Page 35 - Bugle Autumn 2014

Rugby
1 RIFLES kicked off the rugby season with a new partnership with Bristol Rugby Club, allowing a mutual partnership providing Bristol with a military grade pre season package and 1 RIFLES enduring coaching support from their forwards coach Matt Fergason and the season got off to a swing, with 1 RIFLES (having taken an optional drop to the Championship, after some limited pre season training) a 83-0 win
over 14 Sigs Regt on a hugely windswept pitch. This momentum continued and the team going on to ball over the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps with another high scoring win (88-0). The team hit their first challenge against the Pilgrims (Hereford’s finest) but battled through to a win.
As the season picked up momentum and the team was ever improving. A win over the Defence Academy team led to a win in extra time in the quarter finals against 29 Regt RLC. After a short
SCOTS!! The following onslaught saw bone crunching tackles, an awful lot of sweat and unfortunately resulted in a 32-7 defeat for
1 RIFLES. However, spirits remained high
after getting that far. After an impressive
year, from very little pre-training and having taken on lots of new players, the 1 RIFLES rugby team has been promoted into the Army Premiership League
2 and we have good expectations for the coming year.
Capt Tom Fitz-Gerald, Platoon Commander, Mortars Platoon.
flight to Edinburgh,
we managed to win
an extremely closely
fought game against
the Scots Dragoon
Guards to steal a spot
in the final against 2
SCOTS at the Army
Rugby Stadium, Aldershot. On a hotter than normal day for April, with a host of supporters from Battalion, the team kicked off against Team Fiji..... sorry.... I mean 2
Football
the team kicked off against Team Fiji..... sorry.... ...I mean 2 SCOTS!!
The football squad has again had a very good season, mainly building on the achievements of the previous year. The team again competed in the 4 Div premier league eventually finishing 2nd in the table, an outstanding achievement against a number of very strong teams. Our best performance a 3-1 victory over 26 Engr Regt, a game we were not expected to win. However the team rose to the challenge and produced a very calm, robust display. Rfn Hogarth the outstanding performer on the day.
As a conclusion to the season we sent two teams to compete in the southern area 6’s competition held in Hermitage barracks, Newbury. Surprisingly we were the only infantry
battalion playing on the day with both teams reaching the quarter-finals before being eliminated by the eventual finalists.
The future is looking very good, with several players hopefully going forward for infantry trials. Next season will see a change to the management team with Maj Roger Rowley, CSjt Nick Nesbitt and WO2 Si Metcalf moving on. QM Maj George Campbell and
Csjt Dan Field will be taking the helm and will no doubt move the team forward.
Cycling
Cycling has remained a focus sport for the First Battalion and has enjoyed a recent boost in popularity in Beachley Barracks. Bikes have been purchased aplenty despite some reluctance to join the nucleus of Jones, Hunt and Cutterham on the winter Wednesday afternoon sufferfest of between 75 & 100 kms of hilly, windswept and often wet training.
With Le Tour de France starting in Yorkshire in July 14, 1 RIFLES winter training camp was staged in N Yorkshire, based in Richmond in the MTO’s barn adjoining his house. With excellent chef support, positioned in the Yorkshire Dales, and 400-700 challenging kilometres with 9000 metres of ascent on offer, the appeal was obvious. 10 riders embarked on the tough 6 days of riding which included a criterium race (circuit race) on the Croft Motor Circuit, a 10 mile Time Trial (TT) and an attempt at day one of the TDF route
CSjt Nick Nesbitt, Training Wing SNCO.
Grande Depart 2014. 3 riders completed the whole leg (190kms) 3 riders completed 120kms, 1 rider 85kms and the others 50. A tough day that challenged all and taught many a lot about themselves.
TimeTrials (the race of Truth)
1 RIFLES Cycling Club riders regularly attend the Severn Road Club 10 mile Time Trial (TT) held every Tues throughout the Summer, just across the bridge on a quiet country circuit (well 7 miles of it is), times have been tumbling with rarely a week
when a Riflemen is
not posting one of the best times overall. At the time of release,
we have just had our 1 RIFLES 10m TT champs, a competitive evening that saw 11 riders go head to head
on a sunny evening racing against the clock and each other for the club title with the MTO, Capt Rich Hunt, taking gold!
Capt Rich Hunt, Motor Transport Officer (MTO)
The 1 RIFLES Inter Corps Road Race series has made us targets for the rest of the Army Corps Teams.
In addition and in their
own time, Sjt Maj Jones
and Sjt Cutterham are
both extremely active
racing for Not For
The Ordinary (NFTO)
most weekends,
accumulating some
very credible results (too many to list). Both riders are well on track to achieve the coveted British Cycling Category One (1st Cat) status by the end of the season. Currently the Army does not have any 1st Cat riders!
A tough day that challenged all and taught many a lot about themselves
THE RIFLES
FIRST BATTALION 33