Page 63 - The Royal Lancers Chapka 2018

REGIMENTAL JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL LANCERS (QUEEN ELIZABETHS’ OWN) 61
George Lucas, President of the Mess Committee (PMC). He was supported by Sergeant-Major Burnie Burnell and Tiffy Wayne Ball as the President of Entertainment Committee (PEC). High- lights of the tour were ‘Ball’s Bingo’, ‘Tiff’s Trivia’, ‘Burnie’s bulb’ and Sergeant-Major Jay Palmer’s local excursions to Kyre- nia, Larnaca, Paphos – basically anywhere with a beach.
Not all things were in favour of the Warrant Officers’ & Ser- geants’ Mess and this was proven on the inaugural officers and seniors games night hosted by the seniors. There were many romancing stories of “I played pool and could have been profes- sional” by the likes of Sergeant’s ‘Ellers’ Ellerby, ‘Azz’ Aston, Bobby Charlton and ‘Navy Dave’ Hill. However, they soon had their romancing stories served back to them by the long-haired, Cambridge-educated young officers in a unanimous defeat. “Not to fear we would pull it back in the darts and dominos” said Sergeants Geordie Short, Dave Veal, Adam Younger and Rob France. That didn’t turn out too well either, and the Officers claimed overall victory for that leg. Nonetheless, the tide turned for the return leg hosted by the Officers. The Seniors triumphed to victory after some obscure games which could only be de- scribed as an ‘officer thing’. There are many other stories and experiences from Operation TOSCA. This was merely one fron- tier of a three-frontier battle, and as the saying goes “what goes on tour, stays on tour”.
On the second frontier, the mess faced the deployment of C Squadron to British Army Training Unit Suffield (BATUS) as the Brigade Reconnaissance Group. This would come with its challenges. These were namely deploying on a Brigade level exercise with no regimental top cover, as the recently appointed C Squadron Sergeant Major, Warrant Officer Class II Ray Ny- ambira, came to find. He had a good team of seniors supporting him throughout the deployment. His Squadron Quarter-Master