On Friday, February 10, Rye and District Sea Cadets celebrated the achievements of cadets over the past year. They were pleased to welcome Councillor John Breeds, on behalf of the Rye Town Council and the mayor, to present the awards.
PO (SCC) Phil Whiteman, commanding officer, summed up the evening: “The cadets have shown great commitment to the unit throughout the year, the whole unit’s attendance being significantly higher than in the previous four years. The award for the sea cadet with the highest attendance award was presented to cadet first class Darci Carter with an impressive 81% attendance. The Royal Marines Cadet’s attendance award went to MC Jamie Little with an attendance of 77%. Finally the award for our junior sea cadets went to Able Junior Lorcan Magee for the second year running with an impressive 44%. Considering that the juniors meet only once a week to the two of the seniors, this shows real commitment from our youngest cadets.
“The next category was in recognition of achievement in the area of our specialisations. What makes these even more special is not just the achievement but the commitment shown to achieve the higher levels. Cadets travel to courses across the south of England throughout the year. The seamanship trophy, awarded for excellence in the area of ropework and rigging, went to MC Kyle Hatcher for the achievement in gaining his intermediate award, a level that takes a lot of practice and a two-weekend qualification course.
“Drill and ceremonial awards followed. This year this was an award that was very closely contested with cadets representing the unit at several high level parades throughout the year including the 40th anniversary for the Falklands war parade in Portsmouth, ceremonial parades in the town and, most impressively, the national Trafalgar parade in London. Even after all of these parades being taken into consideration, the final decision came down to how cadets performed at the recent piping competition, Able Cadet Bradley Williams coming out on top with his third place finish.
“The sportsman cup was awarded to Lance Corporal Hayden Cope who participated in several sports and boating competitions throughout the year including the district football and area kayaking competitions.
“The greatest number of boatwork hours award, one that is always very closely matched, as our cadets really do enjoy getting out on the water throughout the year, went to MC Jamie Little who just eked out a lead of a couple of hours over the year to a chasing pack of five cadets separated by just one hour. Cadet first class Lara Botley won the boatwork achievement prize because she managed to go from no qualifications at all to gaining her paddle-sport, discover and rowing-supervised coxswain awards in one year: this was a really impressive effort.
“The last awards were for overall best cadets in the unit. The first award was for the cadet who has shown the best commitment to our corps values of commitment, honesty and integrity, loyalty, respect, courage and self-discipline. This is a new award for this year with the award going to MC Zaick Evans. The most improved cadet for the year was Cadet First Class Theo Burton because he had taken great steps to improve himself.
“The best cadet awards went to Able Junior Lorcan Magee and the Royal Marines Cadet MC Jamie Little. Little had pushed to improve himself and is now rapidly working his way towards being ready to sit the advancement board to be made a lance corporal over the next few months.
“Awarding the next prize is always the most difficult for us as a command team as, given the chance, I would award it to all of our cadets as I think they are all fantastic, but there always needs to be a winner and this year the Lt Cdr John Whiteman trophy for the best cadet of the year goes to Cadet First Class Lara Botley who has really shone throughout the year, pushing herself and showing all of the other cadets what they can achieve if they put the effort in, encouraging others to follow her lead to push on so as not to fall behind. Lara is an outstanding cadet who is going to go on and have a fantastically successful sea cadet career.
“The final award of the evening was awarded to the best division in the unit, an award that takes into account both individual and collective achievement as a group. This year the award goes to our Royal Marines cadet division and was collected by MC Evelyn Doherty.
“2022 was a really successful year for TS Rye, the unit being awarded a pennant for overall achievement. This is the second level of unit recognition, and with the way that our cadets are pushing each other I am convinced it will not be long before they are rewarded with the much sought-after highest achievement of a burgee for the top percentage of sea cadet units in the country.”
Image Credits: Kt bruce .