Page 45 - 1RHA 2022

1st Regiment Royal Horse Artillery
Boxing SSgt M Redman
1 RHA at the Royal Artillery Championships Female Champions
Gnr O’Mara vs REME Gnr Blakeman wins best boxer award Cpl Leo vs Royal Signals
After almost five years without a boxing evening at 1 RHA, the time had come to reinvorage the sport within the Regiment and to organise inter battery boxing evening. WO2 Graham was tasked with putting on the show with a large committee at his disposal. The coaches SSgt Redman, Sgt Tay- lor, Bdr Ross and LBdr Birkett were given a total of 30 novice boxers to whip into shape over a grueling six-week training program. The team trained collectively to ensure everyone was at a high standard for fight night. Sparring with the Fusiliers, RLC and other units ensured the boxers were ready. The bouts on the evening were all very competitive and entertaining. The evening saw 11 bouts in total with the best boxer of the evening, Gunner Blakeman, taking the belt for B Battery.
A successful evening all round and a new appetite for boxing within the Regiment, led us nicely into the Royal Artillery Cham- pionships a month later. 1 RHA entered a team of three females and ten males. Another hard four weeks of training and sparring followed before the evening was upon us. A mixed set of results for the saw the male team from 1 RHA finish third overall which was an excellent result after only 10 weeks of training from com- plete novice. The females amongst the team went on to win the Royal Artillery championships crowning 1 RHA champions, a fantastic achievement in only their first season boxing. Follow- ing the success of the Royal Artillery championships, a small team of one male and two females were selected to represent
the Regiment at the Army Individual’s competition in Aldershot. After another few weeks of training and preparing for the step up in ability, the individuals were upon us. Cpl Leo (LAD), Bdr Clowes (OHQ) and Gnr O’Mara (B Bty) had put in a huge effort from complete novice to get to this point and did themselves and the Regiment proud. The individuals is the level these box- ers belong at. After a few razor thin split decisions, they were all rightly recognized. The females more so getting the opportunity to return for an Army development team trial.
Looking forward to the future, we hope to get another team of novices early next year to start the process again. With the spat- tering of now experienced boxers and the new novices, we aim to get another evening organized for 1 RHA and then onto the Royal Artillery championships.
1 RHA after sparring 1 RRF
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