North Yorkshire Rotary Club’s Technology Tournament

Scribe: WO1 (ASM) Chris Waddington

For more than 15 years, North Yorkshire Rotary Clubs of Richmond, Northallerton, Mowbray, Thirsk and Wensleydale have organised an annual technology tournament for young Engineers from schools within the region. The event returned to 1 (Close Support) Battalion REME for the seventh consecutive year with Northallerton’s Rotary Club turn to lead the way for the 2023 event.

The tournament involved planning, manufacturing, and delivering a challenging technical project, utilising the minimal resources provided. This year’s challenge saw teams building a small, electric motor-powered vehicle, able to traverse a single rope bridge. An additional requirement of fabricating a load-carrying device was also set for students from the older age groups. The board of judges then marked the vehicle against a series of exacting criteria. The teams also had to produce a journal of their plans and work for the day. This also contributed to the overall scoring.

This year the tournament attracted entrants from ten schools – Barnard Castle, Cundall Manor, Bedale High, Hurworth, Richmond, Northallerton, Risedale, St Francis Xavier, Thirsk, and Wensleydale, with the teams of four ageing from 12 to 18 years old. In addition, one REME team participated as a guest entrant.

Throughout the event it was great to see the students getting stuck into the challenge. Their energy, commitment and technical skills were tremendous, and consistent ingenuity led to some rather novel solutions to the problem. During the lunch break, the competitors and Rotary Club members had an opportunity to look around REME equipment within the Battalion. Unsurprisingly this was very well received by young and old alike.

On completion of the event and following the scoring from the panel of Judges, the prizes were presented by Mr Richard Greenwood, the District Governor of the Rotary Club and Mrs Susan Rogers. There were three levels of prizes according to age and the winners in each level received a trophy shield along with a book token. The prize winners were as follows:

Foundation Winners - Hurworth School

Intermediate Winners - Wensleydale School

Advanced Winners - Barnard Castle School

Team 1

The event once again cemented the Battalion’s status as the centre of excellence within the Garrison for Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) outreach. The event would not have been a success if it was not for the contribution of members from all the Rotary Clubs in the area, with Mr Allen Percy co-ordinating the event alongside members of 1 (CS) Bn REME.