Chairman’s Report
Once again our club remains strong and stable. Our membership is currently 73, and we have welcomed 17 new members to the club this year. We introduced 28 new beginners to the sport on the two courses that we ran, and also introduced 10 to epee and 12 to sabre.
Friday sessions continue to be exceedingly busy and well-attended, and we often have 40 or more fencers training with us. Similarly, Tuesdays now have a good number of foilists and epeeists attending, so if you haven’t been in a while, there will be someone there for you to fence.
In competitions, some of our junior members have excelled at national level. Darcy achieved second in U14 epee at the BYCs, in addition to creditable placings at foil and sabre. Jay managed third in the U18 foil, and Luke and Eunmin finished well into the last 32 in their weapons. It is a credit to the hard work that you all put into training that is reflected in these results since no-one would achieve higher levels without good sparring partners.
Our senior members have also been active in competitions. Mark and Anne have qualified for the GB cup, which is to be held tomorrow. Separately, Mark managed a silver at the Vets age groups in March. Caryl was third in the Elite Epee in February.
We’ve held two epee matches against the university pentathletes, which are great fun.
In January, we asked you for feedback about what the club could do to be better, and you asked for more internal competitions, cleaner kit, and a chance to learn epee and sabre. Since then, we’ve run Sabre and Epee courses, run monthly competitions for our junior members, and have asked you (and your parents) to help with cleaning kit. In particular, I’d like to thank those of you who have taken kit home to wash. It is a task that seems thankless, but it makes everyone who interacts the club equipment’s time more pleasant. Thank you.
Minutes of 2018 AGM were proposed by Justen Hyde and unanimously accepted.
Treasurer’s Report (Accounts)
Proposed Mark Leech, unanimously accepted.
Membership fees
I mentioned at the club several months ago that we would need to review the club finances and membership fees this AGM. This is not something that we take lightly because we try to make the club as accessible as possible by keeping our fees as low as we can, and those of you who have been around for a few years will know that we’ve only had one fee increase in the past 8 or 9 years. We’re also lucky that we have had a large financial cushion for the past few years, which has allowed us to absorb increasing costs but this year we need to increase fees to ensure that we don’t get into trouble.
Increase the Annual Fee to £180, from £160. Increase the monthly fee from £15 to £17 (making it £204/year). Quarterly fee £50. Increase guest fees to £8 per session. We will move to these new fees from 1st September, so renewals after that date will be affected.
The increase was accepted unanimously.
Election of Officer Bearers
Chair Tim Stephens (proposed Malcolm Allton)
Secretary Mark Leech (proposed Malcolm Allton)
Treasurer Anne Tester (proposed Malcolm Allton)
Welfare Officer Justen Hyde (proposed Martina Zagaria)
Armourer Martin Carter
Club Competition Results
Sabre Champion: Arya Cont, Alex
Epee Champion: Mark Leech, Vito Fernandes
Foil Champion: Gordon Hardie, Reece Waltho
Master At Arms
Justen beat Andrew in their only head-to-head match (in the foil competition), placed higher in that competition, and finished higher in two weapons.
| Sabre | Epee | Foil | OVERALL | |
| Justen Hyde | 2 | 8 | 2 | 12 |
| Andrew Shaw | 5 | 3 | 4 | 12 |
| Mark Leech | 5 | 1 | 7 | 13 |
| Gordon Hardie | 5 | 8 | 1 | 14 |
| Robin Nyland | 5 | 6 | 3 | 14 |
| Tim Stephens | 5 | 2 | 7 | 14 |
| Anne Tester | 5 | 4 | 7 | 16 |
| Arya Cont | 1 | 8 | 7 | 16 |
| Alex Seddon | 5 | 5 | 7 | 17 |
| Louis Trichard | 5 | 8 | 5 | 18 |
| Juliette Armand | 3 | 8 | 7 | 18 |
| Denise Dexter | 5 | 8 | 6 | 19 |
| Michael Oliver | 5 | 7 | 7 | 19 |
| Joseph Rea | 4 | 8 | 7 | 19 |
Junior Master at Arms
| Sabre | Epee | Foil | OVERALL | |
| Xavier | 5 | 2 | 2 | 9 |
| Vito | 5 | 1 | 4 | 10 |
| Reece | 5 | 6 | 1 | 12 |
| Luke | 5 | 6 | 3 | 14 |
| Josh | 3 | 6 | 5 | 14 |
| Jared | 2 | 6 | 7 | 15 |
| Adrian | 5 | 6 | 6 | 17 |
| Barnaby Tu | 5 | 6 | 8 | 19 |
| Arthur | 5 | 6 | 9 | 20 |
| Aryan | 5 | 6 | 10 | 21 |
| Barnaby Th | 5 | 6 | 11 | 22 |
| Aoife | 5 | 6 | 12 | 23 |
| Sacha | 5 | 6 | 13 | 24 |
| Alex | 1 | 6 | 17 | 24 |
| Charles | 5 | 6 | 14 | 25 |
| Ava | 5 | 3 | 17 | 25 |
| Cohen | 5 | 6 | 15 | 26 |
| Freya | 5 | 4 | 17 | 26 |
| Balthazar | 5 | 6 | 16 | 27 |
| Luca | 5 | 5 | 17 | 27 |
| Cohen | 4 | 6 | 17 | 27 |
Oxford Fencing Club 