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How did you spend your Easter Saturday? Enjoying a good meal, some nice drink, perhaps an early Easter egg or two whilst watching some football?

Lucky for some! We spent Easter Saturday dragging a not-exactly-light Gun Carriage from Chichester down to West Wittering. A distance of 9-10 miles or so!

The reason for this slightly mad venture is simple - sponsorship. The cadets and officers were all sponsored by relatives, friends and colleagues, and the money that Sturdy raises for the Ship's funds will go to maintaining the minibus, buying new equipment, new musical instruments, that sort of thing.

We have to admit, it was a thoroughly good day. Despite the constant threat of rain throughout the day (and it did indeed catch up with us for most of the afternoon, thankfully the deluge was light), the cadets and officers enjoyed the trip. No injuries and we arrived at our destination precisely on time (unlike last year, where we arrived two hours late, oh dear!).

Photos from this year's Gun Run Challenge will appear on this website in the coming few weeks, and you can read the Blog entry here.

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Never afraid to try something new, and always willing to experiment with the latest new thing in the Internet world, Sturdy have created what we think is a first in the NTC - a Blog site.

"What on earth is a Blog?" I hear some of you say.

It's a bit of an ugly word isn't it? Doesn't exactly roll smoothly off the tongue. But, if you're one of the many people in the world who aren't that comfortable with the ways of the Internet, a Blog may just be the simple way you've been looking for, of getting your point across quickly and easily.

Just a quick background, whilst the Sturdy Forum is a very useful tool for communicating to cadets, officers and the general public, it is a rather complicated and long-winded way in putting ideas and comments across.

Hopefully, the Blog is different. Whilst in essence it is an online diary, somewhere for thoughts and ideas to be expressed in a more informal manner, hopefully the key is easy communication. It's easy for the author (or team of authors) to contribute to the Blog, and it's easy for anyone reading to leave comments, ideas or questions.

We'll leave the Blog to explain for itself, so have a look here.

The Activity Calendar for 2006 is already taking shape, and it looks as if the coming twelve months will be packed full of activities for all. You can download the calendar direct from our Download Center, or if you register in our forum we have the online calendar there which is updated as the schedule changes, so you can keep track of what's coming up in the next few weeks and months.

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We recently had our biannual National Inspection. As most people know, the Inspection is a very important occasion, as we are judged on all aspects of how the officers and instructors run the Ship.

Whilst the official results have yet to be published, the officers did feel as though it went exceedingly well, and far beyond our expectations considering the rapid growth of the ship over the past few months. The officers as a whole would like to thank the Committee for all their hard work, and in particular would like to thank the cadets, who all behaved and acted impeccably throughout the entire evening.

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TS Sturdy recently took part in the NTC 2005 National Band, Colour and Fanfare Competition. After much change in the personnel of the band over the previous 12 months it was decided to enter the novice competition, where we came up against the two other bands in our region, Intrepid and Implacable.

After weeks and months of training and practice, the big day dawned.... the routine went relatively flawlessly, and we were awarded second place in our class! With Implacable winning and Intrepid coming in close behind us in third spot, it was a clean sweep for the West Sussex South Region. Congratulations to all the personnel involved in all the bands, and to everyone who helped make it a day to remember.