Page 29 - QARANC Vol 14 No 13 2016

THE GAZETTE QARANC 27
try scorers were Capt Hollins (RAMC (V)), Sgt Jessica Parkes (QARANC), Sgt Zoe Hillier (QARANC), LCpl Abbie Smith (RAMC), LCpl Hayley Woodward-Ellam (RAMC), Pte Talitha Woodhouse (RAMC) and Pte Katrina Lynas (RAVC). The celebrations continued into the Panthers club house and given it was their first defeat of the season the Panthers were fantastic hosts. Sgt Jessica Parkes picked up the final man of the match award after captaining all 3 games for the AMS (W).
To finish off a physical, captivating and entertaining Canadian rugby tour the only thing left to do was visit the breathtaking Niagara falls, before coming home having
created new relationships between the AMS (W) and the three fantastic Canadian rugby teams, and most importantly, developing our new players to fully-fledged touring rugby players well as raising the skill level of all players and the squad as a whole. Becoming a closer team allowed us to approach our upcoming fixtures stronger and more confident after these two weeks away.
If you would like to give rugby a try please contact our club secretary SSgt Leanne Jones 16MED-23-SQMS@mod.uk for further information regarding upcoming fixtures.
Cpl S Jackson – QARANC
Royal Centre for Defence Medical (RCDM) QARANC Corps Day 17 March 2016
On a lovely sunny Thursday morning, QARANC personnel from RCDM assembled together to celebrate our history and future, and to remember our fallen.
We set off in the minibuses. Spirits were high and the obvious singing on the bus began. We were on route to the National Memorial Arboretum (NMA), Staffordshire. For myself I had never been and was rather looking forward to it. By the time we arrived most were hungry, so we made a quick trip to the café for coffee and cake to get everyone’s energy levels up again. Staff at the NMA were lovely and very welcoming to us, managing to get everyone’s orders out in a quick time.
We were extremely pleased to have joining us for the day Col S Bush, RRC Colonel Commandant, and the QARANC Regimental Secretary and some members of the QARANC Association Midlands branch. Shortly after everyone had been fed we headed down to the QARANC memorial. We had a short service from the padre, a poem was performed and the Turning The Pages. It was a lovely service and the sun was shining brightly for us, perfect to remember. We then had the chance to walk around the NMA. Unfortunately, the Armed Forces Memorial was under construction. However, there are plenty more memorials to look at, including The Bastion memorial wall, The Basra memorial wall, The Gallipoli memorial, The Twin Towers memorial and even the The Polar Bear memorial. These are to name a few. As there are so many, you can get a land train round the grounds; unfortunately, we didn’t‘ have that much time. However, I know I will certainly be going back for a longer visit. After looking at the many memorials we headed back to the visitors centre for a hot drink. We then headed back to Birmingham to get ready to celebrate our Corps day.
The evening function was at Highbury Hall, where we were all allocated seating. We were doing a quiz; not an ordinary boring quiz but an outside quiz company with an interactive
quiz and a games host. So everyone was hoping they would have the intelligent people on their table. I was delighted by the company on my table which included Col Sue Bush Col Commandant, so I was feeling pretty smug at this point. Prior to the start of the quiz and keeping with typical Army tradition we had supper which was a curry buffet!
Every team were given some type of a remote, which we would use to input our answers which could be passed between team members. As nobody wanted the responsibility of actually answering the questions, the responsibility of the remote was finally settled and was in SSgt Beech’s hands. So the game was on. There were five teams and everyone was feeling competitive. Halfway we were given the scores so far. Team 1 (which was my team) were in the lead, followed closely by Team 6. Team 2 were doing appallingly and they had to do better; however, they seemed to be making up for the lack of knowledge with the noise that was emanating from their table. At this point we were all given a bonus round which was basically the javelin on the Xbox Kinect. Each team had to choose two members of their team to compete; some people were shocking, others were extremely good and the best javelin of the night made a new record on the quiz company’s Xbox with an amazing 109.12m. So the quiz continued and finally the scores were revealed, Team 1 were the winners (did I mention that was my team?) and surprisingly Team 2 must have upped their game as they were no longer bottom, Team 5 had managed to settle in last place. As we were the winners I was expecting a nice bottle of bubbly or something along those lines; instead, we all got an exquisite silver plastic children’s medal. To say the least I felt somewhat disappointed.
So after an enjoyable day around the NMA and an entertaining night with lots of laughs it was time for it to come to an end and I look forward to next year’s Corps Day.
W1051013 Cpl Gowdy