This year’s CCF Field day was busy as ever with trips to Hertfordshire (Advanced Infantry), Portsmouth (Royal Navy Section) and Hampshire (RAF Section). The majority of the Army section spent their day training at the College.
Army
The Training Company, Upper Fourths, completed an air rifle competition, had an introductory lesson on the cadet rifle, learnt about badges of rank and practised their drill. In the afternoon, the cadets spent time on the confidence course and took part in a drill competition.
The inter-section competition was won by Section A. The best cadet was won by Farrah Stephens-Martin (M)
The Shephard Cup (Fifth Form) are preparing for a CCF competition against City of London Freemans on Thursday 17 October, so the session proved extremely valuable offering training time for the cadets to prepare for this inaugural competition.
The cadets had a full PT session in the morning, followed by drill, and a comprehensive first aid lesson before lunch. In the afternoon, cadets spent time on the cadet rifle.
The Leadership Cadre (Lower Sixth) made full use of the opportunities provided by Field Day, to undertake a range of activities and exercises, and to develop not only their leadership skills, but also their team confidence and sense of camaraderie.
From the more cerebral tasks of planning the retrieval of a missing missile, and delivering prepared speeches, to the full-body, full-on muddy, gusto of a physical training session with our new SSI, Sgt. Stokes, the group worked hard and challenged themselves to go beyond their comfort zones.
They even had time to brush up on their military knowledge and practice their words of command and drill, ensuring that the core basics are in place before we move further into the leadership program for the year. The day culminated in a competitive command task involving barrels, planks, boxes, and shark-infested custard; the solutions were certainly innovative, and leadership potential evident.
RAF
The RAF pupils spent a day completing team building activities that included rock climbing, constructing temporary buggies out of logs and barrels, buggy races and archery.
The star cadets were named as:
- Rock Climbing: Olivier Wong (G), Henry Tatham (Rn)
- Buggy Making: Max Franks (H), Kartik Jain (G), Alexander Poulton (Fa)
- Archery: George Bustard (Rn)
Those credited for overall team effort, contribution and discipline were:
- Fraser Spalding (Fa)
- Oliver Hughes (G)
- Callum Scholes (G)
- George Bustard (Rn)
- Tom Booth (Rn)
- Raffi Harley (Fa)
- Yik Lam Lai (Cr)
- Xu Xu (Cr)
Navy
Royal Navy cadets attended a field trip to HMS Collingwood and HMS Excellent, despite the inclement weather.
In total, 31 cadets stayed aboard HMS Bristol, a Type 82 Destroyer that saw active service during the Falklands War and now acts as a Royal Navy training ship, and soaked up all aspects of life in the Royal Navy.
Upper Fourth cadets undertook leadership training at the Royal Navy Leadership Academy (RNLA), which included a number of practical leadership tasks, signalling, bomb disposal (with simulated bombs), and adventurous activities on the low ropes course and part of the RNLA confidence course. It was raining horizontally for about half an hour, but the Epsom cadets really shone in a mixed group including Churcher’s College and City of London School cadets.
The Fifth Form and Sixth Form cadets had a day on the water, variously sailing or powerboating around the Solent. The Sixth Form even made it to the Isle of Wight, and had time for fish and chips before heading back to HMS Bristol as the weather closed in. The Isle of Wight saw two weeks’ rain in two hours shortly after the departure of our cadets.
All returned back to Epsom safe and sound yesterday evening after a thoroughly enjoyable two days.
