RAOC Gazette - page 208
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 |
Seen in Alexander Barracks Sergeants Mess in Berlin. WOl Ron Moore, W O l John Crosland, W O l Derek Redpath, Staff Sergeant Tom McGurk, Staff Sergeant Harry Miller and Sergeant Pat Powell. Our personality of the month is W02 Fred ' Mushy Peas' Leversidge of shooting and orderly room fame. He has now entered the last lap of his service and plans to attend an In- dustrial Security course—surely a safe occupation is in the offing. With wife Rita in the Alexander Barracks NAAFI and daughters Anita and Beverly at Hamm, the family is dis- persed—but Yorkshire looms large. Exotic tours in Aden, BAOR. Singapore. Hong Kong, East Africa and Northern Ireland and successes on fire, swimming and intelligence courses have featured in the Leversidge career. This is your life Fred! The quality of the football team has been enhanced with the arrival of Staff Sergeant Roy Delamont who has dribbled all the way from Belize. This has meant a sideways move for W02 Bob Allan to Issues Control. In the near future, Staff Sergeant Roy Gill will be off to civilian life to sell insurance to the unsuspecting public and Staff Sergeant Al Cowlishan will be occupying his chair in the ADPI coterie. Our Senior WOl, Conductor Pete Neale, is also packing his boxes, which are stencilled ' 3 BAD Bracht.' and we will shortly be welcoming his successor. WOl Andy Milroy. Over at the Olympia Stadion (You can tell I have been on a German course), our representative in the corridors of power reports the arrival of Staff Sergeant Maurice Hill as Chief Clerk 'A.' Corporal Colin Stephens to Registry (British Sector) and Lance Corporal Jan Sotiris as the new photographer. Con- gratulations are in order for W02 Colin Auger who has been selected for SRC and to Corporal Bill McLernon who has passed his RPC1 with flying colours (and marching boots!). On the sports scene, the Corps is well represented in the popular Berlin ten pin bowling league. The ' Berlin bears' team includes four stalwart RAOC members—Staff Sergeant Bob Scrimger, the Captain, WOl Stan Nelson, W02 Colin Auger and Sergeant Neil Marsh. The team has been runner-up in the league for the past three seasons (runners-up in bowling seems apt). The Garrison basketball team, who won the Berlin Minor Units KO competition, is led by Staff Sergeant Bill Rule of parachuting fame. He certainly knows how to drop in on the baskets! RAOC In Oman I ARRIVED in Oman in November and up to the time that I actually volunteered for this post, I didn't have the faintest idea where Oman was. To enlighten the unknowing Oman is situated in the Arabian Gulf to the east of Saudi Arabia and PDRY and south of the UAE. Oman is approximately three times the size of the UK and very sparsely populated. One or two things that can be said about Oman is that it is extremely hot and sandy. Let me introduce the RAOC contingent. At Headquarters Sultan of Oman's Land Forces we have at the top Lieutenant Colonel Robin Bowden (DOS) and to help him he has Lieu- tenant Colonel (recently promoted) Roger Hurles. The OC of the BOD is Major Charles Cook. The explosive expert is WOl Dusty (I'll teach you squash) Stone and the PA to the Com- mander is Sergeant Paul (I'm always working) Holohan. On the DAs staff in the British Embassy in Muscat WOl Mike Bender resides in heavenly surroundings. We all work, rest and play in Muaskar al Murtafa'a (Camp on the hill) which until two years ago was a group of deserted buildings on the edge of the desert—looking at it now from my window you would think it still was. Some sturdy hearts amongst us have attempted to cultivate the earth with mixed success, and now have one remaining melon plant in the middle of approximately ten square foot of sand—it does look lonely. The two Army squash teams which participated in the Muscat civilian league are run by WOl Dusty Stone and Sergeant Paul Holohan, and at the moment are both sharing mixed success. Sport plays a very important part in passing the time away— nearly everybody plays squash, some play golf and most people swim, although you have a fifty fifty chance of being covered in oil in certain areas. Everybody is left very much to themselves out here; we wear the Oman Army uniform, and it is legal to grow a beard if you are so inclined! All in all life is much different from the normal British Army Headquarters or Unit. The Head- quarters is a mixture of British Loan Service, British ex- patriates, Omani Officers and Pakistani and Indian clerks. It is much like working in a NATO Headquarters—sometimes very frustrating but always interesting. We have many ex-RAOC personnel here: John Picot, Jim Cargill, Bill Wods, Ron Maxwell, Dan Vassal, Jack Thompson, Emie Bolton, Larry Wright, Bill Coutts, George Rump, Gordon Melvin, Paul Bigby, Topper Brown, Tom Kieman. Eddie Cooper, the list is endless. Maa salaama hatta aktub marra thariyya. British Forces Hong Kong AS a friendly prelude to his proposal to inaugurate a fully-fledged Inter-Corps Championship, Sergeant Pete Ingham accepted a challenge thrown down by REME to field his Corps squad in the very first Inter-Corps squash match played in __ Hong Kong. The result was a victory, by the narrowest of margins, to REME, al- though had it not been for a late withdrawal, on com- passionate grounds, by the Corps No. 5, the outcome might have been reversed. Playing at No. 5 String, Staff Sergeant George Kosa REME started strongly in his game against Sergeant Dave O'Neill, a late inclusion in the RAOC Squad due to the non- availability of Staff Sergeant Wally Cooper. However, at two nil down, Dave came back to take the third game and secure • a six point two lead in the fourth before George applied the necessary pressure to capitalise on Dave's inexperience to run out the winner. At the same time, on No. 1 Court, W02 Dave Carter REME was battling it out against the RAOC's Captain Martin Hicks, but after three very closely contested games, Dave proved to have the edge to put REME two games up. Next on court was Sergeant Fred Ingram REME, a regular Forces one player, pitted against WOl Kev Hartley, who appeared willing to run forever to secure the RAOC's first win. In what was probably the ' K e y ' match, Kev wasn't prepared to be over-awed by his more talented opponent and produced some really gutsy squash before finally going under ten point nine in the third game, a really fine effort. Staff Sergeant Tony McCabe ensured that the RAOC would not be white-washed, and, while the Senior Ordnance Officer looked on, effectively beat Staff Sergeant Mel Wilsea, a fine spirited display of squash being shown by both players. Long standing adversaries on court, Tony played the better this time out. Sergeant Pete Ingham, in the No. 1 String Match, proved to have too many guns for Captain Bill Graham REME to end what was surely a fine start to a whole series of Inter- Corps Matches. Sergeant Ingham's proposal to hold a proper Inter-Corps Championship within the Colony has already been accepted by the Chairman of British Forces Squash and was strongly supported by the other Corps approached. Hardly the favourites in such a competition,' we intend to upset a few teams on the way to the final and in order to field our strongest side are holding a RAOC (Novice) Championship. — 397 — |
| Book number | R0403a |