Page 131 - Mind, Body and Spirit 2016/17

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on their tales. Another great BFC event that ensured DOMS would be taking over the body very soon; you could clearly see who had competed in the event the following week with a fair few John Wayne impressions and the simple task of going up and down stairs a monumental challenge.
To date the following events have been completed in the Commanding Of cers Trophy: March and Shoot, Cross Country, Indoor Rowing, Football, Volleyball and Basketball. The nal event will see a team from each Company enter the BAWF Cyprus Competition. As it stands all Coy’s are in with a chance of winning the Commanding Of cer’s Trophy.
On the AT front the Battalion have conducted Skiing expeds in France and Austria and a Diving Exped to the Ascension Islands is due to take place soon. With JSATWC 5 minutes away from camp the Battalion have took real advantage of the centre to increase the Unit AT instructor pool which will extremely bene t the Battalion after the unit move. With Troodos on our doorstep we have made great use of the Unit Authorised Adventurous Training (UAAT) rule allowing for plenty of Rock Climbing and Mountain Biking to be conducted.
The Battalion held a sports dinner in November 16 the night was a great success and several of the Battalion members received regimental colours for their sporting achievements. It certainly showed that sporting and Infantry excellence go hand in hand and the importance of grass roots sport across the Battalion is second to none. The guest speakers for the evening were fellow tigers Boxers LCpl Chezeree Nihell and LCpl John Marvin both current Army and England Boxers. They both gave great speeches about their sporting success and hopefully their words will inspire many more tigers to go on and achieve greater things in their chosen sport.
The Cross Country team has had another great year winning the BFC XC league again and adding the Dhekelia Dash title and the CBF cup XC title to the list. It also saw LCpl Boult being crowned
2 PWRR Boxing
Senior Male champion for the 16/17 season and LCpl Hollis retained his Junior Male award. With both of them working in the gym the PT weekly run has certainly become that little bit harder.
As BFC Boxing Secretary I managed to get Chris Bessey and Mick Gannon to deliver a level 1 and 2 Boxing Coaching Course. They quali ed 20 new level 1 coaches and 8 Level 2 coaches ensuring that boxing could be delivered in a safe and correct manner across the Island. A couple of weeks later Olympic Gold medallist and IBF Super Middle Weight World Champion James Degale and his coaching team came and trained in the Battalion’ s boxing gym. He was great to have around and give some coaching points to the boxers; he was also really interested in what the lads did day to day and couldn’t praise them enough for what they do.
It has been a great privilege to work with this great Infantry Battalion in an outstanding location. Although I won’t miss the early starts I will certainly miss the weather and the unique role that the RAPTCIs play in the BFC Community.
Having arrived in Sep 16, I have been surprised at just how busy Dhekelia Station Gymnasium has been. The Gymnasium is the sole facility for the Resident Infantry
Battalion, the Service Schools and the local dependent community. Alongside military PT, the Schools use the gym for their physical education lessons. In addition we have a wide range of clubs that use the facility, ladies circuits, Cubs, Netball, Tae kwon Doo, little Kickers and many more actives. The recent addition of the Station swimming pool to the responsibility of the gym has also proven interesting as work is currently underway to prepare for the grand re-opening when summer arrives. While there may not be a Commanding Of cer dictating his training directive, the role has proven to be very diverse and equally challenging.
RAPTC instructors within BFC organise a multitude of sporting events. Our responsibility is to co-ordinate the biggest; Commander British Forces Cyprus (CBFC) Cup. This event is spectacularly opened by a parachutist from JSATW (C) presenting CBF with the rugby ball to start the proceedings. 11 different sports test every unit/station sporting prowess. Events range from golf to rugby and of course no competition would be complete without
cross country. All units/stations across BFC come together to take part in this great sporting event, this year we saw over 300 competitors. It proved to be a very close competition throughout the day, with the overall winner being decided in the nal event; the Tug of War. With CBF participating in the Squash before departing on business prize giving was passed over to the Chief of Staff. Episkopi Station was crowned the winners this year beating all- comers to the title.
Dhekelia Station is a very small station in numbers, however we still manage to pull together to get teams to all major sporting events in BFC. The station has produced some great results; rst mixed team in the Dhekelia Dash, 2nd team in the Cyprus Walk Down, the female team won the BFC Cross Country League and also had the rst female and rst vet in the league. The football team came 2nd in the Carter Cup, all creditable achievements.
Dhekelia is a great location for physical training, Sport and AT, everything is not too far away and on top of that we have beautiful weather. As well as working hard we get the reward of the sunshine and quality family time in this great location.
DHEKELIA STATION
SSgt (SSI) S Mans eld RAPTC