HMNB Portsmouth's 2010 report

Published: 22/03/2011

The 2009 Field Gun Season would take some beating for members of HMNB Portsmouth, winners of the Inaugural Windsor Tattoo and a “Clean Sweep” of Silver at Collingwood which included a new aggregate time record!

 

How could we top that?

 

It had been 20 years since the last time a Trainer had won consecutive titles with the same crew, so there was the first challenge!

 

However with only 6 2009 crew members available for 2010 season, it was also agreed that we should treat this season as a completely new year and worry about statistics if and when we had achieved our objectives.

 

Recruitment and logistics were well under way when we hit our first hurdles of the season, our crew PT was badly injured and the tough decision to replace him with a mobile PT was made. This did cause a few problems with continuity but the more experienced members of the newly assembled crew quickly aided and guided LPT Simon Radford as he settled into his tasking.

 

Objective one – Win the Windsor Tattoo

 

HMNB had been given a relatively easy ride in 2009 given Sultan’s inexperienced and junior crew for the competition, this notion was soon put to bed as clearly Seahawk were inspired and up for the task.

 

Early tentative markers were exchanged until the first time the crews donned their white fronts and gaiters and proudly hauled their Guns and Limbers into the arena to the tune of Hearts of Oak.

 

The first race saw the Naval Base shading the result. Wed night went in favour of Seahawk in again a very closely fought contest. Thu night again went to the NB, which meant that Seahawk needed to win on Fri to equal the contest with all to play for on Sat in front of the Queen.

Fri night was again a great race and spectacle for the enthusiastic crowd of 8000. the Naval base crossed the line first but close behind were Seahawk and the result was in the hands of the Judges. Both crews had been awarded equal penalty points which meant that the Naval Base had won the competition with a day to spare and would have the pleasure of running on Sat night on the Royal box side of the arena. Sat night and Portsmouth once again crossed the line in a convincing first place to win the tournament 4-1.

This result meant that for second year running WO(1) PT Glen Young was once again presented to Her Majesty The Queen to be awarded with the spectacular and newly commissioned Windsor Tattoo Field Gun Trophy.

 

Objective two – Win the Brickwood’s Trophy

 

Stage one complete our planning now moved onto retaining the coveted Brickwood’s trophy. Having returned from Windsor, all drill must be quickly adapted to the concrete once more and it also takes a week or two to adjust to the different timings of the new track. The crew personnel were also juggled and changed as some members were only available for Windsor and some new faces had come back in for selection for the Collingwood competition.

 

Once settled and the final 18 were set in stone we worked hard on continuity, consistency and reducing our times to allow us to arrive at the MWS confident that we could compete with the best of the crews assembled.

 

An indifferent week followed where we at times produced some stunning runs but equally would throw the odd spanner into the works to our combined frustration.

 

However towards the end of the week we were beginning to show some consistent Field Gun.

 

The competition started on the Fri night with a mixed bag of results for us. Our first Run was a 1.19 but we incurred a 1 second penalty, our second run was a calamitous 1.23.5 but we steadied the ship with our final run which was a 1.21.5, as we departed the base late on Fri evening, we had every reason to be confident; however nothing could have prepared us for what happened on the Sat!!

 

Three runs in the morning all of a time of 1.20, all clean! Lunch time break and the last run of the heats, again 1.20!! Moving into the final again we were confident but fully aware of the threat posed by Neptune, Abbeywood and the Army should we have a blip!

 

Talk about save the best until last, despite a nightmare box build which saw us leave the 10 yd line in last place, we romped home in first position in a stunning time of 1.19.72.

 

The agonising wait for the judges decisions followed and after what seemed like a life time, two hand shakes with the trainer and we were clean!

 

We once again had a clean sweep of trophies, including shattering the aggregate record by 3 seconds! The 35 year wait was over as Glen Young became only the second trainer ever to win back to back titles with the same crew, he also joins an elite club of trainers whose names are immortalised on the Microsoft Trainers trophy twice, these are: POPT M Heffield – 76 Sultan/77 Sultan, POAEM P Hartill – 88 Daedalus/89 Daedalus, CPOPT J Gwyn – 91 Sultan/92 Dolphin, POAEM P Holland – 05 REME/08 Sultan.

 

What was most pleasing about the season was that from the 2009 crew only 6 members remained, of the 12 new members 6 were in completely new positions to any they had run before and we had also introduced 6 complete novices to the sport, all of who will now continue to spread the word of all that good about the sport, the values and virtues that it instils in our service personnel and the pride that the public take from seeing its Armed Forces stretch every sinew and tendon in the pursuit of perfection.

 

Roll on 2011