Nine boys from the Royal Marines Section of King’s College Taunton CCF have lifted the Sir Steuart Pringle Trophy for an impressive fifth time in the last eight years. The competition is the annual national military skills event between the 19 Royal Marine Combined Cadet Force (RM CCF) detachments based in schools around the country, and is considered the pinnacle event in the RMCCF year. It is an arduous competition designed to bring out the very best in Royal Marine Cadets. King’s has a proud history of success in the event and our teams have consistently risen to the considerable challenge to produce superb results.
Investing significant time at weekends and early mornings, the King’s team trained hard from the beginning of this term, honing their fitness, military skills and subject knowledge, overcoming injuries, illness and last-minute changes, to peak just at the right time. As well as clinching the main prize, the team also came first in the separate tests of Drill, Map Reading, Fire Control Orders, the Battle Exercise and Section Attacks, making this our most successful competition to date.
This year’s team was: Samuel Everard, Harry Cooper-Simpson, Jack Mead, Sam Stickland, Zac Stickland, Edward Coombs, Angus Lyon, Daniel Bernado and Robert Santrian. A special mention should be made of Patrick McSwiggan who trained with the team, but who, in the last week, was unfortunately injured during a rugby game and had to step down at the last minute.
The team were trained and mentored by Captain Steve King (OC RM Section) and Captain Peter Belfield.
Commenting on the team’s success, Captain King said “The boys are elated. Their hard work, razor-sharp focus, dedication and determination has paid off and they should be immensely proud of what they have achieved.”