Sailors and Royal Marines in the Senior Service boxing squad got the chance to meet the rising star of British boxing when the England national squad visited HMS Nelson in Portsmouth.

Royal Navy martial arts protagonists have had a highly-successful year – including a powerful performance against Service operation.

Lone yachtswoman Ellen MacArthur had a mid-Atlantic meeting with the Iron Duke as she continues her bid for the fastest single-handed circumnavigation.

The Royal Navy boxing squad destroyed a very strong Western Counties side 8-1 as part of a string of performances which has seen the sailors and marines also brush aside the best of Southern England’s amateur fighters.

Junior Royal Navy officer Ralph Coffey brought a gold medal back across the Atlantic after a victorious performance by a team of British Forces fencers.