| May Chichester Open On May 30 Sam Hughes finished 11th in the women's epee competition after losing to her nemesis in her last-16 match. British youth championships At the BYC in Telford on 23 May Heloïse Hardie, representing the southern region, was 3rd in the girls u10 foil. Another medal--many congratulations! Camden LPJS sabre At the Camden LPJS sabre on 16 May Cecilia Caffrey was 3rd in the u17 girls, Elizabeth Caffrey 8th in the u15 girls, Nuno Esteves 14th in the u15 boys and Patrick Caffrey 12th in the u13 boys. Sheffield open At the Sheffield open on 16 May Sam Hughes was 10th out of 32 in the women's épée and Will Knight was 31st out of 79 in the men's foil. Wrexham LPJS It was a double gold for OFC members in Wrexham on 5 May when Lydia Stanier won the u13 girl's and Heloïse Hardie won the u11 girls' foil events. Lydia's success came despite feeling under the weather at the beginning of the day. With four LPJS victories already this year, Lydia has an unassailable lead in the championship. In a surprisingly competitive u13 boys event Alexander Hardie won his first DE fight before losing to the 2nd seed. OFC sabre competition, 4 May 1) Mark Waddington 2) Nuno Esteves 3=) Jorge Esteves 3=) Gordon Hardie 5) Will Knight 6) Danny Keyes 7) Mark Leech 8) Jin Ai Yap 9) Helen Williams 10) Arthur Nichols The club sabre competition saw the regular sabreurs joined by a smattering of foilists. Laughably, the latter even needed to be shown how to dress for sabre before the nuances of sabre timings could be gamely explained by Jorge. In return the foilists were able to demonstrate remarkable quantities of beginners luck and, in a couple of cases, left-handedness to get them in among the regular sabreurs before experience held sway with a well deserved 15-12 victory by Mark W over Nuno in the final. Full Results British youth championships Five OFC members qualified for the British youth championships held at the English Institute of Sports in Sheffield on 1-3 May. With another outstanding performance Lydia Stanier won the girls' u14 foil (winning a cup engraved with previous winners' names dating back as far as 1961) and was 12th in the girls' u14 epee, while Jin Ai Yap was 31st in the girls' u16 foil, Patrick Caffrey 36th in the u14 boys' sabre, Dan Barnes 42nd in the boys' u16 foil and Alexander Hardie 53rd in the boys' u12 foil. Well done to all our fencers. April Friendly v Stowe School On Friday 30 April there was a junior foil match against Stowe School. The Stowe boys (supplemented by our own Oengus Mallett) won 6-2 against an OFC team of Edmund Cornforth, Alexander Hardie and Johannes Halbach, while our girls' team of Jin Ai Yap, Hannah Shaw and Tania Lejeune balanced this with a 7-2 win. Many thanks to James Kendall and Will Knight for refereeing. OFC épée competition, 27 April 1) Ralph Evans 2) Mark Leech 3=) Will Knight 3=) Volker Halbach 5) Joe Rogers 6) Oli Stanier 7) Tim Ryley 8) Kata Eklund 9) Martin Carter 10) Olly Bickley |
Ralph had a slow start to the evening's proceedings, only qualifying 5th in the poules round, but going on to beat Will 15-12 in the semi-final of the direct elimination and Mark 15-3 in the final. Will used his energetic foil style to qualify first but was eliminated by Ralph in their close L4 encounter. Volker produced the surprise of the competition in his first ever épée competition--he qualified last in the poules--but when it really counted proceeded all the way to the L4 of the DE, elimating the 2nd and 7th seeds on the way. Full results Warwick LPJS épée Lydia Stanier continued her great form in the LPJS épée series with another victory in the girls' U13 competition on April 25th. Oxford Veterans Mixed Sabre Jorge Esteves was 8th in the field of 21 veteran sabreurs held on April 17th. Senior Winton cup Sam Hughes represented the southern region as part of the women's épée team. Southern were only very narrowly beaten into third place among the eight regions participating. This competition was held over two days in the impressive EIS facility in Sheffield on 10-11 April. Birmingham international tournament At the Birmingham international tournament over the easter weekend Dan Barnes was placed 44th in the men's foil and Will Knight 65th. In the women's épée, where there was a strong overeas entry, especially from Italy, Sam Hughes was 68th. March Coventry sabre LPJS Nuno Esteves had a great day's fencing on 28 March when he came 6th out of a field of nineteen. Nuno lost his L8 fight 13-15 having led up to eight hits and then traded points all the way to 13-all before his opponent, the eventual competition winner, took the last two hits. Keele open This competition, held over the weekend of 27-8 March, is not as competitive as most other open events as the top 100 ranked fencers are asked not to enter. Jason Yeun entered both the épée and foil competitions with Mark Leech going in for just the épée. Jason emailed to say; I came 3rd in the foil on Sunday (they were not that generous on medals - we had to fence for the 3rd place as well). In the semi-final, it was 5-5 after the first bout, 9-9 after the second bout and 11-15 at the end. What a game! And here is Mark's epee report; Jason was a very good 7th in the epee, having won 6/8 in the poules. I watched his L32 fight which he won, looking relaxed and confident. Unfortunately I had a terrible day and only finished 27th. The competition was a step up from the Southern Regionals in terms of quality and size, but nowhere near as big and tough as a full-scale Open. It was also very friendly and pretty well organised - only one extended break between rounds. I would expect quite a lot of OFC fencers to be able to do well another year. Pairs competition On 26 March there was a very enjoyable foil competition in which members of this term's beginners class were paired with more experienced fencers. The event was won by Volker and Johannes Halbach, just ahead of Ali-Asghan Hamiduddin and Alexander Hardie, level on victories and indicators and separated only by hits scored. For full results see pairs results. Many thanks to Martin for refereeing all night long. Challenge Wratislavia In the u13 girls’ épée at the huge Challenge Wratislavia competition in Wrocław, Poland, on 25 March Lydia Stanier did fantastically well to take 13th place out of 131 entrants from 11 countries, the highest placed English girl in her age category. OFC v Abingdon On 23 March there was a lively friendly match between OFC and Abingdon FC (with a few OFC regulars fencing under their alternative AFC affiliation). The home foil team (Will Knight, Jason Yuen, Tim Wright, Janina Cordes) lost 5-11 to AFC (for whom Dan Barnes scored 4 victories) while the OFC épée squad (Mark Leech, Jasmine Sumeray, Tim Ryley, Ralph Evans) drew 8-8. The sabreurs completed a hybrid poule and then a relay in which an OFC team (Jon Leung, Clare Salter, Arthur Nichols, Olly Bickley, Tom Plant) lost 35-50 to an AFC team that included Jorge and Nuno Esteves. A good night's fencing all round! Invicta open At Canterbury on 21 March two OFC members entered the mens' foil. Will Knight was placed 29th after being knocked-out by an exceptionally tall Dutch fencer who was to go on to win a bronze medal. Meanwhile Jason Yeun was placed 45th when he lost his DE fight just 14-15. Eton LPJS Lydia Stanier continued her dominant form at arguably the most prestigious of LPJS rounds on March 21 when she won the girls' u13. Public schools fencing championships This three-day event benefitted from OFC participation when Jasmine Sumeray, representing Headington School, took part in all three weapons. The event was held at the famous Crystal Palace venue on 16-18 March. Jasmine finished 29th out of 63 in the girls' junior épée, being knocked out by the number 3 seed 10-15. She also finished 20th out of 44 in the foil and 22nd out of 38 in the sabre. A very creditable performance--well done! Southern region age-group teams The southern region age-group team competition on 7 March ended in some confusion as there was not enough time to complete the event; the u14 final has yet to take place. Our u18 foil team (Dan Barnes, Jin Ai Yap, with Jonathon Hegarty of Abingdon) was placed 2nd and our u14 foil team (Johannes Halbach, Edmund Cornforth, Alexander Hardie) was 10th out of the 15 teams entered. This was Johannes's very first competition and he made a valuable contribution to the team. Ben Worsfold, entered in a team with two non-OFC fencers only one of whom turned up, seized the opportunity of valuable competitive experience. Nottingham open At the Nottingham open on 7 March both Jorge and Nuno Esteves reached the last 32. Nuno was placed 24th and Jorge 25th, having lost to the eventual winner. February Ashton épée & foil LPJS Lydia Stanier had an outstanding weekend at Ashton on 27-28 February when on the Saturday she won the girls' u13 épée and followed that by winning the girls' u13 foil on the Sunday. Heloise Hardie won bronze, competing in a field of just three u11 girl foilists and Alexander Hardie was 10th in the u13 boys' foil. Hampshire open Dan Barnes had a character-building competition at the Hampshire on 20 February. He finished 44th in the men's foil after losing his first DE fight against an accurate hitting opponent. Sherwood foil LPJS On 13 February Heloïse Hardie won the Sherwood girls' u11 foil at Nottingham. As there were only 3 u11 girls they joined the u11 boys in the first round of poules, where Heloïse beat four out of five boys. Alexander Hardie finished 12th in the boys u13. His L16 fight was a repeat of his SR semi-final against Felix Sudderick. This time Alexander really made his opponent sweat and led for a while, before eventually being defeated 6-10. Slough open At the tough Slough open tournament on 6 February Dan Barnes exceeded all expectations by finishing 41st in the men's foil, before being knocked out by the eventual bronze medalist. Will Knight sustained a painful ankle injury in the second bout of his pool and was eliminated in a brave fight by the other bronze medalist, finishing 58th. Martin Carter was placed 72nd of the 92 starters after loosing 15-14 in a game which saw the control see-saw between each oppenent, even with Danny shouting from the sidelines! In the men's épée Oli Stanier was 66th in the huge field of 132. Meanwhile, in the women's épée Sam Hughes was 42nd and Kata Eklund, in her first senior competition, 86th of the 90 starters. In the men's sabre Nuno Esteves was 32nd and Jorge Esteves 33rd after an Esteves v Esteves L64 match. Paris CEP foil At the Paris CEP u15 foil on 6-7 February Lydia Stanier did remarkably well to achieve 40th place out of 186 girls despite being one of the youngest competitors. Lydia finished the fourth highest of the squad of ten English girls. GLL Camden international cadet sabre Nuno Esteves represented Portugal in this tough, high-level event. Unfortunately he had a poor result in his pool and finished 109th with only the top 100 qualifying for the remainder of the event. January Southern region championships Held at Reading on 31 January, Sam Hughes was 2nd in the women's épée (losing just 14-15 in the final); Will Knight and Jason Yuen shared 3rd place in the men's foil, with Martin Carter in 7th; Kata Eklund was 5th and Hannah Shaw 8th in the girls' u18; Dan Barnes was 2nd in the boys' u16 foil; Jin Ai Yap was 2nd and Jasmine Sumeray 3rd in the girls' u16; Lydia Stanier won the girls' u14 foil and Edmund Cornforth was 11th the boys' u14; Alexander Hardie was 3rd in the boys' u12 foil, and Heloïse Hardie was 6th in the girls' u12. These superb results have meant that five OFC members have qualified for the British Youth Championship in May. Well done to all. SeeSR photos. Here's Alexander's competition report: We arrived about 2pm. I got changed and waited for the poule. The poule was amazing. I won all my four fights. Then came the D.E ( Direct Eliminations ) round. I was confused, at first, because my name wasn’t on any of the score sheets, but this was only because I had a bye to the next round. On my first D.E fight I knocked my opponent out of the competition ( score 10-8 ). Then in the next round I beat my opponent again ( 10-3 ). On the next round ( the last four ) I got knocked by a boy called Felix ( 10-3 ), who eventually won the competition. Overall, I finished in joint third out of 23 fencers and got a bronze medal. Essex open At Colchester on 24 January, Sam Hughes did well to achieve 31st place out of 64 entrants in the women's épée. Sam is edging up the national rankings and was delighted to have beaten the fencer currently positioned 25th in her L64 bout. In a small but high-quality sabre event Jorge Esteves finished 15th, being eliminated by the eventual winner, while Nuno Esteves was 24th in the field of 28. Kenilworth LPJS foil On 17 January Lydia Stanier continued where she left off at the end of last year with her first win of the 2010 LPJS season in the girls' u13. She lost just three points in her first pool and continued that momentum all the way to victory. Heloïse Hardie took 2nd out of the three fencers in the girls' u11. Alexander Hardie came a solid 14th in the large field of 29 fencers in the boys' u13. BBO épée & sabre Also on 17 January Kata Eklund won the girls' u18 épée and Edmund Cornforth came second in the boys' u14 épée . This competition took place in Langley, Berkshire. Cambridge open Sam Hughes finished 11th in a field of 32 women épéeistes on 17 January. Jorge Esteves competed in the men's sabre, being beaten 15-13 in the L32 to finish in 17th place. December 2009Congratulations to Lydia Stanier on her selection for the England u15 foil squad for the Paris CEP marathon on 6-7 February. On 6 December OFC members had a very successful day at the BBO foil rally. Our top team, fencing under the nom d'escrime de The Foxford Papier Maché Squad finished second, just a flip of a coin (there was nothing else to seperate them) ahead of our next team Foily the Snowman in third. With four teams in total, OFC had the largest entry from any club and the results showed that we have quality in depth too. And, just for good measure, the Foxford squad snaffled the best dressed team award! BBO foil rally photos 2nd The Foxford Papier Maché Squad - Dan Barnes, Ben Worsfold, Alexander Hardie 3rd Foily the Snowman - Mark Leech, Jin Ai Yap, Bryan Kidd 8th Diamond - a Headington School team including Flora Todd 19th Spanglely Christmas Baubles - Janina Cordes, Edmund Cornforth plus guest 22nd The oX-Factor - Gordon Hardie, Heloïse Hardie, Gavin Tasker Lydia Stanier was 2nd in the Bath LPJS U13 girls' épée on 6 December. On 5 December Sam Hughes did well to finish 24th in the women's épée at the Hereford & Worcester open, losing just 14-15 in the last 32. Lydia Stanier won the U13 girls foil at the Newham LPJS and Dan Barnes finished 6th in a very strong field in the U15 boys foil on 5 December. Dan thus achieved his aim of finishing in the top 8 overall of the U15 boys foil championship. On Friday 4 December this term's beginners were paired with more experienced members of the club in a friendly pairs team competition. With 12 pairs taking part not all the matches could be completed, but the final ranking was topped by Kate MacIver and Mark Leech, just ahead (on a count of hits) of Tania Lejeune and Olly Bickley. Pairs Competition Result November 2009 Over the weekend of 29-30 November Sam Hughes competed in the London open épée. Sam writes: I only made 70th (I blame being half asleep and having an equipment malfunction which I only noticed on the Sunday) but I did compete in the teams and we came 2nd! It was my first ever medal! Yey! On 22 November Lydia Stanier won the U14 girls' épée at the southern region championships, confirming her qualification for this year's British youth championship. Jorge Esteves was 3rd in the men's sabre. Oli Stanier and Kata Eklund both finished 6th in the boys' and girls' U18 épée respectively. On the weekend of 14-15 November at the Welsh open Dan Barnes was 82nd in a field of 109 in the men's foil. Jorge Esteves finished 61st in the sabre, losing 15-7 to the eventual silver medalist in the L64. Meanwhile Nuno Esteves was 76th in the field of 84, having lost just 15-11 in the first round of the DE. Jorge reports; It was a difficult competition with a quite a few top 10 ranked fencers. Good experience anyway. On 10 November he club had a friendly team match for intermediate adults against the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory FC. Their 'intermediates' proved more competitive than OFC's with our A team defeated 3-6 and the B team going down 2-7. Using both pistes simultaneously, we managed to squeeze in a bonus match between OFC A and RALFC B, which we won 6-3. This was a very friendly match and was the first experience of competition for several OFC members. We hope to arrange more matches of a similar nature over the next few months. Thank you to Jonty Haberfield, Fiona Jefferson, Danny Keyes, Helen Williams, Ben Worsfold, Tim Wright and all the RALFC fencers for making it a great evening. Thanks too to our chairman for refereeing all evening. On 7 November at the Cambridge LPJS; Lydia Stanier missed out on winning the girl's U13 foil by just one hit when she met the championship leader in a hard-fought final and was beaten 10-9. Heloïse Hardie finished 5th out of 7 in the girl's U9 foil in her first LPJS competition. Alexander Hardie finished 14th in a strong field of 33 in the boy's U11 Foil. At the Coventry open sabre on 1 November; Nuno Esteves was placed 6th with Jorge Esteves 16th out of a field of 29. Jorge reports; Nuno fenced really well and finished the 2 rounds of poules in 4th with 10v and 2d. In the quarter finals he lost 15-12 (he came back from 3-8 down at half-time) to a cadet who is 15th in the national rankings. Congratulations to the combined Abingdon and OFC team who finished 3rd overall in the Wellesbourne team trophy on 1 November. Martin Carter competed in the men's foil with Sam Hughes and Kata Eklund being the full complement of women epeeistes in the combined team. Sam writes: Martin did really well even though he had a cold. Kata dropped just 3 fights and I dropped 2 ... in fact I was in the running for best WE and only lost on a couple of indicator points. October 2009 The weekend of 17-18 October was a very successful one of fencing for the Stanier family. Lydia Stanier won the girl's U13 épée at the Plymouth LPJS. Meanwhile, Lydia's brother Oli Stanier was 69th out of 115 at the Bedford open épée. OFC members had a super day at the BBO foil championship, on 18 October, winning a total of eight medals. In the girl's U10, Heloïse Hardie won gold (she was the only entrant!) and then proceded to win silver in the girl's U12 with her size 0 foil, 3" shorter than her opponents' size 3 foils! Alexander Hardie won gold in the boy's U12. Dan Barnes won gold in the boy's U16 and Ben Worsfold finished a character-building 5th. Edmund Cornforth won silver in the boy's U14 and Jin Ai Yap won silver in the girl's U16. In the men's competition, Mark Leech and Martin Carter won a bronze medal apiece with Gordon Hardie placed 6th. On 10-11 October, at the Allstar cup, Stratford-upon-Avon (formerly the Leicester open), Sam Hughes was 23rd in a field of 39 in the women's épée. Jorge Esteves finished 30th and Nuno Esteves 32nd out of 53 participants in the Men's Sabre. Jorge writes: In the last 64 Nuno won 15-11 and I won 15-5. In the last 32, Nuno lost 15-11 to the guy who finished 6th and I lost 15-5 to the winner. On the whole, a good day On 10 October, at the Camden LPJS foil, Dan Barnes was 5th in the boys u15. On 3 October, at the Sussex open women's épée; Sam Hughes was placed an impressive 7th in a field of 34, being knocked out of the quarter final 15-13 by an opponent who was to go on to win the silver medal. On 3 October at the Sheffield men's cadet foil (U17) Dan Barnes was placed 52nd in a field of 78. September 2009 On 26 September, at the Manchester cadet tournament; Nuno Esteves was placed 61st in the men's sabre, having come up against an eventual semi-finalist in the first round of the DE. On 20 September, at the Bristol open; Sam Hughes battled a huge field of 127, and a temperamental spool, to finish 84th in the women's épée competition. On 19-20 September, at the Amberton (Leicestershire) LPJS foil, Lydia Stanier qualified second and finished 3rd in the girl's U13, after her opponent craftily ran her out of time in the semi-final. Dan Barnes finished 6th in the small, but England-stripe laden, field of the boy's U15. Alexander Hardie finished 8th out of 22 in the boy's U11, having failed to reach the semi-final by just one hit. July 2009 On 12th July at the 123rd Much Wenlock Olympian games men's foil championship Dan Barnes was 3rd, 7th Martin Carter 7th and Mark Leech 8th out of 25 competitors. In addition, Lydia Stanier was a member of a team of three U13 foilists who won their competition. Well done to all. Mark reports: Dan had an absolutely fantastic day, winning 6/8 in the poules and giving the eventual winner a hard run in the L4. Martin and I were waylaid by a diversion on the way to the venue and didn't have time to warm up before fencing started (I am still in pain!). We didn't have great poules, but got through easy first D/Es (15-2 to me; 15-3 to Martin) to face the no.2 and 5 seeds respectively in the second round. Lots of complaining about the refereeing ensued when we took leads (my opponent may have been right about who had right of way, as I was ducking his fleches to my shoulder and counter-attacking, but seemed to have forgotten that he had to hit me to get the point - the fact that only my light kept coming up seemed not to have reached him). Anyway, we both got through, just about. Martin narrowly lost his L8 fight against a fencer with England stripes, and I lost 14-15 to Dan (grrrr), who was continuing his amazing form. Dan's semi was close until the final few hits, when the other chap got the right distance for his flicks to the chest. It was a well organised competition, with very little waiting around. Despite the moaning from the top fencers (even when they won in some cases!) it was friendly too. There were definitely enough good fights to make it a fine day out. More Oxford fencers next year?
June 2009 On 28 June at the White Horse trophy competition held at Abingdon (an adult three weapon team competition); Oxford A - Martin Carter (F), Nuno Esteves (S), Edouard Beaumont (an epeeist from Abingdon FC) came third, being knocked out in the last four by Abingdon B.
Oxford B - Paddy Ford (F), Mark Leech (E), Richard Wharton (a sabreur from Abingdon FC) came 13th out of 15, being knocked out by Saxon A in the first round of D/E.
A very hot but excellent day's fencing. The standard was high, so Oxford A's performance was impressive.
On 27-8 June at the English youth championships Lydia Stanier was placed 5th out of 24 in the U13 epee and 9th out of 42 in the U13 foil; Nuno Esteves was placed 8th out of 23 in the U15 sabre; Dan Barnes was placed 17th out of 52 in the U15 foil; Alexander Hardie was placed 20th out of 59 in the U11 foil On 21-3 June at the Mediterranean champioships in Lisbon Nuno Esteves represented Portugal in the individual cadet and junior sabre events and junior three-weapon team competition. Nuno came 7th in both the cadet and junior sabre events. On 21 June at the BBO fencing picnic Gordon and Heloïse Hardie came 4th, Ben Worsfold's pair was 5th, Dan Barnes's 6th and Alexander Hardie's 17th. On 6-7 June at the LPJS Portsmouth and Southsea foil, Lydia Stanier came 3rd in the U13 girls and Alexander Hardie 5th in the U11 boys. May 2009 On 31 May at the Oxfam open, Daniel Barnes came 18th in the foil event. On 31 May at the LPJS Haverstock epee, Lydia Stanier came 2nd in the U13 girls. On 31 May at the Hertfordshire open sabre, Jorge Esteves finished 53rd and Nuno Esteves came 65th. On 17 May at the LPJS Camden sabre, Nuno Esteves came 8th in the U15 boys. On 15 May at the Oxford Fencing Club u14 foil competition, Alexander Hardie came first, Max Rutter second, Ben Worsfold third and James du Buisson fourth. On 10 May at the Winterfold Challenge, Alexander Hardie came 5th in the U12 foil. On 9 May at the LPJS Wrexham foil, Daniel Barnes came 3rd in the U15 boys and Lydia Stanier came 3rd in the U13 girls. On 8 May at the Oxford Fencing Club u10 foil competition Bryan Kidd came first and Heloise Hardie second. On 3 May at the 1st Open European youth championships in Klagenfurt, Austria, Nuno Esteves (representing Portugal) finished 9th in u14 boys sabre.
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