30 ROUNDS

A group of RN Cadets including myself started their preparations for the Honour Guard on Doctors’ Day by learning some basic rifle drill. Many cadets had never even touched a rifle before and the progress they have been making is remarkable. Our Area Instructor from RN HQ, CPO Si Cox, an expert in ceremonial drill attended our session and gave us a first-class lesson on the rifle drill we need. Now the cadets will be stepping up their preparations by conducting a series of practice sessions over the next few weeks. Today, eight girls and four boys from the Royal Navy section, and the CCF band, arrived at Merchant Taylors’ for Doctors Day. In the weeks leading up to Doctor’s Day, we rehearsed as often as we could. The girls during break times with lacrosse sticks, going over basic moves, and on weekends all together practicing the routine. We had to be able to ‘present arms’ which was holding the rifle out in front of you, and ‘change arms’ whilst marching, which took some getting used to as we had to learn this on both arms. The big worry for all of us was the weight of the rifles, which were 5kg, roughly the weight a bowling ball, as after a long time of holding them at the ‘slope’ - against the shoulder with the ‘butt’ in one hand, it can get very heavy. We also needed to build up our endurance, so that the audience would not be able to notice whether we were struggling or not. All members of the Guard met at MTS, collected their rifles, and made sure our that kits were pristine. Then, we rehearsed our routine a few times along with the band before performing it in front of the Headmaster, the Sea Lord and other officials. We put our rifle drill training that we learned from our Royal Navy correspondent Lieutenant Si Cox, former head of ceremonial drill, into use. Although it was slightly chilly, the master inspected us before performing our short drill routine.