Christ College Cadets Bring Home The Silver At The Cadet Cambrian Patrol

CADETS FROM THE CHRIST COLLEGE COMBINED CADET FORCE HEADED OFF TO THE HILLS AS THEY BATTLED IT OUT WITH TEAMS OF CADETS FROM ARMY CADET FORCES AND COMBINED CADET FORCES ALL OVER THE UK.

This year’s Cadet Cambrian Patrol Competition was held over the weekend 22nd – 24th April, and as in previous years Christ College entered a team in the senior and junior competitions. The competition, once only open to Welsh CCF schools and ACF counties, is now open to teams from across the United Kingdom, with teams taking part from Lancashire and Somerset Cadet Forces, as well as Dulwich College, RGS High Wycombe and Tonbridge Wells. The Christ College Cadets teams had worked extremely hard on the training camp held during the Easter holidays.

All the teams assembled at Farm 5 on Friday evening, where a series of briefings and inspections ensured that the teams did not get to bed before midnight, and had to be up at 0400 for breakfast.

The emphasis this year was on navigation and physical stamina, with three stands to test their knowledge of the CCF syllabus, including First Aid, Observation and Section Attack drills. The route for the junior team was approximately 19 km and the seniors had an intimidating 26 km to cover on the Saturday, with teams not allowed to use roads during their navigation. Both Christ College teams completed their routes well within the expected time frames, and moved to the overnight harbour locations to get some hot food and a well-earned rest.

The Sunday morning brought the March and Shoot, with teams competing over routes that involved navigating against the clock and moving at speed over difficult terrain that would test stamina and team work. Again, both teams achieved times well below the cut off times. The shooting was the final test with cadets being asked to hit targets at 100 and 200 meters.

Finally, it was back to Farm 5 for the prize giving, and from the outset it was obvious that Gold medals were going to be extremely rare this year. Christ College Senior and Junior teams were both awarded a Silver medal, and there were only two Gold medals awarded out of the 30 teams that competed. Prior to the awards ceremony, Brigadier Gamble chatted with the teams about their experiences over the weekend offering some useful words of support.

Christ College were once gain the highest scoring Welsh CCF, and can be justifiably proud of their efforts in what was a very arduous competition.