Page 74 - Mind, Body and Spirit Online Edition

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2nd BATTALION PRINCESS OF WALES ROYAL REGIMENT

SSgt (SSI) TJ Richardson RAPTC

I
t has been another busy period whilst serving with the 2nd
Battalion Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment (2 PWRR) in
Woolwich. The initial part of 2012 was used speciically to train
members of the Battalion in all the different aspects which would

eventually be used to assist in the unit’s role as a security force for
the Olympic and Paralympic games. I was appointed as a platoon
commander and had 30 individuals to manage, slightly different
from the norm.

The initial training was conducted at Police training locations
around the south of England and London, concentrating on the
numerous scenarios which may have potentially occurred during

the Olympic phases. Having realised that my role was similar to
that of an airport search worker and that time for my own personal
training was non-existent, I spent the ensuing period trying to ind
ways to not gain the silhouette of an airport search worker. In
truth, the job wasn’t nearly as bad as we irst thought.

During my time I worked at the Olympic Stadium in Stratford and
the Clay Pigeon Shooting Area on home soil in Woolwich. The
Army were certainly respected by all civilians and by no surprise

the Military delivered a fantastic job from start to inish. I did
manage to watch some of the sporting events with complimentary
tickets to the Judo, Boxing, Show Jumping and the Marathon.
Who’s the winner?

During 2012 I continued to further my boxing coaching skills by
attending and passing my Level 2 Coaches’ Course and continued The unit has been very busy during this period and struggled
to train and coach members of the Battalion Boxing Team. We to compete in all sporting events for London District, however
decided to enter a team into the Army Individuals, something that they still managed to continue as champions in Cross country,

hasn’t happened in 2 PWRR for at least half a decade. Out of the Orienteering, Hockey, Football 6 Aside and for the second year
12 boxers we trained, we entered all of them into the Individuals running retained the GOC’s Cup.
and they all performed well. We achieved seven semi-inalist
places, of which two boxers managed to make it to the inals. Pte The Battalion have continued to reach the bench-mark outlined
McKinney (heavyweight) displayed the best bout of the evening by London District in MATT 2 testing. This has been undoubtedly

and was denied a victory but received the Most Gallant Runner Up aided by the increase in AAPTIs, which now total 21 within the
award. Both boxers received a standing ovation. LCpl Ratcliffe Battalion, 6 of which work full time in the Gymnasium. This year
secured his title beating his opponent to be proudly crowned the we have added another 5 qualiied AAPTIs, which places the Unit
Light Welter Army Individual Champion for 2012.
in a comfortable position to now move forward and conduct MST.

Personally this year, I have concentrated on long-distance running
and raising money for charity. So far we have raised over
£36,000 for Kaine May’s charity. Kaine was a friend who

was unfortunately killed in an RTA and whose memory
we intend to live on through community projects. To
raise the money we raced several half marathons,
my best was 1hr:29mins, and two marathons. The

main race was the New York marathon, which was
cancelled the day before the race due to the
hurricane. Having lown out and with so much
money at stake, we decided to run our own
marathon around Central Park. Joined by

hundreds of other runners doing a similar
route, we managed to inish in 3hr:38mins,
and was awarded the ING NY Marathon
medal from the organisers. This year a sub

3:30 at London is our main aim.

As I write, the Bn has changed roles from Public
Duties and now come under the command of

20X. We are now preparing for deployment
to Kenya in preparation for our next role as the
Theatre Reserve Bn back in Cyprus. Having
found myself as the part of the CO Rover Group in

Thetford in the two coldest weeks of the year, I was
forced to deploy my new found ‘ali’ kit; the blokes
were so surprised that I even owned Gucci kit that
they’ve now renamed me ‘Ali T’! Roll-on Kenya and
PWRR PTIs
bring on the sunshine.