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Drill and Piping Training on HMS Excellent 2010
The weekend of 22nd to 24th January saw our unit venturing down to Whale Island in Portsmouth for drill and pipiing training. Staying on board the Royal naval training ship HMS Bristol, our cadets got a feel for how life is on board a real ship using all the amenities that naval personell would at sea.
The Cadets practiced the drill movements for the upcoming district drill competition intensively within the drill shed of HMS Excellent and when the sun came out the drill moved outside. Since training started in the autumn months of 2009 our guard squad have come on leaps and bounds, considering some members had not even seen a drill purpose rifle before and have only been in the corp a few months.
This training now stands us in a good position to make an impact at our district drill competition and we are extremely proud of all the cadets who attended the weekend unit training.
Piping is coming on well and practicing the more difficult calls on ship gave the cadets an idea of where the call was used at sea. This weekend is only the start of the piping training and cadets are now practicing on unit nights as well as at home (please forgive them parents! the competition will be in 3 weeks time).
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WINNERS! at District 5 A-Side Football
Sunday 22nd November saw our unit take part in the Oxon & Bucks District 5 A-Side football competition, we managed to attend with a full junior girl’s side and unfortunately we only had 2 players available for our junior boy’s team.
This did not deter our cadets as both boys who attended managed to team up with the High Wycombe side that were missing 2 players. Here are the scores from the matches that we played:
Boys: Tait T, Kerry J,
Match 1 – Wycombe / Banbury Vs Aylesbury – 0 : 0 – Draw
Match 2 – Wycombe / Banbury Vs Milton Keynes – 2 : 0 – Win
Final – Wycombe / Banbury Vs Aylesbury – 3 : 2 – Win
Winners of Boys District Junior 5 A-side Football
Girls: Campbell H, Blencowe H, Locker K, Kaemena R & Beigel S
Match 1 – Banbury Vs Milton Keynes – 0 : 0 – Draw
Final – Banbury Vs Milton Keynes – 1 : 0 – Win
Winners of Girls District Junior 5 A-side Football
Not only did all cadets who played get a medal for winning their respective competitions but Tom Tait also managed to get man of the match for the whole tournament, I have a feeling the other units in Oxon and Bucks will be keeping an eye on us in the near future.
Well done to all that came and now on to The Area Competition in January!!!
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District Drill - February 09
We entered the District drill competition with a squad of 6 plus 1- as our first attempt at this competition for many years in our own right we did very well.
We didnt win nor come second but it was good experience and next year we will enter with a full squad of 12 plus one and using knowledge gained this year expect to do well, especially as CPO Rogers our number 1 is a qualified drilly - no pressure then chief!!
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Our first BCU qualifications
This group pictured at Boddington Reservor with their instructor Ken Larner have just taken and passed their BCU 1 STAR qualification - well done one and all.
Our junior cadets begin their 3 session kayak introduction course on July 16th and then the next batch of 10 cadets will begin their 1 Star training which will last for 7 weeks - we hope by the time Distict regetta comes around next year to have very cadet in the unit qualified to enter the various categories.
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Area Pulling Regetta 2009
The junior boys crew did very well at Portsmouth in this years Area Regetta, coming second in their heat and finishing fourth out of eight Disticts which is very credible.
They were beaten into 4th place by units who are much more used to pulling on a tidal estuary - in fact this was the first time they had pulled in the sea so with the strong winds and currents they did very well indeed.
Through their effort they helped Oxon & Bucks District to finish second overall in Area, so well done Banbury, Oxford & High Wycombe!
Harvesters crew is Cadets Rory Gullick, Alex Tobin, Tom Tait, Aziz Olubaji & coxon OC George Hoggins.
The beauty of this team is that they all will qualify fo the juniors boys event next year and will be that little stronger and more experienced.
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Taking the plunge at Boddington Reservoir
After just a few sessions under the teaching of Ken Larner at Boddngton Reservoir cadets are confident to launch themselves off the jetty at the sailing club.
Our first group of trainees are due to take their BCU 1 STAR exam late in June after which Ken is planning to take them on a 6 mile river trip to celebrate their new found skills.........watch this space for further news
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Our Juniors - Our future
In September 2008 we decided to "grow our own cadets" and started a recruitment drive in the local primary schools.
The result is that we now have a very active junior section pictured here after their enrolment wth some of our other cadets and staff.
Juniors start at 10 years old and can then go straight into cadets 3 months before their 12th birthday
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I am the new Chief!
"Look C.I Jefferies - I am not only the number 1 but I am a Chief Petty Officer and this is how its done!" - seriously Chief Rogers explains to CI Jefferies the finer points of a division night at the unit.
They are both part of our new staff team which includes PPO Sami Cox, CI Paul Knowles and CI Will Yoxall as instructors and Alex Spittal who is the unit admin officer
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District Winners Again!
Our junior boys went to Farmoor reservoir on June 7th and like our girls crew last year won their event and go on to represent Oxon & Bucks District in the Area Regetta at the Southern Area Boats Station in Portsmouth in July -Good luck boys!
After many years of being "becalmed" it seems the unit is not only able to compete in its own right again but Banbury cadets have shown that they can rise to the occasion and there is a determination throughout the unit that Harvester will be very competative in all aspects of training - so Oxon & Bucks District units need to raise their game a little as Harvester has rejoined the "fleet"!
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The Unit Management Team
This is our Management team, left to right:- Sue Davies, Ann Addison, our Chairman Neil Clarke, Roger Worrall, Paul Addison, they are all ex sea cadets, Ann & Paul were also adult instuctors and its largely due to this groups efforts that the unit was saved from closure in 2008 - keep going folks you are doing a great job !!
We are not an exclusive team and welcome new members to join as Trustees to help us secure the future of a unit with a long and successful history...please contact the Chairman or the C.O
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And now they better believe us!
We said we were on the up and so we are - on Monday June 18th (delayed as we waited for the delivery of their uniforms)we enrolled 18 new cadets in one sitting!
Almost 50 parents, grandparents, siblings & guest were invited to this parade when the recruits of our recruitment drive back in April were formaly enrolled.
Our Unit management team attended in force and laid on refreshments for our guests in the Mess of the main TA Building.
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