Lardie, Bernard Goodchild told us " Colonel Chris Murray kindly invited the Lardies to undertake the British Army's fitness test, under the watchful eye of the senior physical training instructor. Ten Lardies, five men and five women took up the challenge, which took 3 hours for the participants to complete. It would be fair to say that we now ache in parts of our bodies which we did no know we even had!"

The army fitness tests which the Lardies undertook included, shuttle runs, carrying 40 kg jerry cans, dragging 70kg bodies from the battlefield, climbing ropes with back packs, sit ups, press ups, jumping in and out of troop carriers and relay runs with an assault rifle!

Colonel Murray said, " The Lardies were fantastic. In fact I would like to recruit a number of them myself as they passed the fitness test with flying colours. The encouraging aspect of the test was the way they worked well as a team, which I am sure will stand them in good stead for the cycle in Egypt later this year".

Each Lardie was presented with a medal and a certificate- it is hoped that call up papers will not follow!