Our first competition of the year was not the staid, dreary affair we expect post-Christmas festivities and the January blues. 

Mark had excelled himself with this month’s competition rules, so much so, that a couple of sessions prior to the comp, the guys…and gals…used the time for practice!

We were to have a poule unique, where each fencer fought every other fencer.  Each fight was complete when the first fencer reached three hits.  Double hits were to be included.  However; and here is where the fun begins, the fencer to strike first got priority.   This meant that if you got hit, you had to remain with one foot on the line, unable to move that foot.  Essentially you lost priority.  This did not mean that the fencer with priority could just stand back, because, with no time limit, but a score of three to win the bout, the fencer with the priority still had to attempt to win the bout.  This, though proved a learning curve for the fencer without priority, as it meant that they really had to concentrate on blade work and positioning to win the point, get themselves out of trouble and put their opponent into a situation where they had to remain on the line and lose priority. 

With fourteen fencers in attendance, it was a busy night and had then had to roll over to both the Friday and following Tuesday sessions.  With time passing by and so many fencers, it was decided that, on the Tuesday, any fencers not in attendance would have a 5-0 walkover score against them, for those in attendance that they hadn’t fought (red font on the scoresheet).  For any battles, on that Tuesday, where neither fencer was in attendance it was just marked down as a 0-0 draw (yellow highlighted box on the score sheet).

Ellora, Angel, Steve, Mark and Tadek managed the most individual fights overall, without any 0-0 draws and minimal walkover scores.  There were a number of joint wins overall scores and the positions were then allocated on a countback system of who had beaten who with the joint wins.  Overall, Tadek was crowned the winner winning all his fights and only having one walkover win, which in itself is mightily impressive.  Josh was his next nearest competitor with only three losses and one win by way of a walkover.  Mark was just behind with nine wins, two by way of a walkover and four losses and, Peter and Dave tied next with eight wins each, with Peter taking the honours over Dave by way of countback.

Overall, this was quite a challenging competition and the fencers, I’m sure, will look forward to the normal rules (poules and DE) in February!

Well done Tadek and best wishes for the coming year – let’s see if you can beat Henry’s run!

On the final Tuesday in November, we held our last full club monthly competition of the year.  With twelve fencers in attendance, the rules for this month’s competition and the following session’s attendance rates meant that it took another three evenings to try and complete the event!

This month’s rules were:

• Fencers fence for a full minute.
• The fencer with the most hits wins (no stopping at 5 hits).
• If both fencers are tied at the end of the minute then both fencers register a loss.
• The fencer with the most wins, wins.
• In the event of a tie, most hits scored will determine the winner.
• In the event of a joint number of wins and hits scored, then hits against would be taken into account.

Dave seemed to take the early lead, winning six of his eleven completed fights, however, Claudia and Richard were not to outdone, with both fencers running at four match wins each, but still having people left to fence.  Phil was also on four wins, however, his losses included getting five, six or seven hits against three opponents, showing just how high scoring some of the matches were. 

Mark and Peter were also making their presence felt with both winning five matches each with games in hand.  Despite being a late arrival, Henry had completed six fights in quick succession and won all of them!  Steve also started strong on the first Tuesday, winning four matches, but lost momentum when we had to carry over onto the Friday, but, how unlucky do you have to be?  One of Steve’s matches was logged at a loss despite him scoring eleven hits against his opponent!

By the time we hit the third carry over session, it was decided that those present would be given a 1-0 walkover win against their absent opponent and, in the event that two opposing fencers were absent, then a 0-0 draw loss would be recorded.

Bearing this in mind, Ellora, Peter, Phil, Claudia, Steve and Henry were all awarded a one match win each by way of a walkover.  Jaina, Torran, Jake and Richard all recorded 0-0 draw losses though absence.

Overall, the clear winner was Henry; even discounting his one walkover win, no-one else came close, with him recording ten outright wins and one walkover victory – quite the victory and what a way to claim the last trophy of the year.

Dave, Peter, Phil and Claudia all tied second with six match wins each. However, Phil was awarded second place by way of the most hits scored (was that the one hit scored on the walkover win – we will never know).  Claudia and Peter both had walkover wins, which didn’t help the scoring as they both scored the same number of hits, however, going to the next level, Peter had 44 hits against him, whereas Claudia’s lesser number of 40 meant that she claimed fourth place, ahead of Peter in fifth.

Steve and Mark both amassed five wins each; but even without Steve’s 1-0 walkover win against Torran, he still placed above Mark on hits scored, leaving the two men in sixth and seventh place.

Ellora and Richard both shared four wins apiece, but with three matches recorded as loss due to absence, Ellora had the upper hand for hits scored and positioned eighth with Richard in ninth.  Had Richard been there to fight, it would have been interesting to see his true position.

Bringing up the rear were Jake in tenth; Jaina, eleventh and, Torran in twelfth positions, but as all three had been present for only the first session it would have been interesting to see how their final positions could have fared if they had fought each of their matches.

So, in conclusion, a convincing win for Henry on the final competition of 2025!  I’m sure he’ll be a force to be reckoned with in 2026 too, although the high of being a newly married man (it’s the last time I’m mentioning it, I promise!) may have worn off by then and, the 2026 competition trophy could be anyone’s victory!  Well done, Henry. 

Congratulations to all for another great year and, many thanks to Mark for being the trophy caretaker and, for all of his imaginative competition rules throughout the year – they have most definitely kept the fencers AND the scorer on their toes!  The question is; just what will he come up with for 2026?  In the meantime, to one and all, have a fabulous festive season and wishing you all a happy, healthy and prosperous 2026! Ho! Ho! Ho!

On Sunday 23rd November 2025, four of Gravesham’s junior contingent, made it to the delayed Kent Fencing Union Junior Championships. Henry, James, Theodora and Alex, despite some competition nerves, all managed to fence exceptionally well, far surpassing their expectations.

In the boys event, the brothers of James and Alex found themselves in the same competition. After the poules, elder sibling, Alex, was top seed, with younger brother, James, seeded fourth overall, which unfortunately placed them in direct competition at the semi-final stage, with the elder of the two boys claiming the win. Keeping up his winning streak, Alex then went on to claim the gold, with a convincing 10-0 victory in the final and, James taking home the bronze medal.

Unfortunately, this report writer does not have any further score sheets to report, on both Theodora and Henry. Suffice to say, Henry had a cracking day too, in his age, at his second competition, coming away with a silver medal; a sure sign that his technique is improving and the nerves are abating!

Theodora was at her first competition and, with a larger poule of entrants had more to do on the day. She kept the pre-event nerves at bay and despite no medal on this occasion, showed great potential, scoring at least three hits against each of her opponents- a mighty feat considering how much more practice some of her opponents get and, a sure sign that she will be a real contender at future events.

Apologies too for no photo of the medallists with their spoils, but the meet organiser left them on his kitchen table on the day of the event! They are currently on their way to Coach Will via Royal Mail!

Well done to our junior fencers and we look forward to reporting on more of your future fencing exploits and successes!

Second, winner, third;

Paul, Sandy, Peter

After a quiet start to numbers, for the evening, possibly caused by way of holidays, half term across the schools and bad traffic at both the Dartford Tunnel and the A2/M2, numbers finally picked up to ten people and it was decided to go ahead with the competition, using a poule unique.  Everybody would fight everybody else and, latecomers could easily be added later on.  Each bout was the first to three hits or two minutes, whichever came first.  We slowly but surely made our way through the night, even though Paul wanted to ‘crack on’ at a much quicker pace, even though the scorer was concerned for his welfare, having had three weeks away, one of which was a gluttonous holiday!  I think he was thankful for the scorer’s empathy!

Sandy took an early lead winning his matches, but was foiled in the clean sweep by Paul.  As the evening wore on, Sandy was keen to keep an eye on Paul’s progress, only to find that he had been thwarted in his attempts to victory by both Steve and Ellora. The quiet assassin of the group is always Peter and, he proved once again to be deadly, tying with Paul on seven wins apiece, but only losing out on a joint second on countback, having been beaten by Paul in their duel. 

Other fencers quietly going about their matches were both Mark and Claudia, who managed a very respectable four wins apiece, but with Claudia claiming the fourth spot by way of countback.  Then, the rest of the pack were too close to call.   Steve, Ellora and newcomer Tom were all tied in 6^th place, with three wins apiece and not even countback able to separate them as Steve had beaten Ellora; Ellora had beaten Tom and Tom had beaten Steve!  Although, Steve could be well within his rights to claim some sympathy, given that his sword broke in one of his early fights and he was duelling with an unfamiliar sword.

Then bringing up the rear were latecomer Torran with two wins and ninth place and finally Jake, with one win and tenth place.  It was not Jake’s night either in the sword stakes.  Initially, his sword had a screw problem, meaning that he spent most matches trying to fence with a loose handle before eventually giving up and using Claudia’s sword – something he was clearly not happy about (and even now I’m sure Claudia gave him one of her less stable swords to gain an advantage!).

All in all, there were some good shots and the newcomers of Tom and Torran showed that they too can fight with the best of them.  Well done to everybody on the night and we look forward to what Mark has in store for the November competition. 

A particular well done to our winner Sandy – no trophy photo because Mark brought the wrong bag – but we did manage to get a handsome picture of our top three; Paul, Sandy and Peter.  Well done everybody and congratulations to Sandy!

Sandy just after telling Paul that he ‘let’ Paul win their bout, otherwise he’d have had a clean sweep…

Sorry for the short report this month but time is against me!  Anyway, on what started as a quiet October night, for the monthly club competition that was delayed by a week, soon became a scorer’s nightmare, as more people gradually entered the fold as the night wore on.  From trying to figure out the running schedule for a four-man poule, we ended up with a full ten-man poule and catch up on the running schedule!  The format was a standard poule event, followed by a Direct Elimination (DE) round.  The poule matches were fought to five points each, however, if a double hit occurred, it was discounted and the match continued.  In the DE rounds, both the final sixteen and quarter finals were to be fought to five points each, the semi-finals to ten points each, but the final was the first to fifteen points. 

Rob started the evening as he meant to go on, winning his first match but failing in trying to keep a clean sheet, with Mark, Phil and Sandy all managing to score twice against him.  Henry, despite his late arrival managed seven out of nine wins, with Phil only just managing to beat him 5-4, but Robert showing no mercy with a 5-0 trouncing!  However, Sandy and Phil were hot on Henry’s heels, with both men also achieving seven wins apiece.  Peter, Mark and Steve all managed four wins each, while Claudia had three wins and, in the shock of the evening, Dave only managing two victories at the poule stage – clearly, he was already in holiday mode!  Bringing up the rear was the Jake/Torran duo, playing as one, who claimed a single victory. 

The following Tuesday saw the DE stage of the competition.  With Claudia out ill, it meant that there was only one match in the last sixteen; Steve versus Jake, with all other players granted a bye.  Steve managed the win, 5-4, in a very closely fought duel.  The last eight saw all matches played, again, to a match winning five points.  Dave, clearly in better form, was only just seen off by Rob at 5-4, Sandy was almost given his marching orders by Peter, but, just like Rob, scraped a 5-4 victory.  In the bottom half of the DE table, both matches were finished at 5-3, with Phil beating Mark and Henry putting an end to Steve’s run. 

The semi-finals were comprised of 2 x 3-minute rounds and/or the first to ten points.  Here, it was the young guns showing the old guard how it is done, with Rob beating Sandy 10-5, but in the other quarter-final, Phil defied his years, pushing young Henry all the way to the end, with Henry barely scraping the win at 10-9. 

The final was highly anticipated, but with Rob in his element on the 3 x 3-minute rounds and/or the first to fifteen points, it was inevitable that he would bring his A-game.  Having not had this format in the monthly competition for some months, Rob has been vocal on his desire for it to return and, in doing so, proved his worth with 15-3 victory over Henry.  Well done, Rob, but for the sake of a change of champion, we’ll have to go back to the one-hit format for next time!!!

Congratulations to all fencers who competed, it’s been a while since we’ve done a standard competition and, for all it’s worth, it looks like Rob is correct and this format really is his forte!  Well done to our champion, Robert, who will be double celebrating the win AND a big birthday in the same week!  Age is no barrier to this man!

KSC YOUTH EPEE DEVELOPMENT SERIES – AUTUMN 2025

On Sunday 5^th October at Kings School, Canterbury, both Aiden and Henry competed for Gravesham in the Kings Youth Epee Development Series competition.  It was the first out of club competition that both boys had competed in and they didn’t let their nerves overcome them and they did the club proud. 

There were 22 entrants overall and many were seasoned fencers and competitors.  This resulted in the first round of poules having two poules of 6 fencers and two poules of 5 fencers.  Aiden found himself in one of the poules of 6, whereas Henry had the poule of 5; with both of the Gravesham boys up against all Kings students and one other in each of their poules.  The poules consist of 3-minute rounds for each match, or the first to score 5 hits in each match.  

Aiden found himself in a very tough poule, with only one fencer, on paper, who was seeded less than him.  The matches, seemed to go true to form, with Aiden only winning one duel.   Sometimes the poules just pan out that way.  However, it must be noted that he scored hit in every single match, showing that he was more than worthy of his 16^th seeding going into the Direct Elimination (DE) round and, had Will commenting that the final scoring in the poules did not reflect the standard of Aiden’s fencing.

Henry didn’t fair much better, with the quality competition, in his group, although he did have the benefit of one less fencer.  With two fencers seeded way above him, it was no surprise that he won 2 and lost 2 of his duels.  Again, just like Aiden, he scored impressively in his other two matches, showing that both the Gravesham boys would take no prisoners and give it their all. 

After the poules, the gutsy performance of both boys was rewarded with Aiden seeded 16^th and Henry 12^th, going into the DE. 

Aiden was first up and was matched against the 17^th seed from the poules.  In this round, the fencers have 3 x 3-minute rounds and/or the first to score 12 (normally 15) hits; this Aiden managed comfortably with a 12-3 win and taking him into the last 16. 

Henry found himself in his first DE match against the number 21 seed from the poules.  Unfortunately for Henry, he was up against a fencer who had just been blown away by his coach for his lax attitude and, as such, Henry was faced with a voracious opponent!  The final score of 12 v 1, against Henry, was didn’t do justice to the fight that Henry put up, by the opponent was clearly buoyed by the telling off from his coach! 

In Aiden’s match for the final 16, he was up against the number one seed.  This is the problem with being seeded in the bottom half of the table post poules – you are up against the top seeds!  Unfortunately, Aiden was beaten 12 v 1, which was not a complete surprise against the calibre of the opponent, however, Aiden fought well and, managed to score a hit against his opponent, an achievement that two others had failed to manage on the day. 

Overall, Aiden placed 13^th and Henry placed 17^th, showing that with a few more outings under their belt and the first-time nerves over with, they could well be fencers to watch out for in the future.  Well done boys and keep up the, VERY, good fencing! 

If anybody would like to see the boys full results, please head to www.fencingtimelive.com and search for the event name and date.

Mark presenting the monthly trophy to Team A winners – Tadek, Claudia and Gully.

On the final, non-rainy, Tuesday of August, with the attendance having been good throughout the summer, it was decided to hold an August Monthly Club Competition.

We had four teams of three fencers (plus one extra fencer who subbed into one of the teams), competing in a team relay; but with a twist.

Each member of the team would begin their first fight with three lives.  Every time they received a hit they would lose a life.  So, if fencer A beat fencer B, 3-1, then fencer A would progress to their next fight with two lives (having lost a life because they were hit) and fencer B would be out, leaving his other two team mates to try and survive with their three lives each and, overcome their opponents.  Simple…really!

On piste one, we had Team A of Gully, Claudia and Tadek, taking on Team B of Dave, Sandy, Kevin and Ryan.  Gully and Dave were head-to-head at 2-2, when a double hit saw them knock each other out, as they had both lost their three lives.  Next up, Ryan beat Claudia 3-1, meaning Tadek was the only team member remaining for Team A, first taking on Kevin and then, having beaten Kevin 3-1, facing Ryan, with both fencers only having two lives remaining, having both lost a life from a previous bout.  It was a close duel, with Tadek taking the spoils 2-1 and meaning Team A being crowned champions. 

On piste 2, Team C of Mark, Henry and Peter, took on Team D of Oliver, Phil and Steve.  Oliver knocked out Mark, retaining his three lives for his next bout, but his teammate Phil, was knocked out by Henry, however, Phil did manage to take a life from Henry.  Henry’s winning ways rubbed off on his final teammate, Peter.  Peter overcame Steve, but he, too, didn’t manage it completely unscathed, getting hit once and therefore losing a life.  Team D was therefore left with only Oliver (and his three lives), having to hold the fort against Team C’s Henry and Peter, with their two lives apiece.  Oliver fenced well, firstly taking out Henry from Team with a 2-1 win and then beating Peter 2-0 to make Team D victorious, and, finishing with two lives intact. 

In the third-place play-off and the final, all competitors started with their three lives each again.  In the third-place play-off, Team B took on Team C.  Mark had a magnificent fight beating his car buddy, Dave, 3-1 and knocking out the gently assassin and progressing himself, with two lives intact.  Sandy took over from Ryan and beat Henry 3-2 in a thrilling match, knocking out the fairly newly married man, but only just managing it and retaining only one life.  Next up Peter took Kevin, knocking the elder statesman out and retaining his three lives, however, they were not needed.  With only Sandy remaining for Team B, with only one life, it was always going to be an uphill struggle and, Mark landed the one hit that earned Team C of Mark, Peter and Henry, the third place, leaving Team B of Sandy, Dave, Kevin and Ryan picking up the wooden spoon. 

The final comprised Team A of Gully, Claudia and Tadek taking on Team D of Oliver, Phil and Steve.  Gully took the early lead for Team A, beating Steve 3-0 and knocking Steve out. Claudia held her ground well against Phil, narrowly losing 3-2, being knocked out, but in the process, ensuring Phil progressed with only one life.  Tadek lost to Oliver, but managed to take one of Oliver’s lives, leaving Gully to fight both men, luckily having all three lives remaining.  First up he took Phil’s only remaining life, knocking him out, but Phil had managed to land the first hit, meaning Gully versus Oliver was a two lives each apiece affair.  In a very close fought duel, Gully brought Team A to victory with a 2-1 win over Oliver. 

Team D of Steve, Phil and Oliver were named runners-up, with Team A of Claudia, Tadek and Gully crowned Champions of the August Monthly Club Competition.

It was an interesting competition and hopefully the scorer will be quicker on the uptake next time, when it comes to lives remaining!  Well done to Team A, our champions and we look forward to September’s competition – you never know we might just go back to the standard format for one competition this year (and maybe Rob will make a welcome return!).

Well done everybody and good luck for the next one!

Winner, Henry, being presented with the trophy by Mark

With the scorer being given a bonus week break, having just returned from her holidays, the July monthly club competition was finally held on the first Tuesday of August.  With a bumper number of attendees (14), despite it being the school holidays, it was decided to compete for the trophy using a one-hit format.  Every fencer would fence every other fencer in a poule unique, with each duel lasting one minute.  The fencer to land the first hit would win the bout, with double hits voiding the match and neither fencer getting a ‘win.’  The fencer with the most wins overall would be crowned the July competition winner.

Fighting over two pistes we slowly, but surely, made our way through the poule unique.  The bottom seven fencers of the piste (Phil, Richard, Steve, Sandy, Claudia, Sofia and Henry) all managed bouts against each other, as did the top half of the piste (Mark, Dave, Jaina, Rohan, Gully, Kev and Peter) before they eventually fought each other.

Gully took an early lead and, once Henry eventually arrived, he soon managed to match Gully’s winning streak.  Their winning streaks soon put targets on their backs and, for the spectators, it was the perceived underdogs who they were rooting for.  With Henry’s late arrival, he was always on ‘catch up’ for matches completed, so the momentum remained with him, with his matches being closer together.  Gully, on the other hand, with time to rest between bouts, found his concentration slipping.  Peter and Sofia were the first to have taken the match against the vivacious guest fencer.  Henry was the final fencer to ‘put the boot in,’ ensuring that Gully won only nine of his thirteen fights.

Sandy and Phil were the quiet assassins of the evening (yes, Sandy was quiet ON the piste!).  Steadily making their way through bout after bout, they were unfairly overshadowed by Gully and Henry, as they were both consistent with Phil managing seven wins and Sandy eight wins overall.  Next up were Sofia, Richard, Dave and Rohan with five wins apiece, with this format always seeming to accommodate Sofia and Richard’s style of fencing more than most.  Also, a special mention to Rohan, who was the only person that evening to beat Henry, although Sofia did manage a double hit with Henry, thus voiding the match for them both.

With four wins each we had Mark, Steve and Claudia, with Jaina and Peter finishing with three wins apiece and, finally, Kev bringing up the rear.

So, congratulations to Henry, who managed eleven wins, one draw and only one loss on the evening, cementing his title as the July club competition winner.  Married life (yes, I’m still milking this glorious occasion, Henry!), seems to be very much suiting young Henry.  He seems to be a man very much at ease with life and, very happy with it at the moment and, this is very much shining through in his fencing.  Can he continue with this ‘honeymoon period’ in his life, or will we see another champion crowned next month?  Only time will tell!

Many congratulations Henry – another monthly competition title to your name.  A ‘well done’ also to all those who competed too – a great turn out and some great hits landed as well.  Let’s see what format you’ll come up with in the future.  See you all next month and well-done Henry.

Final placings results are also based upon countback.

Phil also getting in on the presenting act- because we all love Henry…or is he just trying to steal the trophy?