EDITORIAL
Hello again and welcome to this, the 2nd Edition of REPRISE for 2001. It’s now looking highly unlikely, no, scrap that, DEFINITELY unlikely that I’ll be able to emulate last year and produce 4 issues for the year, but who knows, if I get enough articles in I might just be able to squeeze out one more issue! (Hark, is that a flying pig I see?)
I look at the past year and think "Where did it go?", and mean it!! OK, I was in Bosnia for 4 months of it, but where did the rest go? The promises to myself that the next edition would be in October, then November, and now it's December and I still haven't put this issue to bed! Time to pull the proverbial finger out …

Whether it was my constant nagging in the last issue or my face to face nagging at the One Hit that has produced the desired effect is unclear, but the bottom line is that something has worked! I received some articles for inclusion in this issue and didn’t even have to get the big stick out!

So, what joys does this issue bring? We’ve got reactions from the top of the RAF on our results at this years Inter Services. Rob Desforges has spent a great deal of time setting up a club at Uxbridge and details here exactly how you can set up one yourself. We’ve also got the latest (and most important) news from the Match Sec … what competitions we’ve got travel authority for. Old Folks Corner also seems to have been a good idea, with another of the RAF’s “Old and Bold” coming forward.

So, is that it? Nope, there’s even more …. Including (drum roll please) ……. The first ever winner of the Caption Competition!!! Yahoo … at last we had an entry! So, on that note I’ll leave you to it. Enjoy. And as the festive season approaches let me wish you and your families all the best for Xmas and the coming New Year.

CONGRATULATIONS FROM ...
“I am delighted that the Royal Air Force Team has done so well, especially in light of some stiff competition from the other Services. The final results speak volumes for all of the effort that has gone in to ensure that the Royal Air Force has an all round strong team.”

Air Chief Marshall Sir Peter Squire GCB DFC AFC ADC RAF,
Chief of the Air Staff

“Well done to everyone on retaining the Men’s Title. To do this after the last five years and the Ladies after six is marvellous. Congratulations to all. It shows just how effective strong leadership is and there seems no doubt that Sgt Newing provides just that.”

Air Chief Marshall Sir Jock Kennedy GCB AFC

“This was clearly an excellent result and I write to add my own sincere congratulations to everyone involved.”

Air Vice Marshall C Davidson MBE DPhysEd FIMgt RAF ret’d

“It came as no surprise to learn of the success that you and your team continue to enjoy on this high profile stage …… many congratulations to you all.”

Air Vice Marshall David SaundersEsq

“This was an excellent result, particularly as there were 5 new RAF ‘blues’ in the squad. This result would not have been achieved without a strong coaching squad, a very positive team spirit and leadership from the captain … and vice-captain.”

Air Vice Marshall HG MackayOBE AFC BSc FRAeS RAF
President, RAFFU

“Well done! ….. Retaining the overall men’s title for the sixth year in succession and the women’s title for the seventh consecutive year is an impressive record. To achieve these results with a comparatively junior squad speaks volumes about the preparation, determination to win and overall team spirit.”

Gp Capt NJ Kurth,
Chairman, RAFFU

A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN
Christmas, to me, is a time of reflection and, in the case of the Fencing Union, I believe it has been another good year. Once again, the team came up trumps at the Inter-Service Championships. Also, we have seen the emergence of further ‘young blood’ at representative level – long may it continue (and well done to the new blues).
There are fresh faces on the Committee, for which I am most grateful (there is no truth in the rumour that there is a girls’ take-over – it just appears that way!) We have a new coach – welcome to Dave Orme. Dave will be orchestrating coaching sessions, bringing in expertise to meet the respective requirements. What is clear, is that we need to be disciplined; it is imperative that if you put your name down for a session, you turn up. We cannot afford to waste the opportunity. It is our turn to host the Inter-Service Championships next year and the situation is less than clear on location but we will let you know as soon as a way ahead is a little clearer.

Anyway, stop waffling Kurth, I must get back to my mince pies. I wish you and your families all the best for Christmas and the New Year. Have a good one!

DATES FOR THE DIARY
The following are competitions, either Service or Civilian, for which travel authority has been granted. All personnel wishing to participate in any event are to inform the Match Sec, Sgt Mark Gumley, prior to the competition.
Should the Match Sec not be informed, then personnel are technically not on duty and will not be covered by the RAF should anything go awry, nor can they claim duty mileage. Where possible, notification should be given to the Match Sec at
least 2 weeks prior to the event. On completion of the event results are to be passed to the Match Sec for onward notification to the Sports Board.

Scottish Open Stirling 12 Jan

Aldershot Open Aldershot 19 Jan

Corble Cup London 26 Jan

Slough Open Slough 2 Feb

Surrey Challenge Richmond TBC Feb

RAF Cmd Champs Cosford TBC Feb

Merseyside Open Liverpool 16 Feb

Hampshire Open Portsmouth 23 Feb

Clara Rayner Memorial Nottingham 2 Mar

RAF Invitational Quadrangular TBC TBC

Editor’s Note: Remember that every year the John Warburn Memorial Trophy is awarded to the RAF fencer who achieves the best results at competitions throughout the year …Service and civilian. Therefore it is in your best interests not only to compete in as many competitions as you can, but also to notify your results to the Match Sec. Good luck out there!

PROVISIONAL PROGRAMME
Hot off the presses there follows the provisional dates for RAFFU events for the next season:
9/10 Feb Command Championships Cosford

11/12 May Seniors Cosford

15/16 Jun Inter Service Training Cosford

24-28 Jun Inter Services Cosford

21 Sep One Hit Epee Cosford

26/27 Oct Juniors Cosford

You now have no excuses for not being there folks …. Plan your time now!!!

STARTING A FENCING CLUB
(or How to give yourself an ulcer) By Rob Desforges

Having been fencing for 7 years I was feeling rather confident, despite getting my bottom spanked at several Junior and Senior Championships, so I decided I would try to start up my own Fencing Club at RAF Uxbridge. Reading it on my user friendly (yeah, right) computer it looks quite a simple task but then don’t they all? I’d been at Uxbridge for 5 months by then and was getting rather peeved with having a 30 minute, combat driving adventure worthy of Mad Max to get to my club in Acton. I thought
that having a rather large and more often than not, empty Gym on my doorstep would be the perfect venue for a home grown club.

Getting a potential membership was the first hurdle, which proved relatively easy at first. I’d already been told by other fencers about a “foxy babe” at LATCC (Mil) called Steph Vaughan and the “foxy babe” in question put me onto 2 others, 1 of whom turned out to be my own future flight commander! The other, John Bankhead, already at Uxbridge and runs the club with me, promptly canvassed the many people he knew and got several interested parties, so far so normal. John already had his club leader certificate and so that neatly solved the problem of having someone qualified to teach at least the basics.

I now had to approach the PEd Flt at Uxbridge to beg for time and resources and I was fully prepared, if necessary, to surrender my firstborn. As it turned out the PTI’s were pretty helpful with a few potential time slots and a storeroom plus the promise of help getting a locker for equipment. And I didn’t have to surrender my firstborn or take part in any satanic rituals involving blood and virgin sacrifice. Pity.

This, by the way, was all occurring during a rather busy period at AIS(Mil), we were dealing with the aftermath of the Foot and
Mouth crisis and a recent changeover of personnel meant a few more section tasks came my way. On top of this I also work
another job to supplement my meagre RAF wage so time was not exactly abundant to devote to my new toy, sorry, club. John in the meantime had been posted from Uxbridge to Northwood and was trying to get to grips with a new job among the fisheads, doing it the “Navy way”. Fnaar fnaar!

Next hurdle was equipment. Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it’s Super-Spence to the rescue! Enter stage left a rather dynamic and some might say handsome young man called the RAFFU Coach, or Spence to his Inner Circle of minions. The athletic fella was eager to point out that RAFFU could provide me with an equipment starter pack at no cost, not even my firstborn or any sort of voodoo ceremony with goats and virgins. Pity.

So after a few false starts I was able to collect 6 sets of everything to train beginners in the mystical art of foil. Still didn’t have a locker though.

At this point Lady Luck, as fickle as only women can be, said “Up yours Big Nose!” I got back to Uxbridge on Sunday to find the Gym had been subjected to a spot of arson and suffered, as it turned out, £60,000 worth of damage and was closed for a month.

“B***%$%%!” I said.

In fact I used many bad words, some of them foreign, French I think. So with a big bag of equipment, nowhere to store it, trainees pitching up on Monday evening and no Gym to use I decided to smack my head against a wall for a while because it would be more rewarding. A small consolation was that the thin blue line that is the RAF Police were able to deduce that names scrawled on the room wall at the epicentre of the fire were those of the little scrotes that started it and promptly felt their collars.

After 5 weeks the Gym re-opened to limited use, under the supervision of a hacked off PTI, and so the inaugural training session of RAF Uxbridge Fencing Club got off to a shaky start. For a first night with very little general advertising I got 5 trainees with John and myself. My boss was very busy and didn’t have any free time and Steph “foxy babe” had been posted by then. So John and I had 2 WRENS and 3 RAF all told, none of whom had any experience but did have a little enthusiasm, something I’ve
since found to be invaluable with a novice. On the whole the night went well with the desired effect of people who’ve never held a sword before realising how much fun it can be. Things were looking promising. Still didn’t have a locker though.

To be expected a few of those who started dropped out after only a few weeks though we were able to attract fewer to replace them. I still hadn’t got a locker as promised by PEd Flt and every time I went to the Gym, over a period of 4 weeks, to enquire about getting it the one person I needed to speak to was away. Since I’m living in the RAF equivalent of a Vietcong bamboo cage, having the equipment bag stored in my room halved the floor space and was becoming dangerous to my health as I repeatedly fell over the bloody thing at night and nearly broke things on me that I’ve become rather attached to. No pun intended. Storing it in John’s room was out of the question since his room will fit inside my room complete with lockers! In the end I went to Supply myself and persuaded them to give me one of the thousands they had tucked away “in case someone else needs one”. I didn’t even have to surrender a body part. Praise the Lord.

I’ve since persuaded one of the professional coaches from my other club to come down and teach, for free. A few of the civvies also come down since we get the whole floor space of the Uxbridge Gym as opposed to half that at the sports centre. For the future of the club I now have to look at attracting more membership. I’ve already achieved my first objective in establishing a regular, visible presence with both the PEd staff and the Station population. To build a stronger club I need to establish a “staff”, Treasurer, Armourer etc, charge membership to be able to purchase our own equipment, register with the BFA and host a few training weekends and competitions. To do this I need more people.

I've started an advertising campaign using SRO's at both Uxbridge and LATCC(Mil) and a poster campaign around all the Sections and Squadrons I can find, all to a resounding silence. The only immediate response I got was negative and from one of the children in London Radar who is of the opinion that fencing is "gay". Unfortunately this is his serious opinion and not a wind up so resisting the urge to slap him upside his head I did invite him down personally to see how "gay" he would find it, but he declined, but hope springs eternal. My current membership stands at John and myself, 3 young boys (2 of whom are Cadets), 2 RAF, 2 WRENS and a MOD employee. The only consistent attendees are John, myself and the boys.

So, what has this adventure taught me:

1. Fencing is NOT "gay".

2. You've got to have a degree of luck.

3. Spence is my hero.

4. Don't stress out over everything, if things go wrong just smile and relax, you can't control everything.

5. Hitting your head against a brick wall hurts. A lot.

6. When you create something like this and really care about it, try and stay positive when the general response is poor.

7. Persevere.

8. Resort to Satanic rituals and voodoo only when you have to.

9. At the risk of sounding like a corporate sell-out, be pro-active when organising everything. Don't sit back and expect others to do the work for you. That's how I got my locker!

10. Information from others can be invaluable, people who now people who want to try fencing has got me all of my members.

11. Next time I form any organisation it'll be from a secret base, inside a hollowed out volcano full of molten magma. From there I will hold the world to ransom for one million dollars! Mwha-ha-ha. Mwha-ha-ha-ha-ha.

CAPTION COMPETITION
Wooooooooooo and indeed, hoooooooooo!!! At last we had an entry for last issues Caption Competition.

Only one … but it's a start …

So the winner of the competition is Adrian Bettridge with:

"When he failed to turn up in the leather trousers she had wished for, Ashley decided it was time to sack her genie!"

So, what fantastic prize has Adrian won? Erm …. Sorry Adrian, after the poor response to the last few comps I hadn't actually planned that far ahead …. ! Tell you what, you can have a years free subscription to Reprise, and as an added bonus, a kiss from Mrs Editor next time you see her. Either that or a kiss from me …. I'll leave the choice to you! (Just to let you know, I’m already puckering up!) (And I use lip balm …)
(And I’m a REAL good kisser ….) But it’s your choice!
See you soon ….. hee hee hee!!!

OK then, lets see what you can all make of this one.

Once again, anything witty, smutty, sarcastic, cutting or just plain nasty is perfectly acceptable, and who knows what I might be able to persuade Mrs Editor to do for the next winner …..hee hee hee!!!

Entries to the usual address …..

OLD FOLKS CORNER
In the last edition I started off this new section with a letter from ex RAFFU Coach Dave Jerry, unsure as to whether it would work or not. I'm happy to say that shortly after that edition was published and distributed I received another article from one of RAFFU's old and bold.
It gives me great pleasure to publish these words of wisdom from Janet "Mo" Stewart.

Having just read the article from an ‘old git’ I thought that as an ‘old tart’ I’d better add my ha’penny’s worth
and disclose a few stories of yore! Certainly having been a fencer, coach and sec (yes sec!) for 15 years I have a few years of stories to choose from.

Let’s see. Back in the old days at Cosford a certain senior sabreur (who will be nameless but was of the medical fraternity) was threatened with eviction from the Mess by a permanent resident after a noisy attack very early one morning disturbed his slumbers. When tackled said sabreur was heard to say ‘ My name is (rank,name) and I don’t give a s---!’ Unfortunately for him our pet Canadian at the time overheard this and whenever he and his side-kick, ancient pilot, were in trouble (often) you would hear those immortal words repeated!

Poor RAF Doctor never could understand why he always got the blame.
Anyway, more tales out of school this time for the gals.

The men were to fence some of the Army in Germany on their own without an invite for the girls, so not to be outdone we arranged our own trip without telling them. The girls had a great and successful time in RAFG fencing the Dutch and Germans and being hosted superbly by the then RAFFU president, Sir Jock Kennedy, who was CinC RAFG. On the Monday the girls were poured onto the return aircraft and were snoozing happily after a continuous weekend party when the guys boarded. Imagine the reaction of the men when they saw the girls not only on board but triumphant and partied out! Especially as it transpired they had lost their matches and been stuck on an Army base without transport and no parties!

Just a couple of tales which show how hard we old folks worked at fencing weekends! Seriously though, these tales reflect what great camaraderie there is within RAFFU, I have many happy memories of great fencing and even greater parties! I enjoy the quinquennial dinners and keeping up with news through friends and ‘Reprise’. Long may RAFFU continue, I wish you all good luck in your future.

JUNIORS 2001
The RAFFU Juniors competition was recently held at RAF Cosford over the weekend of 27-28 October, and it was to prove to be one of the closest competitions in recent years, with the Master at Arms title going to the wire on the last day.
Junior Foil.Twelve fencers entered the foil competition and a mixed competition was held, proceeding through two seeding rounds to a Direct Elimination tableau. After the first round Pete Dewey (RAF Odiham) and Ade Rolfe (RAF Cosford) had won all their matches and were vying for the top spot, with Gary Brailsford (RAF Coltishall), last year's runner-up, several points behind. In the second seeding round though both Pete and Ade dropped several fights, opening the coveted No.1 seed up to the others. Both Andy Cooke and Rob DesForges (RAF Uxbridge) improved on their first round performances to win all their matches, giving Rob top spot as the match went into the DE. The first round of the DE brought no surprises and the quarter-finals saw No.1 seed Rob Desforge comfortably defeat Nige Whittaker (RAF Leuchars) 15-3 to set up a semi-final place against Andy Cooke who had knocked out Ade Rolfe in a nail-biting match 15-14. Pete Dewey on the other hand decided to take the harder route to the semi-final, with the score at 11-11 after time in his match against Blair Ralston (RAF Cosford). Priority was then given to Blair who quite comfortably sat back to run the clock down. In the dying seconds of the match Pete carried out an attack followed by an excellent first-counter riposte to score the hit and move into the other semi-final against Gary Brailsford. Both semi-finals were hard fought, with Andy drawing out in front to go through 15-10 whilst Gary beat Pete 14-8 after time. The final was also hard fought but it was Gary who edged through with better distance control to take the victory and the foil title 15-12. Brigette Morgan was the highest placed female and took the Ladies foil title.

Junior Sabre. Only ten fencers entered the sabre competition which immediately followed the foil event. Due to time constraints one seeding round was fenced before the Direct Elimination tableau. The seeding round proceeded as expected, with Andy Cooke taking the No.1 spot as he won all his matches. After dropping only one fight Chris Murdoch (RAF Cosford) took the No. 2 seeding, but only two indicators separated 2nd and 4th spots: Pete Dewey and Rob Desforges both pushing for the top. As the DE began, Roger Honeywood (RAF Odiham) overcame his 9th spot to beat fellow Odiham fencer Daniel
Davidson to move into the last 8. Unfortunately this then set up a meeting with former club mate Andy Cooke who comfortably moved into the semi-finals 15-8. After winning the foil all eyes were on Gary Brailsford as he took on Rob Desforges, but with some excellent distance control and point attacks Rob swept into the semi-final 15-9. In the other matches Pete Dewey took advantage of his 3rd seeding to dispatch Ade Rolfe while the shock score-line of the day was Chris Garton (RAF Cosford), seeded 7th, beating 2nd seed Chris Murdoch 15-13.

In the first semi-final Pete Dewey again proved his entitlement to the No.3 seeding as he dispatched Chris Garton 15-8, while Andy Cooke faltered slightly before eventually beating Rob Desforges in yet another semi-final 15-13. The final was a tentative match, with neither fencer willing to give away too much, however Andy and the referee disagreed on what constituted a parry with five hits going against Andy as mal-parries. This was to prove decisive as Pete took the win and the sabre title 15-12. Brigette Morgan was again the highest placed female fencer and took the Ladies sabre title.

Junior Epee. Fourteen fencers entered the epee competition which followed the same format as the foil event with two rounds of seeding before the Direct Elimination tableau. The first round saw Graham Orme (BUAS Colerne) sweep through all his fights with Gary Brailsford in 2nd dropping only one match. By the end of the second round, Ade Rolfe and Nige Whittaker had stormed up the rankings taking 2nd and 3rd seedings respectively. The first round of DE followed the seedings, and Gary Brailsford took great delight in knocking out Pete Dewey, current leader in the Master-at-Arms race to go into the last 8 with a seeding of 5th. Unfortunately for Gary his run was then cut short by Dave Orme (RAF St Athan), father of the No.1 seed Graham, who went through 15-11. After causing an upset in the sabre, it was Chris Garton's turn to do the same in the epee as he knocked out 2nd seed Ade Rolfe in the last 8. In what was to prove to be yet another "so near but so far" Rob Desforges went out in the last 8 to Nige Whittaker after a titanic battle 15-14. Unfortunately for the Orme family, the tableau meant that Dave and Graham met in one of the semi-finals, with son narrowly beating father 15-14, whilst in the other match Chris Garton continued to knock off the higher seeds as he dispatched Nige Whittaker in another close run match, 15-14. The final was an excellent match to watch with neither fencer giving away too much in the early stages, however Graham Orme slowly drew out a lead to take the victory and epee title 15-7. Again, Brigette Morgan was the highest placed female fencer and took the Ladies epee title.

Inter Unit 3 Man Team. The final event of the weekend saw four teams compete, with RAF Cosford fielding three and RAF Odiham the remaining one. Roger Honeywood gave the Odiham team a good start winning all his fights in the epee, while Ade Rolfe gave the Cosford "A" team a boost by winning the foil on indicators. With one victory each it was all to rest on the sabre with me, Phil McNulty representing Cosford "A". Based at Satcom Training Flight, No.1 School of Technical Training (Det), RAF Oakhanger this was set to be an interesting match; particularly as I am also the RAF Odiham coach! Unfortunately for the Odiham team I didn't slip into coaching mode, winning all three of my fights to give Cosford "A" the Inter Unit Senior 3 Man Team title while runners-up Odiham took the Inter Unit Junior 3 Man Team title.

Men’s Master-at-Arms. The Men's Champion at Arms trophy was the most closely contested in some years. After the foil and sabre competitions, both Andy Cooke and Pete Dewey had 14 points with Gary Brailsford and Rob Desforge close behind with 12 and 11 points respectively. With the withdrawal of Andy Cooke from the competition on Saturday night, it looked as though a last 8 finish in the epee would clinch the title for Pete Dewey. Unfortunately for Pete two poor seeding rounds saw him finish in 12th place and all eyes were on Gary and Rob. Statistically Gary had the advantage, being seeded 5th which would give him enough points to win outright; unfortunately Ade Rolfe's defeat at the hands of Chris Garton saw Gary drop to 6th and Rob to 7th, giving a three-way tie on 14 points. With one weapon title each it was time to look at the other results, and after a lengthy discussion between DOC's it was agreed that with one weapon win and one third place Men's Junior Master-at-Arms 2001 would be SAC Pete Dewey.

Women’s Master-at-Arms. With three weapon titles, the 2001 Women's Junior Master-at-Arms went to Brigette Morgan, RAF Cosford..

The 2001 Junior Championships are over for another year and it was a very successful event. Once again, the smooth running of the event owes a lot to the tremendous support from those who work hard behind the scenes. FS Ashley Newing is chief amongst these, once again through her hard work and dedication ensuring that no problems were encountered with the gym or accommodation.

Editor’s Note: Flt Lt Jon Davy's assistance in my first competition as Director of Combats was greatly appreciated, with the competition running extremely smoothly over both days. Many many thanks JD!!!.

Flt Lt Davy's assistance as referee, along with Sqn Ldr Ann Gibson, Flt Lt Andy Alcock and FS Newing was also appreciated immensely. SAC Gary Brailsford's services as full time Armourer for the first time were also appreciated, while Cpl Ian Spencer and the Cosford fencing teams assistance in setting up the gym was a great help. My thanks also go to the Chairman of RAF Fencing, Gp Capt Nick Kurth for presenting the prizes.

FOIL
1. JT Gary Brailsford RAF Coltishall
2. Flt Lt Andy Cooke RAF Brampton
3=. SAC Rob Desforges RAF Uxbridge
3=. SAC Pete Dewey RAF Odiham
5. SAC Ade Rolfe RAF Cosford
6. SAC Roger Honeywood RAF Odiham
7. AC Blair Ralston RAF Cosford
8. Cpl Nige Whittaker RAF Leuchars
9. AC Rich Egan RAF Cosford
10. SAC Daniel Davidson RAF Odiham
11. AC Brigette Morgan RAF Cosford
12. L/Cpl Toni Bellgrave RAF Cosford

SABRE
1. SAC Pete Dewey RAF Odiham
2. Flt Lt Andy Cooke RAF Brampton
3=. SAC Rob Desforges RAF Uxbridge
3=. AC Chris Garton RAF Cosford
5. SAC Chris Murdoch RAF Cosford
6. JT Gary Brailsford RAF Coltishall
7. SAC Ade Rolfe RAF Cosford
8. SAC Roger Honeywood RAF Odiham
9. SAC Daniel Davidson RAF Odiham
10. AC Brigette Morgan RAF Cosford

EPEE
1. Off Cdt Graham Orme BUAS Colerne
2. AC Chris Garton RAF Cosford
3=. Wg Cdr Dave Orme RAF St Athan
3=. Cpl Nige Whittaker RAF Leuchars
5. SAC Ade Rolfe RAF Cosford
6. JT Gary Brailsford RAF Coltishall
7. SAC Rob DesForge RAF Uxbridge
8. SAC R Honeywood RAF Odiham
9. SAC Chris Murdoch RAF Cosford
10. SAC Daniel Davidson RAF Odiham
11. AC Brigette Morgan RAF Cosford
12. SAC Pete Dewey RAF Odiham
13. AC Blair Ralston RAF Cosford
14. AC Rich Egan RAF Cosford

MENS CHAMPION AT ARMS
1. SAC Pete Dewey RAF Odiham (14 points, 1 weapon win, 1 third place)
2. JT Gary Brailsford RAF Coltishall (14 points, 1 weapon win, 2 sixth places)

WOMENS CHAMPION AT ARMS
1. AC Brigette Morgan RAF Cosford

INTER UNIT 3 MAN TEAM EVENT
1. RAF Cosford
2. RAF Odiham

FINAL ANNOUNCEMENTS
OK, this issue has been the hardest to publish yet!! The miracles of modern technology are great … the server at work crashed, taking out the work in progress, then upon trying to recover what little I had on my PC at home I found that it was corrupted .. GRRRRRRR@Computers!!! Couple that with trying to rewrite training courses whilst teaching yourself equipment so you can then teach it … life just doesn’t get any better!!! (Hee Hee … much insane giggling and muttering!)

Once again my sincerest thanks go to all those who sent in articles … the mag wouldn’t be the same without them … and as you can see, I’ll publish ANYTHING!!! When you enter that civvy comp and pass on your results to the Match Sec, send me a copy too, will ya??? Huh? Huh? Will ya??? Please????

To everyone, have a wonderful Christmas and New Year and take joy in the little things. After the terrible events of 11 Sep, I know I see life differently … enjoy yours.