Page 14 - Chiron Autumn 2018
P. 14

 12 CHIRON CALLING
RAVC Centenary Charity Event
LCpl Lucy Crawshaw.
 The event which was meticulously organised by Cpl Andy Miles of 101 Sqn, was held at St Georges Barracks on 18 July 2018, as it was a very warm day, the event took place on the decking outside the Dragon’s Den. It involved teams from 101 Sqn, 102 Sqn, 104 Sqn and 105 Sqn travelling a total distance of 554 miles on exercise bikes and 62 miles on rowing machines, which represents the distance from St Georges Barracks in North Luffeham, Leicestershire to Le Cateau in Northern France and back. Le Cateau is highly significant in the history of the RAVC as it was at the Battle of Le Cateau on 26 August 1914 that Lieutenant Fox of the Army Veterinary Corps (AVC) became the first Veterinary Officer to be killed in action in The Great War.
Each Squadron team was required to complete 113.12 miles on the bike, and 12.4 miles on the rowing machine, with the distances broken into 5 separate legs: a 34.44 mile cycle, followed by a 6.2 mile row, a 44.24 mile cycle, a second 6.2 mile row and a final 34.44 mile cycle. It was up to the individual teams to decide how long each team member would cycle or row for during each leg.
The 101 Sqn team consisted of Lt James Miller, Sgt ‘Griff’ Griffiths, LCpl Lucy Crawshaw and Pte Andy Greenbank, with Pte Tara Cardwell acting as the Time Keeper / Coach. Initially we decided that we would divide each leg into 4 equal chunks so that each team member would only be on the specified piece of equipment once during the leg. This meant that during leg one, each of us cycled 8.61 miles without a break, which we all felt was a manageable distance. By the end of the first leg, much to the nervous Regular Squadron teams, 101 Sqn were ahead and were the first team to move onto the rowing machine.
At the start of the event, while we obviously wanted to do the Reserves proud, we had not considered that we might beat the Regulars over the finish line. However, after our performance in
Competitors 1 MWD Regt RAVC Charity Event
leg one, we began to believe that it might actually be possible, which gave us a new found determination for the rest of the event.
Dividing leg two into 4 meant that each of us had to row 1.55 miles or 2480 metres. By the end, 105 Sqn had caught us up and we were neck and neck. Although our individual distances were not huge, we all felt that we had begun to tire by the end of our stints, so we made a team decision to split leg three, the longest cycle, into 8 sections. By now the weather was getting very hot, so we hoped that by reducing our distances, we could each cycle harder and faster during our time on the bike and hopefully regain our lead over 105 Sqn, as our team members were all strong cyclists.
During the morning, various visitors came to see how the event was progressing, including the CO and RSM of 1MWD Regt. All were amazed to see how well 101 Sqn were performing compared to the Regular Squadrons and offered us every encouragement.
Despite some strong competition from 105 Sqn and thanks to some very hard cycling by our team, by the end of leg 3 we were back in front and were now
absolutely determined to win. As we were aware that rowing was not our team’s forte, we decided that although we may lose time during the numerous handover- takeovers, it would be best for us to row in small stints of 1000 metres. By the time we had finally finished this leg we were again neck and neck with 105 Sqn and knew that everything came down to the final cycle.
Again, we divided leg five into 8 sections and each of us put every last ounce of effort into our final rides. Much to our delight, we crossed the finish line 2 minutes ahead of 105 Sqn and significantly ahead of the other two teams.
After a much needed shower and change, we headed to the 20/20 Club for the evening event, which included a charity auction, a hog roast and a disco. By the end of the night and after combining the money raised in sponsorship and during the evening function, the amount raised for the RAVC Welfare and Benevolent Fund totalled an impressive £1383.50.
The whole event was a great success and a big thank you goes out to Cpl Miles for all his labours to organise it.
  The Winning Team 101 Reserves


















































































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