Physical Training staff bring Santa to the It’s a Knockout competition.
By Kim Hardie
Military and civilian staff from HMNB Clyde took part this week in the annual HMS Neptune Christmas It’s a Knockout competition.
It is a highly competitive event with around 15 Christmas themed activities for the contestants to complete, including: ‘Broken Ice’, where teams had to complete a series of obstacles without touching the ground; ‘Chimney Climb’, where the challenge was to scale the climbing wall while being pelted with snowballs; an inflatable assault course named ‘The Gauntlet’ and many more.
Many of the teams entered into the Christmas spirit, wearing fancy dress and making up festive team names – there were the ‘Well Fairies’ from Royal Navy and Royal Marines Welfare and ‘Naughty and Nice’ from the Medical Centre.
Around 15 teams from all over the Base entered and all of them were keen to come out on top. However, there could only be one winner and at the end of the contest the scores were totted up and Northern Diving Group picked up the prize for the second year running. They were closely followed by ‘SMQ North Pole’ in second place and third place went to ‘The Old Men’ from 43 Commando.
Leading Physical Trainer Martin Potter who organised the event said: “On behalf of the Physical Training department I would like to say a huge thank you to all the teams who turned out for this year’s Christmas It’s a Knockout. I am sure that everyone will agree that it was an outstanding event and your attendance contributed to this. I’d also like to congratulate Northern Diving Group who were our overall winners.”
Later in the day, members and staff from the Helensburgh branch of Enable Scotland were invited along to the Base to take part. Santa made an appearance to welcome them to the event and they all had a fantastic afternoon joining in the activities with the Sportsdrome Staff and volunteers.
Fit for Christmas are left to right – Cpt Craig Mearns, CPO Murray Anderson, PO Kate Edwards, Kelsey Knox and Stephanie Killen.