RAOC Gazette - page 109
Image details
| Corps | RAOC |
|---|---|
| Material type | Journals |
| Book page | |
| Chapter head | |
| Chapter key | |
| Chapter number | |
| Full title | RAOC Gazette |
| Page number | |
| Publication date | 1980 |
| Real page | |
| Colour | Yes |
| Grey | No |
| Early date | 1980 |
| Late date | 1980 |
| Transcription |
suffer the heat of Hong Kong for a couple of years as his first posting! A sad goodbye to W02 Andy Shearer. Andy will be a loss to the Battalion football team which he skippered with dis- tinction during his final season. His greatest wish was for his last game of Service football to be the Richards Cup Final with him collecting a winners medal. His last game was the final but alas those who read Robin Sider's report of the match (page 32 of the June GAZETTE) will know how close Andy was to that winners medal. Men of the calibre of Andy Shearer will be missed not only by 16 Battalion but the Corps, in fact the only people who will be glad he has gone are Centre For- wards, because they may find goals a little easier to get. With the summer in full swing (?! ?) everyone in the Battalion are busy taking part in sporting events and exercises. Major Tony Furneaux-Harris is taking a party sailing on Exer- cise Morning Glory and Lieutenant Glen Miller and Captain Bill Tweddle are getting ready for Exercise Holdfast Surprise, an Adventure Training Exercise in Wales, designed to get the lads and lassies out of the Depot onto mountain slopes. Not to be outdone Conductor Dave King is leading a small party across to Germany for Exercise Initiative Test. I only hope they all bring back lots of photographs for next months GAZETTE Notes. Recently D Company WRAC competed in their first Athletic Meeting of the year. The competition, organised by CAD Kineton, was held at Edmonscote Stadium and although the meeting was an Inter Company competition for CAD Kine- ton, a WRAC tri-Unit event was organised between Kineton, Donnington and Bicester. With several weeks of hard training behind them D Com- pany competed with confidence and succeeded in not only win- ning several individual events but also the overall trophy. The D Company WRAC Bicester athletics team. Central Ordnance D e p o t Donnington THE team representing the COD at the Travers Clarke Athletics Meeting may have lacked talent, but they nevertheless competed with enthusiasm in every event they entered. Our only achieve- ment of note was in the discus event where Sergeant Doug Hay and Captain David Fripp took first and second place respectively. If we achieved little on the track or field our tug-of-war team, under the expert coaching of Staff Sergeant Reg Ledingham, showed its superiority by being outright winners for the second year running. Reg followed up this success by taking his brawny boys to the Newport Show where they won the Catchweight (Open) event. The mention of brawn prompts me to enclose the following extract: — DONNINGTON GARRISON MARRIED QUARTERS WAITING LIST AS AT 13TH MAY 1980 Officers Rank Name Corps Type Rtm Date Points Fixed List Major F . A . H a m RAOC IV ASAP Major P. D. Bacon REME IV 23rd May 80 A number of readers have written to ask what the 'chimneys' being built around in the Depot arc really for: "Are they crematoria for failed recruits?" asked Morbid from Mablcthorpe, "Are they ships stranded by the receding Summer floods?" queried Noah from Nuneaton. I am authorised to say that they are launch tubes for deep silo inter-District missiles. Fuelled by scrap printouts from DSM(A), each warhead has the destructive force of all the NAAFI buns saved during World War II and they are targeted on Schhhh (you know where). Central Ordnance Depot Chilwell OUR month commenced with a Regimental Weekend in honour of St Barbara and St Eligius. We held a very successful Garrison Sports meeting unmarred by the thunder- storms which managed to halt play in the Test Match down the road at Trent Bridge. The winner of the Victor Ludorum was « vs ?/• /I Corporal Wells, the tug-of-war event was \\ \J/ // won by the CAO/MT team with the ^^As£><»5^' Brigadier's driver, Lance Corporal Ched- ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ wiggen, showing he can handle a rope as ^*""""^ well as a staff car and Private Brown com- pleted a creditable five thousand metres some twenty five seconds ahead of his nearest challenger. On the Sunday a Church Service conducted by Father Edward Walker OCF with an address given by a former Chap- lain to the Forces, Reverend W. A. Williams. After the service there was a small parade and march past with the salute being taken by the Commandant. The occasion of the parade gave the opportunity for the Brigadier to present the Royal Humane Society Certificate to Private Golby RPC in recognition of his efforts in rescuing a Mrs Cromarty and his unsuccessful at- tempt to rescue her sister too from their submerged car at the local Attenborough Nature Reserve in August last year. A very appreciative Mrs Cromarty was present to watch the presentation. The Shadow Unit then departed for Otterburn for a work- up exercise in preparation for their annual Christmas Duty Free Trip to BAOR later in the year. They managed to take both the RSM and CSM with them. The Depot seemed strangely quiet during this period. At the Eastern District Skill-at-Arms Meeting, the Unit Full Bore Shooting Team comprising of WOs2 Myers and Smith, Staff Sergeants Haslam and Sutton, Corporal Miller, Lance Corporal Mitchell and Privates Moon and Swiderski, qualified to compete at Bisley later this year by coming third in the Minor Units Competition. In the District Meeting itself, they performed most creditably by finishing seventh out of twenty eight entries and beating many infantry unit teams in the process. On the sporting front, WOsl Burton and Moncaster beat a Bicester pair in the Travers-Clarke Golf Inter-Unit Knockout Competition. Our cricket team, after some surreptitious coach- ing at Trent Bridge during the winter months, goes from strength to strength. It has even been reported that they have actually won a match, beating 7 Field Force Ordnance Company in the first round of the DGOS Cup. Our hockey team keeps making an appearance, obviously no one has told them that the season is over. Our athletic team competed in the Travers Clarke Competition and the Eastern District Athletic Meeting returning some creditable performances including Corporal Wells, second in the two hundred metres, Captain Wilberforce fourth in the eight hundred metres and Sergeant McLean fourth in the discus, without actually winning anything. The Chilwell Garrison Players recently performed 'When We Are Married ' by J. B. Priestley on three evenings with strong representation from Planning Branch in WOl Gordon Wilde, Mrs Lynne Scollick and Mr Roy Jennings. Two very welcome spectators were Brigadier Ayton and Brigadier Roycroft, both with past connections of the Depot and keen supporters of the Garrison Players during their tenure. The Warrant Officers and Sergeants Mess held their Annual Summer Ball when one hundred and fifty five members and ladies took full advantage of the splendid arrangements made under the direction of W02 Fielder which included dancing to the well known group 'Chairman of the Board' and a sumptuous buffet including an outstandingly decorative whole pig. There was some speculation at the beginning that it was a member in disguise but a few palates soon tastefully dispelled any doubts. The sixty five people who survived to avail themselves of the breakfast supplied are to be congratulated. — 84 — |
| Book number | R0404 |