Posted by admin on Sunday 9 May 2010 under 2010 | 
188 (Squadron) ATC Wing Athletics Squad
Sunday 9th of May saw 17 cadets travelling up to Bury St Edmunds to take part in Wing Athletics where squadrons from across Norfolk and Suffolk compete against each other in track and field events in the hope of winning the Bev Charlesworth Memorial bowl as overall champions.
Ipswich did fantastically compared to years gone by and it’s safe to say everyone who attended felt very proud by the end of a long day. After all the scores were tallied up it emerged that Ipswich boys had come 2nd, just missing out on the top spot to 863 (Thurston) Squadron.
Cdt Whiting came 1st in 400m and set a new wing record, Cdt Brass came 1st in discuss and Cdt Read came 1st in both high jump and long jump.
Those three cadets have been selected to represent Norfolk and Suffolk Wing in their respective events at Leicester on Sunday 23rd May and how ever successful they are, they will receive a ‘wing blue’ for representing N&S.
Submitted by Cadet Corporal Bev Goodchild.
Posted by admin on Saturday 1 May 2010 under 2010 |
188 (Ipswich) Squadron Wing Field Team 2010
Every year Norfolk and Suffolk Wing hosts a competition where knowledge, skills and teamwork are put to the test through various activities, from orienteering and shooting to first aid and river crossing. A team of eight cadets represents each squadron and this year’s team comprised of Cpl Goodchild, Cpl Adams, Cdt Laws, Cdt Woolfenden, Cdt Johnson, Cdt Fitch, Cdt Whiting and Cdt Andrews.
We travelled up to STANTA training area on Friday evening, the health and safety briefing followed and everyone was grateful to eventually find their beds, especially the girls as an administration error meant we though we’d be sleeping in a tent! It got sorted out quickly and we definitely had a new appreciation for mattresses.
Saturday started with a full English at 0715 to set us up for an equally full day. ‘Leadership’ was the first activity and highlighted areas of strength and weakness for everybody, while it was very fun I’m not going to give too much away as we’d like to bring elements of it back to the squadron to see how the rest of the cadets deal with exploding carpet tiles. Aircraft recognition was second, followed up by my favourite, orienteering. Two cadets have to sit out of each activity so six of us were unleashed into the surrounding forest with a map, compass, stamp card and an eighty minute time limit. For every minute under the time limit two points were gained, for every minute over two points were deducted. We had some trouble finding the penultimate checkpoint so crossed the finish line at a frustrating 87 minutes. After a quick lunch break it was time for field craft, the boys enjoyed practising their make up skills with the cammo cream! Shooting was next and we made full use of the facilities to get the worst of the cam cream off while we were waiting for the other team to finish. Dinner at 1730 was a lot better than some of the team were expecting and there were clean plates all round. The final activities of the day were the imaginatively named ‘evening exercises’, which tested both general, and ATC specified knowledge. The rest of the evening was free time given over to socialising and catching up with all of the 29 other squadrons taking part in Wingfield Weekend.
Sunday started off with first aid, there was a car crash scenario with several casualties each with their own injuries and needing specific treatment. The feedback we received was helpful and encouraging, we did better than average but made one or two silly mistakes under the pressure. Archery was next and we were glad of the tent set up in the field because it had started to rain very heavily during the previous activity. It was certainly one of the more entertaining events, despite the cold! Finally it was the river crossing. All was going well until we tried to carry the raft to the waters edge, the barrels decided the water looked too cold and fell off the raft! After some assistance from the staff running the activity we managed to keep them in the right place and once we made it into the water it was plain sailing. After getting warmed up and back into uniform it was time for the final parade where all the medals were presented. 231 (Norfolk) were the over all winners with Ipswich coming joint 20th with 42F (Kings Lynn) on 107 points, an improvement on last year! The Wing was luckily enough to have Air Commodore Ian Stewart present to distribute the awards. Regrettably the parade will be Air Commodore Stewart’s last event with Norfolk and Suffolk because he and his wife are moving to Belgium with his new post in the RAF. Sadly the weekend was also the last Wingfield Weekend we will have under our current Wing Commander, Wing Commander Hipperson who is soon to move to a Regional post and will be replaced by Sqn Ldr Miller.
Monday was spent in the surrounding woods practising field craft skills such as concealment, ‘tracking’, hand signals, setting up base camp and protecting the surrounding area. While the weather dampened spirits, the hot soup we prepared for lunch brought them right back up and by half two we were all knackered and ready to head home.
Over all the weekend was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone who participated and we can’t wait to return next year!
Submitted by Cadet Corporal Bev Goodchild.
