LATEST NEWS
SARDA NATIONAL TRAINING WEEKEND - 2/3 AUG 2008
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This weekend has seen our SARDA Handlers along with some team members attending a national training weekend based on Dartmoor. With Handlers from all over England attending, the chance to work with colleagues from further a field was looked forward to. Over the 3 days various training locations were used and the weather did not look favourably on any one of them!!!
The annual August course is normally sunshine and heatstroke but this year heavy rain and hypothermia were more par for the course. Even with the inclement conditions a good time was had by all and the opportunity to have a chat over a beer in the evenings was much enjoyed. It was an especially taxing weekend for two of our handlers, Matt and Jamie who are preparing for assessment in October. We wish them all the best.
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TRAINEES NIGHT EXERCISE - 25/26 JULY 2008
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On completion of the Paramo photoshoot not all our team members headed home. A night exercise aimed at helping our current trainees progress had been planned to run until early Saturday morning.
Following a briefing from the training officer each trainee under the watchful eye of a callout member was then sent off into the night to navigate to set checkpoints. At various stages around the moor they would come across a particular scenario that they would have to deal with. These checkpoints included tasks such as CPR, Oxygen and Entonox therapy, flares and micro navigation.
All the trainees then came together at about 0300hrs and were issued with a scenario for a missing person. They were given tasks that they would be expected to perform on a live incident and quickly located the casualty and dealt with him. The exercise was rounded off by returning to our rescue centre for de brief and a good old fashioned fry up.
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PARAMO PHOTOSHOOT - 25 JULY 2008
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Following the purchase earlier this year of Paramo Aspira smocks and Fuera windproofs for every team member, we were tonight joined by Rob Cook and Matt Semark from Paramo who had offered to do a professional photoshoot for the team.
It was almost guaranteed that on a shoot involving top of the range mountaineering jackets we would be blessed with sunshine!! For nearly 2 hours the team had both group and staged photos taken that will be added to the team archive. We are grateful to both Rob and Matt for giving up their Friday night to assist us with these photos. Keep watching our gallery page for a chance to see the photos taken on the night.
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TAVISTOCK CARNIVAL - 19 JULY 2008
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| The Team once again entered the annual Tavistock Town carnival which had the theme of “Hollywood to Bollywood” this year. Team members swapped Paramo and boots for various disguises and dressed as Hollywood film stars for the evening. Although this year we didn’t win any prizes a fantastic night was had by all. Our “Stars” included, Lara Croft, Tom Cruise (Top Gun), Keria Knightly (Pirates of the Caribbean), Liza Minelli, Indiana Jones, Rocky and Harry Potter.
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CONGRATULATIONS TO NICKI LYONS MBE- 16 JUNE 2008
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Our Congratulations go to team
chairman Nicki Lyons for her MBE, for voluntary services to the Search & Rescue Dog Association - England
and Mountain Rescue England.
Nicki has been a call out member of Dartmoor Search and Rescue Team Tavistock, since May 1982.
She has also served in various rolls on the team committee and
is the current sitting chairman. We consider ourselves extremely
fortunate to have Nicki onboard as she works tirelessly for the
team.
She graded her first dog Dart in February 1988 and was one of the forty-five handlers who attended the Lockerbie Air Disaster in December that
same year.
Nicki has responded to over 600 incidents to date, and with her dogs have so far been responsible for locating over
29 people alive and 6 deceased including 2 murder victims.
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Nicky Lyons and Cavos
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She has served on the as SARDA committee for over ten years as members rep, training officer, secretary and latterly Chairman, standing down in 2005 to concentrate on training her third dog Cavos who qualified in October 2006.
WMN
Coverage
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| DOG DAY - 7 JUNE 2008
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| Matt Robertson with Scoot and Jamie Reading with Indie have just successfully passed their
pre-assessment with SARDA England. It was held over two days in the Brecon Beacon's. We wish them well with their forthcoming assessment |
GUARD OF HONOUR - 31 MAY 2008
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The Bride and Groom with the guard of honour.
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Members of Tavistock Section
formed a Guard of Honour for fellow team member Catherine Clarke
and new husband Chris Jones as they left Whitchurch church after
their wedding ceremony on Saturday.
We would all like to wish them all the very best for their
future together.
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40th BIRTHDAY CELEBRATIONS - 24 MAY 2008
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On the evening of Saturday 24th May the Team attended a formal function at the Holiday Inn, Plymouth to celebrate the 40th Birthday of the Dartmoor Rescue Group. Honoured Guests and speakers included Peter Bell, the President of Mountain Rescue England and Wales, Lt Col. Anthony Clark, Commandant Dartmoor Training Area, Sgt Mike Rose, Devon and Cornwall Constabulary Force POLSA, Justin Leigh from BBC Spotlight and Flt Lt Mark Fisk from A Flt 22 SQN RAF Chivenor.
The evening began with a sit down meal followed by speeches from the Chairman of Dartmoor Rescue Group Henry Guly, Lt. Col. Anthony Clark and Peter Bell. The evening was compared by Justin Leigh.
Following the speeches a raffle was held, which raised over £500 for the Group. They were many prizes won including a Rab Vapour Rise jacket, Nightsearcher torches, a Lowe Alpine rucksack, a voucher for dinner for to at The Two Bridges Hotel, plus many many more. We would like to thank all the individuals and companies that donated prizes for the evening’s raffle. The evening finished with dancing to the band Three Bags full.
All four sections attended the event which was organised by Alex Lyons, Jamie Reading, Alec Collyer, Richard Thorne and Phil Hayter and our thanks go out to them for organising a brilliant evening.
During the evening certificates were presented to the following members of the Rescue Group for 25 years Long Service: Neil Handley (Plymouth), George Boymer (Plymouth), Alex Lyons (Tavistock), Terry Bumford (Tavistock), Les Agar (Okehampton), Alec Collyer (Ashburton), Rob Illman (Ashburton) and Rob Dixon (Ashburton).
A good evening was had by all and to top the evening off in true style we were called out to search for a missing person only hours after the event had finished!!!!!!
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Alex Lyons Receives 25 Year Long Service
Award from Mountain Rescue England and Wales President Peter
Bell.
Training Officer Jamie (Paramo) Reading and Alex Lyons
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TEN TORS 2008- 10/11 May 2008
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DSRT Tavistock on Amicombe Hill
DSRT Members Escorting Exhausted Ten Tors Casualties off the
Moor
Team Member On Look Out.
Army Helicopter Climbing out of Tavy Cleave.
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Once again the Team provided its annual rescue cover for the Ten Tors challenge held on Dartmoor this weekend. Alongside our 3 sister teams and other military resources we provided a search and rescue asset for the event.
The weather was warm and clear but with 2400 youngsters taking part in routes of 35, 45 or 55miles we were still due for a busy weekend.
With search teams manning various locations around the moor we dealt with a wide variety of injuries varying from sunburn, blisters and old fashioned fatigue. DSRT (TAVISTOCK) deployed its members to Amicombe
Hill where we manned an assistance point. Following a quiet Saturday (incident
no17) we had a lot more to contend with on Sunday (incident no
18). (Callouts)
The huge amounts of resources that go into the smooth running of this annual challenge are immense and involve the Army, Navy, Royal Air Force, Territorial Army, 7 Regiment Army Air Corps and 848 Naval Air Squadron along with all 4 Dartmoor Search and Rescue Teams.
The first Ten Tors challenge was run in 1960 and the team has continued to support this event since its conception in 1968. Interestingly this was also the first year that the start of the challenge was moved from Denbury camp to Okehampton Battle camp.
Throughout the weekend the team is on standby for redeployment by helicopter to any other part of the moor where we maybe needed to assist other DSRT’s whilst our controller is based in the control room at Okehampton camp liaising with the military and other organisations that are involved.
This year alone the team was personally responsible for evacuating 24 participants off the moor and treating approx 40 others before they continued on their route. The Team is proud of its long running association with the Ten Tors challenge and we wish to congratulate all that took part.
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AND MORE GOOD NEWS
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| There was a pleasant surprise for one of our training members over the weekend when he was awarded full callout membership. With everything else going on he wasn’t expecting it and by being awarded this status on Ten Tors we hope that it has made it all the more memorable for him. Well done Ian.
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TAVISTOCK STREET COLLECTION
- 3 MAY 2008
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This weekend saw the Team collecting in Tavistock Town centre. This gave members of the local community chance to talk to Team members and find out more about the work that we do.
We met lots of people that are interested in joining us and told them more about the wide and varied role that we carry out. We are extremely grateful to everybody that came and said hello and donated to our cause. We managed to raise a staggering £710 towards our running costs.
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COMMUNITY AWARENESS PRESENTATION- 28 April 2008
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Pupils Stretcher Handling
DSRT Members with Mount House Pupils
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As part of our ongoing commitment to educating the local community about mountain safety the Team spent Monday afternoon with pupils from Mount House school in Tavistock.
We took a group of 12 children with 2 teachers up to Cox Tor and showed them some of our abilities.
They watched a demonstration by Search Dog Cavos and were taught about how search dogs work. We then did a short SAREX which involved a stretcher carry and showed them around both of our vehicles and what equipment they carry.
This event was a great success and will be done again in the near future for 2 further groups from the school.
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CALLINGTON NEW OUTLOOK TALK - 29 April 2008
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Team members today gave a talk to Callington new outlook club. The talk, which included a power point presentation, was well received by all that attended. Our members were asked lots of questions and the audience were quite surprised to discover how wide and varied our role in the community is. They were all especially impressed by Search Dog Cavos who slept through most of the event!! We would like to thank the group for their fantastic donation towards our running costs.
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DARTMOOR GOES TO THE DOGS! - 26 April 2008
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Our Search dog Handlers have spent a busy weekend attending a national SARDA training course which was held on our doorstep. Each month a course is held around the country and this course, which ran from Sat to Mon was based at Okehampton YHA and proved to be a busy weekend for them all. They even managed to fit in a callout on Sat night! We are especially pleased for one of our handlers, Matt Robertson who passed his stage 2 test with trainee search dog scooter. Well done Matt and Scoot.
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SHELTERBOX CHALLENGE - 26/27 April 2008
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Participants in the challange
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This weekend saw the 3rd annual Shelterbox challenge held on Dartmoor. This event which is run by
Endurance
Life challenges teams of 4 to carry a Shelterbox 30miles around the moor over 2 days.
The teams have to go through many checkpoints and complete various tasks along the route. As we have done in previous years we supplied a search control facility along with our team land rover being at various checkpoints.
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| For the first time we also deployed a sweep team along the route. We are pleased to report that their were very little incidents to deal with and everybody safely completed the course. We also had the added benefit of 3 team members taking part who kept us updated as they went round. Congratulations to them for a very respectable finishing place. All funds raised from the weekend will be spent on supplying
Shelterboxs to countries where they are needed.
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FROM HILLS TO CLOUDS! - 9 April 2008
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The team received the good news last week that Team member Dave Johnson had successfully passed out from his basic training at RAF Halton.
Dave, who is training to be a survival equipment fitter with the Royal Air Force, will now move to RAF Cosford to carry out his trade training. We were unexpectedly surprised that Dave managed to get home for some leave recently and promptly turned out to assist on a callout. We wish Dave all the best with his trade training.
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Dave Johnson Passing Out Parade
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NEW MEMBERS - 9 April 2008
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Following successful completion of their final assessment over the weekend 2 more of our trainees were awarded full callout status at our weekly training exercise last night. They both performed very well during the overnight exercise where they were tasked to navigate around set checkpoints on Dartmoor in changing terrain and weather conditions. Congratulations to
them both.
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CELEBRATING 40 YEARS OF MOUNTAIN
RESCUE IN TAVISTOCK
26 MARCH 2008 |
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Some of the founding members
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This weekend saw the start of our 40th Birthday celebrations.
Over the summer a display of the Teams history will be on show at Tavistock museum.
The display which includes paper cuttings from the very first callout of the Team and equipment from the last 40 years was officially opened by the Tavistock mayor, Anne Johnson on Saturday.
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| We also managed to track down some of the founding members of the team who turned up to mark the occasion, also in attendance was our Team patron Lord Burnett of
Whitchuch.
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| We were extremely fortunate to be able to locate some of the original team clothing from 1968 and this is on show next to a mannequin of our current team uniform. We are very grateful to Jennie Hale, one of our team members who took on organising the display and bringing all the history together. We are also grateful to Cotswold outdoors of Exeter for coming to our aid and supplying two mannequins and various other items that have assisted us with our display. The display will be on show until August 08.
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Part of the display
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TEAM AGM - 26 MARCH 2008
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Last night saw the Teams Annual general meeting which was followed by the 6 monthly management meeting. Whilst most of the management committee have accepted to carry on their posts for another 12 months we welcomed 2 new members on to it. Alan Packwood took over as secretary and Cyril Stringer has become the new fundraising officer. We welcome them both onboard. Reports were presented by each of the trustees detailing the events of the last 12 months. We were also honoured to have in attendance Devon and Cornwall constabularies Sgt Mike Rose. Sgt Rose is the force POLSA for our area of operations and we are pleased that he could join us for the evening. The Roy Harris memorial trophy for outstanding service to the team went to Eddie Southgate for all his hard work in maintaining our rescue centre and helping to keep all our equipment at operational readiness. Long service certificates were also presented to Chris Dixon for 20 years service and to Matt Robertson, Adrian Arnold, Mark Mitchell, James Grant and Kevin Brown for 10 years service. Congratulations to them all.
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HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO CORNWALL SRT - 20 MARCH 2008 |
March will see the 5th birthday of our neighbours and very close friends Cornwall Search and Rescue Team. They have come along way in their first 5 years and we now regularly work with them on joint callouts. They have also assisted us in the past by providing navigators for our search dog teams, during Ten Tors and inviting us to their training days.
They have been instrumental in moving forward with the joint co operation and training policy that now exists between us. All of us at DSRT (TAVISTOCK) would like to wish them a very happy birthday and we look forward to another 5 years of working with you. To visit their website click on our
links page.
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| A MODEL IN OUR MIDST - 20 FEB 2008 |
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The current Tavistock Training Officer and life long Paramo advocate Jamie Reading has been featured along with his trainee search dog Indie in a nationwide campaign by the outdoor clothing manufacture
Paramo, under the tag line ‘a man’s best friend’. A picture of Jamie and Indie is being published by Paramo in a variety of outdoor magazines this March. This is not the first time Jamie and Indie have been put in the spotlight, they were also featured in this years Nikwax calendar. We can only assume that it’s Indies good looks that are catching the camera’s eye and not Jamie’s!!
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This is the second time in recent months that one of our team members has featured in a Paramo advertising campaign. Towards the end of last year one of our Search Dog Handlers, Nicki Lyons and search dog Cavos
(Indie’s brother!) were used for an article in the Paramo’s High mountain catalogue. A write up of Nicki’s experiences with Paramo clothing following a particular foul weather callout and a picture of them were featured.
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| 75th ANNIVERSARY OF MOUNTAIN
RESCUE - 20 FEB 2008 |
This year the Dartmoor Rescue group will be celebrating its 40th Anniversary. The group was founded in 1968 in Tavistock by members of the public to aid the Police with search work on the moor.
The Team has grown over the years from the first founding members to four sections with a total of over 160 volunteers, three buildings and eight vehicles.
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2008 also sees the 75th anniversary of Mountain Rescue in England and Wales. Throughout the year the group has many events planned to celebrate our joint birthdays. These include a dinner dance, group photo and meet the team days for the public as well as other celebratory events. For more information on these keep an eye on the website for details.
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| DSRT ASSISTS SWAST - 18 FEB 2008 |
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As part of the Teams ongoing commitment to inter agency cooperation we came to the aid of South Western Ambulance Service Trust over the weekend by providing the use of our Rescue Centre.
The venue was needed as a location to provide community responder training for new responders. The first responders, who are all unpaid volunteers, are normally based in locations around Devon and Cornwall providing a response service to the public until a SWAST crew is in attendance.
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They are equipped with Defibrillators and other medical equipment to provide life support until further help arrives. We were pleased to be able to assist our colleagues from SWAST in their request for a training venue.
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| DSRT (ASHBURTON) TRAINING WEEKEND
- 18 FEB 2008 |
The Team Training Officer spent the weekend at one of our sister teams annual training weekend recently. The object of this was to look at how other teams in our area work and to swap some training ideas and tips.
The weekend was packed with a wide variety of scenarios and workshops including practical and theoretical sessions on search techniques, casualty handling skills, application of hasty search’s, incident site management and a very informative lecture on Lymes disease.
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| All the new skills and knowledge were put to use on a small SAREX on the Saturday evening followed by a large scale SAREX on the Sunday. It is hoped to establish more of this type of cross training between Ashburton and Tavistock in order to look at working practices that the Teams use and see what we can learn from each other.
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DSRT TAVISTOCK RECEIVES NEW KIT
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DSRT Tavistock in New Paramo Jackets
The Team today took delivery of our new waterproof jackets. The Aspira smocks made by Paramo directional clothing are designed to cope with the extreme weather conditions that we normally have to deal with on callouts. They are badged with the Mountain Rescue logo and “DSRT TAVISTOCK” and make us readily identifiable on large scale incidents that involve multiple agencies. We would especially like to thank Rob and Alex from Paramo directional clothing systems who have been of great assistance in supplying these jackets and provided a first class service from beginning to end. We are now seeking corporate sponsorship to provide team members with waterproof trousers. If you or your company can help then please drop us a line. If you would like to view or purchase Paramo products please click on the link below.
Paramo
Directional Clothing
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