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On the 21st September 2013, Middlesbrough Football Club will be at home to Bournemouth at the Riverside Stadium. The 35,000 seater stadium was built in 1995 to replace the old Ayresome Park stadium which had become too small for the club. This game of the season is important to us for one reason and that's not because it is the first home ‘Boro’ match of the season - although we know that will be important to some of you out there, but for the first time in history Middlesbrough and the other Teesside Sea Cadet units will be playing a starring role before, during and after the match both on and off the pitch!

As part of a very special arrangement with Middlesbrough Football Club, all parents, friends and family members of Middlesbrough Sea Cadets can buy discounted tickets to enjoy the fixture. Special seats will be reserved in the family stand located in the North East corner of the stadium so Teesside Sea Cadet supporters can sit together. Any existing season ticket holders wishing to relocate to the family stand for this game can do so free of charge.

To get your hands on these tickets, you'll need to complete an order form which will be available at Middlesbrough Sea Cadet Unit from Thursday 1st August 2013.

There will also be a prize for the cadet who sells the most tickets across the District but this is such an exciting and unique opportunity for Middlesbrough Sea Cadets, we expect our allocation of tickets will be snapped up.

On 26th July 2013, Middlesbrough Sea Cadets learned that a £4.8 million contract has been awarded to build the Sea Cadets new 21st century flagship which will take thousands of cadets on an offshore voyage.

The new ship will replace the current ship, TS Royalist, now over 40 years old and increasingly expensive to maintain. A flagship voyage is the pinnacle of the Sea Cadet experience and one which the charity wants to ensure future generations of Sea Cadets can benefit from. TS Royalist launched in 1971 taking over 30,000 cadets to sea in her lifetime.

The new and innovative design offers greater use of space, with better all-round sailing ability and performance. Faster and easier to handle than Royalist, the new ship is also more economical to run. This makes it ideal for offering young people offshore sailing, helping them to learn greater seamanship and sailing skills. The ship is expected to be in service for 40 years and we have no doubt that many generations of Middlesbrough Sea Cadets will have the opportunity to enjoy it in the future.

Sam Skene has been a Middlesbrough Sea Cadet for four years, since she was 13. She admired the uniformed cadets on a Remembrance Day parade, searched for them online and has not looked back. Being part of the Sea Cadets has given her opportunities she would never otherwise have had, such as taking part in regional rowing and football competitions and going camping and shooting in Scotland. Since being a Sea Cadet, Sam has gained nationally recognised qualifications in first aid and she now has a rowing qualification, which she can use outside the Sea Cadets when applying for jobs. Sam said ‘If someone had told me I would have qualifications like that, I’d have thought they were joking.’

The cadets spent 18 days in May 2013 in New South Wales at HMAS Penguin, HMAS Creswell, Jervis Bay, and they visited Canberra. As well as the 6 cadets from the UK, there were cadets from Canada and Singapore. Sam found it interesting to talk to the other cadets about their shared practices and activities and different ways of doing things - Sam said it made her think and be more creative. Sam felt her confidence grew on this trip and incredibly proud to have been selected, she recommends the Sea Cadets to anyone and says new members are made to feel very welcome.

Sam Skene photographed by Jason Watkin Photography