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Quick Biog
Name: Jay Biggs
DOB: 10/09/1984
Home town: Wallasey
Association to Scouting:
Assistant Scout Leader Cestrian Scouts Chester
Assistant Scout leader 33rd Wallasey Sea Scouts
Assistant Cub Leader (Rikki) Wallasey
Assistant Beaver Leader 33rd Wallasey
Hollyoaks Network Chester Alumni
Tea preference: Black one sugar
Biscuit preference: Bourbon, Garibaldi or Hobnob
Cake Preference: Battenburg, hot chocolate fudge cake or Bakewell tart
A few months ago, I found myself in a very unfortunate situation. I turned 25... this in itself is not a bad thing, but as many in the Scout Association find out, it means that you come to the age where you have to leave Network. I loved Network... I loved MY Network... But alas, when your times up your times up, and it left me feeling a little surplus to requirement... I was in this odd mid-place, where I thought I was too young for Fellowship BUT to old to stay in Network... I needed something to keep me in trouble. Generally trouble comes in the form of a 5ft3 Northern bloke in a kilt, that's right... Fozz, my plucky sidekick in this little adventure, usually its that glint in his eye and a Landranger OS map in his hand that reminds me that I am about to join the endangered species list... but not this time, this adventure is entirely my fault!
Well, when I say ENTIRELY my fault, I'm not exactly telling the truth, a lot of the blame lies with an ingenious man named Dave Gorman, who in the year 2000 set out with his friend (Danny Wallace, an equally ingenious man) to find people who shared his name, because his mate bet that he couldn't meet 'lots' of them'... A quest in which he succeeded... there is also the person who (would like to remain completely anonymous) who bet me I couldn't do it. So how did I get myself into this? WELL... are you sitting comfortably?... No?!...Well how's about now?...Okay then I'll begin:
It all started with a perfectly sober conversation about Scouting, and well, someone asked me 'how many Scout Groups there are in the UK?' I thought for a moment or two, shrugged and answered with 'Lots' and this bothered me... I didn't know, considering we are supposed to be a world wide family of Scouts I couldn't even guess how many groups there are in the UK. After a bit of searching, I discovered that there where close to 8,000 of them scattered all over the United Kingdom... I remember just dropping this random fact into conversation, when something strange happened... someone bet me that I couldn't meet them all, well it wasn't so much as betting me that I couldn't do it... it was just a generalisation, it was a victory for defeatists everywhere... the phrase' you couldn't meet them all' bugged at me...it niggled in my brain....I started thinking... Just how long would it take... COULD I do it? Should I do it? As with most problems these days, I took to the internet and the wondrous vat of knowledge its users hold... and the rest my friends is history... 'The Name tape Challenge' was born. Since then I have had mixed responses, some have bet me that I couldn't do it, and others have spurred me on... But thankfully I have not yet been discouraged.. Infact if anything I have been spurred on by you wonderful people of the UK who are behind me, whose messages and offers of tea and cake make me feel proud to be a member of the Scout Association... I look forward to seeing you soon!
Yours in Adventure!
Jay
