Sports Updates

TANK MUSEUM UPDATE

Richard Smith OBE

The Tank Museum has had a very challenging period through 2020 and 2021, but has come through in rude health.

MUSEUM ONLINE

The closures due to Covid restrictions meant that the Museum has been closed for around nine of the last eighteen months. Only around 15% of the Museum’s turnover comes from public funding, so this put unprecedented pressure on the organisation’s finances. However, every market disruption comes with associated opportunity. The Tank Museum was already Europe’s most successful museum of any kind on YouTube before the pandemic, but Covid and its associated closures accelerated our shift to online business and content.

In the last twelve months, we have had around 400,000 viewers a month on our YouTube channel, who between them consumed some 3.7 million hours of content. This represents a huge increase in our ambition as a charity. To put this into context, in 2019, 220,000 people physically visited the Museum, staying on average for four hours at a time. In the future, we will be able to pursue both ways of engaging with the public, taking our stories to audiences of a scale which would have been inconceivable only a few years ago. The new online activity also helped plug the financial gaps left by the lack of visitors. In 2020 the online shop sales reached £1m, with the biggest seller of the year being rather fetching tank slippers! Much of the other work of the Tank Museum has been curtailed or suspended with many staff on furlough or covering roles different to normal over most of the last eighteen months. However, we were still able to install new exhibitions in our Second World War galleries, which are based on a wide set of interviews carried out with veterans over recent years. These meant that we now tell a story of young soldiers and the battles they fought in, trying to bring alive the human stories that make the Museum such a compelling experience. At the time of writing, the Museum is fully open to visitors again, with the workshops and collections teams back full time and catching up on a year’s backlog, while trying to bring our stories alive to the next generation.

World War 2 Stories exhibition

THE CAV CUP IS HOME! RTR 3 – 0 QRH

Cpl Wheeler

After beginning our Cav Cup journey with an extra time win against the Household Cavalry, the RTR made football look easy in the semi-final on the 4 March 2020 with a 5-1 victory over the Light Dragoons. The final would be a repeat of the 2019 final against the QRH, little did we know we would have to wait an arduous 491 days to finally be crowned champions and get our revenge.

Several obstacles had stood in our way before the kick-off. COVID-19 was still doing its best to interfere with our preparations. But when the 7 July 2021 finally came around, we knew we had a job to do. That job was to bring the Cav Cup home on its 125th year anniversary, home back to the oldest tank regiment in the world.

The game started brightly for the RTR, our two warm up friendlies the week before certainly helped us settle on the ball and we controlled the game in the early stages, every man knew his job from the outset. Cpl Niall Woollard, Cpl Rowan Irvine and LCpl Lawrence Larbi all missed good opportunities in the opening 20 minutes of the match, Cpl Woollard the biggest culprit.

Unfortunately, we were forced into an early change after 40 minutes after LCpl James McGuire suffered an injury. Luckily SSgt Kev Mack was able to seamlessly step into his shoes and quickly found the pace of the game. No sooner had this happened, Cpl Woollard finally found his shooting boots and managed to find the back of the net with a superb left footed strike, giving the RTR a well deserved 1-0 lead. This was quickly followed by LCpl Larbi taking it round the QRH goalkeeper, the referee judged his effort to have crossed the line and the RTR now had a strong 2-0 lead that we would carry through to half time. It was nothing more than we had deserved.

As the second half began, the QRH came out of the blocks quickly and had some good opportunities in a spell where they were the better team. However good decision making from Tpr Tom Lewis in goal and excellent leadership from WO2 Lance Rugg in defence allowed us to weather the storm unscathed and as a team we had regained control of the game come the hour mark. The killer blow came after around 75 minutes after the QRH goalkeeper failed to control a back-pass allowing Cpl Woollard to tap into an empty net for his second and the RTR’s third. He received a yellow card for removing shirt in an over exuberant celebration. He thought he was Cristiano Ronaldo, we thought Peter Kay had just turned up!

We managed to remain comfortable until the final whistle was blown 15 minutes later, largely thanks to the team’s ability to play good football and retain possession in all areas of the pitch. A well-deserved 3-0 triumph against a well spirited QRH side. Full time was an emotional affair notably due to it being both LCpl James McGuire and Cpl Stuart Duck’s last game for the RTR before leaving the service and moving on to other things. As team captain Cpl Rowan Irvine lifted the historic trophy, it felt like more than just a Cav Cup win, it felt football was finally back!

MAN OF THE MATCH: Cpl Niall Woollard

FALCON’S STRONGEST 2021

Lance Corporal Elmore

On July 26th, FALCON hosted a strongman-style event as part of OC FALCON’s inter-troop competition. The troops all selected teams of four to compete for maximum points, and 16 competitors in total lined up at 1330 to hear the competition brief and what lay in store.

In the first event, LCpl Batchelor and LCpl Harding set a blistering pace, deadlifting 120kg 20 times in 60 seconds to claim joint first. In the second event, LCpl Harding again proved his strength, this time tying with Cpl Stapleton on the 50kg Log Press, each of them lifting the strongman log from the floor to over-head 11 times in 60 seconds. The heat was turned up in the third event, which saw the competitors pull a Land Rover for 20 metres using a harness. Once strapped in, the sound of the whistle started the timer, and the brakes were released. Competitors pushed themselves to the finish line where the blast of a second whistle signalled respite, and although there were several fantastic times from this event, Sgt Reed blew everyone away to claim first place with a time of 19.77 seconds. In the fourth event, Cpl Birch started to make his move on the field, putting in an impressive display with a ridiculously fast time of 23.95 seconds to flip a FUCHS tyre 10 times. This made the standings extremely tight, with all to play for going into the final event – the Loading Race. This event was made up of a 10-metre track with four objects at one end that competitors had to take one at a time and run to place it over the finish line, repeating this until all four were over the line, with the fastest time winning. The objects used were a 32kg kettlebell, a 40kg sandbag, a 42kg beer keg and finished with half of an A frame. Once again, there were some great times all round, but with a time of 23.67 seconds, Cpl Birch took first place.

Once the last event was finished, the scores were added up before placings were announced and prizes given. Congratulations to Cpl Birch (1st place), LCpl Harding (2nd place) and Tpr Vincent (3rd place) all receiving winners packs courtesy of 10X Nutrition, who sent over a huge amount of their products to sponsor the event. All competitors were given a goodie-bag consisting of a ‘FALCON’s Strongest’ keyring, a shaker bottle, and various nutritional samples.

So, with FALCON’s Strongest 2021 done, hopefully here’s to next year’s competition – Strongest Tankie 2022!

RTR CYCLING

Captain Harry Finch-Pawley

SSgt Heal on the podium. Above and below: demonstrating the skills that got him there!

The past 12 months have predictably been quiet for both the RTR Mountain Biking and Road Cycling Teams. The impact of social distancing and Force Health Protection measures at various points throughout the year, as well as multiple deployments on Mission Ready Training and Op CABRIT have meant that conventional meets have not been possible, except for very limited instances.

WHERE THERE'S A WILL...

However, where there is a will there is a way! As restrictions eased in July, SSgt Heal and LCpl Woodman competed in the National Downhill Mountain Bike Series at Hamsterly Forest, representing the Army Team. LCpl Woodman finished 30th in the Senior category, with SSgt Heal securing 5th place overall in the Master’s category. A truly excellent effort all around.

As conventional leg stretching wasn’t an option for the majority of the year, many of our riders began to compete and train virtually on ZWIFT both individually and with the RAC team on a number of separate events. This in turn led to a funding bid to the RTR for 4x top of the range turbo trainers, and 4x Zwift accounts to encourage this growth, and allow our riders to get more out of this rapidly growing domain. Moving forward the intention is to consolidate our regular use of this equipment and in time, bid for more platforms, allowing us to continue to fly the RTR colours on the road, on the trail, and in the cybersphere; all while hopefully attracting new members to the team.

MORE FOR 2022

Looking forward into 2022, the RTR cycling team will continue to recruit new members and reconsolidate following the inevitable turnover of some of our more experienced veterans on posting; and as they leave the Army. As events become more widespread and restrictions abroad continue to ease, the team will seek to engage in training camps and competitions where the opportunities arise, as well as continue to grow our presence in the virtual sphere. The original Mosel 2020 event as part of the Vintners team unfortunately was postponed due to COVID, but happily has been rescheduled for 2022, which will see 6 riders from the RTR cycle from Cambrai to Bernkastel over 3 days.

If you are reading this and are interested in getting into the sport, or simply interested in bringing your hobby into work with you, please get in touch with myself at

Charles.Finch-Pawley100@mod.gov.uk

RTR RFC 2020/21 SEASON

Lieutenant Andy Buffham

It has not been lost on anyone that sport has suffered throughout the pandemic. Rugby, however, for the pure nature of it being the closest of close contact sports, has had the carpet ripped from beneath its feet.

The RTR RFC have had to be patient as rugby’s return was never going to be simple. The RFU have rewritten the rules of the game for the safety of the player and the changes that had to be made have taken some getting used to. As the country began to open up, the RTR RFC players were keen as ever to dive straight back into the game they love. The team were first subject to the RFU’s D2 rules, which banned mauling or scrums to minimise unnecessary close contact between players.

With a brand new £1.4 million 4G rugby pitch built on Aliwal Barracks, the training ground was on the team’s doorstep. Training became a regular occurrence in early summer, before the first opportunity to play a competitive match presented itself. Griffins RFC (Army HQ and Andover Garrison) contacted the team to start up a previously held annual fixture. The team were of course excited for the opportunity, with 30+ players expressing their intention to play. This friendly fixture was played in good spirit, as both teams used it as an opportunity to shake out the cobwebs and practice different

RTR VS Griffins – Lt Buffham throws in at the line out.

combinations of players. With 20-minute quarters, each player got a run out in varying positions, allowing the team management to begin to understand where people will be best suited for competitive games. Ultimately, good rugby was played and the team walked away with a 33-22 win over the opposition. The nature of the teams new 4G home ground means fast and slick rugby can be played, which suits the team’s style of play.

A second game during the summer against Pewsey RFC, a local team to Tidworth, allowed more game time. Another game played in good spirits finished, the RTR unfortunately left without a win. 27-19 to Pewsey. Now with the cobwebs shaken out and the rules relaxing further, the team are looking forward to playing some competitive rugby throughout the autumn and winter. Due to the RTR BG deployment on Op CABRIT, both DREADNAUGHT and EGYPT will be unavailable. For this reason, the team will not elect to join a competitive league, as they may be faced with difficulty finding a full team week in and week out. A continuance of sporadic local derby’s and the ARU’s fixture exchange will be the intention for the 2021/2022 season. Rumours also suggest that DREADNAUGHT and EGYPT wont escape rugby on their deployment, as local teams look for ringers when they can be available.

RTR E-SPORTS NEWS

Sergeant Cox

From these highly competitive teams some of our soldiers have been selected to represent the RAC and Army. A notable mention from the team is LCpl Dunbar who was selected to represent the British Army in the elite CoD team. This saw him play in an international match against the American Forces in a prestigious event sponsored by the makers of CoD “Black Ops” ACTIVISION. The event called Code B.O.W.L was a huge success with the Army team taking third place behind the RAF and the new US Space Force. Tpr Dungey lead the RAC CoD team to victory in the REME’s Mustang Cup which saw the RAC’s first major tournament victory after mixed success in the British Army’s Lions League.

The efforts of the Regimental E-Sport team have earned them the opportunity to be recognised as a legitimate activity and apply for funding with the intention of creating and E-Sports suite in the Regimental welfare facility. Not only will this act as a ‘home stadium’ where casters can stream their games but also as a place where young soldiers can come together and build friendships. This effect of building communities on platforms such as Discord and Twitch has helped soldiers deal with the mental stresses of being isolated during the COVID-19 pandemic. It has also focused soldiers, built team cohesion, and satisfied their competitive hunger with regular fixtures and league tables.

The Army Sergeant Major joined the Army discord and spoke to the very junior of soldiers on issues such as mental health and provided a platform to raise concerns to the very top of the Army. With this initiative the British Army Discord platform provides a route to reach out for advice or help. The RAC Discord Community has 290 soldiers across all regular and reserve Regiments in the RAC.

Participation in E-Sports has helped young soldiers develop junior leadership; leading a small section in achieving mission successes on a virtual battlefield and it has helped developed managements skills when organising fixtures. With the future of warfare being constantly digitised and remotely operated to increase safety of soldiers in the future, it is only necessary that units

With the height of COVID-19 behind us the Regimental E-Sport team have grown into a well-seasoned and talented group of individuals. We have seen excellent results from both our established teams in War Thunder (WT) and Call of Duty (CoD), with the RTR taking second place in the Intra-RAC “Soap” McTavish Cup with a valiant final against the Scots DG. The WT team also have had success in a very convincing victory over the KRH team in August.

develop the next generation of soldiers and nurture some of these overlooked skills. The RTR as always are leading innovation within the RAC with constant success and many members progressing to much higher level of competition.

ARMY ENDURO

Lance Corporal Beavin

2021 has been a busy year for Army Enduro Motorcycling. I have had the pleasure and opportunity to compete in the 2021 Army Inter-Corps Enduro Motorcycle Championship, a series of one day event stages. At the time of writing, I am performing well, placing third in the first two rounds of a six round Championship.

In addition, I competed in Ex HARD RIDE, the Tri-service Enduro Championship. This is an annual event which takes place over three days, containing different scored events, such as best effort timed laps of a circuit, numerous trail stages, as well as a 14km timed Enduro with included test circuits. I managed to finish second overall in the Novice class and won the Jimmy James Shield for ‘Best RAC Rider’. Sgt Langston (QRH) and I entered as an RAC team and won the Buckley Cup for 'Best Novice Team' and 'Best Over All Team' for our performances in this Championship. On the back of these successes, I am planning to enter the 2022 Championship in the ‘Expert’ class. To prepare for this, I have been entering as many local club events and practice sessions as I can.

I would like to take the opportunity thank the Regiment and FALCON Sqn (C-CBRN) for giving me the time to allow me to compete in such an amazing sport and would encourage anyone interested in participating in the sport of Enduro to do so.

The author competing at the Championships

The author with Sgt Langston and our haul of silverware

RTR GOLF

Lieutenant Connor Wright

Summer had truly arrived. With blazing sunshine and mercury bubbling in the thermometer, the RTR Golf team took to the course. Though COVID-19 hindered the fixtures of other sports, 18 holes under the sun is the perfect way to lift the spirits and dispel the viral doom-and-gloom.

September saw the team compete in the Rusty Putter competition. The jewel-in-the-crown of the Royal Tank Regiment’s Golf Team calendar. Rusty Putter is heatedly contested year after year, and the Mess teams get as much practice in as they can beforehand.

During the build-up to Rusty Putter, the Team played friendly fixtures in order to greasethe-groove of their game. In July, members of the RTR had the chance to play on a toptier course, the Royal Ascot. The event was organised by LCpl Jackson of CYCLOPS, who had this to say about the day: “The day started out with bright sunshine, but by the 6th hole rain was torrential. The downpour flooded not only the greens, but our shoes too! Once the rain had stopped, we ‘cracked on’ and made the most of it. Some great golf was played throughout the day with everyone finishing on a high. Overall, a fantastic outing for the team.”

As the season progressed, the RTR team only continued to improve, slashing strokes from their scorecards round after round. Alongside the development of the players’ game, the camaraderie brought about by hours spent together on the course has continually built the team spirit over the past 12 months.

RUSTY PUTTER 2021

After months of anticipation, the Annual Rusty Putter competition has once again been and gone. Organised by SSgt Tom Davies, Rusty Putter is a two-day event serving as the annual Officers vs Seniors competition. 2021 saw the addition of the Junior Ranks Mess, which served to add yet another layer of competitive spirit. The event is traditionally held at Celtic Manor Golf Club in Newport, where, most notably, the 2010 Ryder Cup was held. Celtic Manor boasts three championship-grade courses, of which the RTR team had the chance to play two – The Roman Road and The Montgomerie. Both

Capt Munnery playing the fairway at Donnington

courses are particularly challenging and set amongst stunning Welsh scenery. Rusty Putter 2021 began with a rousing welcome speech from SSgt Tom Davies, and, as golf culture decrees, this was accompanied with some customary course-beers. Day one was played on The Montgomerie - A dramatic par 69 challenge designed by Ryder Cup legend Colin Montgomerie. Hosting the 2015 European Pro Tour, this course proved itself to be no mean feat for the RTR Team. The Montgomerie was played as stroke-play, a format of play whereby the score is taken from the number of strokes (shots) a player must make to complete all of the holes on the course. This was a helpful day for all and served as a practise-run for the competition the following day.

Part of the Rusty Putter Competition is the social aspect, a chance for the members of our team to enjoy some like-minded company (and a few more beers) at the five star Celtic Manor Golf Hotel. Our team members enjoyed a mixed grill buffet in one of the hotel restaurants and what might only be described as ‘terrible golf chat’ to accompany their drinks into the evening. With a few sore heads the following morning, the Team took to the course for day two; competition day. Competition was conducted in pairs match play, with each individual hole being won, drawn, or lost. Day two was played on the Roman Road; a challenging par 70 6,500-yard course which takes it’s name from the East-West Roman Road which runs across it. The players were left particularly impressed by the 12th hole of the Roman Road, which is ranked amongst the 50 best in the world. Though fiercely contested throughout, the competition saw the WOs’ and Sgts’ victorious once again. The coveted Rusty Putter trophy will continue to be on display in their Mess for another year. An excellent event all around, the RTR team will now look forward to returning to Celtic Manor in 2022. We are always looking for our next fixture, be it with another regiment, association, or organisation. If you would like to organise a match, please contact Lt Connor Wright, or SSgt Tom Davies.

Connor.Wright153@mod.gov.uk Thomas.davies923@mod.gov.uk