Despite this, a lot of work was put in and the standard of the performance improved greatly during the hour on the Monday night, and improved further still before we left. The venue for the competition was the hall of Lancaster Road URC, home of the 1st Enfield, and the competition would be taking place on the same night as the Battalion Small Squad and Colours competitions.
Through some good old 3rd Enfield persuasion, the running order was arranged so that the Two Smart Recruits would be the first of the three competitions to take place, and through some other decision process, it was decided that we would be the first Company to perform, and it was I that was “nominated” to give the commands. The judge for the night was Martin Bowering, of the 1st Warley Company and CO of the London Massed Bugle Band. After marching on the first thing to do was the inspection, and we were afterwards informed by the judge that the only pair of non-black socks that he found were on a certain one of our boys!
Despite that minor mishap, it was time for the main routine to take place, which went very well even if there were one or two small mistakes, but the performance was extremely good considering the fact that the two boys had only done the paper for the first time little over 24 hours previously. There were four other teams in the competition, two of which were from the 1st Enfield and two from the 2nd Enfield, although one of the teams from the 2nd would be ineligible from the final results.
As our work for the night was done quite quickly and the boys didn’t need to stay for the rest of the competitions, the results for the Two Smart Recruits were given out before the other competitions. Although our team was placed fourth, 82 marks out of 100 was a very respectable score given the amount of time we had to practice, and it left us wondering what could have been achieved had we been given more time! Nevertheless, very well done to both Christian and Owen for their performance!
The results for the Two Smart Recruits were:
1st: 1st Enfield ‘B’ (98 points)
=2nd: 1st Enfield ‘A’ (96 points)
=2nd: 2nd Enfield ‘A’ (96 points)
4th: 3rd Enfield (82 points)
(2nd Enfield ‘B’ – not eligible (92 points))
After that was the Small Squad Drill competition, of which the 3rd Enfield were the reigning champions although unable to enter this year. Both teams did well and the results were:
1st: 1st Enfield (96 points)
2nd: 1st Hoddesdon (94 points)
Finally was the Battalion Colours competition, in which there were four teams. The results for this were as follows:
1st: 1st Enfield ‘A’ (100 points)
2nd: 1st Enfield ‘B’ (98 points)
3rd: 1st Hoddesdon (90 points)
4th: 2nd Enfield (77 points)
A very high standard of drill was shown in all of the competition, well done to the winners and all other teams involved, and especially to our boys and here’s hoping we get more time to prepare next year! Written by Tom Boorman