Page 44 - MERCIAN Eagle 2018

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Highland Games – WO2 Howdle
Tug-of-War
A team of 8 soldiers.
In August 2014 the Commanding Officer
of 1 MERCIAN, Lt Col Ellwood, created a Tug of War team in the Battalion – a first for the infantry. In the first two years the team enjoyed some minor success. In 2017 the majority of the Battalion were deployed
to Canada during the Tug of War season. The result was that the team were unable to enter any competitions and rumours abounded that Tug of War in 1 MERCIAN had died.
However, the beginning of 2018 saw me pull the team back together and I decided that this would be our year of success.
With a handful of regular team members and a small contingent of new men, we began training and entered into the Army tug-of-war league. With an average of 17 competitions throughout the season it was a slow start, but we were showing signs of improvement (by that I mean we weren’t losing all of the time). The men were starting to get down to a competition weight; their strength and stamina began to improve, and other teams were beginning to notice that we were a potential threat.
By May the tables began to turn – we were sat in the middle of the league on points and were advancing to the top quickly. It was at this point that the team started to get selected to represent the Army in other events, in which we were very successful. Some of the
Army Tug of War team 18th July
Police, Fire Service and Government civil servants, again with great success.
By the end of the season we were in second place in the league and it got to the point where teams no longer wanted to compete against us due to their inevitable defeat. We finished the season in second place in the 640Kg category, across all three services.
The Braemar Gathering of
the Highland Games
At the end of every season there is a by- invitation-only grand final held in front of Her Majesty the Queen and her family.
The Inter Services Tug of War has taken place at Braemar since 1955. The teams on show display a combination of
1 Mercian team with Lt Col Kelly at the Highland Games
made up of soldiers from the Royal Artillery, Royal Signals, Royal Logistic Corps and Infantry regiments as well as teams from the RAF and Royal Navy.
After the early morning weigh in, (maximum weight being 640kgs) the 12 invited teams were drawn into two pools
of 6. The competition started at 10:15 approximately and was on a ‘round robin’ basis. The top two teams from each
pool went through to the semi-finals and ultimately the final in front of the Queen and other members of the Royal Party.
At the end of the day Her Majesty presented the winning coach with the ‘John Miller Challenge Shield’, whilst the winning team members and the runners up received the much sought after Braemar Tankards. Unfortunately, 1 MERCIAN came second in 2018 to 5th Regiment Royal Artillery who themselves had been unable to achieve a win at the Highland Games for four years
in a row. Although it turned out not to be our year and there were mere inches in it, it was still a fantastic day for 1 MERCIAN, the Mercian Regiment and Infantry as a whole.
RAF 100 11th July 640kg
team were also selected to represent the UK Armed Forces in a special event held at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst where they competed against the
Some of the team were also selected to represent the UK Armed Forces...
strength, technique, discipline and great sportsmanship in
a competition that involves and excites the crowd all day.
The teams of 8 pullers and their coaches are
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