Just getting hold of tickets was an achievement!
For the fifth consecutive year for Caythorpe Scouts, last Saturday we headed up to London to take part in ‘Monopoly Run Live’ with almost 9,000 Scouts, Explorers and Guides from across the country.
This came months after valiant efforts by our volunteer Leaders to secure tickets for this amazingly popular event; in fact on the event’s own Facebook page, Leaders across the UK compared the stress of securing the places to buying Coldplay or One Direction tickets! The event sold out in less than four hours; a testament to the organising team!
Celebrating its 20th event and billed as “a real-time version of the popular Monopoly Run board game”, Monopoly Run Live is played on a single day in central London and involves visiting the actual sites that the board game is based on. There are multiple 'mini-games' running simultaneously, enabling hundreds of teams to compete on the day, yet each team will only have a maximum of six other competitor teams, giving everyone a good chance at winning (https://monopoly-run.co.uk/).
This year we joined forces with 2nd Grantham Scouts, and Explorers from several local Units, taking a total of 37 Young People and eleven volunteer leaders on this amazing day out.
It’s always an early alarm call for Monopoly Run, and this year someone at LNER had kindly brought forward the train departure time to 06:39. Alarms at 05:00, Scouts!!!!
After an easy journey to London, we spilt into our teams, gave safety briefings and headed to our starting point, The Regent’s Park. After collecting our event packs and a bit of a wait for the start times, our Monopoly Run apps ‘unfroze’ and our games began. We’re pleased to report that all teams remembered to check in at this first location (unlike last year…).
Once again, our teams weren’t all playing in the same ‘mini-game’ so while there was still a degree of competition, it wasn’t as stark as we’ve known in the past. Not that any of our Scouts or volunteer leaders are competitive. At all.
Each team will have had a completely different experience of the day, as you’ll see if you click on the links below showing the routes they took. We have also seen evidence that one of the Explorer teams found their way into various shops on Oxford Street. Not part of the programme, but hey-ho, what else would a team teenagers do, on their first unaccompanied trip to London?
Planned maintenance on many of the Underground lines proved to be a bit of a challenge throughout the day, with alternative routes being created and a bit more walking than usual. It also meant that buses were busier than normal, as Team Storm found out the hard way after waiting 20 minutes for a bus. By the time the full bus drove straight past them, the urgency to find toilets had somewhat increased. It’s amazing how wearing a Scout necker gets you into the customer toilets at BMW’s flagship Park Lane dealership :)
Energy levels dipped and peaked, complaints of sore legs, feet etc were registered, but it’s amazing how a few more Haribos and a bit of chocolate can help Scouts to power on through a challenge.
Not only were our teams trying their best to get around the Monopoly Board, but there was also a film-themed Quiz (which was incredibly difficult!) and three Team Challenges which earned extra points.
With the end of the day fast-approaching, Leaders decided it would be easier to rendez-vous back at King’s Cross rather than Leicester Square. With all teams safely back at the station, we had a short wait until our platform number showed on the departure board and off we headed to a rather empty train back to Grantham.
With Scouts and Explorers reunited with parents at Grantham Station, we all headed home, exhausted but with hundreds of different stories to tell of our London adventure :)
Reflecting on the day, we are still blown away by the Monopoly Run Team’s dedication to planning and organising the day, managing the technology and generally providing an excellent day out for our Scouts. We hope it’s an experience that they’ll never forget (the volunteer organisers and the Scouts!).
As always, huge thanks go to our Scouts and Explorers who behaved impeccably on the day, following safety rules at the same time as having lots of fun.
And to our volunteer leaders and parents who came along on the day, a huge ‘Thank you’. It’s not just another Saturday you have volunteered, but also a good number of hours in the planning, risk assessing, kit planning, communicating with parents and preparing the Scouts and Explorers for yet another amazing adventure. Thank you!
Here are the team stats from the day:
