Winners – L-R – Peter, Robert, Claudia, Steve and Torran
At the end of April, we found ourselves, back at Cygnet Leisure Centre, with a very healthy fifteen fencers, all primed and ready for action in the April monthly club competition. On a spur of the moment (we’ll know not to do that again!) thought, it was decided to have three teams of five fencers, with each fencer fighting every other fencer from the opposing team and, winning team stays on. Each duel would see the two fencers fighting to the next multiple of three before standing aside for the next pairing (i.e. first duel to 3 points, then next up the first team to reach 6 points, then 9 points etc before another pairing would take over). Unfortunately, with all teams being very evenly standardised, time was against us and it was decided that the first pairing of Team A vs Team B would fight to 39 points, but then, for the winner stays on match (and the one declaring an overall Team Champion), we could only manage a team total of 30 hits before the Badminton Players descended upon us and we had to leave!
Henry set Team A (Henry, Ellora, Phil, Mark and Nate) up well with a 3-0 lead, which Jake managed to erode, for Team B (Dave, Jake, Tadek, Tom and Paul) on the very next go. Tadek, Tom and Jake managed to maintain that lead over the next three rounds, but Team A were not to be outdone. Having kept up the pace by landing hits against their opponents, Team A managed to regain the lead, again thanks to Henry. The lead remained short-lived again, with Paul managing a 6-2 victory over Mark and a very narrow 21-20 lead to Team B, overall. However, it was not to be Team A’s night and Team B managed to retain the lead right through to the final bout, eventually winning 39-34 to take them through to the final.
The first round of the final saw Claudia hold her ground, for Team C (Claudia, Torran, Rob, Peter and Steve) against Dave, with both fencers finishing their round with 3 hits apiece. Jake managed to turn things around for Team B and Tadek held that advantage until Peter stepped up for Team C, putting them into a very narrow 12-11 lead. With much toing and froing, Jake took back the advantage for Team B, but Claudia regained the lead, 18-17 for Team C. Peter, Steve and Torran held on to that advantage for Team C, but in the second to last leg, Paul had a storming round for Team B, giving them a 3-point lead into the penultimate round. Dave held on for a 30-27 lead, for Team B, going into the final, but two matches back-to-back, especially when it’s Rob, bringing home the bacon for Team C, proved to much. In only his second team fight of the night, Rob, against a well-fought Dave had a storming 6-0 victory and clinched the trophy for Team C.
Thank you to all those who attended and joined in with the competition. Without you, these things wouldn’t happen. Well done to all those who competed on the night, there were some really close and well fought duels. The questions to be answered now are (1) Is Rob now finally back and recovered to the fullest extent and will he continue his winning ways and (2) with Peter being in the winning team, is he the lucky team mascot you need to have or was this just a lucky blip in the Mark/Peter winning teams combo? Finally, a huge congratulations to Team C – Peter, Rob, Claudia, Steve and Torran for being crowned our April 2026 Monthly Club Competition Winners.
