Southern Fencing

All the Southern Fencing news can be found here. If you wish to see pictures then go to the Southern Fencing Gallery!

As promised in the September SFR news update below is the link to our survey – http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/N72M2L5

We are asking everyone who has anything to do with the region to complete this questionnaire by the end of November so that we can produce a snap shot of what is going on in the region and what we can do to help develop everyone further.

With all this information we will produce a document that will form the basis of an application for a grant to help with the development across the region.  If you have the time, take a look at the England website for details: www.englandfencing.co.uk

We will be using the base data for our future mailing list – if you do not want to be on it, you have the option to opt out, but please do the survey.

Many thanks, in advance, for your assistance – we will update you with our progress.

Next competition

The age group team competition is in 3 weeks, on Nov 20, details are on the website.

We will be awarding our rather wonderful ‘Sportsmanship Award’ for a foil star as we did last year, this year we also have one for an epee star.  These awards are about sportsmanship, not about being the best fencer – not that you shouldn’t strive to be both.

We have also the possibility of holding some basic sessions with an armourer to show fencers and/or parents about some basic upkeep of weapons – if you would like us to spend 10-15mins on this, please email June: secretary@southernfencing.org.uk.

Details have been put up by BF on kit recalls, please check out the website for details as we need you to ensure you are safe to fence.

Training Day

We are going to hold a training day or two the weekend of January 7/8.  Saturday 7 will be held at Oxford and we will have coaches in all three weapons.  If there is sufficient demand we will book the Sunday, at another venue.  There will be a £20 charge for the day.  To book your place, please email June: secretary@southernfencing.org.uk- please specify the weapon as numbers in each group will have to be controlled, also say if you would prefer Sunday if available or indeed if you would like both.

Over this weekend we will also be holding potential coach course attendee assessments so if you think you might like to become a coach or you are already a coach and would like to move up, our coach educators will be on hand to put you through you paces to see if you are ready to take a place on a course.  Our course for level one and two (any/all weapons) will be planned over the following few months with different opportunities for you to attend training and assessment days.  Please email our coach co-ordinators Olly and Lee:  coaching@southernfencing.org.uk to let them know you would like to book a slot with our educators to assess you and to arrange to tell you how the course will run.

Also on the Sunday there will be a first aid course for those of you who need one – Mike is very good and some of the course will be fencing specific.  There will be a charge for this certificated training.  We will confirm the amount when we have the numbers of you who would like to attend – you will have to cover the course cost, the region will cover the other expenses (will be somewhere between £20 and £40, so we need a full house to keep the costs down).  If you would like to attend the first aid course please email June: secretary@southernfencing.org.uk

Upcoming Competitions

• The Epee and Sabre Adult and Age Group competition. This will be held at Reading University on Sunday, 15 January.
• The Foil Age Group competition. This will be held at St Barts, in Newbury, on Sunday, 26 February.

For those entering the Age Group competitions, the British Youth Championships will be held over the May Bank Holiday, 5-7 May 2012.

 Other Notices

Club officials/coaches – are you a new club, a growing club, a club with out of date kit – please check out the BF website for details of the lease to buy option for new fencing kit.  BF/EF have arranged for an amount of kit to be available that you can tap into.

FYI – parents….  There is a parents group now formally recognised by BF.  They have their own website www.bfparentsgroup.co.uk so feel free to check it out.

Members of the BF board have been attending ‘road shows’ around the country to talk to fencers and families answering your questions about fencing – would you like us to arrange for one at either the January or February competitions?  Please let me know by Nov 20 if you would, and I will see if I can arrange one.

Firstly, congratulations to all those who fenced in the VETS Winton this month, sixth out of nine teams – much improved on last year; I trust a good time was had by all.

Shortly you will receive a link for a survey that we hope you will all participate in.  It is to provide us with information about what is happening around the region and to help us create a development plan that can be used to form part of a submission for additional funding to help across the region

Sunday, 20th November  -  Team Competition, this year at Bradfield School

There will be Epee and Foil competitions and three age groups this year

Please see the Entry Form for details:
(http://new.southernfencing.org.uk/calendar/age-group-team.htm)

A special plea for refs and boxes please

w/d 7/8 January  -  training weekend, all weapons

details will be released next month but, meanwhile, make a note and please keep the dates free

please note… coaches/everyone we will be offering a first aid course on one of these days as well

please also note… anyone considering doing a coaching course next year should make themselves available to attend at least one day of this weekend

It is with sadness that I  have to pass on the news that Ralph Evans, longstanding Chairman of Oxford Fencing Club, died on Saturday 5th September after a short illness.

He will be greatly missed by his family and all his fencing friends.

Matthew Thompson

BRITISH FENCING STATEMENT 7th May 2001

http://www.britishfencing.com/news/notices/?n=300

http://www.britishfencing.com/news/notices/?n=301

Based  on further advice received after the Board’s notice yesterday, British Fencing has suspended the use of this protective  equipment whilst further enquiries are made, by the British Fencing  Safety Committee, as to its fitness for purpose.

The Southern Region has a Duty of Care towards our fencers and safety is paramount and our first concern. Therefore it has been decided to suspended the use of plastrons, jackets and breeches from Sword Price Fighters with immediate effect at Southern Region competitions, until a decision is made to either continue or remove the suspension.

Below is the link to the British Fencing Safety Guidelines.  This relates to all aspects of fencing including kit regulations and we advise everyone to take a few minutes to read it through
 

GUIDELINES ON SAFETY IN FENCING FOR FENCERS, COACHES, REFEREES, CLUBS AND COMPETITION ORGANISERS

These Championships are being held in Sheffield’s EIS from 15 to 21 July 2011

We have been tasked with creating a friendly volunteer family/force

All are welcome! Whilst fencing experience may be useful, it is not necessary
We know training will be provided where necessary
We know we will look after you (but we don’t yet know all the details)
We know we will work you hard, but most of all…
We know we will do our very best to make it enjoyable and exciting

Please come and join us to make these Championships a fantastic experience for all.

For full details on the form: Senior Europeans Fencing Champships 2011 Volunteers

We look forward to your company

Rochelle, Lorraine, Chris, Maggie & Eileen

It is official – the England Board have unanimously agreed that Southern should be kept as an England Fencing Region
It is all down to the support for the region shown by all of you – our case was, apparently, well put and well supported
We now have to prove our worth even more over the next x number of years
We need to get more folk fencing
We need to encourage our fencers to fence at the regional competitions and for region when the opportunity arises
We need to encourage fencers and volunteers to get involved with training opportunities
We need to spread the work of the region around still further, more folk doing small amounts
If you think you would like to get more involved – even if it is just making sure you arrive early or stay late or make the tea at a comp, or you if you have some more time to get involved, there a few areas bigger that would be nice to share around
Those who are already involved are really appreciated and I do hope you understand how much
This is the opportunity to show our region is innovative; together we will find new ways of promoting fencing as a more main stream sport
Thanks again for all your support

At the BYC U10 competition we had three very good results.  Heloïse Hardie who finished 3^rd (whom I gather was most impressed with the huge bar of chocolate that she was given – check out her photos – one in action and one at the presentation, no chocolate we notice!).  Samantha Flack finished 7^th – unfortunately it fell to Heloïse to knock her out.  Harry Vaughan-Williams was 15^th in the boys – knocking out the eleventh seed on the way.

Our congratulations go to all three.

Edgar Hornby and sister Odette were both delighted with their first time competing in the BYC, with Edgar coming 3rd in the U14 and Odette coming 8th in the U12.

Eileen and I will be there for the weekend, we sell BF kit there and look after the volunteers – two things…
1 – if you are fencing, remember to come tell us how you are doing (good or bad!) – if you want some extra support we will try and come along, if you reach a quarter final we will make sure at least one of us come along… just remember to tell us
2 – parents… if you find that you are not wanted for a while and fancy something different, we would appreciate a bit of help (even if you only have 15 mins at a time and could do a check to see if the armourers need feeding, it would be appreciated)

Many congratulations to all those who fenced in Sheffield last weekend.  we came joint second on victories and third after a fight count

Congratulations to Salle Eton and Salisbury on receiving Clubmark accreditation.

This is an achievement for both clubs and one that we hope to see all around the region.

Having got Salle Eton through the mire of paperwork and courses David Oakden has agreed to act a mentor. If your club is going through the process, or thinking about starting it and want to talk to someone who has been there, please email David (see contacts)

Yesterday, a new organising team from Hampshire, ran their first major event (with over 160 fencers) in a venue new to the region and, overall, they did very well.

The information we were given for finding our new venue caused problems in so far as if you had an old satnav it couldn’t get you there and there were roadwork’s nearby that caused folk delay. We chose to give folk a bit extra time to arrive so from the beginning of the day we were a little behind. We try very hard to ensure every foil fight has a competent referee, again ref’s are folk who volunteer to give of their time learn how to referee, and then to referee. It is always hard to ensure there are enough folk around to referee at a county, regional or Open competition and this sometimes causes delays waiting for someone suitable to be available.

Apologies to the u12’s who, yesterday, had to stop but who were then able to start again and compete their competition – with hindsight it might have been handled differently, but hindsight is a wonderful thing most of us wish we had.

Those of you going to Sheffield to represent the region, very well done and good luck.

I will be in Sheffield with Eileen (near the entrance with the BFA kit), please come say hello and tell us how you are doing (good or bad!) – we especially like to close up and come watch you when you get into the last four so make sure we know; mind you one of us will try and pop along any time we can (if you want us and you tell us).

Badges will be available at the team competition for anyone who hasn’t already got one. These are to warn on the none fencing arm. As soon as there is news on the hoodies we will put it on the website.

Finally, I would like to thank BB&O for the Epee and Sabre competition last November and Hampshire for yesterday, Milind and Ian for their computer skills, Eileen for handling all the entries, Harry for coping with armoury for many more fencers than the youngsters that he is actually there for, all those who refereed and helped with food and all of you who chauffeur and support the fencers and to the staff at Bradfield College and Reading University Sports Centre for looking after us and look forward to seeing many of you at the team event in March in Reading.

If you could spare some time to help at a competition please let us know

Your help will make a difference

Zoe Sheehan (whose first fencing competition was the Southern Region qualifiers in November) took part in the Elite Epee Series in Surrey on December 12th and, in a field of 24 fencers from all over London and the South East, she came 2nd.

Zoe Sheehan 2nd - Elite Epee Surrey Dec 2009

Well done to all those youngsters who made it to Millfield for the Cadet Winton Competition coming seventh out of ten:

The results for the age group Epee and Sabre and Senior Sabre are now available under the results section.

Should anyone have any pictures or video they wish to put on the website for this competition please send them either via the enquiry form (under the Contacts heading) or email webmaster@southernfencing.org.uk

Many thanks to everyone who helps out across the region, be it at club or competitions.  Last night, at the Army and Navy Club in London I was presented with a Torch Trophy Trust Award by the Duchess of Gloucester – this is given to volunteers from across all sports, 16 were presented this year.  I am grateful for those who put me forward, but I can only do this job because of all of you who help.  I didn’t think I deserved the award, there are hundreds for folk who have given so much of their time for a lot longer than I, but I was told last night that it is a thank you to every one that is involved because of my asking – so thank you and please continue to volunteer, every little bit helps.

Rochelle

Full details: http://www.britishfencing.com/British_Fencing.asp?PageID=1662

Congratulations to Harry Boteler (Eton College) who came 5th (top Brit) in the individual tournament in the Meylan (France) European Cadet circuit sabre tournament and who went on, in the team competition, to win the final against Romania – we think this is the first time a British cadet (u17) team has ever won a gold medal in international competition at sabre.  Well done and good luck for the rest of the season

As mentioned recently by British Fencing, John Routledge spent two months studying in Bucharest at the Romanian National Training Centre for the the FIE Foil Coaching Diploma exam, which he successfully passed.

The Coaching Educators were 3 times Olympian Petru Kuki and 1995 World Foil Champion, Dmitriy Chevchenko. The intensive training schedule comprised of six hours a day, six days a week and the head examiner was the FIE’s technical director Ioan Pop.

You can look out for John’s words on his experiences in the next edition of the Sword.

FIE Foil Diplma Course in Bukarest (John on far right)

Welcome to the new Southern Fencing website. The primary idea is to make it easier for us to provide information to the southern region fencing community. We encourage you to suggest improvements, send information and even send in photos and videos! We will have online competition entry and regular news and events posted on the site so please check back frequently.

To comment please visit the enquiry and comment form page here.