. Fortunately though, the blaze was brought under control by the removal of the blackened bread, but enthusiasm for awarding her the cabbage burned for the rest of the week. As the burning
toaster was an electrical fire, we all know that it rightly did not have liquid poured all over it. Another thing that shouldn't have liquid poured all over it is a table full of juniors having their supper.
Nobody told Bernie this though as he calamitously doused a table in hot chocolate when he should have been serving it in their mugs!! All these would have been worthy winners but in an exceptional year,
maybe it was the heat, one nominee held the key to winning the cabbage!!
Martin Cable had a quick look in his tent for his car key and concluded it was not there, a conclusion subsequently proved to be
wrong. His search for his key took him back to Skegness and into numerous places he had visited earlier that day. The dining room was inspected and a search of the field some hours later using torch light
was underway when once more he decided to check his tent. After several hours of searching, the key was in fact where he had left it and where he had first looked.
He had to work the next day and was not
there to receive his cabbage, but it should be noted that whoever had won the award, would not have received a cabbage either. Head of the cabbage award committee Callum Rednall left it too late to find a
cabbage in a shop, and a look alike lettuce was substituted. Callum will be on the staff next year and will therefore be eligible to receive the cabbage in 2004.
The Official History of the Cabbage Award written by
Richard Laycock
