links

Lost in the Woods 5 Day Course (click here):-

5th - 9th April
6th - 10th Sept

Lost in the Woods (2 day course)

8th - 9th March
5th - 6th July

5 Day Mini SAS Selection Course

19th - 23rd April
8th - 12th August

Combat Mission/Hostage Rescue Course

23rd & 24th Feb
24th - 25th May

(Details of all our Recreational Courses courses can be found here)

We are currently working with a live firing site in the Czech Republic. If you want the opportunity to shoot everything from pistols to Assault rifles in a secure environment with ex-SAS operatives keep your eyes on the site for developments in 2008.

We now have a group on www.facebook.com why not join and support us...

March 2008

Is this 'Bigfoot'?

One of our eagle eyed photographers, Miles Bennett - who is also one of our former stags - recently snapped what could be a rare sighting of ‘Bigfoot’.

‘Bigfoot’ or Gigantopithecus Ardus Geordie Bastardicus - also known as the 'Abominable Geordie' - is a hairy bipedal hominoid with large dark eyes, covered in dark brown or dark reddish hair, except on his head which witnesses have described as having a pronounced brow ridge, a large, low-set forehead; the top of the head has been described as rounded, similar to the sagittal crest of the male gorilla – (basically he looks like a balding chimp!).

Onlookers said the creature scowled at them uttering a strange sound ‘Away and sh*te ya soft southern b*****ds, If ye danna f**k off ahll knock ya all oot!’. He then threw a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale at them before staggering off into the undergrowth. If you encounter this creature don’t stare at his bird, spill his pint, or suggest he is from Sunderland. He can be placated by waving an Alan Shearer football shirt at him.

More cynical observers think the sighting was nothing more than that of a ‘Homo Erectus’ as it was the middle of winter and he wasn’t wearing a T-shirt. This view was supported by Mr. Bennett, who was himself butt-naked at the time – and he is only from Middlesborough!

Bob Spour continues to visit Monkeyworld in Dorset and is an avid fan of the T.V. series. (Mr. Spour would also like to point out that he is the boss of SAS Survival and heads may roll for this!)

The stork visits SAS Survival instructors!

Recent participants on our courses, particularly our survival courses have been keen to find out the progress of Em’s pregnancy.

Well we are pleased to say that Andy and Em have been visited by the stork and have been blessed by a baby boy called Finn. Bob was the first off the mark by commenting that the newborn had more hair than his dad. This, we feel is a cheap shot, and while being technically true – we have seen more hair on a grape than on Andy’s head – it is worth noting that young Finn also has more hair than Bob.

The latest news is that the little guy has spent the last week or so clutching a bottle, rolling around, being sick, not being able to control his bodily functions and making strange gurgling noises – and as for Finn, he is doing fine – Boom! Boom!

We would like to wish Andy, Em and Finn all the best and hope to see him instructing on our courses one day.

Lost in the Woods Course with Andy and Em 8th -9th March 2008

Andy and Em, with the assistance of Oliver Cox held a two day bushcraft course this month covering the basics of survival. Here are a few photos of the group building 'A' - frame shelters - their homes for the weekend!


The campsite before	The 'skeleton' of the A-Frame	Starting to take shape

Adding the leaf cover	The shelters get the thumbs up	The group

Checking out Dartmoor for Channel 5 series

Bob, Dave, and Andy had a splendid day out on beautiful Dartmoor this week recce-ing a site for a forthcoming project for Mentorn Films. Bob will be filmed teaching map reading and navigation and will be appearing in one of a series of programmes to be shown on Channel 5. To join us we had the assistant producer George Hughes, and farmer John Cooper. Along with them was local ranger Ian Brooker, whose knowledge of the area made him worth his weight in gold. We will be releasing more details about this project when it is due to be broadcast, so watch which space!

Ian, John, George, Bob and Andy

'You can see our house from here!'

One of the many beautiful views on Dartmoor

The Return of Bill, and Chris - 'Son of Bill'

Those of you who have been following various articles on this Newsletter may be concerned as to the whereabouts of the legendary Bill deTorre. On the night of 3^rd June (see Paul Jewison’s Stag Do) he disappeared into the darkness clutching a toilet roll and complaining he had got the galloping ‘Tom Tits’. All he left was a hastily scribbled note which has been laminated for posterity and is kept in the SAS Survival ’interest room’.

Well, Bill fans, you will be glad to know that he turned up shortly afterwards (mysteriously clutching a bag of radishes) and has been helping out on our courses since. On our last one he was accompanied by Chris – ‘Son Of Bill’, who is a chip off the old block if ever we saw one - literally, except we do not think that his head is composed totally of wood like his father, but is also part cybernetic organism. In fact his first words to Bob were ‘Are you Sarah Connor?’ followed by him shape-changing into a cooking stove and set of mess tins. We are very grateful for his help on the course and hoped he might become a permanent replacement for the older prototype model that is his father. Unfortunately due to work commitments this will not be the case and we will be stuck with the lumbering old crock for many years to come.

Chris -'I'll be back!'

Bill -'Oooh! Me back!!'

February 2008

Combat Mission 16th - 17th Feb 08 Ice on branches overhanging the river With temperatures dropping to at least -5˚C at night and frost being ever present during the daytime, the phrase ‘Flip me, it’s cold!’ - or an approximation thereof – was seldom off anybodies lips. Thankfully the guys who attended our Combat Mission weekend were a pretty hardy bunch mainly comprised of martial artists form John Skillen’s gym near Loughborough, various tri-athletes and a former Royal Marine Reserve. Despite the fact some of the guys had not met before they quickly started to bond together as a tight team. Patrolling Day one began with shelter building and firelighting and then moved on to patrolling, contact drills and camouflage and concealment. As night drew in they were given the option of doing a CTR (Close Target Recce) or going to the pub. Despite freezing temperatures they all opted to do the CTR without a second thought. As the exercise progressed it was clear how well they were beginning to work together, managing to do the CTR, shoot the designated target and re-organise themselves to fight off a counter attack. The competence they demonstrated was only let down by a moment of pure comedy when one of their team decided to run across the field, got caught in the beam of the spotlight and chose that moment to trip and fall. Early morning PT to warm up! Having finished the CTR the guys just had enough time for a well earned visit to the pub for a quick warm and to swap stories before returning to their shelters for a cold night. Surprisingly, the cold seemed to have had little effect on the team but had an unusual effect on some of our instructors, notably Andy Brown, who woke up in the middle of the night and, in a rare poetic moment said the moon looked like a bright button. He was later seen in tights, prancing across the moonlit and frosty field like Rudolf Nureyev. He later claimed that he was up because he needed to answer a call of nature, that the tights were his Helly Hansen trousers and the reason why he was prancing was that he couldn’t be bothered to put his boots on and the frost was making his feet cold. Bless! (Come back Em and save your man!). Luckily by day two Andy had regained his sense of normality and took the guys through a session of PT to warm up for Bob’s unarmed combat lesson. This was a great session as some of John Skillen’s guys were pretty much up to speed in this area and were able to help some of the guys who were new to it. We finished of the weekend with one last mission whereby the guys were split into two teams and had to recover various bits of military paraphernalia spread around the site. Again, despite coming unstuck in a few places when coming into contact with the enemy, their teamwork really shone through.

Getting a warm by the fire	Early morning PT to warm up!	Patrolling

Preparing to enter enemy territory	Practicing contact drills	The team after the battle

December 2007

Seasons Greetings!!!

We at SAS Survival would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

'Perfect Weapon' shoot for National Geographic - 5th Dec

Bob and Paul went down to Warwickshire recently to film a documentary for the National Geographic Channel. The programme, ‘Perfect Weapon’ looked at siege warfare from medieval times though to the present day. Bob and Paul took a couple of guys from the production team and put them through their paces as a modern SAS team storming a building. As ever, Bob was happy for the team to interview him and give his expert opinion on how they were doing.

Bob holding forth to camera	The 'Men in Black'
Stacking up	Bob Paul and the crew

September 2007

Combat Mission and Lost in the Woods 22nd-23rd Sept

Andy teaching map reading

This weekend we ran two courses simultaneously. On one hand we had a team of four guys who were taking part in one of our Combat Mission courses, essentially being moulded into rough tough SAS operatives for the weekend, whilst on the other we had a fairly large group of people taking part in a two day bushcraft course, essentially living like peaceful hippies in the woods. Amongst the latter we were pleased to have a strong contingency from the Netherlands, in fact the indigenous people felt so outnumbered they had to erect a cross of St. George over their own shelter to make them feel they were still at home (albeit in Wales!).

So whilst the combat mission guys were getting horrible and dirty, stalking around in combat gear and cam cream under the watchful eyes of Bob, and Karl, the ‘hippies’ were building shelters, lighting fires and generally loving the peace in the woods under the instruction of Andy and Em. And thus, ne’er the twain was scheduled to meet… until darkness fell that is. Whilst the peace loving hippies sat around the fire in their cosy shelters, swapping stories and engaging in general bon homie, little did they know that lurking in the darkness were a team of recently trained SAS

The SAS team plotting their raid on the unsuspecting campers

troopers tasked with infiltrating the camp and removing items from it. Considering they had only had a day’s training they did a great job – one of the team actually removing branches from the rear of one of the shelters, enabling him to crawl inside it! After the exercise was over the SAS team joined the surprised bushcraft people around the campfire. Peace was declared and a good night was had by all.

However the truce only lasted for the night. It turned out that some of our

The unsuspecting campers

erstwhile tree huggers were ex-forces, and were itching to have a crack at some of the soldiering themselves and indulge in a bit of payback from the previous night. However, the SAS team struck the first blow by capturing one of them (thanks to Christian for being such a good sport!). Despite this they managed to rally quickly and capture him back even managing to fight through an ambush laid by the SAS team the weight of numbers proving somewhat of an advantage. Another uneasy truce followed (mainly so everyone could refill their magazines with ammo!) and it wasn’t long before the SAS team soon found themselves on the end of taunts along the lines of ‘Come and have a go if you think you’re hard enough’. After one last battle, as the SAS stormed the enemy base across the river, a ceasefire was declared and peace reigned once again, each side having shown some great skills and also what good sports they were.

The battles rages around the camp

Peace restored at the end of the course

(there is a disturbing foonote to this course; during the weekend Bill was taken to be Bob's son - we are not sure who was horrified the most!)

Sleepwalker Midnight Marathon 22nd-23rd Sept 07

Duncan Clark recently organised a night-time 20 mile marathon over the Brecon Beacons, starting and finishing at Talybont Reservoir. The course record of 02:56 was set by Julian Carter whose club is Les Croupiers.

Duncan was very pleased with the way the event went and would particularly like to thank the people who helped marshal the event and also Central Beacons Mountain Rescue.

He is looking forward to organising a similar event in 2008.

Anyone interested in this event can visit Duncan’s website here:-

http://www.theupside.org/

SAS Survival on Yorkshire Television (Tuesday 13^th November at 7.30 on Yorkshire ITV)

During the course of our recent Mini-Selection we had David Harrison and Tony Mewse along from Yorkshire Television, filming a half-hour documentary on Karen Wade and Angela Weeks. Karen is a lass who likes to live life to the full, and regularly attends SAS Survival courses, so much so that she is starting to become a bit of a pin-up girl for us. True to form, when she found out we were running a mini-version of SAS Selection, she saw this as a real opportunity to push herself to her limits. Also, true to form, she managed to drag one her mates along, in this case Angela who has also been a regular with us. Unfortunately, Angela had to leave us for a few days missing out on most of the Endurance and Survival phases of the course. However she did return for the Interrogation phase which she seemed especially keen on doing (draw you own conclusions from that one!).

Karen on the other hand was able to stay for the entire course and really did

push herself past her limits. She managed to complete Fan Dance, the first of the endurance events, but despite putting in a good effort started to lose time on our mini-Long Drag. She showed great motivational skills during the frequent sessions of PT, and managed to survive the whole of the interrogation phase.

Karen and Angela have threatened to come back for more courses (Angela has even promised to bring her own handcuffs).

A surprising star of the show was Andy who managed to get a fair bit of time in front of the camera. We are not saying that Bob, normally the star of such shows, was a little miffed by this, but he did disappear to his Winnebago and wouldn’t come out until we had sorted his M & M’s by colour. Also, as he has recently purchased a spiffy new video camera, he was able to direct his own show. We are thinking of getting him a chair with 'Cecil B. De Bob' on it.

We would also like to give a little mention for the excellent work the guys from Yorkshire T.V. have been doing filming our troops in recent conflicts. David (Director), although preferring to work closer to home now, has in the past worked in Bosnia and Kosovo. Tony (Lighting Cameraman) has recently worked in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the former conflict he was caught up in a roadside IED explosion whilst out on patrol with the 2^nd Lancs. In the latter, he spent some time with, amongst others, the Gurkhas and it turns out interviewed a colleague of ours Capt. Paul Hollingshead. (Paul was featured in the News of the World for drawing his khukri knife and leading a charge on an enemy machine gun position, and also for getting a ‘dead man’s click’ when face to face with an enemy Taliban. Luckily, despite being armed with an AK47, one of the most reliable weapons in the world, the Taliban fighter also suffered a stoppage. As Paul put it ‘God was looking after him and Allah after the other bloke’). As a result of working with them, Tony has developed a great deal of respect for our troops and does his best to convey what they are going through in what are very tough theatres of operations. He is due to go back out to the Middle East soon and we wish him well.

The half hour programme, they are now in the process of editing, will be broadcast on 13th November. All being well it may be extended to a one hour programme for ITV4 and Sky. Watch this space…!

Angela and Karen

Mini-Selection 8th -12th Sept

An early morning start

Four determined people signed up to our recent Mini-Selection. This was a truncated version of the real thing starting with endurance, and then going on to continuation training and finishing off with interrogation.

In terms of intensity this was only a fraction of real SAS Selection but it still presented a tough challenge to our various recruits.

The recruits were Karen Wade who is a regular on our events, Angela Weeks, another regular, Will Camblin, and a fourth recruit who wishes to remain anonymous, Recruit ‘K’.

The first two days focussed on the endurance phase of the course starting with map reading tests followed by Fan Dance and Mini Long Drag. In charge of this phase was Duncan Clark (who, it turns out, has a very evil mind when the mood takes him). Only Wade and ‘K’ went on to attempt Fan dance and Long Drag. Weeks had to leave us for a couple of days and Will felt that his fitness and map reading was not up to scratch – in his own words

Map reading with Duncan

a couple of hours with Duncan was like his Duke of Edinburgh Course multiplied by a thousand and rather than do the hill walking used the opportunity to brush up on his map reading skills.

Our Fan Dance was slightly shorter than the real thing albeit with a steeper approach to Pen – y - Fan and a ‘sickener’ in the shape of a surprise detour up Fan – y – Big (thanks to the evil mind of Duncan). Recruits ‘K’ and Wade went on to complete the course within the set time.

On the following day the recruits were faced with our Mini-Long Drag, again shorter than the real thing. We were expecting our recruits to complete a 30k route within 10 hours with 55lbs of kit over four checkpoints (the real route is 60k to be finished in 20 hours). ‘K’, (thanks to the evil mind of Duncan) was gifted with a present of a rock which he drew message of love on and stashed away in his bergan. Both recruits did very well, however Wade started to drift very close to coming

A pause during map reading

in behind time at the first checkpoint and didn’t make it to RV 2 on time. ‘K’ was going very strong through the first two check points. At RV 2 Duncan (engaging his evil mind) offered him a ‘sickener’ in the shape of a cup of tea, but ‘K’ told him where he could stick his cup of tea (and his evil mind), and set off up Fan- Fawr with the bit between his teeth. We were convinced at this point he would finish the rest of the course in good time but over this leg he began to really suffer with his feet and came in to RV 3 about forty minutes behind time. There followed a very quiet return drive to the FRV, as he was clearly disappointed that he didn’t finish the course.

The next few days were concerned with continuation training involving basic survival skills, and military skills such as contact drills, patrolling, unarmed combat and putting out a CTR. The recruits were taken through a jungle lane to face pop-up targets and mounted an attack on an enemy camp. In the growing darkness Bob compared it to a scene from ‘Apocalypse Now’ as the attack was pressed home with thunder flashes and flares. The attack was carried out in a very professional manner, ‘K’ in particular showing great leadership.

Karen (bottom left of photo) setting off up Fan - y - Big

Physical fitness was still a major factor in this phase and a session of PT was never far away. This included crawling across the field, carrying their buddies and hill sprints with bergans. We were particularly pleased that during this part of the course Camblin seemed to push himself past boundaries that he hadn’t realised he could overcome. Having seemed despondent after not taking part in the hill phase he really began to switch on during the contact drillst and this continued into the PT. After initially wanting to give up after the first five minutes he eventually began to get a grip of himself and despite being on the verge of vomiting twice pushed himself through this part of the course. We would like to add that he was also spurred on by his fellow recruits Wade, and in particular ‘K’ who demonstrated excellent motivational skills. (‘K’ by this point had recovered from his initial disappointment at not being able to complete the hill phase and was now starting to become a real motivator within the group). Weeks was another who wanted to give in within minutes of starting but again managed to push herself further than she thought she could, again even to the point of vomiting. Sadly she could not summon up the reserve to

'K' inspecting his feet.

push herself to the end of this phase and eventually gave up.

The final phase of the course was interrogation. During a night time exercise the recruits were individually captured, bundled into the back of a jeep and taken away for interrogation. This phase went throughout the night and saw the recruits subjected to various forms of interrogation including being sat in the river and stress positions. They had clearly put a lot of thought into how to prepare for this phase and did their best to make life difficult for the interrogators. However they gradually began to succumb to the pressure. ‘K’ had to withdraw due to injury, Weeks held out for a very long time and we all began to think she was enjoying the experience (pervert!), but

Waiting in the back of the jeep

eventually she too withdrew. Wade on the other hand made it through the night all the way to Endex and annoyingly enough seemed as fresh as a daisy, telling the Yorkshire TV crew, filming the course, that it wasn’t all that bad. At this point a load of bleary eyed interrogators would have happily put the bag on her head and shoved her back in the river. Camblin did not participate in this phase.

Despite only being a taster of the real SAS Selection none of our potential recruits passed. However, this should not be seen as a slur on their characters as they all showed a lot of bottle turning up and taking part in what was still a pretty tough course. We hope that individually they have managed to take something way from the course and have learned more about themselves and how they were able to push themselves further than expected. We hope they will be able to take some of this back into their ordinary lives. We are also looking forward to seeing some of them again; Karen and Angela have already threatened to come back with a vengeance!

(We would also like to say cheers to Dave Manning from Airsoft Skirmish who also came down to give us a hand)

Karen - and this is before Endurance proper starts!

Karen gets a new friend to carry, as Will looks on

Bob, Will, 'K', Andy, Angela and Karen

SAS Survival at the Gurkha Durbar 1^st Sept

SAS Survival was given a stand at the bi-annual Gurkha Durbar. We have had close links with this Regiment, Capt Hollingshead being a close colleague of Bob. Recently he invited Bob and Paul to teach unarmed combat and knife fighting to them before their recent deployment to Afghanistan, where they went on to serve with distinction. We were delighted to have been asked along particularly as it was for such worthwhile causes, the Army Benevolent Fund - supporting soldiers, former soldiers and their families in times of need - and the Gurkha Welfare Trust, which has been set up to support ex-Gurkhas living in Nepal who did not receive a pension after serving bravely in World War Two.

The event was an open day at the Infantry Battle School, Dering Lines, in Brecon, and was a fun packed day. Events included military band displays, Tae Kwon Do demonstrations, Khukri fighting demonstrations, and displays of Nepalese culture. There were free fall parachute drops by the Pilgrim Parachute Club and the Red Devils and the Gurkhas demonstrated a text book Section Attack on enemy positions.

On our stand we two airsoft ranges – one was a timed target shoot, whilst the other involved moving down the range past obstacles, engaging static targets en-route, to recover vital equipment. We had participants from all ages but particularly from the younger end. We had a ready supply of instructors from the Battle School on hand, notably ‘Taff’ from the Parachute Regiment and ‘H’ from the Royal Marine Commandos. Along with Capt. Hollingshead from the Gurkhas and Capt. Selsby, our lucky participants were taken under the wings of soldiers from some of our finest regiments.

After a busy day where we seemed to be working non-stop, we managed to raise £187. We would like to thank all of the people who came along and donated their money. We would also llike to thank Dave Manning from Airsoft Skirmish who kindly supplied all of the airsoft kit for free.

To find out more about the Army Benevolent Fund and the Gurkha Welfare Trust visit their sites here:-

http://www.armybenfund.org/

http://www.gwt.org.uk/

To find out more about the Infantry Battle School and the Gurkhas follow these links:-

http://www.army.mod.uk/hqschinf/infantry _battle_school/index.htm

http://www.army.mod.uk/brigade_of_gurkha s/rgr/d_tamandu_company.htm

Bob Continues His Career in the Media!

Over the last few months Bob has been a busy boy, being heavily in demand as a specialist military advisor for television and the computer game industry. He recently worked for Channel 4 with Dom Joly in a pilot for a quiz show, ‘In Facto’, as an SAS Survival Expert. He has worked on two programmes for National Geographic, ‘Perfect Weapon’ as a co-presenter and demonstrating fighting with edged and blunt weapons, and advising on ‘Fight Science’. He has continued his motion capture work for Killzone 2 and Operation Flashpoint 2. With the latter he also acted as a consultant and advisor to Codemasters.

He has also been offered the lead role in the film ‘Outsider’ which will start filming in November.

Finally, his campaign to assist Tim Shaw to become the liberator of UK radio continues unchecked as his regular co-presenting slots on Kerrang Radio are becoming alarmingly more frequent. Along with Tim he will also be working on a television project called ‘The White Room’, stripping the interviewing style back to its bare essentials.

August 2007

Miles Bennett Stag Do – 25^th 26^th August

To misquote a certain Mr Churchill – ‘Never, in the field of SAS Survival stag-dos, has a stag been tortured by so many, with such little complaint’.

Our husband-to-be, Miles Bennett suffered the indignities of having his nipples tweaked, being duct taped to a garden chair and being threatened with being dragged nose-down across the field from the back of a car (and that was before we got our hands on him!). He was also stripped naked apart from boots, socks and an attractive duct tape thong, being dunked in a river and having his love-spuds nearly blown of with a BB grenade. However, Miles is a Geordie and even with having spent his recent years living in Kent, he hasn’t totally become a southern softie and despite a bit of colourful language he took it all in his stride.

Miles and his gang turned up on Friday night and quickly made themselves familiar with the local hostelry. Despite their revelries and an evening which included the nipple tweaking and duct taping to garden furniture, all were up as fresh as daisies on Saturday morning to commence training. Throughout the day they were taught various survival and military skills and after a dip in a part of the river now known as 'The Bennet Pool', culminated in a night time CTR and ambush. This involved observing some enemy troops, one of whom was Welsh, the other starting off with a Welsh accent but ending up as Borat! The intelligence they gathered concerned the arrival of a visiting female royal dignitary who was heavily involved in creating a top secret project for the enemy. After laying an ambush they managed to shoot their target, but were then hunted down by her bodyguards (a bald bloke and an old Geordie – both of whom incidentally, were eunuchs with dodgy sexual proclivities - according to the Welsh guards at any rate). There followed a heart thumping battle as the SAS team were hunted down in the searchlights and torches of the hunter force, the old Geordie an awe inspiring site as he began to have flashbacks to the battle fields of his youth, striding across the field with the nobility of a Highland stag.

Day two started with more lessons, but during the course of the morning Miles was ambushed by his mates. At this point, friends of the stag would normally produce some sort of humiliating costume for him to wear, but Miles’s buddies opted for the good old ’strip-him butt-naked’ approach. As an after-thought they improvised a fetching thong from duct tape, partly to pose an interesting removal of said duct tape dilemma for their victim, and partly to protect any passers by from being subjected to the site of his meat and two veg. However, the thong only made the grim spectacle more hideous and any members of the public who caught a glimpse will probably be having flashbacks of their own for years to come. Having being posed in the field in a ‘somewhere to park your bike position’ for a photo opportunity, Miles suffered a trip to the river, and a rather unpleasant testicle-BB grenade encounter (happily, none of the little balls that were flying around after the grenade went off belonged to Miles). Eventually – before the image of Miles tied up in the woods could burn itself into the retinas of any poor, unsuspecting, woodland creatures – he was rescued by his team mates. Without a second thought he ripped his thong off (making this our first SAS Survival ‘back, sack and crack!), grabbed his weapon and launched himself back into the battle in a way that made John Rambo look like a social worker.

We would like say well done to his mates and especially to Miles for being such a great sport. Once we were happy that he hadn’t suffered any physical or emotional scars we giggled all the way home! We would like to wish him all the best in his future married life.

All the best Miles!

Bob and Geoff Thompson on Kerrang! Radio.

Bob was in Kerrang! Radio again last week, with his old friend Geoff Thompson. Geoff is one of the countries most respected martial artists having trained in a wide variety of disciplines including karate, judo, boxing and wrestling, and trained with Bob to get an understanding of Thai-boxing.

People in the world of martial arts will be familiar with Geoff as the author of ‘Watch My Back’ – an autobiographical account of his work as a doorman on some of the hardest night clubs in Coventry. What made Geoff’s book such a success was the way he dealt with fear when faced with violence – something rarely discussed before this, and seldom talked about in most martial arts classes. Since ‘Watch My Back’ he has gone on to publish many books with great success and has now turned his hand to screenwriting, recently winning a BAFTA for his short film ‘Brown Paper Bag’ and working with the likes of Ray Winstone. He came in to Kerrang! to talk to Tim Shaw about his writing, and also about some of his harrowing experiences at the sharp end of violence. However, we would like to add that Geoff, despite his tough past, and like all of the best ‘hard men’, is also a true gent!

Find out more about Geoff Thompson here:- http://www.geoffthompson.com/

Geoff and Bob

July 2007

5-Day Survival and Bushcraft Course - 27th - 31st July

Day 1
After welcoming everyone to the 5 day bushcraft course, instructors Em
and Andy gave a brief overview of the next 5 days. The first challenge
was 1 nights survival in an emergency scenario.

Basic fast shelter building. How to build a shelter
in minutes, yes it can be done, the race is on.

Instructors admin Basha, front drops down at
night for sleeping. Simple and effective.

Day 2-3
A more challenging scenario was given, and everyone has to make
their own shelter using only natural materials. This is where you really
learn about shelter building.

These shelters were built to last several days, and be weather proof.	And also a good fire for cooking was needed.
Looking forward to some rabbit & wild duck.	Practical fire lighting demonstration by Instructor Andy using striker and kindling. Watch carefully it's your turn next.
Cooking flour patties,a variation in your diet really helps. They taste good as well.	Settling down for the night

Day 4-5
A new scenario, the group now have to use teamwork & make a group
shelter using everything they have learnt so far.

The 5 man shelter being built, good team work and planning will pay off at the finish.	The 5 man shelter nice job everyone!
Oliver looking after fire in 5 man shelter, the fire keeps it nice and toasty at night but also a great morale booster and source of light.	Jon(crouching) & Tim filtering water through 3 stage filter. Looks basic but is effective.
Oliver practising the art of fire lighting, Keep going your nearly there. Practice..practice..practice!	Food time, Instructor Em Preparing pigeon for cooking.
If you want to eat you have to prepare it yourself, this is the real side of survival. Anyone can learn how to do it.	Everyone looking pleased.

L-R Andy (Instructor), Em (Instructor), Erwin, Floris, Tim, Jim, Bob (kneeling), Shane, Jon, Matt, Oliver,

Stag Do - Jonathon Evans 14^th-15 July

Imagine you are sitting at home on a Friday, happily minding your own business, perhaps even contemplating a future life of married bliss. All of a sudden your brother turns up and whisks you away to a surprise stag do, not to some bar in Amsterdam where you will be treated to the company of foxy dancing ladies, but instead to some remote part of rural Wales where you will be sleeping outside in the pouring rain, running around with a rifle, dressed up as a Valkyrie and tortured by angry, shouty men. If you can imaging this, then you have imagined yourself inside the head of Jonathan Evans, soon to be happily married man, part time underpants model and now an SAS Trooper for the weekend.

Although the weekend officially started on Saturday, Jonathan’s brother Alisdair had arranged for the guys to travel down on Friday night and get settled in – get settled in to the local pub that is! We counted them all out, and thanks to the help of John and Alisdair’s older brother Andy – a veteran of many rugby tours - we counted them all back again

Saturday started with us taking the group through the basics of shelter building and fire lighting and then moving on to the military stuff including weapons handling, marksmanship, contact drills and camouflage and concealment (John went for a tiger stripe design and due to his fine bone structure looked exceptionally cool – the man is wasted modelling underpants). The day ended with section attacks and a CTR.

On Sunday morning the next item of clothing John found himself modelling was a Valkyrie costume and a hessian sack, as he was captured in an ambush whilst on patrol, and taken away for interrogation. He coped very well under close questioning confusing his captors with a very ingenious cover story - claiming he was Adolf Hitler on a deer hunting trip! (Actually being dressed as a Rhinemaiden did give a bizarre credence to his story).

Eventually John’s team managed to rescue him and he rejoined the fight with a vengeance. One could almost hear the strains of the Ride of the Valkyries as he charged into battle, his pigtails and purple dress blowing in the wind, the mere site of his horny helmet causing panic amongst his enemies.

We would like to wish John all the best in his future marriage.

Stuart Baty's Stag - Do 30th June - 1st July

We at SAS Survival are being constantly surprised at the imagination of our clients. On our stag-dos, we have noticed an increasing trend in bringing along fancy dress, or rather a ‘fancy dress’ for the stag. In Stuart's case it was a lovely fairy outfit, complete with magic wand. Not that he seemed to object too much (and none of us recall him taking it off at the end of the course!). Furthermore, one of his mates, Nigel, entered into the spirit of things by coming dressed up as a Grenadier Guards RSM. He looked so convincing that some of our ex-military bods began to nervously rub the-toe caps of their boots up the back of their calves to give them an extra polish. To complete the image he then produced a pipe. Standing in the pouring rain, he could have been an officer from the fields of Flanders, to an old colonial sweat in the middle of a monsoon.

Yes, indeed, an old colonial sweat in the middle of a monsoon, ‘monsoon’ being the operative word. As poor unfortunate people throughout the country are having their homes flooded out, the common theme on our courses weather-wise has been rain, rain, and more rain. One of the things we advise people to bring along with them on an SAS

Survival weekend is a sense of humour. Fortunately, the guys on Stuart’s stag-do had ‘sense of humour’ in abundance and boy did they need it. Despite being soaked through to the skin the lads maintained an exceptionally high state of morale throughout the weekend. A special Mention in Despatches must go to Andy Jarvis who despite looking like he had been dragged out of an oil slick in North Sea, had a grin from ear to ear all weekend. Even after being on the receiving end of some mickey taking during his Reaction to Effective Enemy Fire drills (Dash, Down, Crawl, Observe, Sights, Fire being renamed Dash, Down, Fall, Observe, Sights, Fire!), he managed to smile his way through it all, even managing to get a fire going so everyone could have a warm in the night. He also gave us a great testimonial (hope you are happy with the write up Andy - definitely best recruits ever, and all that!)

The weekend followed the usual pattern of learning basic survival skills followed by more military, tactical skills, being gradually applied in mini-exercises. As the day progressed they began working together as a team showing a thoughtful, methodical way of dealing with the problems and little surprises that were thrown their way.

The day ended with us offering them the choice of going on a horrible, nasty, CTR (Close Target Recce) in the rain, or going to a nice warm cosy pub (with us keeping them company in case they got lonely). By this time however, they were hardcore and chose the CTR which was to be put on on a base, followed by them sneaking in and planting bombs under various specified targets. Unfortunately, one of their team was compromised on his way into the camp. The guys had to think on their feet as the enemy were now alerted to their presence and had sent a patrol out after them. At two o’clock in the morning they turned the tables on their pursuers and carried out a near perfect section attack on them. Considering they had only learned how to do this a few hours earlier, in daylight, this wasn’t a bad effort at all, splooshing around in the dark in the wee small hours of the morning.

After the C.T.R. they all settled under their bashas for the night, their heads full of Bob’s army stories (most notably the one involving sweets which cannot be repeated here, but suffice it to say that after hearing it, we’re surprised if any of them slept at all!).

Also, when we say all slept under their dripping wet bashas, we mean all except for Stuart's dad George, who reluctantly spent the night in a hotel. (Apparently he hated every minute of it, as the rooms were too warm, they didn’t have his favourite bath oils and there were only about three million channels on the telly).

Day two started with the guys being split into two teams. During the course of the morning one of the teams captured Stuart, and after dressing him up in the aforementioned tutu and wand, took him away to be interrogated. However, hot on his heels were his erstwhile comrades, who managed to rescue him back. Despite having the opportunity to get back into his D.P.M’s (camouflaged gear) he flouted all of the principles of camouflage and concealment, and heroically charged into battle in his fairy gear, his wand attached to his rifle as a makeshift bayonet.

Thanks to Dave Manning and his airsoft boys for playing the baddies so brilliantly (especially to Pete Bailey who, on our last course, copped half a mag of BB's in the nadgers at point-blank range, on full auto! Well done for coming back mate!). Also cheers to Stuart's brother Andy, who hatched the evil plot to get his brother along to one our weekends, and well done to all the guys, particularly for bearing up so well under the inclement weather.

All the best Stuart!

Tim Shaw wins a bucketload of awards for Kerrang! Radio

SAS Survival would like to pass on our congratulations to Tim Shaw from Kerrang! Radio, who recently won four New York Festival Radio Awards, including three Gold Awards and one Bronze. The Gold Awards were for Best Regularly Scheduled Talk Programme, Best Interview (Kitty Hart Moxon – Holocaust Survivor) and Best Breakfast Show (KISS 100). No one has ever won so many Golds before which is why they asked Tim to host the awards in New York!

Regular listeners Kerrang! will know Bob frequently co-presents the show – ‘Tim Shaw’s Asylum’ - which goes out between 10pm and 1am. As the name suggests, the ‘Asylum’ attracts the more ‘unusual’ sort of guest (Bob included!), and Tim is a DJ who is not afraid our courting controversy. However, the show also has a more serious side – Tim recently recorded an interview with Holocaust survivor Kitty Hart Moxon. The interview was originally intended to be one and a half hours long, but ended up being seven. It was an experience Tim described as life changing. Believing it to be a disgrace that schools only devote fifty minutes to teaching the Holocaust, he is trying to get it played at schools. The interview is available on CD on eBay by typing in Tim Shaw, with the money going to a holocaust charity.

(We would also like to wish Tim's producer 'Juicy Lucy' a Happy Birthday for the end of July!)

You can find out more about Tim and Kerrang! Radio here:-

http://www.timshaw.co.uk/

http://www.kerrangradio.co.uk/

Tim, Wilksey, Bob, Lucy, and Simon (a.k.a. Donkhole)

June 2007

No Doubt – No Fear Seminar 17^th June 2007

Bob held another of his self-protection classes in Birmingham. The course looked at the various ways to deal with an aggressor by using physical techniques such as ‘line-ups’ and pre-emptive strikes, and then looked at the psychological aspects of being in a violent encounter. Bob spent a short time drawing on his skills as an NLP practitioner using visualisation exercises with the participants to help them deal with the mental side of getting in a fight.

On this course we were pleased to have Bob’s son Karl along. Karl, a former serving member of 1 Para and now a police officer, is no stranger to confrontation and was able to bring a wealth of experience to the class. Moreover he was able to give a unique perspective on how the law regards the use of force to defend oneself.

Amongst the students, a touch of showbiz came to town in the form of Steve Davies, a.k.a. Darius from Phoenix Nights. Along with him was his

son Owen, whose incisive questioning lead to some interesting debates with Bob and Karl – most notably how hard or easy it is to break a persons neck! Having had been on various survival courses in the military, Bob and Karl were able to relate how difficult it was to actually break an animals neck. They went into great detail on how resilient a neck is, even on birds, and how hard it was to choke their chickens during various exercises.

We were also very pleased to see Karen Wade again. Karen attended an Escape and Evasion weekend with a bunch of mates in April, and impressed us with her ability to resist interrogation! She has now organised some of her mates to come back in September to take part in our five day Mini Selection. Despite a recent setback with a knee injury she has been training hard and we are sure she is going to do well. Go Karen!

25^th Anniversary of the Liberation of Port Stanley, Falkland Islands

Twenty-five years ago today on the 14^th June 1982, British forces liberated the town of Port Stanley from the occupying Argentinean army, marking the end of the Falklands Conflict. Our thoughts are with those who lost friends and relatives, and we would like to express our gratitude to those whose bravery and courage made victory possible.

Stag do - Paul Jewison 3rd June

We at SAS Survival consider ourselves to be a fairly red blooded lot. So imagine our delight at the prospect of a leggy blond turning up who was going to be wearing fishnets and a ‘Barrack Babe’ Ann Summers outfit. Unfortunately, the delectable blond turned out to be Paul Jewison who came down to celebrate his stag do in style – by getting jumped on by his mates and being dressed up in girly gear.

The weekend started normally enough, the guys turned up a day early on Friday night and used the opportunity to install themselves in the local pub. The course proper started on Saturday morning with the usual shelter building and firelighting lessons before continuing into the more military based skills such as camouflage and concealment, patrolling, contact drills and pop up targets. The latter involved the teams patrolling in pairs along the side of a valley, whilst instructors popped up to ambush them so they could practice fire and manoeuvre drills. During the course of this we had an amusing moment, when Dave Manning lobbed a grenade at the patrol. Their immediate reaction was to ‘Run away!!!’ Unfortunately, they chose to ‘Run away!!!’ downhill, which, thanks to Sir Isaac Newton, was also the path the grenade chose to take. There was much hilarity as the pair tried, in vain, to outrun the ‘homing’ grenade happily bobbing along behind them.

The day ended with a CTR, and an assassination on an enemy baddie, due to be played by Bill. However, due to Bill’s illness (more of which anon), Boppa, who along with his brother Jas, had been Bill’s bodyguard, was promoted to boss of the baddies. He played the part like a pro, and much to everyone’s amusement lorded it over Jas who was now tasked to be his bodyguard. Ill though he was, even Bill couldn’t help laughing to himself as he lay listening in his bivvy bag.

Day two started with a fiendish ‘snatch’ by Dave and his Airsoft team. Paul was ambushed and a momentary cease fire was called. During the lull in the fighting, he was put into the aforementioned skimpy gear and whisked away to be interrogated. It wasn’t long however before his team were on their way to recapture him and having fought their way through various ambushes managed to relocate him and get him back into his DPM’s. (We do not know what happened to the Ann Summers gear but it disappeared mysteriously!).

After a short break there followed another mini-mission whereby the teams were split into three and briefed to locate and capture a jerry can. They had then to take it to a designated area. After a sneaky river attack Paul’s team managed to capture the can and headed off for the FRV (Final Rendezvous). However the other teams had ambushed the location and the troops became mired in a particularly boggy area of the woods. (Thankfully this was not the bog Bill had used the night before! - More of which anon!). Eventually Paul’s team managed to get through and win the day.

There is a footnote to the weekend’s events, and those of you with a copy of Sir Edward Elgar’s ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ may wish to insert it into your CD-ROM Drive and press ‘Play’ now. We at SAS Survival would like to mention the sterling heroism of Bill deTorre, who after a recent trip to Egypt had returned with a stomach bug with volcanic properties. Now Bill is not a man to give up easily, and carried on throughout the weekend like the square jawed hero that he is, even taking a BB in the gob whilst storming an enemy position. It was only on the night of the CTR that things finally got the better of him and he had to relinquish his post. The following morning our brave hero had gone and all that was left was a note, the contents of which brought tears to the eyes of those that read it. In the manner of Captain Oates of the ill fated Scott of the Antarctic expedition ("I am just going outside and may be some time"), Bill had left the camp, (no doubt with tears in his eyes too). He had sacrificed himself for the good of his comrades and the local wildlife. We hope he has gone to a land where there are holes in the ground a-plenty, and toilet paper grows on trees. Men like Bill made the Empire what it is, God speed my friend, God speed.

(Historians and archivists may like to know that the last note of Bill deTorre has been kept for posterity in the SAS Survival museum. Readers may also like to know that a comic strip recreating Bill’s heroic exploits is under discussion. Entitled ‘Bill of the Nile’, it will be hand drawn by that renowned war artist – Bob).

Stop Press -The code breakers at SAS Survival HQ have recently picked up what seems like an encoded message possibly from Bill. The signal was weak but we think the original message is as follows: - ‘Go and screw your shelves you bar stewards and stop taking the fish out of me and my bowls!’

Best wishes Paul!

Bob teaching unarmed combat in Birmingham, Sun 2nd Sept (Leeds) and Sun 20th Oct (Birmingham)

Bob is holding a No Doubt No Fear seminar at his gym in Birmingham. If you want a no-nonsense approach to looking after yourself in the street, then we suggest you pop along. To get a flavour of what Bob teaches look here:-

http://www.youtube.com/ and search for 'SAS Fight Secrets'

For details on the course click here

Bob in Time Out, Men’s Health and Fitness, Martial Arts Illustrated, and on Kerrang! Radio

Bob has been a busy bloke recently – he has given an interview for Time Out magazine on how to survive a festival in the style of an SAS Trooper, and is also in the July editions of Men’s Health and Fitness, talking about extreme holidays (i.e. Selection!), and Martial Arts Illustrated. Regular readers of M.A.I. may also like to know that they will be running a regular column on Bob in the magazine.

He has also been making regular appearances on Tim Shaw’s Asylum (Kerrang! Radio 105.2) as a guest and co-presenter. His next appearance will be Thursday 5th July 10pm – 1am.

If you want to read Bob's recent interview for 'Time Out ' magazine click on this link:

http://www.timeout.com/london/fest ivals/features/2913.html#articleAfterMpu