June 2026 Monthly Club Competition Winners – Team B – Paul, Josh, Rohan, Peter, Dave, Rob
On the last Tuesday of June 2026, which also happened to be the last day of the month, thirteen fencers arrived for the monthly club competition. I’m sure a number of fencers were trying to stay cool at home (it was the beginning of the third predicted heatwave of 2026), others were injured and some of the juniors were still completing exams, doing transition events for sixth form or just busy trying to hit deadlines for school, no doubt all adding to the reasons why the numbers were lower than usual.
Given the heat and in order to keep it short and sweet, it was decided to have two teams of six (one team would have seven, but substitute one fencer for another on a round), with each fencer on each team being given a number. There would be three rounds, whereby each team member would fence a different team member from the opposing team. The fencers would fight in scoring increments of 3, with the first team to hit 54 points being crowned the champions. Double hits would count and each round would be a maximum of two minutes. Despite the previous month’s team picking controversy, it was decided to let Mr Nash have another go and see if he could redeem his team picking skills for this month. Steve, Phil, Tadek, Mark, Sandy and Tom or Henry completed Team A and; Peter, Rohan, Dave, Josh, Paul and Robert were named Team B.
Tadek got Team A off to a flying start with a 3-0 lead over Peter. Tom almost kept Team A in the lead managing two points, but Rohan was too strong and pulled Team B back into a one-point lead. The next two matches were a to and fro, with Steve putting Team A back into the winning spot against Dave, but following this Josh, the sabre specialist, had a blinding round to give the advantage to Team B again. Paul kept up appearances for Team B against Mark and Rob got the better of Sandy, with a couple of good blocks keeping Team B in front. Henry managed to set Team A up for victory, beating Peter 7-2, however, this was short lived with Rohan quickly regaining control for Team B. From here, Team B never looked back. The gremlins set in for Team A with four bouts from the following six fights showing no score at all and, at the end of Tom v Dave, they had a ten-point advantage and, after three more fights, that advantage had gained to 17 points at the end of Mark’s duel with Rob. Sandy tried to save grace pulling back a point after his match, but at the end, Tadek couldn’t outshine Rohan and Team B won 54-36 – a more than convincing 18-point victory!
Commiserations to Team A, but a huge congratulations to our Team B winners of Peter, Rohan, Dave, Josh, Paul and Robert.
Here’s hoping the remaining competitions are held in much more accommodating temperatures!
