Mark presenting the trophy to, a clearly delighted, Henry.

After a few sessions of deliberation prior to the start of the competition and, with the scorer finally understanding how the DE section of this month’s competition was going to be run, we finally gathered on Tuesday 30^th January 2024 (where has the time gone!) for the start of the 2024 monthly club competitions.  Despite worrying about the numbers attending (Claudia and Paul were ill and with Richard still recuperating from a nasty cough, Sandy injured and Will exhausted from a busy work schedule, to name but a few) we saw the event start with 12 fencers and, with the arrival of Henry and Sofia, we were able to add each of them to a poule, to make two poules of 7 fencers.  Despite the surprise of some at my ability to evenly match the poules (and Richard still complaining he’d be in the poule of death either way) we commenced.

Rob and Joe were the clear masters on the night and despite Rob’s protestations that he was the best, Joe managed to pip him to the top seed by way of a superior indicator.  Despite his late arrival, the adrenaline must have been flowing because Joe was the only fencer to stand in Henry’s way, of gaining 100% of fights won.  Richard, despite some breathlessness due to his ongoing recuperation, managed third spot in the poule with four out of six wins and, Stuart following hot on his heels with three out of six wins.  Steve and Mark followed on respectively, but with Jake unable to complete his matches against Joe, Richard and Stuart, the older fencers were given the win and Jake is showing as zero matches won (but with his quick sword work and great ability to get the foot hit in, who knows how the poule would actually have ended). 

Rob’s poule was much more evenly matched with every fencer managing to win at least one match.  Dave was second in this poule, winning four of his five duels, with Sean and Sofia evenly matched at three wins apiece, father and son – Phil and Peter were level on two wins each and Rohan seemingly having a shocking night only winning one of his six bouts. 

How would the DE the following week pan out?  Judging by the confusion on how it was going to work, it seemed like the scoring would be a harder slog than the actual fighting!

So, the following Tuesday arrives and the rules for the DE are as follows:  For the first round of the DE all fencers start with 5 lives.  Each time you get a hit against you, you lose a life.  The first person to lose all five of their lives loses the round and the opponent progresses.  However, for the fencer who has progressed they will only progress with all of their five lives if they haven’t been hit by their opponent.  So, if fencer A and fencer B compete and, fencer A wins the bout 5-3, they have been hit 3 times, so they only progress to the next round of the DE with 2 lives (as they have lost 3 lives with every hit that they have incurred in the bout).  This also means that if a bout ends with a double hit and both fencers having lost all their lives, then nobody progresses and their opponent in the next round will get a Bye.  It does mean that there is a possibility that we won’t even get to a grand final match and the winner will have to be determined on a back count on the number of lives s/he had in each of the previous rounds!

Back to the easy (non-explanatory) part of this report!  Rob arrives and is full of confidence (you know what they say about pride and falls, Rob!), with protestations about his recent Kings School Alumni win and how he sees his opponents as nameless and faceless mannequins to hone his fencing skills.  Sandy is back from injury and makes his usual understated entrance.  Richard is his usual positive self and Claudia is back from illness.  Jaina makes an appearance as she hasn’t got an early work start in the morning and Helen returns to the fold having had a hectic year previously that meant we hardly saw her – welcome back Helen!  On the other hand, Joe, Phil, Rohan, Jake, and Sean were not in attendance and those who weren’t here the previous week were slotted in. 

In the first round of DE Helen, Peter and Rob were all handed Bye’s into the quarter final stages.  Claudia overcame Sofia, but lost three lives in the process, as did Richard who beat Mark and Dave who conquered Sandy.  Stuart proceeded through with a single life, having had a tightly fought match against Steve (winning 5-4) and the cream of the first-round crop was Henry who advanced with four of his five lives having defeated Jaina (winning 5-1). 

The quarter finals were where the limitations of the number of lives came to the fore.  Richard lost both of his live to Dave, meaning Dave moved forward with both of his lives to the semi-finals. Peter and Rob, having both received byes, found themselves duelling with five lives each, and, much to the crowd’s delight (sorry Rob), Peter gained a couple of early hits, followed by a couple of double hits and with a final blow, Peter landed the shot that saw the top seed (on the night) exit the competition.  Then the limitations of playing with lives and not up to a number of hits became evident.  Stuart, with one life remaining, was up against Henry, who had progressed with four lives.  Stuart started strong and scored an early point against Henry, however, a single hit from Henry was enough for Stuart to lose his one life and exit the competition, despite the actual shots scored being one apiece.  To really add insult to injury to those who were playing well, Claudia’s match against Helen was 3-2 in Claudia’s favour, but because she had only advanced with two lives, despite being behind on shot’s landed, Helen’s two hits were enough to wipe out Claudia’s two lives and see Helen move forward into the semi-finals against Dave!

The semi-finals were a much easier affair to follow.  Helen and Dave both had two lives and, with Dave having the advantage of the reach, he easily overcame Helen with just the two hits required to take out her remaining lives.  Henry and Peter had both advanced with three lives each and, despite Peter obliterating one of Henry’s lives, he was unable to overcome the in-form Henry, who would continue into the final, versus Dave, with both men on two lives.  The final was a quick affair, with only two hits required from either fencer to become champion.  The struggle of refereeing a couple of matches and trying to remember to reduce the scoreboard for the fencer hit, rather than adding a strike for the fencer who scored, had obviously worn Dave out and Henry came out as the January champion with both of his two lives intact.  Well done, Henry. 

We’re not sure if this is a format that we’ll use in the future (Rob was definitely displeased – “this is ridiculous and has changed the way that I’ve done fencing for 25 years!”) but if anybody has any ideas that they’d like us to try for the future month’s competitions, please speak to Mark.  We’d like to keep these competitions fun and interesting and we can only learn from the new things that we do.  Well done everybody for giving it a go, for understanding and a special well done to Henry who is our January 2024 Monthly Competition winner.  They’ll all be gunning for you next month!

Congratulations go to Rob who recently won the Maureen Milner-Grundy Memorial Trophy.  The Trophy has been presented to the winner of a fencing competition, held at Kings School, Canterbury.  Maureen was active wife at the Kings School and was a stalwart of the fencing club, looking after her charges there.  She was a mainstay of the fencing fraternity at the school and, she sadly passed away in December 2021, aged 94 years.  The trophy was named in her honour and is presented to the winner of an annual fencing competition held at the school each year.  This competition also incorporates alumni of the school. 

It is with much pride that we can announce that Rob is the first ex-pupil of the school to have won the competition.  Well done Rob.  Long may your winning ways continue!

Medallists in the girls U16 Kent epee       

Coach and pupil – well done you guys!

On Sunday 28^th January 2024, despite an ongoing cold, Claudia managed the early start, for the trip to Tonbridge School, for the Kent U16 and Senior Epee competition.  On arrival at the wonderful facilities, she made her way to the competition area and signed in.  Numbers of fencers (at this point, only Epee) were good, although mainly male.  The girls for both the U16 and Senior managed to combine to produce a single poule of 7 fencers for the seeding round. 

Claudia’s first duel was a baptism of fire against the quick and feisty South African representative from Whitstable.  Despite a 5-2 loss, Claudia warmed up and got into her flow quickly for the second fight, against an old and much more experienced foe.  With the timer timing them out, although she lost 4-3, it was a much more convincing fight, with Claudia, at times, surprising the opponent with her attack and keeping the Tonbridge girl on her heels.  The next fights were completed in Claudia’s favour at 5-4, 5-2, 5-3 and 5-2, meaning she finished as second seed. 

Nerves for the DE were high, as Claudia, despite first being given a bye, then faced her very first opponent of the day again.  Claudia took an early lead, but in a lapse of judgement, allowed her opponent to get a hit, when she was concerned about coming off of the back of the piste.  At first this allowed her opponent in, gaining enough points to draw level and take a lead.  Claudia, not to be outdone, regained her composure and scored again to draw level.  However, a particularly painful strike to the right shoulder, from her opponent, saw Claudia struggle for the next few points and her challenger draw away into a lead of 14-9.  Not to be outdone, Claudia fought through the pain and managed to score again before the DE was timed out at 14-10 in her rival’s favour.  Claudia was pleased with her performance, holding the historically more accomplished rivals to close score lines and, topping it all, coming away with the medal.  Well done, Claudia.  Good luck for next Sunday’s South East Regional Youth Championships.  Finally, as always, a big thank you to Coach Will for his support and advice on the day.  She could not have done it without you!

Poor weather, bad traffic and the start of the Christmas ‘do’ season saw a particularly poor turnout for the last Tuesday in November and, so it was decided to postpone the monthly club competition until the following week.  So, the first week in December, having recovered from the Club Christmas meal the previous week, saw a healthy attendance of 14 fencers.  We saw the return of a number of fencers including Abs (injury), Andrew and Jack (too much work!) and managed to settle for two poules of seven – nice and manageable.  

Poule one got off to a blistering start with Abs versus Steve and, Steve showing no mercy for Abs long time absence, winning 5v0.  Peter and Mark were up next with a much more closely fought game, with Peter taking the victory 5v4.  The scoreline for each competitor should have given them an inkling of the night to come.  Peter was the star of the poule, winning five out of six matches, whereas Mark, although not winning a match, was the highest scoring loser, managing 4 hits in four games and 3 hits in his other two games; with scoring like that, it’s a sure sign that it just isn’t your night!  Sandy, Rohan and Steve each managed four wins out of six, with Abs and Jack managing two victories each, showing just how closely matched the competitors were.  With all the equipment working a treat, the matches were flying along and even Sandy declared “with a one hit DE, we’ll get this done tonight”…and that’s when the Scotsman learned all about ‘Murphy’s law’! 

Poule two had barely got started when one match went to priority and then a few matches later the equipment needed the help of an IT specialist – turn it off, turn it back on again!  Add in a broken sword and this poule’s matches went right up the wire of the building lights being turned off!  Paul and Will were joint kings of this poule winning five out of six matches each, with Will taking the top seed title by way of the indicator.  Hot on their heels were Dave and Sofia with four wins each, with Claudia following behind with two match victories.  Richard, ground down by temperamental equipment, let his frustrations get the better of him and managed a single victory, whereas Andrew’s long-term absence showed across the poule. 

Sometimes though, with a one hit direct elimination, where anything can happen, it almost seems pointless working out the seedings, but only the following week would tell.

After a slow start to the evening, possibly due to the infernal bad and rainy weather we’d been experiencing, we eventually had enough of the original 14 fencers to complete the November competition.  Jaina stepped in for the missing Rohan and, after a few weeks absence the Foreman brothers arrived, without any time to catch their breaths, to stand in for Andrew and Jack.  Will and Paul were graced with a bye each for the first round, with Claudia overcoming Sofia, Sandy beating Richard, Peter defeating Sean, Dave overwhelming Abs and Stuart outdoing Steve, the final eight were decided. 

Will caught Claudia when she was on the attack seeing him set up a semi-final against Sandy, who saw off Mark.  Peter found the reach he needed against a much taller Dave, but Stuart couldn’t find the burst of adrenaline that saw him through the first round DE, and lost to the ever-composed Paul. 

In light of the audience that had been building during the quarter-finals, it was decided to play the semi-finals one match at a time.  First up was Will versus Sandy.  Silence descended upon the hall, but after some to-ing and fro-ing, it was the Scotsman who came up trumps.  Sandy’s delight soon turned to dread when he realised the next match would produce his opponent.  Out of the ‘two little Dickie birds’ (Peter vs Paul) Sandy’s support went to the elder of the two men because “if I play Paul, I know what he’s going to do; there’s a possibility I could beat him in the final”!  We didn’t think it was possible for the hall to fall any more silent, but somehow, it did.  With the two men trading blows, incurring ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ from those watching, finally one landed with enough force to produce a winner…sending Paul through the final against Sandy.

The longer break, however, did Sandy no favours, as Paul landed the winning shot, making him the November 2023 Monthly competition winner.

Well done all.  There were some really close matches this month and some really great shots from across all the competitors.  With not much time left this December, I think that may be time for the 2023 monthly club competitions, but make sure you’re available for the last Tuesday of the month in 2024, as there may be some competition changes afoot.  However, the things that won’t change will be the fun, the friendship and the trophy!

Well done to everybody this year.  Have a very merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous 2024.  Until next year…

Coach, Will, having presented the trophy to victor, Rob and, to get us into the spirit, Mark presenting Rob with a winning box of mince pies (I said it was still too early…I’ll be wearing green for my grinch uniform until at least the 1^st December!  Bah humbug!)

During a period of awful weather, falling on Halloween and, with some schools still on half term, it was always going to be a hit or miss week for the numbers attending the October 2023 monthly club competition.  It seemed our fears prevailed and, with a number of fencers dressing up and braving the rain for Halloween, the hall at Cygnets was graced with only 10 fencers for the competition, one of the quietest months yet. 

With two poules of five fencers, the duelling got under way at a pace.  Dave and Claudia got poule 1 underway (allowing Sandy and Rob a rest from their epic ‘warm up’ match).   This duel was neither quick nor easy going for either competitor.  Despite Claudia coming out with a losing scoreline of 5-0, it did not do justice to the difficulty that Dave had overcoming the junior, with Dave desperately lunging for the final hit with only one second to go.  Rob, newly engaged to the lovely Rosie, was a man on a high and was the victor of the group winning all four matches.  Will came a close second, winning three of his four matches, losing by one hit to the energised Rob.  Dave’s night was up and down; he won two of his matches, but lost the other two only scoring one hit, in each, in the process.  Rohan’s evening wasn’t as successful as other weeks, with him winning only one of his four bouts, however, this was a tough poule and both Rob and Will were definitely on form on the evening, which meant the others making an impact was less capable.  Despite Claudia losing all four matches, the scorelines did not do justice to her tenacity in each bout and, some of the exceptional hits that she made on the night.  One her less savoury, but winning, hits had Rob momentarily wondering if he would be able to consummate his future wedding to Rosie!

In poule 2, Sandy, Steve and Sofia each managed three out of four wins.  Sandy started the evening well with a closely fought warm-up match, followed by three well fenced matches against Mark, Richard and Steve.  However, his domestic and foreign jaunts caught up with him and he couldn’t maintain the pace, losing his final bout to Sofia 5-3.  Sandy may well argue, that the direct nipple hit from Richard, in an earlier bout, hindered his performance more than the lack of match fitness!  Richard managed to beat Mark, but couldn’t start the evening with a win against his nemesis, Sofia, losing 5-4 in yet another ‘grudge match’!  In another very closely fought poule on the evening, it was Mark who came out with zero wins, but like Claudia in poule 1, the percentage of games won and the scorelines, did not reflect the quality of fencing on the night.  The following Tuesday will see the knockout stage and, as we all know, this could end quite differently from what is predicted, only time will tell. 

The following week saw a much larger attendance, meaning that the spectators to the knock out stage had plenty of company.  In the final 16, only two matches were played, with the rest of the competitors receiving byes into the quarter-finals.  Rohan was upbeat and ready for action and it showed, quickly seeing off Mark, whereas the Richard versus Claudia match took longer.  After three minutes, a 3 v 3 scoreline, and some deliberation, Will came to the rescue and used the electronic equipment to show us how to decide who had ‘priority’ – Claudia.  Within the next minute Richard had to score to win, otherwise a drawn scoreline would see Claudia through under the priority ruling.  One double hit later and the crowd thought that Claudia might have cinched it, but the senior club member showed that the patience and wisdom of age will always overcome the enthusiasm of youth, eventually winning 5 v 4.

The quarter finals were also all a very close affair.  Rob just managed to beat Rohan 5 v 4, with Richard overcoming Will and, Dave beating Sandy by the same scorelines.   None of the matches were quick affairs with the score always bouncing back and forth between the two fencers.  In a number of cases epees were checked for their performance as it was hard to believe a winning shot hadn’t been landed!  The duel that went to the wire was Sofia versus Steve, with the veteran coming out on top, but Sofia managed to hold him off for the final hit, within the three minutes, meaning Steve could only manage a 4 v 2 victory. 

The semi-finals were won by the first to reach 10 hits via two three-minute rounds.  Rob defeated Steve within the first three minutes by a 10 v 5 scoreline, but Dave and Richard’s bout took longer, despite the score line not being much different at 10 v 6 to Dave.  Despite Rob having had a longer break between bouts, Dave obviously felt energised, opting for only a quick drink before hitting the final against Rob.  The longer duel of three, three-minute rounds and the first to reach 15 hits got off to a pace.  Rob took an early lead, but Dave defended well and occasionally scored a fine hit.  However, with 13 seconds of the second round to go, Rob took a 13 v 5 lead and, within the last few seconds managed to land the two winning hits that took him to a 15 v 5 victory.  Well done Rob!

The next competition will be on the last Tuesday in November, with the knockout stage being a one-hit direct elimination…that always turns up a few surprises!

Honorary Chairman, Paul (far left), handing over the trophy to the victorious team of (l-r) Peter, Sandy, Will and Mark

In the week following the conclusion of the club’s, record-setting, longest monthly club competition, fifteen fencers arrived at Cygnet Leisure with the bit between their teeth and compete for the third team relay title of the year.  With Richard excluding himself, due to still suffering the symptoms of a recent bout of Covid, we found ourselves in the enviable position of three pistes, with one being manned permanently, by Richard, as referee.  Despite piste 1 not having a working timer, Dave found a long-standing app, on his mobile, that proved invaluable for timing and scoring…if only anybody using it had the eyes for the small print!  With all fencers ready to commence, we made a start at exactly 7.30pm.

The middle piste saw Steve, Rohan, Henry and Tadek fence each other, with Steve and Rohan each managing 3 out of 4 wins.  Hot on their heels was Henry with 2 victories and Peter and Tadek each managing to bow out of the poules having got 1 win each under their belts.  Most of these matches were closely fought, with no fencer receiving zero hits scored in any of their bouts; although one must wonder about the competitiveness of this group with Peter having to receive an apology from one fencer for a particularly hardened shot and, Steve having his sword spliced in two in his match against Tadek.  They all finished the poule in one piece (apart from the sword!). 

On the end piste, Will proved that his time spent teaching youngsters in America, over the holidays, had not gone to waste and he saw off all his competitors, winning all four of his fights.  Newcomer, but old-time fencer, Tom, was as equally unfazed by his new surroundings and came in second with 3 wins.  Dave managed 2 victories, but after an injury and a few sessions away, the break proved too much for Paul, who could only win one match.  Sofia placed 5^th in and extremely difficult poule, but kept the side up for the juniors by scoring consistently and not letting any of the others have it all their own way.

The final poule, refereed by Richard, saw Rob claim the top spot, winning all his matches, although Andrew proved his undoing by holding Rob to a 4 v 1 victory, rather than allowing Rob to triumph with the illustrious 5 hits in the three minutes allowed.  Abs, having previously used his height to his advantage, is now proving a contender, having improved his form, to finish second in the poule, having won 3 out of his 4 matches.  Mark was next with 2 wins and Claudia also managing to claim a win.  Andrew’s recent absence was glaring with no match conquests, although he did manage to score against both Rob and Claudia.  Despite a delay due to faulty equipment (always remember to try first – ‘turn it off, turn it back on again!’) this was the final poule to finish and still in plenty of time to, possibly, complete the event in one night.  However, problems with the laptop, making it difficult to work quickly enough (user error?..never!!!  A thank you to James for his help on the night), meant that the team relay knockout would have to be concluded the following week.  I guess you can’t have it all. 

The first Tuesday in October saw the conclusion of the September competition.  After much deliberation and having finally sought the wisdom of the fencing oracle, Paul, the teams were announced.  With Andrew on holiday, but Jake and Sandy in attendance, we managed to compile four teams of four, ready for the finale.  Team A; of Dave, Henry, Jake and Rob, managed to see off Team D; of Claudia, Steve, Tadek and Tom, to make the final.  Claudia’s nemesis, Dave, took an early lead against her for Team A, with Henry holding the lead against Steve to take Team A into a 6 v 1 lead at the halfway stage.  Next up came Tadek, who provided a much needed comeback, and boost, for Team D, pulling the score back to 7 v 9, against Jake, but still in Team A’s favour, but with some hope in sight.  Rob and Tom finished the relay for Team A and Team D respectively, but were evenly matched, meaning that Rob, managed to sustain the earlier lead for Team A, winning 12 v 10 and taking them into the final.

Team B; of Mark, Peter, Will and Sandy took on Team C; of Abs, Sofia, Rohan and Paul for their place in the final.  Mark took an early lead, against Abs, for Team B, with Peter extending the lead against Sofia and, Will following on his teams impressive run, against Rohan, to give Sandy a 9 v 4 head start against Paul in the final leg.  With Sandy back from a few weeks away, he had the bit between his teeth and Paul stood no chance against his spirit, ensuring that Team B were through to the final with a resounding 12 v 6 victory.

The third place play off saw no position changes to any of the fencers, ensuring that Abs fought Steve, Sofia was against Claudia, Rohan fenced Tadek (much to Tadek’s dismay) and Paul battled Tom.  After a closely fought first round, Steve scraped the win 3 v2 against Abs.  Claudia accomplished a couple of well-placed hits against Sofia, extending the lead to 6 v 3.  Despite his scepticism at facing Rohan, Tadek maintained the three-point lead, through a series of double hits and in the final bout a couple of double hits meant that Tom sauntered Team D to the third-place victory.

Team A and Team B both saw positional changes for the final.  Team A’s new order of Dave, Henry, Jake and Rob, were to brave Team B’s Mark, Peter, Sandy and Will.  With Dave taking an early 3 v 0 lead over Mark and, Henry preserving the advantage it looked like Team A might have it in the bag.  But, Peter’s leg against Henry proved the turning point.  Although Peter completed the round behind, he had pulled the points advantage back for Team B, to being only 4 v 6 down.  The third leg proved to be the tactical trailblazer for Team B, as Sandy overcame the deficit and procured a 9 v 7 lead for Team B.  The tables had turned.  The final pairing of Rob v Will proved decisive, with Will scoring the final round 3 v 1 and taking the team to a 12 v 8 victory and, Rob declaring, on the presentation of the trophy; “If I’d known there was a trophy at stake, I’d have tried harder”!  Well done Team B (Mark, Peter, Sandy and Will), you are the champions for September.  For a ‘friendly’ event, there was a lot of audience participation this week – very raucous cheering from the sidelines!  On a final note, it has been brought to my attention that Mark and Peter have so far been in each of the victorious teams from the relay competitions.  It looks to me like the only way to win in this event is (1) be paired with these two or (2) break up the Mark/Peter dream team.  Only time will tell…

Well done to everyone competing, especially the victors and, next months competition will be held on the final Tuesday in October.  Be there, ready, for a 7.30pm start.

Despite Will’s return to Gravesham, we only saw a trickle of people arrive for the delayed August 2023 monthly club competition, until the start time of 7.30pm arrived and again, we had a good number of 14 fencers.  Two poules of seven fencers (as decided by Sandy, much to Richard’s dismay!) got their fencing underway, with each bout being decided within the three-minute time limit.  Despite the hot and humid weather, the fencers gradually made their way through the rounds.  In poule 1, Claudia gave Sandy a shock, leading for most of the match, but the Scotsman coming good at the end – edging it 5-4.  Sandy continued to make good headway through each of his matches only being beaten by Harry.  Harry, returning to Gravesham after a stint away at university, managed to win all six of his bouts, with only Tadek and Sandy coming close to beating him.  Rohan and left hander, Tadek, were next in line in this poule each managing to win half of their matches, with Steve and Phil only managing two wins each and clearly on the ‘hustle’ for the one shot knock out the following week!  Despite not winning a match, Claudia landed some impressive shots and the score lines probably didn’t do her justice.  Maybe the one shot knock out will be her thing. 

In poule number 2, Paul won all of his matches, although two of them were so closely fought that he didn’t even win with the full five hits.  Mark and Peter were hot on his heels with four wins each, with one of Peter’s matches being quite bizarre in that the fencers seem to run at each other or away from each other, without landing a hit!  Will proved that, despite three months abroad, he had not lost his touch completely and won half of his matches.  Sofia followed on with two out of six wins and Jake and Richard both finished the night having won at least one bout each.  Richard was not happy with the knockout draw, having pulled Mark and has questioned the scorer’s ability, but a thorough examination has shown that all is indeed correct. 

However, due to illness and injury, the one-hit elimination week was also delayed, making the August monthly competition a record setting one, in that it is currently the longest running monthly club competition in Gravesham’s history (at the time of printing!).  Eager not to delay for a further week, as this would impact the commencement of the September competition, time ticked by as we awaited confirmation as to the fencers who could make the elimination week.  The Debnam’s had succumbed to Covid, Sandy was stuck in traffic, Phil had a knee injury and Sofia was stuck at home completing homework, leaving 9 of the fencers standing and ready to fight for the coveted trophy.  Harry, Mark, Claudia, Will and Steve were gifted byes into the quarter finals, with Steve really pulling the draw of the night and having another bye straight through to the semi-finals.  With only Jake v Peter and, Phil v Tadek having to fence in the final 16’s, could the Hutchins men show the rest of the field that they were continuing their good form from the previous month’s competition?  Sadly….no; leaving Harry v Tadek, Mark v Jake, Claudia v Will to fight for the places in the semi-finals.  Harry saw off Tadek, setting up a semi-final with Mark, who had beaten Jake, with Claudia eliminating Will to set up a semi-final with Steve, who had yet to fight anyone in the elimination stages.  This proved to be in his favour, as he managed to land the one shot that beat Claudia and set up a one-hit final versus Harry, who had beaten Mark.  The final was interrupted by Steve’s broken equipment (sword/wire/electronic equipment – who knows?) but the fencing equivalent of “turn it off, turn it back on again” was enough to see the final bout fought and, youngster Harry overcome the veteran Steve.  Well done to all of those who competed and get well soon to all of those who couldn’t make it!  A particular congratulations to Harry, who triumphed in his final session before he returns to university, we will see you back in October! 

I am off to prepare for the September competition which starts at 7.30pm sharp next Tuesday!  See you there.