Page 64 - Light Dragoons 2022 CREST

The Regimental Journal of The Light Dragoons
Ex ULTIMATE SNIPER
There’s a curious, very British, relation- ship between the Army sniping school at Warminster and a group of deer stalk- ers in Oxfordshire. What started as a small post-HERRICK decompression outing for members of 2 SCOTS has grown into an annual competition in which units from across the Army compete for the title of ‘Ultimate Sniper’. It is hosted by James Nettleton, a country man of extraordinary generosity who knows everything there is to know about shooting deer. He is the type of guy to row the Atlantic and then climb Everest in 3 months (which he did in 2010), or happily host twenty rough squaddies in his family home whilst taking his young children to school each day.
In January 2022, teams from The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, 1st Battalion The Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment, 42 Commando of the Royal Marines, and The Light Dragoons attended Ex Ultimate Sniper. LD and 1LANCS constructed the competition, with support from the Specialist Weapons School. The Light Dragoon team consisted of Cpl Hampson and LCpl Withers; Lt Digby was the over- all exercise director, with LCpl Logan and Tpr Connolly in support.
The competition was based out of Newington House, a palatial coun- try manor originally built by Oliver Cromwell’s cousin as a wedding present for his royal Venetian bride. On a sunny Sunday morning, teams lugged in ber- gens and .338 rifles, setting up camp cots in between stuffed animals and taking care not to damage Winston Churchill’s own billiards table in the basement. They zeroed their rifles at the bottom of the gar- den, next to the river, and pottered about
Newington Hall
Lt Digby happy to be out the office
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