Page 10 - The Light Blue Volunteer Journal 2021

CUOTC Sports
With the world under siege from a hyper-infectious virus, a lesser OTC might have slacked off sports all together. Not so CUOTC - this year, thanks to the disciplined following of Covid regulations, not only have sports continued, but so too have the ways in which they develop our officer cadets.
If sludging, exhausted, through the wet darkness on an exercise is one way to build team spirit and unit bonding, and drinks in the bar is a more relaxed other, then team sports must offer a happy medium. Not only were our rugby and football teams able to arrange games
in their Uni communities, but they soon recruited a new cadre of cadets into
the OTC family. Having learned to trust each other in the scrum or free-kick, Cadets not only bonded, but were able to explore their own leadership potential in coordinating such plays. It is almost a truism that just as leaders learn to find their teammates’ skills and apply them on the pitch, so too can they in a military context, but the esprit de corps shown among team members in our ADX Field Exercise cannot pass unremarked.
Yet sports is also about personal development. Thanks to OTC Polo, Cadets who had never before ridden were crafted into skilled jockeys by weekly sessions, such that we now
have teams capable of entering competitions. Yet as well as learning new
skills, pushing one’s self to the limit in competition with peers likewise offers
a path to self-improvement. This was offered particularly by the virtual Queen’s Challenge Cup, which became a series of local arduous athletic challenges. Though there could be none of the post-cup bar festivities that so often made QCC what it was, the challenge was taken up by
our competitors no less seriously. Each improved over the course of training, and though they did not win, each Cadet came away having put themselves to the test, and grown accordingly.
In all these, sport this year has ultimately offered a chance to escape the Cambridge or Norwich grind, especially amid the perils of lockdown and the closing of sports teams elsewhere. It has been a chance for regular socialisation, to get out in the fresh air, and to de- stress one’s mind with the familiar rigour
of a fun game. In short, in what has been a turbulent year for students, it has offered each the chance to use the OTC family to find some shred of normality. That so many jumped at the chance, might then make such the crowning achievement of our sport this year.
SUO Fraser
10 THE LIGHT BLUE VOLUNTEER