On Sunday 17^th November 2025, Claudia and Jake made their way to the Tonbridge School Centre, to compete in the Kent Closed Junior Championships.  Both were entered in their respective Under 16 Years Epee events. 

First up was Jake.  Finding himself in Poule 1 (of three).  His first match saw him lose 5 v 2, in a very evenly paced match, with the score not doing Jake justice.  In his second outing he led from start to finish, with the turning point being an exquisite foot shot to take him 3 v 0 up.  A double hit was made before Jake triumphed 5 v 1.  His third duel was against the eventual winner and a seasoned pro from Kings School.  With his opponent towering over him, it was the reach that saw Jake lose 5 v 1, again, a scoreline that didn’t reflect some great work from Jake throughout the three minutes.  The fourth pair-up was against the star of the poule and the 5 v 1 loss for Jake highlighted his opponent’s prowess throughout these rounds.  The fact that Jake managed a hit against his opponent was in stark contrast to the majority of the rest of the poule contenders who failed even that.  Jake’s final poule match was a greatly evenly contested affair.  Having been timed out at 3 v 3, Jake should have led albeit due to a dubious call from the referee about a foot shot from his opponent, which had levelled the score.  Despite Jake winning priority, on the spin of pen, his opponent took the luck he had been dealt and managed to score the wining hit in the extra minute. 

With the poules over, Jake seeded 19^th, missing out on being on the top half of the group purely by indicator score.  He led his first DE from start to finish, against the 14^th seed.  It was an absolutely masterclass display of fencing and the 15 v 9 victory score gave more credence to his competitor than was due.  Next up, and in the last 16, he faced the number 3 seed.  Having initially gone 3 v 0, Jake battled his way back to 3 v 3, but finished the first 3 minutes at a 4 v 9 deficit, having scored a double hit to keep himself in contention.  The contender managed to secure three more points, nearing himself to the victory.  However, Jack fought back to score another point.  A further point was disallowed by the referee and the momentum, from then on, stayed with his competitor, with Jake eventually losing 15 v 5.  Overall, Jake finished 14 out of 24 entries, which, given the calibre of entries this year, was a fine achievement.  His standard of fencing on the day was absolutely exceptional and his final placing doesn’t do justice to his composure and some of the amazing shots he landed on the day.  Well done, Jake!

Claudia’s event was later starting, but with fewer competitors, it made sense.  With 13 of the 14 entries present, there were two poules, with Claudia finding herself in the larger of the two and, having to compete in six matches pre seeding.  She found herself against the predicted winner, in her fist poule fight.  A recent cold and holiday saw her making a ‘rusty’ start against the girl and the 5 v 1 scoreline was not to be argued.  The next four matches saw her win 5 v 4 in each fight, with one match a particularly good result against an old foe and, the eventual runner up.  The final pair-up saw her win 5 v 3 and, in several cases, the scorelines were closer than gave credit to Claudia’s calibre of fencing.  Finding herself as the third seed overall, she was unlucky not to receive a bye like the top two seeds.  Her first DE was a quick and easy affair, winning 15 v 5.  Her second DE fight was against one of her poule competitors.  That fight had been incredibly even matched and Claudia had just scraped the win at 5 v 4.  With that in mind, Claudia was quick to take the advantage and saw her lead for the first part of the bout.  However, her opponent clawed the score back to 4 v 4 and then took the lead 5 v 4.  Not to be outdone, Claudia composed herself and saw her take back the lead to 8 v 6 at the break. 

After the first DE break, Claudia continued to assert her dominance on the fight, gaining two more points, to take her to a four-point lead.  Noise disruption from an adjoining piste saw Claudia momentarily falter.  Her opponent took advantage to claw back two points and show only a two-point deficit.  Claudia composed herself and warded off the onslaught with a couple of double hits.  However, the disruption proved too much and her opponent took full advantage, going from 12 v 10 down to claim the last five hits and win the match 15 v 12.  Just like Jake, Claudia had a great day with the actual fencing; showing some great positioning, awareness of her opponent during the match and ability to think adeptly whilst competing.  Although disappointed with her 2^nd DE match outcome, Claudia finished 5^th overall, which was a great result, given the calibre of some of her competitors. 

Both Jake and Claudia proved today that they can face junior internationals and give them a run for their money.  They both fenced with grace and intelligence and are showing a real improvement in their ability to command a duel.  Well done to both of you, you both did the club proud!  Onwards and upwards for your next competition!

Despite some very short notice, Sofia was able to attend and compete in the SWIFT competition hosted by Royal Tunbridge Wells Fencing Club on Sunday 6th October. It was an opportunity to gain some valuable competition experience relatively locally, which Sofia did with fervour. She gained a very impressive bronze place against some difficult competition, eventually losing the DE 15 v 7 to the left handed, overall winner.

Well done Sofia. It’s been a very busy competition year for you, and a very successful one. We’re wondering if there’s any room left on the mantlepiece for all of your medals and trophies! We look forward to hearing more about your future fencing endeavours! Well done for a very lucrative 2024 so far!

Dave, in possession of his trophy; handed over by Mark

Having been delayed a week due to Mark being on holiday (well, he is the grand master of these monthly competitions), twelve keen fencers got together on Tuesday 1^st October, despite being one of the wettest few weeks for years, to compete for the coveted Monthly Club Competition Trophy.  After a very quick deliberation, via WhatsApp, it was decided to initiate ‘Paul’s Rules’ for this month’s duel.  The rules being as follows:

1. Everybody fences everybody else – no standard poule fights.
2. Each duel to last 1 minute – no exceptions
3. The first to land a hit, scores the win and the fight ends
4. In the event of a double hit, the duel is declared void with no winner allocated
5. In the event that the minute passes without a hit being landed, the duel is declared void with no winner allocated
6. At the end of all completed fights, the fencer with the most wins tallied – wins!
7. In the event that a tie is declared between the most wins, then the round will start again with those who scored the most wins previously, following the rules again, until a winner is determined!

Yes, easy I hear you cry!  With the scorer having pieced together a, very professional, scoresheet, on the cuff, we were ready for the off.  The event was contested over two pistes as everyone was eager to see how the competition was competing.  Despite a terrible foot injury that has kept him from competing at his peak for a while now, Rob stepped up to the plate against Helen.  Full of confidence, he was quickly knocked down when Helen landed a hit, that even she declared “I don’t know how”!  Picking up his game, and his insistence that he was a 15-point prodigy, not a one hit wonder, he managed to pull back five more wins, but seemed to be scuppered by two matches (Mark and Rohan) whereby they either had double hits or ran out of time, therefore not registering either a win or a loss.  Rohan and Mark were equally unlucky, on the night, with both having three matches each, that didn’t register a win or a loss.  However, with four such finishes, it was obviously not Peter’s night, as apart from that those, he only registered two losses across all his matches. Mark, having been delayed returning from holiday by 48 hours, and having only landed in the very early hours, was clearly running on steam by the middle of the evening.  With three non-registered matches and only two wins, he can only hope to be on better form next month!

The final match of the evening was Steve versus Paul and, this became the deciding match, as to whether Dave was going to win outright or share the coveted trophy.  However, with seven wins to his name, Paul could not get the single hit against Steve, that was required to put him in the joint top spot.  However, Steve’s win over Paul, did mean that it promoted him to the joint second place, alongside his opponent. 

It was a very fun evening with a number of twists and turns as the evening went on, but then that is the joy of the ‘one-hit’ type of competition.  Well done, Dave, who is a very deserved winner.  We look forward to seeing you all soon. 

After a very busy year of competitions, Gravesham’s Sofia proudly finished joint 6th in the Leon Paul Junior Series for the Under 17 girls Epee designation. She has been up against some very tough competition this year and, has managed to hold her own in the points stakes at individual events, but overall her placing reflected the standard this year and, she was held to that sixth place by some outstanding international fencers. Keep up the good work Sofia and keep flying the Gravesham flag. You’re doing yourself and the club proud. Well done Sofia!

Having had a very successful year on the competition circuit, Sofia rounded off the summer with an invitation to compete at the Leon Paul Junior Series Epee Finals, in London.  With seven extremely capable fencers in the field, Sofia set off in the poules with a winning intent.  With 67% of matches won from those poules, she was seeded third for the DE, only by way of a lower indicator than the second place rival.  The top three seeds for the DE being the only ones who managed positive indicator scores across the poules.  However, the earlier start to the day and, the longer journey time to get to the arena, than her rivals, proved to be the turning point for Sofia, who was knocked out of the DE, despite a valiant effort against some accomplished competition.  Overall, Sofia completed the competition in 5^th place, which is a more than credible accomplishment given the fencing history and prowess of her rivals.   Well done Sofia!

After a pleasant trip up to Worksop and a lovely overnight stay, Sofia was all set for her bouts in the GB Cup, in Sheffield on Sunday 14^th July 2024.  With the rest of Gravesham Fencing Club supporting from afar, via Whatsapp, we were lucky enough to have a running commentary via James.  With just two poules running, one with seven fencers and one with six, Sofia found herself in the larger group.  With two outstanding victories and four very close losses (2 matches at 5 v 4 loss and 2 matches at 5 v 3 loss) the percent of matches won and indicator scores just didn’t show how well Sofia fenced.  The sixth poule match, against a regular winner of these events, saw Sofia finish scoreless, which pushed her seeding much lower than her fencing gave credit for.  Going into the Direct Elimination as the eleventh seed, Sofia fenced her heart out producing a fantastic 14 v 14 score against a formidable opponent, with the other lady just managing to score the final, and winning hit.  The lady who beat Sofia 5 v 0 in the poules made the final, and the lady who narrowly edged Sofia out in the DE won her semi-final match 15 v 14 against the number three seed, just showing the calibre of the competition that Sofia was up against – and matched.   Well done Sofia, a great experience for you and really well done for representing the club with such effort and attainment.  Onwards and upwards for the next competition!

June Monthly Club Competition Finalists – Dave and Henry

On the final Tuesday of June, we found ourselves in a mini heatwave for the first time this year and, with the England football team, on the television, playing for survival in the 2024 European Championships, we wondered how many would make it down Cygnets Sports Centre for the June monthly club competition. 

In the end, a hardy ten fencers appeared giving us a lovely two poules of five fighters.  In poule 1 we saw Rohan, Mark, Phil, Sandy and Henry competing against each other, whilst poule 2 consisted of Dave, Peter, Claudia, Sofia and the return of Richard!

Henry and Mark were the stars of poule 1 both winning 3 out of their 4 matches, however, the former narrowly beat Mark on the seeding front by way of a better indicator score overall.  Rohan and Sandy each managed to win 2 of their 4 four matches (which saw Sandy make a quick getaway to watch the second half of the football), but struggled through his matches, having only recently changed to a left hander, due to injury.

In poule 2 Dave and Sofia were also victors of their poule, each winning 3 of their 4 rounds.  However, although Dave had the same percentage of matches won and indicator score as Mark, his overall hits scored were lower placing him in 3^rd for the overall seedings, while a lower indicator meant that Sofia was 4^th for the seedings despite also having won 3 of her 4 matches.  Claudia managed a 50% win rate overcoming both Peter and Richard, whilst the latter two both managed a single win each.  With the seedings sorted, it was decided that in the heat, it would be better to proceed with the knockout the following week. 

The following Tuesday saw the end of the heatwave and, for many, the central heating make a reappearance – yes, in July!  All of the previous week’s competitors were in attendance, however, with Claudia sporting an injury from the weekend, Steve took over her position in the knockout stage.  

Henry had a bye through to the quarter finals and, Peter and Richard struggled to muster the enthusiasm to win, with the thought of facing Henry in the following round!  However, it was Peter who was to victor and face the inevitable.  Sandy and Sofia were to meet, both by way of a bye in the quarter finals, as were Dave and Steve.  Rohan overcame Phil to make it through and Mark also progressed by way of a bye. 

Peter was knocked out by Henry, Sandy saw off Sofia, while Dave beat Steve and, Rohan triumphed over Mark. 

In the semi-finals, Henry and Sandy’s match was plagued by double hits, with the score at 9 v 6 before the break. With Sandy hitting the floor (as was correctly called by the judge and not the spectators, Steve!) the match progressed with Henry winning the last point in the style of a couple of ballerinas, jumping and pirouetting across the piste, much to the delight (or mickey taking) of the watching crowd. 

Dave and Rohan’s match was much more evenly positioned.  With Rohan trailing 5 v 3 early on, it looked like the game was over for the young pretender, however, a surge saw the game level at 8 v 8.  The game took a turn just before the last minute’s break, with Dave landing a hit to lead 9 v 8 and, the final blow for Rohan came at the end with a double hit, seeing him lose 10 v 9.

The final saw a tense match up between Henry and Dave.  With Henry in full swing, it looked like game over for Dave at 13 v 6 scoring.  However, as is the nature of this ‘friendly’ monthly competition, some of the watching crowd (Steve, Mark and Sandy) took full advantage of the youth of the judge, distracted her and unplugged Henry’s electronics.  Dave scored a single hit, before the chuckle brothers had to own up to what they had and Henry’s electrics were reinstated.  In a wonderful act of sportsmanship, Dave was allowed to keep the point and this proved the turning point, as Dave managed to fight back on the points front, however, eventually it was not enough to stop Henry from claiming victory, for the second month in a row, with a 15 v 10 scoreline.

Well done to Henry for his victory and well done to everyone who fenced and we look forward to another cracking competition, starting on the last Tuesday in July!

On Saturday 15th June 2024, Sofia, Will, Mark, Dave and James all competed in a club friendly against James’ second club at the Army Reserve Centre in Tunbridge Wells. With fewer than expected competitors a great day was had by all as they were able to really concentrate on some technique work against some different competition. Here’s hoping we can do some more club friendlies in the future. Well done Team Gravesham.