The Waterford Scout County Challenge was held in Stradbally, Co. Waterford from the 23rd to the 25th April 2010. Surrounded by magnificent woodlands the field close to the beach which was used for the event was also used by De La Salle for decades as the site for its Annual Camp. The competition involved the building of a full campcraft site including sleeping and store tents, table and seating, dresser, waste gadget, gate and a store gadget. On Saturday afternoon there was a range of skills bases including Emergencies, Survival, a Water Base and a Fun base which included campfire sketches. On Saturday evening there was a full testmeal and on Sunday the pioneering project was the tricky Bryan Bach Tower. The event concluded with a tough final inspection which had a few heavy rain showers thrown in for good measure. No less than 18 teams from Waterford took part in the event which is the highest number ever for a County Challenge and over 220 scouts, venturers and leaders were camped in Stradbally for the weekend.

At the closing ceremony the 7th De La Salle were presented with the JD Hennebry Trophy for the cooking. JD was a legendary De La Salle man and former Group Leader who passed away some years ago. He would have been delighted for the cooking trophy to have stayed in the Group for the second year in a row. The 7th who had three teams in the event also took the prestigious Campcraft trophy. The top three teams in the overall competition were St Pauls Team 2 – 3rd, 7th De La Salle A Team – 2nd and St Pauls Team 1 – first place. In addition it was announced that the 17th St Pauls, the 3rd De La Salle and the 7th De La Salle will go on to represent the County at the Phoenix Challenge which is the national scoutcraft competition in August.

Speaking after the event, Group Leader, Owen Riordan congratulated the scouts on all four teams from De La Salle who had represented the Group to an incredibly high standard. Owen added: “the PLs and all the scouts put in a fantastic effort, they also had a great time and the hard work of them and the leadership teams in both troops certainly paid off.  It is fantastic that two of the top three troops in the County Challenge this year were from De La Salle”.  A hearty congratulations to St. Pauls from all at De La Salle for being the outright winners also.