TEN-YEAR-OLD Sam Marriage has proved his skills at camping, climbing and archery – and now he wants to be the next Bear Grylls.

The youngster, from Monument Road, Chalgrove, is the pick of the pack after achieving the highest award a Cub Scout can get.

He was awarded the Chief Scout silver award after collecting seven badges.

Sam, of 1st Chalgrove Cub Group, had to complete a range of challenges from camping to cookery to become the first cub in the village to get the award.

He spent three years collecting the badges needed to get the award. He camped outdoors and completed activities such as climbing and archery to gain the outdoor plus badge.

He also collected the community challenge, creative challenge, and global challenge badges.

He said: “I feel really happy I gained the award after trying really hard to do it. I like working hard and gaining stuff in return.

“I was very glad because I was the first one to do it and I felt like I had put a lot of effort into it.”

Sam says he wants to be an adventurer and survival expert when he grows up, like the head of the Scouts, survival expert Bear Grylls.

Sam’s mum Gail Marriage, 37, said: “ I’m very proud of him. He is one of four brothers so it is quite nice for him to have something outstanding.

“He has just moved on to Scouts and is grasping his feet a bit as they are a little older than him. He loved his Cubs but his next ambition is to get his gold Chief Scout award.”

Group Scout leader Adrian Wilcox said: “Not many achieve it. Cubs are aged between eight-and-a-half and ten-and-a-half and to get it in that short space of time is quite hard going.”

He said Sam would probably receive the gold award. He added: “He is very keen. He has started pretty early so I don’t see how he wouldn’t if he works as hard as he has on the other things.”

The village cub pack meets at Chalgrove Village Hall every Thursday at 7pm.