Here is another game for a large group of Scouts. This is fun for all age levels – from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts to Venturers. Your older Scouts might try to employ some strategy when playing this game.
Steal the Bacon
- The “bacon” – this can be almost anything – a hat, a frisbee, a neckerchief, etc.
- Some method of keeping score for each team – pencil and paper, rocks, sticks, memory, whatever works
- One umpire
- The rest of the group divided into two teams
- Determine the field of play. It should be roughly rectangular.
- Determine how many points you will play to – 10, 20, etc depending on how long you want the game to last.
- The teams line up on the opposite boundaries of the field, facing each other.
- Each team member is given a different number – 1, 2, 3, etc. So there will be a 1 on each team, a 2 on each team, and so on.
- The “bacon” is placed in the middle of the field, an equal distance from each team.
- The umpire calls a number.
- The member of each team who was assigned that number runs out and tries to grab the bacon and return it to their side of the field without being tagged.
- If a team member gets the bacon to their side without being tagged, that team scores 2 points.
- If a team member tags a member of the opposite team while they are stealing the bacon, the tagging team scores 1 point.
- The first team to reach the determined number of points wins.
- The umpire can call multiple numbers to have more players on the field at one time.
- Instead of numbers, use animals or characters or something else to make it silly or to fit a theme.
- This can be used as a learning tool. Instead of numbers, use answers to questions. For example, assign each player a city instead of a number. Then if the umpire says “The capitol of Missouri” , the players assigned “Jefferson City” run out. So you can use this to reinforce whatever you covered at your meeting.