Newton Stewart Army Cadet to hone his marksmanship in Canada

Sixteen-year-old Cadet Sergeant Karl Matley has an allocated place on an exchange visit with the Royal Canadian Army Cadets. He heads to Connaught near Ottawa in Canada for six-week target shooting & coaching course.

For any army cadet that shows promise in the Olympic sport of target shooting, this is the course to get on. Unfortunately, only twelve army cadets from the United Kingdom get this opportunity annually. This year Karl is the only Scot on the exchange. Last year Dumfries & Galloway scooped the only Scottish place with a female cadet, Jamie-Lee Simons from Annan.

Karl is an active member of the West Lowland Battalion Army Cadet Force Shooting Team that has no fewer than five of the seven regular members from Dumfries & Galloway. This year our battalion hope to have six of the team, within the Cadet 100, a competition designed for grading the standard of target shooters in the cadet forces. This is a great achievement as there are 61 similar battalions in the United Kingdom.

The team takes part in the District Target Shooting Competition for all the cadets in Scotland. This competition was held in May at Barry Buddon Ranges near Dundee that have been selected as the target ranges for the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow during 2014.

Our Shooting Team has traditionally done very well, normally having to hire additional transport to take the silverware home. The two top Scottish teams of four, and at times in the past, both have been from our area, are selected to take part in the Commonwealth Cadet Force target shoot at Bisley in Surrey, the national home of target shooting. With Karl's excellent record at Bisley, he is a natural choice for the shooting course in Canada.

Cadet Sergeant Matley was at headquarters in Ayr last weekend to collect his dress uniform. It has been difficult to come by, as even regular soldier are having difficultly getting theirs. It is a brand new experience for Lowland Scots soldiers, as the kilt is now the dress, rather than trews of our foregone lowland regiments.

Karl flew down to compete at the Commonwealth Shooting Competition at Bisley at the weekend and heads to Canada next week for his six week course. To keep him busy in the meantime, the Commandant promoted him to Cadet Colour Sergeant, so he was busy sewing on his new badges of rank.

Major Andrew Hay

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