We return to our regular Friday and Tuesday sessions at Rye 4th January. See you there to blow away the Christmas cobwebs!
Author: Tim Stephens
Southern Region U11 and Adult Foil Championships
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):
- Novice Foil – Check-in from 9:30 and event starts at 10 am
- Senior Foil – Check-in from 11 am and approx start 11:30 am
Girls and Boys U11 All Weapons
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
Adult Epee and Sabre Championships – 28th October
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.
Age Group Teams Competition -7th October
From Southern Region
Enter Here
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
Return to Rye St. Antony
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.
2018
Chairman’s Report 2018
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.
Master at Arms 2018
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.
Summer Fencing at Radley College
As in previous years, our summer training sessions will move to Radley College sports centre from Tuesday 3rd July. Please note that there will only be Tuesday sessions from 8pm to 10pm, no Fridays. The final session at Radley will be Tuesday 14th August, and we return to regular Tuesday and Friday sessions at Rye St. Antony in Headington from Tuesday 21st August.
If you don’t own your own kit, please arrange with a committee member to take away a jacket, mask and plastron for the summer before Friday 29th June since we will only take electric boxes and weapons to Radley. See below for directions.
Oxford University Pentathletes friendly match
This Tuesday (27 March), we welcomed the university pentathlon teams for a friendly match ahead of their varsity match against Cambridge next week.
We fenced a modified version of one-hit Epee in teams of three up to three points. This was great fun, and it was really good to have some different fencers (and a new format) to spice things up. Good luck to the pentathletes for their match, and we hope you’ll come to train with us again soon!
GB Cup Qualifier
Several club-members competed in the Southern Region qualifier for the GB cup last weekend (11th February 2018).
The Ladies Epee was combined with the Mens for the poules because there were not sufficient entries to run it as an individual competition. Anne finished second after a final where she adapted her fencing to counter her experienced opponent but wasn’t quite able to capitalize.
The Mens foil medal table was dominated by Oxford fencers, with Mark (3rd), Martin (2nd) and Shaz (1st). Martin’s semi-final against Mark and final against Shaz were two very-close matches on account of how well they all knew each other.
The Mens Epee was the largest event of the day, and Tim managed to finish 2nd following a close final. Cas and Tim met in the quarter-finals and fenced a close match that was even until 13-13 when Tim managed to pull ahead.
Well done to Anne, Shaz, Martin, and Tim, who have qualified for the GB Cup finals in June.
Town and Gown Teams
Well done to Eunmin, Tony, Caryl, Anne, Martin and Alasdair who were our valiant teams in the Town and Gown last weekend. It was a close match, but we were narrowly defeated by the university teams. 
