Nottingham Cadets Forces Compete to see who is the Best

The Nottingham High School played host to Nottingham’s third Inter Cadet Service Competition on Saturday 16th September.

Nottingham units of the Sea Cadet Corps, Army Cadet Force, Royal Air Force Air Cadets and members of the High School’s Combined Cadet Force competed to become Nottingham’s best Cadet Service in the Cadet 17 Competition.

The cadets, aged 15 to 18 years of age, completed in eight activities, Air Rifle Target Shooting, A “Gun Run”, a First Aid exercise, Foot Drill,a vehicle pull, climbing wall, and “Battle PT”.

All activities involve teamwork, leadership, physical ability and discipline.  All these elements were assessed and marked to find which of Nottingham’s Cadet Forces are this year’s Champions.

The competition was fierce and the inter Corps rivalry was evident as the cadets battled hard in all the elements of the competition.

“This was a brilliant competition, my favourites bits were the Battle PT and the Gun Run but I enjoyed the whole experience” said Cadet Sergeant Madison Marinez from D Squadron, Army Cadet Force.  Madison has been in the ACF for three years and “loves it”.

The competition was the brainchild of Warrant Officer Danny Haywood of the Royal Air Force Air Cadets and his drive and enthusiasm has ensured the event has continued into it’s third year.   Backed by a team of appropriately qualified adult volunteers from all the involved organisations, the safety of the competing cadets was assured.

During the afternoon, the cadets were visited by senior representatives of the various cadet forces including the head of the RAF Air cadets, Air Commodore Dawn McCafferty CBE.  The Nottingham High school and the Reserve Forces and Cadets association were also represented.

Cadet Sergeant Kiernen Walker, of the RAF Air Cadets declared the event; “Very good, I thought the First Aid Exercise was fantastic and made even better by being professionally judged by a highly qualified ambulance technician”  Kiernen, at the age of 18 years, was one of the older competitors and has been a cadet at West Bridgeford fo the last 4 years.

From the Sea Cadet Corps Team, sixteen year old Oliver Westcott- Walker thought the Competition  “Eventful and very good”  and from the Naval Section of the High School’s Combined Cadet Force (CCF), Will Hustwayte (16);  “It was great working with other cadets, in the CCF we don’t have much opportunity to interact with other cadet units.  The Climbing Wall was my favourite but the whole day has been really good”.

Air Commodore McCafferty was on hand to award the trophy for the best of Nottingham’s Cadet Forces.  The Air Commodore expressed her delight at seeing all the cadets taking part and informed them that this was the first such event the she had witnessed, she was greatly impressed.

For the third year running, the Air Cadets took the overall trophy and were crowned best cadets in Nottingham.

Warrant Officer Danny Haywood thanked all who took part, all the staff that helped, the Nottingham High School for the use of the excellent facilities, the East Midlands Ambulance Service for the use of the specialist vehicle and to Mark Bushell for judging the First Aid Competition and to RAF Wittering for providing a Physical Training Instructor to provide the expertise for the “Battle PT”. 

Sponsorship for the event was provided by Green Frog Promotion to whom the cadets are most grateful.  LPM Prestige Sales generously loaned the Landrover for the Landrover Pull.