Boot camp for Bermuda Regiment raw recruits was yesterday hailed a success by commanding officer Lt. Col. Patrick Outerbridge.

Lt. Col. Outerbridge said: "It went extremely well -- we had no problems at all.

"We had no disciplinary problems at all. It was a good camp and a good group of young men and women.'' The annual ordeal for more than 150 new soldiers ended at the weekend.

And Lt. Col. Outerbridge said the handful of women volunteers -- the first such group to attend Boot Camp for several years -- had stood their ground with the male conscripts.

He added: "The camaraderie was very high -- the respect for each other was very high and the men also showed a lot of respect for the female volunteers.'' And he said potential high-flyers among the woman recruits had already been identified.

Lt. Col. Outerbridge said Boot Camp this year had had less squarebashing and more problem-solving exercises.

He explained: "We changed some of the normal training programme to include a little bit more of a focus on their military skills.

"Their section commanders were taken away from them and they had to operate as group. We gave them various problems to solve and we found some very good potential NCOs out of them.'' Lt. Col Outerbridge said: "I'm all for teamwork and giving people the opportunity to think on their feet -- that's very good for their day-to-day life as well.'' But Lt. Col. Outerbridge added he did have a complaint about the weather -- it was too good.

He said: "It wasn't our usual recruit camp weather -- we love the rain and the wind, but unfortunately the weather deteriorated to sunshine.''