Tag Archives: The Army

The worthy winners of the 2019 World Pace Sticking Championships

Following on from the previous article about pace sticking, and the World Pace Sticking Championships held this month at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, here’s a video of the championship winners – the Pakistan Army collecting their prizes.

Lifting their legs above their heads, a truly amazing feat. I asked the two RMAS Colour Sergeants, mentioned in my previous article about this, and they explained how they achieve the high leg kick, but said, they’re not sure they could do it.

Below the video is an article from Forces network on Pace Sticking: What is it really all about.

Great to meet the pace sticking Royal Military Academy Sandhurst Colour Sergeants

I’m repeating myself as I wrote, in detail HERE with a couple of videos, about the pace sticking demonstrations at the RMAS.

We both look forward to the pace sticking demonstration at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst Heritage Day. We enjoy the precision in unity of marching with a pace stick, the perfection of smartness in the uniforms, and the approachability and affability of the soldiers.

I made a short video of the pace sticking demonstration, which is not that good I’m afraid as I wasn’t close enough to the action. We were pleased to talk to a couple of the Colour Sergeants in the pace sticking demo, both of whom were in the World Pace-sticking Championships in the Army video below. My inferior video follows.

The Colour Sergeants were proud to be at the Academy for their two year term, and we were delighted to talk to them – two top men.

A feast of bands and drums at RMAS Heritage Day

We return from a week away in a hot climate to attend the Heritage Day at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst on a typically cool summer’s day.

Attendance at the Heritage Day seemed lower than in previous years. It can’t have helped that the day started with light rain, which thankfully soon passed, such that it remained dry for the rest of the day. There were fewer attractions this year, made up by a feast of band performances on the Old College square.

We enjoyed a Gurkha Bhat meal, always a treat at the Heritage Day, which we ate while watching a succession of bands and drums. Sadly the Royal Logistic Corps Silver Stars Parachute Display Team show was cancelled due to the windy conditions. Here are our photos of the day. There’ll be an article following about the pace sticking demonstration.

A photo montage of the RLC Open Day

For readers who like to see pictures of military vehicles and soldiers, well, this is a mega-photo montage taken at the Royal Logistic Corps Open Day on Saturday 7th July.

When I say mega-montage, I mean it’s many more photos than I normally post. In fact, it’s 21 photos.

We enjoyed a Gurkha Curry, which was good value at just £4 per plate., and later on our visits to other attractions we stopped more than once for an ice-cool Pimms.

Tank transporters, a Sentinel, Mighty Antar, and an Oshkosh

The Royal Logistic Corps Open Day last Saturday afforded me the pleasure of talking to the military, something from which I derive knowledge and pleasure.

There were support vehicles a plenty for the visitor to look at, and their drivers to talk to.  One of whom I enquired about his knowledge of the Thorneycroft Mighty Antar tank transporter, answer in return ‘never heard of it’.

Ah well, that makes me feel old. Thorneycroft were a British truck maker, absorbed into Leyland, hence its demise. The Mighty Antar served as the British Army’s tank transporter for four decades after World War II, replaced by Scammell Commander in the 1980’s.

My best story about tank transporters is when I was about six or seven and on my way to junior school. The road to school had a short, though steepish hill. One day I crossed the road and saw a tank transporter creeping up the hill. It was moving at walking pace. So I walked with it until it gained speed on level ground. The lorry was a steam lorry, which dropped cinders on the road. Steam emanated from various parts of the lorry. Even then seeing a working steam lorry was an unusual sight, which I think it was a Sentinel steam lorry. A fond memory.

From 2001 the British Army’s heavy equipment transporter has been the Oshkosh M1070F, and the photo below is of one of them.

Enjoying watching the Freedom Parade of The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regt in Guildford

We both wanted to celebrate Armed Forces Day, which was last Saturday, by being close to the military.

We considered attending either the events in Aldershot, or the Freedom Parade for the 2nd Battalion, The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regiment in Guildford. We chose Guildford. Surely there’s nothing finer that to witness our Army marching, and to see it in such a grand setting as Guildford’s High Street, what could be better.

Naughty me, I interrupted the procession of dignitaries to assemble outside Holy Trinity Church at the top of the High Street, well, it was the birthday of Cllr Nigel Manning, so I had to break into the procession to shake his hand and wish him well on his birthday. I did get a big, if embarrassed, smile.

We were well placed to witness the events. The march up the High Street, the welcome by the Mayor of Guildford, the response by Col Patrick Crowley, The Princess of Wales’s Royal Regt, and the review of the troops by Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant of Surrey Mr Michael More Molyneux Here are our photos of the parade.

Later I’ll post my video of the Freedom Parade, for which the glorious weather made it easy to film.