ROYAL MARINE CADETS DO IT AGAIN
After having won 1st place at the Southern Area competition a couple of weeks earlier which was held at HMS Excellent, Whale Island, Portsmouth, on Saturday 6th May a very determined team of 13 Royal Marine Cadets travelled to HMS Raleigh in Plymouth to take part in the National Ceremonial Drill and Piping Competition. Many evenings were spent training plus cleaning and polishing kit.
This is a very prestigious competition and involved over 300 Sea and Royal Marines Cadets from the whole of the Country including Northern Ireland and Scotland.
Troop Commander, Cadet Sergeant Holding marched the team into the Drill shed for their dress inspection which was carried out by Colour Sergeant Mark Allen RM, who is a serving member of the Royal Marines. If that wasn’t enough pressure, they were quizzed on Corp History at the same time. From there they carried out a 15 minute routine, starting with a ‘March on’, then a 10 minute free drill rifle display followed by a ‘March Past in review order’. After a very intense 15 minutes they waited nervously for the results.
Eastbourne Royal Marine Detachment were placed in a very closely fought 2nd place overall with only 4 points separating them from the winning team from South West Area.
“This is a particularly excellent result after having competed and won the National Gibraltar Cup competition at the beginning of March plus training and winning the National .22 shooting competition with members of the Sea Cadets of TS Eastbourne a couple of weeks later, to be able to train further still and gain such an excellent result is something to be very proud off. They continue to make their presence known, well done to Capt (SCC) Juniper and his team”, said Lt (SCC) Juniper RNR, Commanding Officer.