Rugby Royal Marines Cadets

Two Cadets from Rugby and Two Cadets from Redditch Sea Cadet Units made up the Warwickshire District Sea Cadet Team for the Inter-Service Cadet Rifle Meeting held at Bisley in Surrey this weekend. Lance Corporal Ryan Bott and Marine Cadet 2nd Class Ted Spiby represented the district with the two Redditch cadets, gaining 7th place out of 18 Sea Cadet Team. This is the highest position the Warwickshire District Team has gained in the Watts Bowl Competition, shot at 600 metres. The competition saw 125 cadet teams take part from the Sea Cadets, Army Cadet Force and Air Training Corps, with teams from Canda also competing. Sergeant (SCC) Alison Scholes coached the Warwickshire Team during the 6 month selection process, which picked four, 4 person teams from the South West Area of the Sea Cadets.

As if 2008 hasn’t been busy enough, we decided to squeeze in one last training weekend at Rugby Sea Cadet Unit this weekend.  The aim of the weekend was to assess a number of cadets that have been trained over the past few weeks in a variety of specialisations.  3rd Class Seamanship, 3rd Class Chartwork, 3rd Class Marine Engineering and the Basic Piping Proficiency were all on offer.

A number of cadets passed their specialisation assessments this weekend and two cadets, Ordinary Cadet’s Danielle Parker and Richard Suddens, were both successful in passing their Able Cadet Assessments and will be promoted.

Sub Lieutenant (SCC) Stuart Glover RNR organised the weekend and a number of the adult instructors gave up their weekend to assist.

Lord Nelson

Rugby Sea Cadets pull out all the stops for Warwickshire District Sea Cadet Trafalgar Parade 2008

Cadets and Staff at Rugby Sea Cadet Unit have worked tirelessly over the past few months to host the Warwickshire District Sea Cadet Trafalgar Parade for 2008.  The parade, which included over 150 cadets and 50 adult instructors from around the district  was held in Rugby today.  Starting at the TA Centre in Edward Street, the parade took route, onto Oliver Street, over Evereux Way and into North Street, finishing outside St. Andrews Church in Church Street.  After a very interesting church service led by Reverend Mark Beach, the parade was inspected by the principal guests; Captain Martin Westwood Royal Navy and the Mayor of Rugby Councillor Bill Sewell.  Following the inspection of the band, guard, colour party and divisions, the parade made its way back to the TA Centre past the saluting dais on North Street, where Captain Westwood and Cllr Sewell took the salute. At the TA Centre, Captain Westwood congratulated all of the cadets and staff for an excellent turnout.

Our sincerest thanks go out to all those that have helped in someway to ‘pull’ the parade together.  Special thanks go to: Principal Guests: Captain Martin Westwood Royal Navy and his wife Mrs B. Westwood, Mayor of Rugby – Councillor Bill Sewell, St. Andrews Church: Reverend Mark Beach and Mary Poxon, Mayor’s Civic Assistant: Evelyn Dagley, Warwickshire Special Police Constabulary: Katherine Hancock and her team. Rugby TA Centre and representatives from the Rugby Royal Naval Association.  Thank yous also go to cadets and staff that took part in the parade, not forgetting parents and supporters that helped with transport and support.

The Trafalgar Parade is hosted by a different Unit within the District each year and the Rugby Unit look forward to hosting it again in 2018. Redditch Sea Cadets have the pleasure of hosting the parade in 2009.

Preparations are coming to an end for the forthcoming Warwickshire District Sea Cadet Trafalgar Parade 2008, to be held on Sunday 19th October 2008 in Rugby.  The parade, which will see over 200 cadets from the Warwickshire District, parade through Rugby Town Centre to St. Andrews Church for a service at 2.00pm. Details on the parade can be found on the previous post dated: 1st September 2008.

Sunday 14th September 2008 brought and e the Warwickshire District .22 Shooting Competition and a 1st for the team from Rugby, made up of Lance Corporal Ryan Bott, Marine Cadets 2nd Class Ted Spiby, James Barber and Ordinary Cadet Christian Nunnally.  The all day competition was hosted by the Rugby Sea Cadet Unit and the TA Centre in Edward Street, Rugby, with indpendent judges from District and Area Level.  being the first to shoot at the range, is never easy as you have to wait all day for the other teams to compete, but once the end of the day came, it was clear that the team from Rugby had done enough to secure 1st Place in the competition and take the trophy for “best shot”, awarded to the cadet that gains the highest score in the competition.  This year Ordinary Cadet Christian Nunnally from Rugby unit, took the “best shot” award.

The results for the competition were as follows:

1st – Rugby (556 Points)

2nd – Tamworth (283 Points)

3rd – Coventry (264 Points)

4th – Redditch (248 Points)

5th – Sutton Coldfield (179 Points)

6th – Evesham (99 Points)

The team from Rugby will go through to the Area Competition in October at HMS Raleigh, Plymouth, to represent Warwickshire District.

The Rugby Marine Cadets are training hard for the forthcoming Annual Field Assessment, where the Rugby Detachment will be assessed on their leadership, ability to work together as a team, stamina and field craft skills.  Training has been taking place at Coton House, just outside of Rugby, by Sergeant (SCC) Sian Scholes, Sergant (SCC) Wayne Musgrave and Captain (SCC) David Scholes RMR.

The Field Assessment will include Marine Cadet Detachments from A Coy and will be held at Swynnerton Training Area over the weekend of 26th to 28th September 2008.

The Juniors

Several of the Junior Sea Cadets and Instructors visited Rugby Police Station tonight to see what life was like in the Police Force.  The Juniors were given a tour of that station, had all of their questions answered and got to try on a variety of the clothing worn by Police Officers.