Scout Association Top Trumps

I was intending to buy the new(ish) Scout Association Top Trump cards as I knew there was a debris shelter image on there that was taken during  a photo shoot I did with Terry and Sam Longhurst from the Ilford East Activity Team (and latterly Bushscout) for the Scout Association's Outdoor Adventure Manual produced with Haynes publishers. 

Debris shelters are a favourite with my Cub pack and the same wooden lengths used on the photo shoot shelter are the ones I use with them too. Well I found out recently that yours truly was on the bowdrill card so my purchase staus of these cards was fast tracked from whenever to ASAP.

They arrived on a sunny day so I sat down outside with a beverage and decided to see if my card was worth having in your hand, or if it would turn your hand into a foot.

Actually it's not half bad! There are 29 other cards and therefore out of 145 possible figures 16 have one that equals one of mine, and 18 beat one of mine with only three cards (above) that have more winning figures than mine (all 3-2). Happy with that.

Having mentioned the Outdoor Adventure Manual it was noticeable that eight of the cards had pictures either from it, or shot for the articles. Of course a lot of the card subject matter featured in the book too.

It would have been nine but for some inexplicable reason an article on safe knife usage by Paul Kirtley (from which the above picture was from) didn't appear in the book, yet his knife sharpening one did. I even wrote to Scouting magazine and asked if they would feature it but to no avail. I can't say that I was overly happy that a professional Bushcraft Instructor took time out to contribute to the book and it not be used..Especially as I had asked him! Luckily Paul has put them to good use in a blog article that is well worth looking at here.

But what trumps that (see what I did there?) is the postage asked by the Scout shop for a 112g card pack...£3.99! A large letter's postage rate is only £1.22, indeed a 2 kilo signed for parcel second class is only £3.90 postage. That said I've found this £5.00 item for sale at £12.95 elsewhere...