Almost 5000 serving and Ex- Gurkhas together with their families attended the Brigade of Gurkhas G200 Bhela which was held on Saturday, 11 July 15 in Queen’s Avenue Aldershot.
This big event saw hundreds of retired and serving Gurkhas come together to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Gurkha Service to the British Crown. The past and present Gurkha units’ flags were held high at the centre of the pitch while various fun fair attractions were set up to entertain the crowd. The weather was fantastic all day and the lovely tunes from the Band of the Brigade of Gurkhas made it even better.
The day began with the veteran’s football match being played for the Kathmandu Cup. RGR and QOGLR were able to make their way to the finals beating QG Signals and QGE respectively. At 1100 hrs, Chairman GBA, Brigadier Anderson OBE led the final two veteran teams to the football pitch accompanied by the Gulmi Naumati Baja group (typical Nepali Cultural performers). An early and the only goal from RGR veterans became the decider of the match and thus, RGR were able to claim the Kathmandu Cup for another year.
Various fun fair attractions in a lovely weather were enjoyed by all the guests. Ferrets race and Birds of Prey display were obviously a new taste for some of the Gurkha families but it did not fail to be the centre of attractions. Army Outreach stands were also present to attract some of those interested and Gurkha Museum provided various regimental souvenirs to some interested buyers. Together with all of these, a delicious Nepalese food was on service from a local Aldershot Restaurant. At 1345 hrs, Maj Rudra Khadka QOGLR and his team from RLC displayed a fantastic Parachute Jump. Maj Rudra Khadka presented Col BG, Col James Robinson with the match ball after his landing and eventually the crowd gathered to watch the awaited Nepal Cup Final 2015.
1 RGR showed their excellent performance against Queen’s Gurkha Engineers beating them four goals to one. Unfortunately, the former champions of Nepal Cup had to settle with a runner up title this year. Before the Nepal Cup presentation started, Commander and Gurkha Major QGE presented a cheque of £55,943.00 to Chairman Gurkha Welfare Trust for the Nepal Earthquake relief fund. Following this, there were various prizes awarded for the winners of Nepal Cup 2015 which are as below:
Winner – 1 RGR
Runner up – QGE
Best Player – WO2 Bishnu Thapa 1 RGR
Top Scorer – LCpl Brindan Tulachan QG Signals
After a moment of celebration from 1 RGR, the crowd gathered for the Bhela which started off with top Nepalese artists performing in the crowd’s favourite numbers. Col BG also took the opportunity to thank all those who came and made the Brigade Bhela successful. He added that the relationship between the serving and retired personnel was closer than ever and all in all this had been a historical day for the Brigade where serving and retired came together to celebrate a great achievement.
Jai Brigade of Gurkhas!
Here are the selected pictures of the whole day-
