Royal Navy Field Gun

2017 Royal Navy Junior Leaders Field Gun challenge

Elutec puts Barking and Dagenham in the top slot at Royal Navy competition.

Elutec became TOP school in the country beating 8 other schools and 4 RN junior ratings teams to come 5^th out of 18 selected teams. 9 RN junior ratings teams and 9 selected schools took part.

18 students and two staff from our own Elutec engineering and science secondary school, located opposite Dagenham East station, went to compete in the Royal Navy’s prestigious, invite only, Junior Leaders Field Gun training and competition. They lived on HMS Bristol in Portsmouth for a week and trained hard every day at HMS Collingwood even electing to do additional runs after others had stopped in the afternoon.

Such was the dedication and hard work they put into the challenge they came 1^st in the schools challenge and 5^th overall beating 4 of the royal Navy own teams as well. Nine Royal Navy junior ratings teams and 9 schools took part.

This was the culmination of months of Wednesday afternoon physical training sessions, including a visit to the West Ham football club’s training ground to be put through final training by the Royal Navy.

Principal Ruth Umerah said, “We are immensely proud of the success our students achieved against some the top field gun teams in the country”.

As outgoing head boy (this was David Wahba’s 2^nd year as a team member)said, “Adventure is what makes life fun, so going off to the navy for a week to participate in the gun run is honestly a great experience”

Student team Joseph Njury said, “Great is an understatement….. there are no words to describe it, a truly amazing experience”.

Female student team member Helma Cardoso said, “Joining Field Gun was nothing I or the others had expected, it was much harder and it is an experience I would definitely do again. Waking up at 5am and having to march at 6am was a nightmare at the beginning but it taught me discipline and self-pride along the week, it brought people together that we had never spoken to and we became a crew, a family. We had never expected or anticipated we would do as well as we did especially going against military and cadets that train for this day in and day out and are older and stronger than us, but we stayed motivated and most importantly we trusted and believed in each other, I would say that was what got us into the finals and labelled us as the top UTC. Who said age and height matters? We proved them wrong!”

Elutec staff accompanying the students commented

Elutec staff team member Darren Wright said, “It was a long and tiring week but it was all worth it come Friday when the crew pulled together to produce three impressive clean runs, beating HMS Sultan and finishing as the top UTC was no easy task, everyone had their job to do and on the day they each gave their all. It was an experience I’ll never forget, roll on next year.”

Elutec Staff team member Peter Quinn, “On Monday I thought ‘how am I going to get this group to work together’, by Friday I and others are left speechless by what they had achieved”

 

Team facilitator at Elutec who attended the final in Portsmouth Mrs Jan Tricks said, “5th place overall and TOP UTC … our young people gave their heart and soul in this competition with a starting place of zero to this magnificent result. Every knock, blister and every bead of sweat showed them as the amazing young people they are. When they could go no further and were exhausted they dug in deep to find something more to give. I am honoured to have facilitated this event for Team Elutec again, and plan to do so in 2018. This is incredible progress and what the Royal Navy called Extraordinary.

 

This is the account of their week

 

On the 2^nd of July 2017 and after months of preparation back home at Elutec, 18 students stood on a parade ground in HMS Collingwood, Portsmouth unaware of the full extent of the task ahead of them. By the end of that week, however, they had fully embraced the Naval Service Core Values: Commitment, Courage, Discipline, Loyalty, Integrity and Respect for others and triumphed over all the other schools in the competition.

Monday, their day starts at 05:00hrs as the muster on HMS Bristol’s foredeck and the reality hits home as they are then asked to march to breakfast. The crew of 18 have their first taste of how things are going to be for the remainder of the week and by 08:00 they find themselves at HMS Collingwood and feel the weight of the gun rig that they are going to get to know personally. The clock moves to 10:00hrs and time to start their first drill and understand the roles that have been allocated to them by their Royal Navy No.1. who will become their drill master for the week. The pace of the day is relentless as they have two more training sessions to complete before returning to their new home for dinner. After dinner they are then treated to the instruction of ironing and polishing boots military style; there were a few groans but the weary students accept their fate. By 21:30hrs the students are in their bunks deep in the heart of the ship.

Tuesday, another early start and the thought of four training sessions ahead with some of the crew asking themselves how this pace can continue. Unbeknown to them their group leader and No1 realised that something special was starting to form in this crew. The drills they were going through were smooth and fast and by the end of Tuesday there was a quiet confidence forming amongst the RN crew mentors.

Wednesday is traditionally the hardest day for a crew as they are exhausted both mentally and physically. The crew mentors have starting timing the drills and start to put all the phases of a gun run together and by the close of the day the crew had completed a full run and were well ahead on the training schedule.

Thursday, a day when we realised we had something special forming amongst these students. The morning session was only meant to be a one off run so they could save their energy for the afternoon’s first race against other crews. The first run was clean and was the fastest time they had run; 1minute 37 seconds. Their RN No.1 went through the usual debrief and then asked them to take the gun rig of the track and back to the tent. The crew skip then responded ‘we want to go again, we can go faster’ both No1 and No2 look at each other and grant them their wish. They didn’t disappoint; 1min 34 seconds. We then knew we were competitive. Elutec were the only team to have pushed themselves to do this.

Friday was race day, discussion between No1 and No2 were about how good this crew was. The only concern was could they delivery when it mattered in all the noise and heat of battle on the parade ground.

In their heats they are running against 4 navy based crews so the task being asked of them was going to be immense. The trumpet sounds as the crews are called to the line and the countdown begins. Bang! and they are off. We watch the crews all run to the box build and The Elutec team are 5^th away from the first phase. We then watch them chase their opposition down and by the first firing action they start coming home in 3^rd, soon the teams have progressed to the final phase and then the run to home. We watch all the teams use every ounce of energy as they pull the heavy gun across the line. Elutec Crew come in 4^th but more importantly, clean and in an impressive time of 1min 29 seconds. This was job half done as all teams have to complete two runs to decide which final they would run in.

Race two and this was the defining moment for these 18 students. It was quoted as the best ever Gun Run our Royal Navy No.1 had ever seen, a significant statement considering he had won the senior event 4 times.

I need to explain the problem, holding the wheels on the limber box are two pins 10cm long, and without these your wheels will fall off. During the race and after the first firing action one of the pins falls out. Our ‘wheelie’ David then proceeded to hold the wheel in place using just his hand for the remainder of the race, about 50 metres, a point at which the crew are travelling at their fastest. As a result they came in 3^rd. We return to our holding station and wait anxiously for the decision of the race as we knew we had to have incurred penalties. The RN No.1 returns and tells us the judge has issued us with only a warning so our run was clean and we had made it through to the top final. The crew go wild with excitement which meant that the worst the team could finish is 6^th place. Of the 18 teams entered into the competition 9 of the teams were all affiliated to the Royal Navy and teams of able seamen or those going through their first phase training.

The team march out proudly and only one thing on their minds, to finish as the top UTC team and only one team was in their way, UTC Plymouth. The race unfolds and the first crew clear the finish line in 1minute 21 seconds, but more importantly Elutec achieve their goal and come in 5^th , ahead of Plymouth UTC.

What this crew achieved cannot be under estimated, this was on par with David beating Goliath and have left some very established teams scratching their heads as to how 18 students from the East of London could achieve so much in such a short time. The school is rightly proud of their team.