TheEighth Hartlepool BoysBrigade

13/06/2026

An action packed night at The 8th!

Anchors and Juniors started with a big group game of ‘Nest Defence’ 🪹🥎 which involved grabbing an many balls as you could from the starting point and bring them back to your base, then trying to steal balls from other team’s bases! We saw some excellent team work from the whole group!

Anchors stayed downstairs to use our bright parachute for some brilliant parachute games which included, “Shark”, “Bouncy Balls” and “Swap Places” and then moved on to Hockey 🏑! Meanwhile Junior Section went off to play their own game of Non-Stop Cricket 🏏 even having the confidence for them to take on the staff in their own game! Before we came back together as a big group to finish with some “Dodgeball”!

Upstairs Company and Seniors opened with a group game of Hockey Lives a free-for-all hockey game with only one winner from the group! Before we switched it up with a few games of “Chaos”. We finished with some free time which included football, board games and a merciless game of UNO: No Mercy!

A quick reminder we need armbands in so we can update badges before presentation night 😊

06/06/2026

We are now into Summer Programme which means all our Badgework and Inspection scores are finished and we are preparing new armbands along with engraving trophies for Presentation Night on the 17th July at Seaton Social Club!

In Anchors we started with a game of “Hockey Numbers” taking it in turns to play against their opposite number trying to score and defend their own goal 🏑🥅. We then moved onto “Shark Attack” using hula-hoops as ‘safe island’ and avoiding the staff who are deadly sharks in the water 🦈, the longer we play the more islands get submerged by water making it harder to stay safe! 🏝️

Junior Section also started with Hockey but a game of “Hockey Lives” instead which of playing 1 v 1 is a Everyman for themselves game with all players starting on 4 lives and trying to eliminate all players to be the last one standing 🏑. We then moved into the Snooker room were we played a game based on using angles and speed to try and bounce the snooker balls into the pockets from different places around the table 🎱. We then joined back with the Anchor Section to finish the night with a game of “Dodgeball” - it just wouldn’t be BB without it!

Stars of the Week ⭐️
Anchors - Ovie for making new friends and trying his best in games
Juniors - Arthur for great hockey skills and fantastic behaviour

Upstairs Company and Seniors started with a game of “Chaos” a free for all dodgeball game that keeps everyone on their toes before moving into a game of Non-Stop Cricket 🏏 and then were given some free time with a few of the lads choosing to play games of UNO Flip & UNO No Mercy with the staff!

A reminder about Summer Uniform, we ask that Anchors and Juniors still wear their blue polo but are fine wearing shorts or sports trousers and trainers etc from now until the end of term. Company and Seniors can wear their sports gear all night 😊

04/06/2026

It is volunteers week, and we would like to give a huge thank you for all those who give up their time to run 'the8th'. Well done to the special bunch who make up our team. Congratulations!

01/06/2026

For the second year in a row we have been shortlisted in the BB Social Media Awards. You can vote for us here https://boys-brigade.org.uk/social-media-awards/?fbclid=IwdGRjcASKgTJjbGNrBIqBHGV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHn3vaRk62owXRr9pfWdFw4opGh3QBfZYff7YlDYkQ4fTbfiHH6kEvPPHXNZd_aem_Ks2AK6XthRwZFOkWLKnJbghttps://boys-brigade.org.uk/social-media-awards/?fbclid=IwdGRjcASKgTJjbGNrBIqBHGV4dG4DYWVtAjExAHNydGMGYXBwX2lkDDM1MDY4NTUzMTcyOAABHn3vaRk62owXRr9pfWdFw4opGh3QBfZYff7YlDYkQ4fTbfiHH6kEvPPHXNZd_aem_Ks2AK6XthRwZFOkWLKnJbg

Introducing this year's finalists in our Best Use of Photography Social Media Award - well done to 3rd Falkirk, 8th Hartlepool, 133rd London and 3rd Perth! 🙌

Now it's your turn to vote for your winner! Voting is open now, to get involved simply complete the online form at https://boys-brigade.org.uk/social-media-awards/ by 21st June 2026. You can also vote for your winners in the other categories at the same time.

The public vote will be combined with scores from a judging panel and winners will be announced during week commencing 22nd June 2026. Who will take home this year's prize? 🏆

30/05/2026

We are now heading into our summer programme and look forward to seing you all back at the8th on Friday 5th June. We have an exciting programme ahead of us, which will lead up to our annual Presentation Night on Friday 17th July 2026 - so save the date! More info will be sent to you all soon, until then, we look forward to seing you all on Friday 5th!

**PS - we need to update your armbands, so please bring them along on Friday, as well as any of our major trophies, if you have one. Thanks**

23/05/2026

Another term done and dusted

Due to an ongoing building refurbishment Anchors and Juniors spent the last night of term together celebrating all their hard work in the Badgework classes this term with a Games Night! We started with an exciting game of Relay Races 🏃 from Hula-Hooping to best dance move to skateboarding 🛹. We then moved onto an exciting game of Skittle Ball 🎳 we saw some brilliant defending and some excellent throws! Before we finished with a big game of Dodgeball!

Stars of the Week:
Anchors: Adam for his fantastic enthusiasm during relay races
Juniors: Eligh for joining in and making new friends on his first night

Upstairs Company and Seniors started with a game of “Corner Defence” defending their own skittle in their corner whilst trying to knock down the opposition skittles. We then split off with Company creating their own Assault Courses and then trying to complete them for their Badgework while Seniors discussed Cyber Security and the dangers of Phishing Emails, Spyware and clicking links that look suspicious.

We are off next week but we will see you on the 5th June! 🫡

16/05/2026

Another action packed night at The 8th!

Anchor section had a Bee 🐝 themed night to celebrate World Bee Day next week. We started by talking about the importance of busy bees in our eco system before colouring in some fantastic picture of bees pollinating flowers with a few clips from The Bee Movie to help show how pollination works 🌺☀️.

Junior section started with a game of “Skittle Corner Defence” defending their own skittles corners while trying to knock down the oppositions 🎳 - last team standing wins! We then moved onto our Badgework which was a physical team building exercise of using the drain pipes to get the ball into the bucket 🥎🪣, the problem was the bucket was too far away to do it in a straight line so once you had safely passed on the ball you had to run to the end of the line to make sure you were available to collect the ball again! Some fantastic teamwork on display from everyone. We finished by coming together for a big group game of “Dodgeball” with the Anchor section.

Stars of the Week ⭐️
Anchor Section - Francis for amazing drawing and good listening skills
Junior Section - Dan for his great leadership skills during Badgework

Company and Seniors started their night with a few games of “Chaos” that were very chaotic to say the least. They then helped clear out one of our rooms that is about to be redecorated and did a fantastic job working as a group and coordinating where everything could be stored in the mean time. We then finished the night with a football tournament downstairs and quiet chill time upstairs.

09/05/2026

Another brilliant night at The 8th to mark the 81st anniversary of VE Day!

Anchor Section started their night with a game of “Grab and Go” which involves protecting your own corner while also looking to steal balls from other corners. We then moved onto our Badgework were we discussed VE Day - what it is? Why it’s celebrated and then moved onto making their own British Flags 🇬🇧! There were some fantastic listening skills during Badgework from everyone 👂! Well done!

Junior Section began with a game of “Non-Stop Cricket” 🏏 with some excellent catches on display from the fielding teams! We started our own VE Day Badgework were we also discussed what VE Day is and our lads shared some stories about Grandparents and Great Grandparents who fought in World War 2. We then coloured pictures of some medals we thought people who lived through VE Day deserved🥇. We finished the night joining Anchors and Juniors together for a big game of “Dodgeball”!

Stars of the Week ⭐️
Anchors - Alfie for impressive dance moves during games.
Juniors - Ben for his amazing knowledge of VE Day and sharing stories of his Grandfather during Badgework

Well done to both of you!

Company and Seniors started their night together with a group game “Football Corners” competing to defend their own skittle whilst also trying to knock down opposition skittles with their football skills ⚽️. They then moved onto a game of “Chaos” before starting a compass and map themed Badgework - being given locations to find and making sure they had the map facing north 🗺️!

02/05/2026

Last night our Anchor section started with a “Hoop Relay” were every member had to pass through a hoop while holding hands and not letting go! We then moved onto our Badgework which was “Den Building”! Wow! There were so many amazing dens ⛺️ all made from our very own games equipment. A brilliant effort from everyone! Once the Dens were made we had a great game of “Wink Murder” 😉 thank god the detective was there!

Junior Section opened with Uni-Hoc Numbers 🏑 were a number is called and the person who was given that number then has to take on the opposition number, some excellent goals were scored and very brave goalkeeping! Moving onto our Badgework on such a hot sunny Friday ☀️ we discussed the dangers of Sunburn with our “Solar Safety Seminar”. The group was split into two teams who would be presented with a Sunburn related question and would have to discuss if they thought it was True or False 🗣️. Well done everyone for your brilliant team discussions! We then joined together with the Anchor Section to finish with a group game of “Dodgeball”.

Company and Seniors began their night with a few games of their favourite “Chaos” and once again the staff decided to join in and once again the staff were eliminated 😅. While the temperature was warm and the nights are getting lighter we decided to head outside for our first game of “Kubb” of the year! Before having an hour of free time to finish the evening.

25/04/2026

Last night we welcomed everyone back from the Easter break it was wonderful to see everyone’s happy faces again!

Anchors started with a new game that our Kings Badge Senior learned at their completion weekend last week. “Robber Corner” each team has their own corner with their own ‘Treasure’ and the aim is to steal as much treasure as possible but when you enter a corner you have to act like the theme of the corner - for example Dinosaur Corner you had to walk like a T-Rex 🦖 or Space Corner you had to walk like an astronaut 🧑‍🚀. A fantastic new game that had lots of laughs! For Badgework the anchors celebrated planet Earth by colouring pictures of our planet 🌍 and talking about what makes our planet happy!

Juniors started off their night with a game of “Non-Stop Cricket” 🏏, there were some amazing catches by the fielding teams last night and some very good hits from the batting teams too! We then moved onto our first Badgework of the term. To celebrate “National Bucket List Day” the juniors were presented with 15 of the most visited places on our planet and had to identify them, from Christ the Redeemer to Machu Picchu everyone did extremely well to guess the famous locations 🗺️. We finished by coming together with the Anchor Section for a group game of everyone’s favourite - Dodgeball.

Star of the Week ⭐️
Anchors - Alfie for excellent behaviour and working with others
Juniors - Marley for his amazing knowledge of famous landmarks

Company Section worked on their non verbal communication skills by playing a game of charades trying to act out famous movies like “Jurassic Park” or popular occupations like “Police Officer”. They demonstrated some fantastic understanding of one another without speaking a single word 🗣️.

Senior Section discussed if they had 24 hours of unlimited money or travel to go anywhere and do anything how different would it make their life and how we are in control of our own lives. We finished with discussing the importance of taking one day at a time in order to reach our aspirations.