A team of nine Royal Marine Cadets from Winchester overcame a weekend of gruelling challenges to take second place overall in this year's Pringle Trophy competition. A total of 18 school CCF teams from across the country took part in the two-day event at the Commando Training Centre near Lympstone, Devon.
The competition, known to be one of the most physically and mentally challenging events for young people, is named after Lieutenant General Sir Steuart Pringle KCB, a former Commandant General of the Royal Marines. Over the course of a weekend cadets are put through their paces across 12 disciplines, culminating in a drill competition and the aptly-named endurance course.
There was plenty of determination and cheerfulness on display from the Winchester team, backed up by impressive skills and drills. There were strong performances from Will Simmons and Sebastian Hamsher, who won the medical drills stand, James Bate and Nader Moghadam in the section attack, Salar Moghadam in the stalk, Frankie Shropshire in the drill, Hugo Barnes in the stretcher race, and Nikita Mazotov on the Personal Leadership Task.
The competition has not run for the past two years due to the pandemic so it was good to make such a strong return; testament to the pupils' hard work, and high quality training and support from the staff team, including Mr Joe Driscoll and Mr James Smith, and pupil Marcus Cloke-Browne acting as Section Commander.