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RAOC Gazette - page 253

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Full title RAOC Gazette
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Publication date 1977
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Transcription with fifty one. Corporal Geordie Bradley forty two and Staff
Sergeant Ron Bridgmount with a lightning twenty eight to add
to his four for fifteen to take the man of the match award.
We progressed to the BAOR* Minor Units semi-final only
to fall to 7 Field Workshop by seven wickets. Bridgmount
with forty one and Captain Jack Eldridge thirty, could be con-
sidered unlucky.
The last match of the season was the DOS Cup Final.
We were fortunate to provide six members of the winning 2
Division side, Bradley again was top scorer with forty. Sergeant
Dick Baker thirty five, Major Gary Smith thirty and Captain
Alan Butterworth twenty five, helped the 2 Division side to
one hundred and seventy two for eight in their thirty five
overs, RAOC Rheindahlen made a great fight of it only to run
out of overs still requiring eight runs. Lance Corporal Geordie
Simmons two for fourteen in seven overs and Sergeant Barry
Brooks three for thirty two helped make it difficult. What a day.
Our sailors not to be outdone, have spent a very hard ten
days sailing around Denmark. One poor lad even had to
buy a pair of sunglasses. The party of Lieutenant Alex Sturdy,
Second Lieutenant David Higton-Jones, Corporal Geordie
Barnes, Lance Corporal Paddy Doran and Private John Elliott
all returned with tall stories looking remarkably fit and totally
broke.
The opening of the football season has started with, a 5-1
defeat followed by the rugby team going down 16-8. Perhaps
it's our diet!!
Since our last report a large turnover in personnel has taken
place, lots of lads have married and families added to. Rather
than print a list we will highlight a department every month
showing all the intricate skills that are hidden behind routine,
bring our personalities to the fore and let you know how the
Unit works. Quite a lot of us are interested in the last point!

stalwarts were eloquently unveiled by Captain Jim Morgan
snowed a considerable amount of disbelief. Well, it only go^
to prove you can fool some of the people for eighteen years at
least.
1 suppose the football team will be wondering if they are
going to get a mention—of course they are. A 5-0 win over
the local British Military Hospital team is the best score in
living memory. The Officer Commanding walked away look-
ing slightly bemused—but later denied he had been cheering
the others; force of habit to cheer the losing side I suppose!
On the sporting side the month has been fairly full. Our
Marchers have been in a variety of events, ranging from the
one hundred kilometre race at Unna where l Lance Corporal
Pete Learmonth, Private Steve Kiernan and Q * Lex Mootoo
got gold medals for completing the one hundred kilometres
in 12 hours 05 minutes, 22 hours 02.45 minutes and 22 hours
10 minutes respectively. Congratulations on an outstanding
effort. Silver medals for completing seventy five kilometres
plus were won by Corporal Mick T Cutbush, Lance Corporal
* Ben' Gunn and Private * Jock McKirdy who came over
all unnecessary after eighty six kilometres and in fact spent a
week in hospital while they sorted out the frayed bits at the
end of his legs. Apart from lots of medals won for the odd
quick twenty kilometres, the other main achievement was our
teams being placed first And second in the military section
of the ten kilometres Volkslauf at Hasberger.
Our few pursuers of the oval ball have joined forces with
SSM Dulmen as they are too few to field their own team. In
the .first game the number was further depleted when Lance
Corporal Alan Ashcroft fooled the defence with a brilliant side
step that baffled the spectators and also made his eyes water
when he found his kneecap was halfway up his thigh t Still,
he's out of hospital now and working long hours for the CSM
who hides Alan's crutches until knocking off time! As the OIC
Administration has come out of retirement once again to have
a go there had better not be any cracks about it being a game
for cripples and geriatrics!
Finally, to bring our who's been and gone part up to date,
we say sad farewells to Corporal Bill Holmes, Private 'Brummy*
Lake on posting and Scouse Moore who has gone to swell the
ranks of the unemployed! We welcome; back from sunnier
climes Corporal Dave Gould (Cyprus) and Lance Corporal Jim
Eccleson (Belize); and to the Unit on posting in Lance Corporal
Graeme McDonald, Private Tom Hawken, Staff Sergeant Benny
Gorbould, Lance Corporal John Pensom, Staff Sergeant John
Keefe and Corporal Tom Stevenson.
PS: Has the fact that they are running the Unit Christmas
draw got anything to do with the fact that the CQMS, Staff
Sergeant Roger Bowden and his accomplice Corporal Mick
Higham both recently took delivery of new Fiats?
5 Field Force Ordnance Company
ITS difficult to know
what to start with this
month, so many events
demanding pride of
place! However, as
usual we will be
gentlemen and give the
girls the privilege of
being first. M a n y ,
many congratulations to Mrs Jennifer Bolden and Mrs Linda
Morgan on the birth of their daughters Loretta Chantal and
Charlotte Elizabeth on the 17th and 21st of September respec-
tively. Both mothers and daughters are doing well. I suppose
we had also better mention the dads, Staff Sergeant Wes Bolden
and Captain Jim Morgan, though perhaps the December 1976
notes would have been a better place,
Brigadier Pascoe, Commander of 5 Field Force, came to
present the Long Service and Good Conduct Medals to W02
Dennis Falcus and Lieutenant Ian Quarrier. The ' Oohs' and
*Ahs ' from the assembled Company as the careers of these two
4 Division
HEADQUARTERS
THE month of September saw us de-
ployed once again on a CRAOC exercise,
on which we were the control element
chasing 6 and 20 OFPs across the North
German Plain near Osnabruck. It was a
great success with Sergeant Attwood using
his considerable ability as a German
speaker on two Portuguese MSO labourers
working in the kitchen,
Misunderstandings were remarkably
few and far between, but one suspects more by luck than by
judgement. Private Broadbent, who has just passed his driving
test, spent the exercise driving the Adjutant up and down
various little tracks and gullies in his eternal search to find
something more difficult for the Ordnance Field Parks to do.
Major York, our new DADOS (C Supplies), is now com-
fortably installed with his wife and three children. We have
also said hello to two new arrivals in Lorraine and Claire
Marie, the daughters of Sergeant and Mrs Hall and Private and
Mrs Bates respectively.
6 ORDNANCE FIELD PARK
THE Unit submitted teams for the Soest NATO Cup Shoot,
organised by the Germans on the Belgian ranges at Btiecke, in
which we came seventh; also for the Wahnerheide twenty five
kilometre march near Cologne, organised by the 6th Engineer
Battalion of the Belgian Army, for which we received a very
smart silver plate. The middle of the month was taken up
by Exercise Final Fling, CRAOC 4 Division's last exercise
with 6 Ordnance Field Park before restructuring, when we
Brigadier Pascoe congratulates W 2 Falcus. Lieutenant Quarrier
finds it all faintly amusing.

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Book number R0246