Following on from our Epee course, the club Epee competition will be held this Friday. Everyone is welcome to enter, regardless of whether you’ve ever held and Epee before. We will decide the format on the night, depending on how many entrants we have.
Results in this event (in addition to the Foil and Sabre) count towards the master-at-arms trophy that we award each year to the most-successful member in the club competition.
The roadworks in Headley way are now complete, which means that the usual access to Rye is now open again. The school have closed the gates on Pullens Lane, so please don’t try to use that gate to access the site.
It was a pleasure to have the Oxford University Pentathletes visited the club last night. We fenced a one-hit epee teams match, which is a little different to the standard fencing matches to 5 or 15 that we’re all used to.
Seven fencers from each club took part, meaning that we had seven teams of two. OFC teams took the top two places – well done to Darcy, Tim, Anne and Mark, with the pentathletes making up the next two. It was a really fun night of fencing, and we can’t wait to do it again!
We will be holding the first of our regular friendly competitions this Friday. We will start straight after warm-up and footwork, so please be ready to fence promptly. The format will be decided based on how many entries we have, so please arrive on time!
We return to our regular Friday and Tuesday sessions at Rye 4th January. See you there to blow away the Christmas cobwebs!
This Sunday (21st October) sees the Southern Region Foil Championships for:
Adult Novice Foil (Ladies and Men)
Entry will be £15 for each competition. The competition is being held in St. Gabriel’s School in Newbury.
Check-In Times (TBC):
The competition will be held in parallel with the adult competition at St. Gabriel’s and is open to any boy or girl who was 10 or under on the 31st December 2018. Competition is planned in all weapons. Enter here
Coming up the following week are the SR Epee and Sabre championships, which will also be held in St. Gariel’s. Entry via Sport:80 and more details here.
From Southern Region
Date: Sunday 7th October
Venue: Play Football Arena, Unit 29 Bramble Rd, Kembrey Park, Swindon, SN2 8HB
Age to be determined as at 1st January 2018.
This is a great fun event for the regional young fencers to enjoy the environment of team fencing. It is in my opinion one of the best competitions of the season. It would be brilliant to see the young fencers that we see at the qualifiers having a go at the team format, I am sure you will enjoy the experience it gives you. The entry fees are heavily subsidised to help encourage you all along.
Events:
Teams of three competitors. May be of mixed gender. Can be club teams, school teams, just teams of friends, all welcome. Please see website for details of equipment requirements etc.
U10 Foil.
U14 Foil, U18 Foil
U14 Epee, U18 Epee
U14 Sabre, U18 Sabre
Format: If numbers are sufficient, then a poule followed by DE for podium places.
Check-In Times (TBC):
U10/U14/U18 Team Foil – 9.30am check-in, plan to start 10am
U14/U18 Team Epee – 9.30am check-in, plan to start 10am
U18 Team Sabre – 11.30 am check-in, plan to start after U18 Team Foil approx 12-12:30pm so maybe slight delay.
Entry Fee: Standard entries: Standard entry fee of £20 per team early bird then £24 for entries received by 10pm on Friday 5th October ENTER HERE
From Tuesday 21st August we will return to our regular venue of Rye St. Antony in Headington. There will be no Friday session on 24th August on account of the bank holiday, and Friday sessions will resume as normal from 31st August.
I hope that you have had a successful and enjoyable fencing season.
This year, we held two beginners courses and introduced 32 people to the sport. We have welcomed 15 new members to the club either graduating from our beginners courses or joining from elsewhere. What’s especially great is that our Friday sessions regularly have more than 35 attendees, which is much higher than it’s been historically.
Congratulations to Mark Leech, who is our 2018 Master-at-Arms. Mark fenced in all three club competitions, and managed to reach the finals of the foil, semi-finals of the epee and sabre. This high standard of consistency means that he wins the handsome Ralph Evans trophy as our most successful member in the club competitions.
