This evening, our Team Life Vice President (And founder team member in 1968!) Alan James ably assisted by team member Steve O’Hara, presented our membership with an evening exercise scenario of a missing father and his two daughters, last seen near to a large lake in the Tyldesley area of Greater Manchester.

The venue was the very large area of open countryside, wooded and grassland, near to Padiham Farm, Engine Lane off Cumbermere Lane, Shackerley, Tyldesley.

With the unavailability of the local NPAS Police helicopter as part of the exercise (It really was actually deployed within sight of us, nearby on a Police incident) it was left to team members to try and find the missing three persons.

With a RVP in the farmyard of Padiham Farm, with many grateful thanks to the resident Mr Grundy, a large water body not shown on current mapping was identified as a priority search area, and commencing at 20.15hrs, our Team Leader Garry Rhodes MBE despatched two search parties of five members each, to search the lake periphery.

A very quick ‘casualty’ find of a nineteen year old young woman, who was walking and uninjured, was followed by the find of her ‘sister,’ (in reality they are sisters) an eighteen year old, who had suffered injuries in a fall which required her stretcher evacuation.

Meanwhile on the opposite lake side to all this ‘action’ our Chairman Craig Lamb and his search party located the missing father (Team member Steve O’Hara) who feigning a collapse, also had to be stretcher evacuated.

This part of the exercise involved water team members Ged Clake and John Dickinson ‘suiting up’ if required to enter the water (Which was not needed as events turned out)

All was successfully concluded by 21.30hrs, at which point, most members taking part retired to the Colliers Arms, Tyldesley, for a post exercise drink.

We would like to thank sisters Melisa and Rachael Buckley, aged 19 and 18, for their kind help this evening as our ‘exercise’ casualties.

Tonight’s exercise involved twenty four team members, our Land Rovers BM1, 3 and 4 and our minibus / Crewbus Ambulance.

Next Wednesday there is a distinct water theme to our exercise, keep watching our website for news of this upcoming exercise.