Page 27 - Four Cavalry Regiments (Crest)

54 EAGLE AND CARBINE
SPORT AND ADVENTUROUS TRAINING
Major TR Barker RTR
2020 has been unprecedented in its impact upon Regimental and national life. Many of the activities we take for granted as an essential aspect of military life have been postponed or cancelled; sports and adventurous training were no exception. Whilst those of us who have served have a clear understanding of how competitive, cohesive, and physically demanding activities have close parallels to operational outputs, these benefits are at best challenging to quantify, and even more difficult to justify to the public when the country at large is prevented from undertaking all but the most basic forms of exercise.
With much of the Regiment dispersed to home loca- tions for the early part of the year there was little sporting activity. As the long-term implications of the pandemic became clear Army sport governing bodies made bold corrections to events programmed later in the year. Of particular parochial note was the can- cellation of all winter sport for the season, curtailing our ambitions of continuing the successes of 2019/20. Whilst not a welcome decision, it was undoubtedly the correct call and has offered the Alpine, Telemark, and Nordic teams the opportunity - through the contin- ued generosity of the Regimental Trust and the Army Welfare Grants scheme – to consolidate and re-vital- ise equipment holdings upon which they are reliant. Often overlooked, Nordic in particular has benefitted from investment this year and we are fortunate to have recruited a former national level junior skier into our
ranks; with a solid plan for the next three years, we have high hopes of bringing home silverware in a dis- cipline that has not been our forte in recent years.
Exercise GAUNTLET RISE, a Royal Armoured Corps expedition to the Himalayas, was planned for late 2020, though once again the continuing pandemic made this untenable on the original timelines. The expedition has been rearranged for autumn 2021 which should allow two of our young soldiers to participate.
It has not all been doom, gloom and postponements; swift planning from HQ Squadron Sergeant Major allowed us to capitalise on a short window of oppor- tunity in late summer to take 148 soldiers from across the Regiment on a multi-activity adventurous train- ing trip in the Cairngorms over a three-week period. Using instructors drawn from across the Regiment, troops were put through their paces with days of mountain biking, rock climbing, hill walking, canyon- ing, and white-water rafting; a broad array of activi- ties stretching all those who involved. Training of this nature is a key part of the Army offer and to hear so many young soldiers coming back with stories of how they had done things for the first time and had been genuinely scared (under close supervision!) yet over- coming their fears is gratifying.
Another area of progress has been the development of ‘E-Sports’ within the Regiment. Growing interest
The indefatigable WO1 (ASM) Dolan in his element
Some suitably dreich weather