As I recall the selection and training for the team started around March with the tournement being held July'ish. It was always very physical with guys returniong time and time again, though if you did one year you had to skip the next. I think there was 12 or so per team.

The event is now a thing of the past though various lightweight copies are still enacted in the UK though with a less demanding course and lighter guns, some by volunteers in the RN and some by various cadet groups. Its unlikely it will ever happen again in its full blown glory due to cutbacks.

I will always remember it with a great deal of fondness, it was a source of great fun and excitement and not a few squished fingers. The times of gun runs during the tournement used to be signaled around the fleet as they happened. There were also a couple of deaths from the race, usually the flying angel who would cross the chasm first.

Not much musical content I know, but they always marched on the tune Hearts of Oak.

Cheers

Sledge