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SPORT

‘World-class facilities’

YOU wait months for state-of-the-art sporting facilities to be ready…

…and then three open in the space of about ten days in Portsmouth.

For tennis players of all abilities, there’s a new joint MOD-civilian centre. For players of rugby and football, new all-weather 3G pitches. And for lovers of workouts, swimming and squash a refurbished HMS Temeraire.

All told it marks an investment of £1.2m in RN sport and gives, says the RN’s head of physical development, Capt Mark Durkin, “world-class facilities” and probably the best sports complex on the south coast of England right now.

In the case of Temeraire, the home of RN sport and the school of physical training, the Grade II-listed old gymnasium received a £600,000 makeover with upgrades to the five championship squash courts, a new cardio vascular suite, an impressive glassfronted entrance, and new offices and reception area.

The adjacent rugby and football pitches have been re-laid with 3G artificial turf and are lit by energysaving floodlights.

And the old tennis facilities at the foot of Burnaby Road are gone, replaced with a four-court centre with a new roof, new courts, car park, floodlighting and fullyoverhauled changing facilities.

The centre will be managed by Portsmouth Tennis Academy on the Navy’s behalf and will be open to civilians and RN personnel.

The tennis centre was officially opened by new First Sea Lord

Harbour tour de force

l First Sea Lord Admiral Sir George Zambellas holds court with youngsters at the opening of the newlook tennis academy in Portsmouth Picture: LA(Phot) Jay Allen, FRPU East Admiral Sir George Zambellas, while Rear Admiral Matt Parr, Assistant Chief of the Naval Staff, performed the honours at the new-look Temeraire.

As for the 3G pitches, rugby chiefs decided a more rigorous christening was in order.

US Portsmouth took on their Devonport counterparts, upholding a tradition going back to the 1870s when Devonport Albion and Portsmouth Navy met

for the annual Inter-Port Cup – the longest-running fixture in RN rugby union.

Devonport – higher in the league and stronger on paper thanks to a US Portsmouth side depleted by injury – triumphed as predicted, 46-5.

The pitch itself is a key part of both the Royal Navy and US Portsmouth’s initiative to get more rugby played more often.

As for the overall investment in

sport in Portsmouth, Capt Durkin said: “Physical fitness is a vital part of Naval life and in HMS Temeraire and associated sports grounds the Royal Navy now has truly world-class facilities that probably comprise the best sports complex anywhere on the south coast of England.

“Our busy serving men and women deserve top-quality facilities to improve their physical development.”

Engineers can’t wait for tee time The RN Engineers open golf championships return to the China Fleet Club at Saltash on September 2 – the place where it all started back in 1994.

The event – known in golfing circles simply as ‘the Engineers’ – is open to serving and exRN and RFA engineers, plus sponsors and guests.

The format for the competition is a medal round (full handicap) off the white tees in the morning followed by a Stableford round (3/4 handicap) off the yellow tees in the afternoon; Stableford points are deducted from the net medal score to give overall points. The player with the lowest points will be named overall champion.

There have been 15 winners in the championship’s 20-year history with Capt S Williams and former WE ‘Ticker’ Hart bagging two titles, while another former weapon engineer, Rod Teagle, has three wins to his name.

Beyond a top day’s golf, it’s very much an occasion for engineers to get together – and raise money for charity courtesy of a raffle which this year is supporting the children’s hospice Naomi House.

The cost for the day is £60 for non-China Fleet members / £40 for members, including coffee and a bacon roll on arrival, 36 holes of Championship golf, lunch between rounds and a presentation dinner with prizegiving and the charity raffle on completion.

Details for this year’s event can be found in RNTM 00813. Early accommodation booking at China Fleet is also recommended.

A number of places will be reserved for seagoing personnel.

Details from WO1(ET(WE)) John ‘Taff’ Reha, john. reha831@mod.uk / jreha@ sky.com; 02392 724645 / 9380 24645, or see www. engineersopen.net. www.navynews.co.uk

THIS year’s Royal Navy Sailing Association (Portsmouth) Fleet Commander’s Cup took place in Portsmouth Harbour on a gloriously sunny May 1.

The cup is a two-boat team race, and this year attracted a total of 68 sailors split into 17 teams in 34 Bosun dinghies.

Teams from the Surface Flotilla (HMS Lancaster, HMS Dauntless, HMS Daring), Navy Command, London and Southampton URNUs, HMS Collingwood and HMS Sultan were represented.

After a slight delay to allow for ferry movements the race began midafternoon, with a patchy breeze from the north-east.

The rare sight of so many Bosun dinghies jockeying for position on the start line was a spectacle to be enjoyed, with the course taking the flotilla from Leach Building, past the dockyard and North Corner (where one boat from each team was allowed to deploy spinnakers), then back up towards Portchester Lake.

With a stronger breeze evident in the later stages of the race, spinnaker boats pressed home their advantage and large leads from the previous beats were quickly reduced; in the final stages of the race lead boats dropped up to three places each. The boats crossed the finish line in front of Leach Building in just under an hour and a half of thoroughly-enjoyable sailing.

Ultimately the event was won by the Navy Command RP team of Cdr Ian Jackson, Cdr Nick Wheeler, Lt Cdr Paul Goldman and Lt Cdr Dave Cummings.

In joint second place were the NCHQ Aviation Team of Cdr Jerry Boddington and Lt Cdr Andy Wood, and the PWO 169 team of Lts John Seddon, Barney Pollock, Will Blackett and Dave Morris.

RNSA(P) would like to thank the race officer Ken Bichard for running the race, and Lee Bichard for organising the safety boat crews and the laying of the marks for the course, and to CPO Dave Sargent for organising the event.

More information about forthcoming sailing events, including information on joining the RNSA, can be found at www.rnsa.net.

Picture: LA(Phot) Dan Rosenbaum, FRPU East

Lusty runs around the Liffey in a jiffy

Raising the bar again FOUR of the best powerlifters in the RN were invited to compete against the best of the UK in the British Drug Free Powerlifting Association national championships.

More than 120 athletes converged on Stafford University to take part in three lifting disciplines – squat, bench press and deadlift – with the aim being to reach a final maximum lift to contribute to an overall total, writes LMA Chris Martin.

In the ladies’ under 80kg category Lt Rachel Cunningham smashed the competition with a personal best: 117.5kg squat, 62.5kg on the bench press and 145kg deadlift for a 325kg total, setting new European records in all three disciplines. Her deadlift was an MPF (military, police, fire brigade) world record. Rachel also became British 80kg champion in the process – a fantastic start for the RN team.

In the 82.5kg class were AET Reece Meakin and Mne Sam Dew. Reece – pictured above – was making his British championship debut. He put in an enormous effort with a 205kg squat, 150kg bench press and a deadlift of 247.5kg to win the junior category – setting British junior records in

the bench press and deadlift in the process. He also took second place in the 82.5kg category overall.

“The competition couldn’t have been more tense – the fight for first place literally came down to the very last lift,” said Reece, who only took up the sport a little over a year ago.

“It is such an amazing feeling to become the British U23 Champion and to represent the Royal Navy at British level. All the preparation, dieting and hours spent in the gym have finally paid off.”

Representing the Corps was the incredibly-powerful Sam, the 2011 World Champion at 75kg.

He moved up in weight and looks certain to dominate the 82.5kg class for the foreseeable future.

His squat, an immense 230kg, was an MPF world record. A Herculean 160kg bench press followed, then a 230kg deadlift for a 620kg total – a new British record as he became British 82.5kg champion in the process.

Moving up to the 100kg class was LMA Chris Martin.

Chris managed a 200kg squat, a personal best of 147.5kg on the bench press, but was disappointed to only pull 235kg for the deadlift.

“It’s always a great honour to

get the chance to represent both my unit, HMS Vigilant, and the Royal Navy. It didn’t go quite as planned this time but I’ll be back,” he said.

Having become British champions Rachel, Reece and Sam all qualify for the World Championships in Glasgow in November, with Rachel announced as the best female MPF lifter of the competition.

The lifters also host various ‘grass roots’ events to encourage interest in this growing RN sport, the most recent of which was a ‘push-pull’ event at RNAS Yeovilton attended by ten athletes from complete first timers up to European champions.

To prove that lifting isn’t just for boys, novice female entrant AB Amanda Mancey took to the platform and won the female trophy, lifting a total of 115kg, and setting a new record for her weight class in the bench press.

The male prize, unsurprisingly, was snaffled by Reece Meakin while best newcomer was Mne Kenny Cardwell with an impressive 345kg total.

The next competition is the RN Full Power Championships in Portsmouth’s Sail Loft Gym on Wednesday June 26 at 9am.

SAILORS from HMS Illustrious went on a run ashore with a difference in Dublin: no Guinness.

A team of over twenty runners from the helicopter carrier competed in the Dublin 10km night race when Lusty spent a weekend in the Irish capital.

The event was organised in support of Tourism Ireland and took competitors on a circuit of Dublin, incorporating many of the landmarks along the Liffey including the Guinness factory.

In all, 5,702 runners took part in the run. The first male runner across the line finished in 30m 29s, followed by the leading woman on 34m 47s.

Surg Lt Cdr Simon Kershaw-Yates posted the fastest Lusty time, 39m 50s, while CPO(MT) Claire Mclennan was the fastest Illustrious female on 48m 38s.

“I was really impressed with the number of runners we fielded and there were some very credible individual performances,” said Cdr John Voyce, one of Illustrious’ veteran runners.

“We were delighted to have the opportunity to compete in this great event. With around 200 calories in a pint of Guinness, maybe we can learn a lot from Irish training methods.”

Another tennis triumph

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Continued from page 48 This fantastic RN victory could not have been timed better, coinciding with the re-opening of the indoor centre in Burnaby Road, Portsmouth.

Having started training in earnest for this event in late 2012, the RN’s indoor facility has been critical to team preparations.

The squad assembled there each month for training led by Kevin Baker. who is also the Portsmouth Tennis Academy’s director and head coach, and who will be managing the indoor centre for the RNLTA from now on.

In the view of the team captain/ manager Cdr Nigel Bowen, it’s the combination of a fiercely-

competitive approach generated in training, plus the ‘all of one company’ spirit that exists among squad members – whether selected to play or not – which has been critical to a succession of InterService tournament victories (six out of nine) for RN team over the past four years.

With vastly improved facilities and dominance of Inter Service tennis, there is a hugely positive feel to Navy tennis – this can only be served by continued and increased participation and the ongoing search for new players.

If you are interested, call the indoor tennis centre (02392 730082/830736) or visit https:// pdevportal.co.uk/sports/tennis.

JUNE 2013 : 47