Just in case you haven’t heard the great news, Freemans Reach RFB were the outright winners of the 25th Annual Hawkesbury RFS Championships yesterday which were held at Macquarie Park, Windsor.
We received 3rd placings in the Tanker Inspection, Station Inspection and Hydrant & Hose events. All fantastic results in themselves. But after watching a dominant Tennyson Brigade feature high in all the placings, we were completely shocked when our name was announced as the 2012 winner.
Our wonderful crew absolutely blitzed the Water Relay event with a seamless suction and 65mm hose lay to have a water supply in ample time for the remaining tankers in the event. Add to this a very sound effort in the Aircraft Incident, the Reach crew were as solid as a rock all day and it was ultimately their consistency to detail and excellent work practices that paid off in the end.
This year’s crew, who were coincidentally the same five as our previous 2010 victorious team, were Peter Hession (CL), Harvey Rawlings, Sharon Steel, Andrew Williams and Andrew Griffith (driver). With Harvey pretty keen to get his hands dirty this year, it was an opportunity to give one of our members the chance to gain some crew-leading skills under Harvey’s mentorship and Peter was more than willing to have a go. Despite a few early morning nerves, Peter did a great job on his first time as a crew leader. In fact, the entire crew worked brilliantly together with teamwork being the central focus. A word from ‘the fly on the wall’ was that there were plenty of laughs within the cab whilst in between events, spirits were obviously high amongst the crew.
It’s also a pat on the back for all of our members who put time into the brigade with other notable thanks to Brett, Pat, Carol and Anthony who contributed directly to the field day preparations.
I’m one pretty proud Captain today and it’s all as a result of the efforts of our dedicated members that we are the 2012 district champions.
Regards,
Bruce Earle (Captain)
