Every year the squadron takes part in an athletics event at the K2 sports centre in Crawley. Cadets are driven down (in our lovely new minibus) to the centre, where they compete against other cadets all around the sussex region. The day is full of excitement all round from events that include running, throwing and jumping. We had a handful of determined cadets who won gold, silver and bronze medals from different categories and events. In the Class B (Intermediate Boys) category, Cpl Petitt took the gold for the High Jump, Cdt Soopramanien for coming 1st in the heat, but being so tired only managed a bronze in the 400m final. In the Class C (Senior Boys) category, Sgt Allen was awarded a great 3 silver medals in the High Jump, 1500m and Javelin and Cpl Cox just getting his bronze in the Long Jump. Sgt Allen and Cpl Cox took an impressive joint third overall in the Class C with 19 (Crawley) Sqn respectfully. So Congratulations to those who were awarded the medals and not forgetting the other cadets who took part; Cdts Joyce and Kempson in the Class A (Junior Boys), Cdt Simms and Scanlan in the Class B (Intermediate Boys). The cadets then took part in one final smart and cadet-like manner parade to finish off their hard work!

Well Done!

PS Not forgetting the staff as usual… Well volunteered to Flt Lt Riley, Plt Off Milligan, CI Allen and FS Downes in adjudicating the events in the best possible way and not forgetting Sgt Fisher for being a great first aider looking after all the cadets in the wing and CI Lewis for looking after the 1343 cadets!!

Well that was 2009 but we’re already four months into 2010, so what’s happened so far this year?

Firstly we’ve been raising money for a new minibus and thanks to an outstanding effort from the cadets, staff and civilian commitee we’ve managed to raise £17,000! The new(ish) minibus will be delievered next week and all the details will be divulged in a separate post shortly…

There have been a significant number of promotions since the last congratulatory post: Cadets Carter and Cox were promoted to Corporal; Cpl Farrant and Cpl Kavanagh were promoted to Sergeant, recently joined by Cpl Le Vey; and Sgt Simms was promoted to Flight Sergeant, making him the most senior cadet on the squadron.

Examination results came through for those cadets who took part in the March exams. Cadets Beedle, Englebright and Gooders attained Credits in their Leading exams, with three others attaining partial passes. Cdt Simms, Cpl Cox, Cpl Pettit, Sgt Farrant and Sgt Kavanagh all successfully past their Senior exams with Cpl Cox achieving a Credit. FS Simms has also past both parts of his Staff Cadet and been awarded his lovely yellow lanyard.

Lastly, we’ve had an influx of new recruits who have already started throwing themselves at every opportunity that’s been presented to them and are hard at work making their new uniforms look smart and shiny…

That’s about it so far, that’s notable anyway. Some stuff happened on the staff front but no one’s really bothered about the staff…

Stay tuned for more updates!

PS. Congratulations to CI Milligan for passing his Region board and being awarded his commission as Pilot Officer; Welcome to Sgt Fisher and CIs Loome, Lewis and Lewis; and finally congratulations (or is that commiserations?) to Flt Lt Foster on being appointed the squadron’s new Commanding Officer. See, we do care about the staff really.

We’re back! Well actually we never went away, we’ve just be far too busy doing stuff that we haven’t had time to update the website. At least that’s the story we’re sticking to.

Here’s a quick recap of some of the larger events we took part in last year:

Wing Athletics – Much running, jumping and throwing resulted in a reasonable haul of medals but sadly no trophies.

South Downs Challenge – A select few (nutters who volunteered) went for a lovely stroll in the July sunshine (well technically moonshine as it was at night). All 40km or so of it.

Edenbridge and Oxted Show – The highlight of the car-parking calendar. Three days of standing in fields in a valiant effort to park a couple of thousand cars in smart, uniform and cadet-like rows. It’s more fun than it sounds, honest…

Shoreham Airshow – Just like E&O but with the addition of planes! They fly overhead, we don’t try and park them. That would just be silly. Awesome, but silly…

Wing Swimming – Again, an impressive haul of medals but trophies were in short supply.

Wing Field Weekend – A weekend of friendly competition at Crowborough. The highlight of course being the Drill Competition. Apparently there was adventure training, shooting, first aid and a whole bunch of other stuff; but back to the drill…

Remembrance Parade – Our most prominent public event and as usual, everyone turned out looking very smart, uniform and cadet-like. Despite mounting guards on the East Grinstead, Forest Row and Ashurst Wood memorials and carrying four banners we still had a decent sized squad for the parade; and our marching was better than the Army Cadets…

That doesn’t even include the flying. gliding, shooting, crawling through mud, first aid, Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, etc, etc!