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Reminiscences -Daniel Benest

I remember the trips to the U.K. with the C.C.F. These were before the days of the fast-ferry service, when the traditional ferry took a good nine hours journey, travelling whatever the weather and state of the sea, however turbulent!
 
A particularly good year for me was the trip to shoot at Bisley in July 1990, with a strong team led by master John Le Breton. I was a member of the Cadet Pair with David Le Quesne, and was coached by my Uncle for the competition. The weather that year was atrocious, with rain, wind and storm; the area around the targets was buffeted by what seemed a mini-typhoon, leading to many wide shots. I scored 65 out of 70, which is not in itself a good score, but under those conditions turned out to be the 7th highest score in Ashburton that day. Not bad, when you consider that 67 schools were taking part, with several thousand shooting!
 
The following year I did not quite match the previous year’s performance, but made a good showing; on this and the previous record, I was chosen on the day after Ashburton for the team which won the School National.
 
There were some comic moments on these trips. On returning from another trip to England, which may have been just a field trip away, I remember a boy from the year above being hand-cuffed to a rail for safety; he had been celebrating with rather too much drink. Who supplied the hand-cuffs, I have no idea.
 
Shooting at Victoria College sometimes lacked supervision. I remember in 1990, a group of us staged a mock attack on the signals hut, firing blanks from a Colt 45. A master caught us in the act, and took us and the offending firearms to the armoury, where the head of C.C.F. saw us; he commented on the effectiveness of the Colt, and proceeding to demonstrate it by firing in the confined space, close to the other master’s ear. The resulting noise led to the master losing about 60 percent of his hearing, at least for a while.
 
Other memories - I also remember being taught French by Dixie Landick in my first year at College. I remember being told that he had met and danced with my Grandmother on occasions at the Pavilion before the war.
 

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