South East Regional Foil

Two Saxons took part in the South East Regional Foil on 21st June at the University of Kent. Wayil Eisa, fast becoming ubiquitous on these pages was joined by Oliver Robinson in his first competitive outing.
For a first competition, Oliver had an excellent poule, winning 3 of his 5 poule matches, before going out in the last 16 to take 10th place out of 19 competitors.
Wayil also won three poule matches, and took an early, big lead in his last 16 encounter. He then came close to throwing away all his good work by letting his lead slip away and letting the bout get far too exciting at 14-14. Fortunately his nerve held and he took the last point to earn a quarter final place.
This was as far as he went, but can be pleased with his 8th place.

City of Chichester Open

Four Saxons took part in the inaugural City of Chichester Open at the weekend.

Paul Lowen, Wayil Eisa and Edz Maldoom fought amongst 52 men in the Foil whilst Cat Crossley was one of 24 female foilists. Although fields were quite small, there were a number of top fencers in attendance. There was no sabre competition, Chichester being a genteel place and Saxons epeeists were all otherwise engaged. Tyro Steve Donati allegedly overslept

After a slow start, Wayil (seen here resplendent in denim-look lame) came through the two rounds of poules pretty well, winning six from eleven, to seed him 24th. In the incomplete last 64 he nearly threw away his good work with an over aggressive display, finding himself 11-8 down at one point. However after some sage calming advice from skipper Paul at the interval, he changed tactics, took a more defensive approach and turned the bout around to earn a last 32 place. Here he faced the Italian Allessandro Macchiarola, a deft flicker and conceded the first five points without reply. Wayil then once more cannily changed tactics, attacking with repeated fleches. He had marginally the better of the remainder of the bout, but that initially deficit was too much to make up and Wayil went down to an honourable 15-11 defeat. This gave him 24th place overall, his first to half finish in an Open.

Details are sketchier on Edz' performance (the Ghost being in Derbyshire having pre wedding photos taken) but his poule results just placed him in the bottom half. He won his first DE but was also eliminated in the last 32 to take 31st place, enough to earn him ranking points.

Paul had typically strong poule results, winning all but two of his bouts. This gave him a bye through the first round and a reasonably easy victory in the last 32. In the last 16, however, he also faced Macchiarola. The wily Paul was a better match for the Italian than the athletic but less experienced Wayil. In a cagey bout they exchanged point for point until the end of the nine minutes of fencing time approached. Lowen then found himself a point behind with only fifteen seconds on the clock, forcing him into uncharacteristically reckless attacks which the Macchiarola dealt with to open his lead further when the clock ran down. Just denied a quarter final place, Paul was 11th overall.

In the Women's' Foil Cat, bravely taking on such a high standard tournament so early in her fencing career, finished 22nd. The experience against some high quality fencers can only serve to help her achieve her potential.

Saxon Golden Anniversary Novice Foil

On sunday 29th March, to celebrate our 50th anniversary, Saxon hosted its Golden Anniversary Novice Foil at St. Benedict's School. 27 Fencers from as far afield as Eton and Fulham gathered to compete in the competition for fencers with less than 2 years in the sport. Two rounds of mixed poules, (round robin mini-leagues of 5 point bouts) were fought foughtto seed a men's and women's direct elimination tableau, seamlessly administered by John as the Directeur Technical and refereed by a motely crew of Saxons and celebrity guests.

Women


The women's competition featured 11 fencers, the good turn out attributed by some to Paul's impressive recruiting charm. Elzette Roelofse struggled in her poules, so had to fight Rosie Cuss of St. Benedict's for a 1/4 final place. Sadly it was not Elzette's day and she went out 15-10. The talented Julliete Allibone was a little off colour and out of practice. She had below par, poules, then powered past St. Benedict's Philly Codrington to face Cat Crossley in the 1/4 final, where her day ended.



Sharon Thomas faired well in the poules with the men, taking 2nd woman's seeding, her direct, belligerant (I agreed not to call her agressive) style pushing her past Rosie in the quarter finals to earn her a well deserved semi final place. This pitted her up against Hanna Mahal of Eaton. Hanna proved a very good fencer who maintained her distance well and showed excellent blade work. She went ahead early and despite a brave rally by Sharon in the middle points, it was Hanna who took her place in the final.


The elegant Madeline Bell, seeded as the 4th woman after the poules, went straight to the quarter final where she comfortably beat Jane Beeston. This drew her against Cat Crossley. Cat, a Club des Artiste fencer who has since joined Saxon, was the surprise package of the day. Her strong poules seeded her second amongst the women and she did well to beat Juliette. The Madeline-Cat Semi was an intriguing match. Madeline was ahead through most of the match and at 13-10 up seemed to have the bout sewn up. Cat was undaunted however and with Yorkshire grit hung in to take the bout to 14-14, then snatch the final point.



In the final Hanna's class showed. Probably the best technnical fencer amongst the women she was compact with a very neat, well timed parry riposte which served her well all day. Cat never gave up, but Hanna opened an early lead that she was never going to give up so became the first Saxon novice champion.


Men


With 16 men there was a full tableaux, with all the men having to fight for their 1/4 final place. Steve Donati, another subsequently recruited Club des Artiste fencer was a pre tournament favourite. However his poule results placed him in the middle of the field so he had tough bouts from the first. His first opponent, Vittorio Spadadavecchia may not move on the piste as well as Steve, or be as easy to spell, but he makes up for it in strength and competitiveness. 8th after the poules, he powered his way into the quarter final against Christian Chilton. Christian, another fencer fancied for the title, finished the pouled as top seed had an easy first round match, but then found Vittorio, a frequent sparring partner on Thursday nights, sterner competition. It went right to the wire, before Vittorio took the bout 15-14.



Goldbert Dy, Brunel fencer and occassional Saxon had very moderate poules, winning only 4/10 and seeding 12th. He then picked his game up, easily beating James Pepper in the last 16 to face Adam Jeavons in the 1/4 final. Adam had been fencing well all day, making full use of his height and seeding 4th then getting a solid win in his first DE. Goldbert however fenced a very intellegent bout, closing the distance quickly and negating Adam's longer reach. Adam had no answer and Goldbert went through comfortably.


In the semi final Goldbert again fenced a good tactical game, his fast footwork being too much for the less experienced Vittorio. Vittorio, one of the form fencers of the day, fenced well, but Goldbert always looked like taking the final spot.


The other half of the tableau was rather thin on Saxon fencers. Christopher Cockburn, after good poules, found himself against Damien Bienias, another surprise package on the day who beat him on the way to the final. Edward Bentley fenced superbly in the poules, winning all 10 bouts, seeding 2nd, just behind Christian. He will be still be kicking himself for going out to Anthony Brown in the first round.

The final between Goldbert and Damien was a bout between two young, fast energetic fencers. Damien had fenced well throughout the DEs, and the clash of steel rang around the St. Benedicts cloister from the start. Goldbert, though, clearly has a good fencing brain and fenced the better bout, coming away as men's champion.

Results - Saxon Golden Anniversary Novice Foil Championship 2009

Women
1. Hanna Mahal – Eton
2. Cat Crossley – Club Des Artistes
3= Madeline Bell – Saxon
3= Sharon Thomas – Saxon
5. Jane Beeston – St. Benedict’s
6. Amber Mahal - Eton
7. Juliette Allibone – Saxon
8. Rosie Cuss – St. Benedict’s Club
9. Elzette Roelofse – Saxon
10. Philly Codrington - St. Benedict’s
11. Virginia Curran – St. Benedict’s


Men
1 Goldbert Dy – Brunel
2 Damian Bienias – St. Benedict’s School
3= Vittorio Spandadavecchia – Saxon
3= Nathan Garnham – St. Benedict’s School
5. Christian Chilton - Saxon
6. Jan Knapp - Club Des Artistes
7. Adam Jeavons – Saxon
8. Anthony Brown – St. Benedict’s
9. Edward Bentley – Saxon
10. James Pepper – Egham
11. Christopher Cockburn – Saxon
12. Steve Donati - Club Des Artistes
13. Rupert Belsham –St. Benedict’s School
14. Nic Wassall - Club Des Artistes
15. Matthew Brackenbury – St. Benedict’s School
16. George de Cintra – St. Benedict’s School

Ranking Round Up

The British Fencing Association runs a system of national rankings for fencers in each weapon and a number of Saxons have such rankings. This is a slightly complex system whereby in any designated National Open or International competion, any Fencer finishing in the last 64 or top 3/4 of the field (whichever is less) scores points based on a formula based on the size of the field, the quality of the fencers competing and the fencer's finishing position. The ranking is based on the best six results in the previous 12 months, on a rolling basis (are you following so far?).

Men's Foil

David Standen, although he has slipped back from 162nd to 199th is still the highest ranked Saxon Fencer, after earning recent ranking points at Slough and Hampshire.

Fred Thomas' ranking is slightly handicapped by his only competing in one Open per year. Nonetheless, as he did better at Slough than last year, earning him 263rd place.

Wayil Eisa earned his first ranking points at the Mersyside Open, moving him onto the ranking ladder in the Men's Foil in 415th place. This will improve rapidly as he fences more tournaments.

Edz Maldroom missed out on qualification at Slough and points at Hampshire, both by the narrowist of margins. However after a year of steady improvement including a number of good results, he ranks 261st.

Men's Epee

Saxon's sole representative outside of the foil is Grant Smith in the Men's Epee. His points at Slough have at least slowed down his plummeting ranking, putting him in 219th.

2009 Slough Open

The weekend of 6th and 7th of February was Slough Open weekend. Despite the unromantic name, this is one of the biggest and toughest tournaments in the domestic fencing calendar, with around 400 fencers, including many of the top fencers in the country were in attendance, competing in the “six weapons “ (i.e. Men’s and Women’s foil, epee and sabre). The Saxon turn out wasn’t quite as high as last year. Excuses ranged from the predictable (spousal commitments) the improbable (over-fencing) to the so-bizarre-it –must-be-true (watching C list celebrities ballroom dance at the O2 arena). The presence of a Medhurst in the Women's foil raised some speculation that Adrian may have shaved his chin and palms to fence with the girls, but these proved unfounded.

However, the Saxon turn out was still good with Michael “Fred” Thomas, Edz Maldroom and David Standen in the foil and Grant Smith and Allan Coleman in the epee.

Edz, (to the chagrin of the Ghost) choosing to represent his other club , 126, had a tough poule. He won one of his matches, but missed the cut from 88 to 70 by the skin of his teeth, finishing 76th. David (also sailing under false colours as a St. Benedicts Man) had a more successful morning winning 3 of 6 bouts with a couple of notable victories. He was seeded 48th and came up against the 21st seed in the first round of DE. David lost 15-5 and finished at his seeding position of 48, earning valuable national ranking points.

Fred was desperate not to be outdone by Sharon’s heroics at Holloway. But he turned up to a different Slough Open, which existed in a parallel universe where all fencers are left handed. Seven bouts in the day, none against right handers... Fred won 3 of his 5 qualifying bouts, and was seeded 38th. In the first round of DE, he came up against the 27th seed. The bout was fairly even up until the end of the first period, with Fred leading 7-5. Then Fred found a burst of energy or inspiration (it's unclear which, even to Fred) and he stretched it out to 13-6. Then inspiration (or energy) disappeared as quickly as it had come. Gradually, his opponent started to catch up. The final period saw Fred trying to time out the bout starting at 14-11. With 5 seconds to go and his opponent at 14-13, Fred finally remembered how to hit the target and finished the bout with a beat attack into the preparation, winning 15-13. In the second round of DE, Fred came up against the number 6 seed (who went on to finish as runner up in the tournament). Fred found him a little too hot to handle, losing 15-5, and finishing 27th.

(For aficionados, Fred's 14th point was a triumph of luck over skill. Having forced his opponent to the back of the piste, Fred launched a compound attack and completely missed. His opponent planted a beautifully timed counter attack in the middle of Fred's chest. One light, one point. But in gaining his hit, Fred's opponent had stepped behind the back line and so conceded the point... take everything you can get, that's what I say.)

The weather appeared to defeat Wayil Eisa, whose calming presence was much missed, but many thanks to Allan Coleman who came to support the foilists as a mental warm up for the next day's epee.

In Sunday’s Men’s Epee Allan put by his supporting role, girded his loins and took up his weapon, along with habitual duellist Grant Smith. Allan has been out of competitive fencing for a while and struggled to readjust to the pace of a big open. He didn’t record any wins in his six bouts and missed the cut, resuming his role as second for his team-mate. Grant (as ever) felt he had a tough poule and was quite content with his 3 wins from 6. Unusually for him, these included two bouts which timed out- one he won through being ahead and the other on an extra-time hit to a retreating elbow. Avid followers of the inelegant epeeist will recall that at Slough last year he lost to the youngest boy in the competition. This year, however, he undoubtedly faced the oldest fencer in the competition (no, not him, he was at home watching the rugby) which was more to his liking. Grant though employed his new found patience and uncharacteristic finesse to stay out of his opponent’s range and pick off wrist and arm hits, winning 15-6. This, however pitted him against no.2 seeded Rob Jennings, who fenced an extraordinary, unorthodox, fast, attacking bout. Grant was 5-0 down before he knew what had hit him but somehow managed to score 9 points to give his score some dignity, but he was eliminated before the first 3 minute period was over to take 55th place. He was still happy with his top-half finish in such a high calibre competition.

So mixed fortunes for the Saxons, but all their performances must be viewed in the context of a large National open event and all can be proud of their performances. Edz fought bravely in one of those poules which fate throws at every fencer on occassion. David showed that he can now consistantly compete on the open stage. Fred further cemented his reputation, but perhaps might have gone further, but for his Sinistrophobia. Allan found his return to competition a bit of a large step, put provided invaluable support to his team mates and Grant had a tactical epiphany on the way to his customary just-above-averageness.

Full results can be found at http://www.sloughopen.org/Templates/results.htm

Apologies for the slightly asymetrical coverage..... the Ghost was busy during much of the weekend fencing, some some fencers performances didn't get the reportage they deserve.

Royal Holloway Novice Foil

Saxon fencing club took second and forth places in the Royal Holloway Novice Foil this Sunday. Novice tournaments, for fencers with less than two years fencing experience are important development event for fencers becoming established in the sport. Saxon entered two mixed teams of three in a field of ten.

By recent tradition, Saxon teams are names after the warrior classes of Saxon society. The Saxon Fyrd, named for the Feudal Levy, consisted of Sharon Thomas, Christian Chilton and Christopher Cockburn. They dominated both of their seeding games, beating king’s college 45-26 and Royal Holloway 2nd 45-19. Christian was especially dominant early on, winning several of his bouts without reply. The teenaged Chris showed great poise and technique, putting together neat combination attacks (John would have been delighted with a perfectly executed appel-lunge which got him a single light) and Sharon discovered a previously unseen aggression which, allied to her excellent footwork made her very effective, if a little frightening, the referee had to restrain her several time from attacking before his call of "fence". This earned them a semi final place against Kings College 1st team. This was an excrutiatingly close game throughout. The Fyrd were slightly behind from the start, but late in the day pulled back so the score, in the first to 45 match, was 41-41. Kings then kept their heads and picked off the last four points, denying the Fyrd their place in the finals. Tired after a long days fencing they suffered badly at the hands of Kinston in the 3rd/4th playoff, but still finished an excellent forth.

The Saxon Huscarles, named for the household warrior elite, had a far tougher qualification. The team of South African Elztette Roelofse, Italian stalwart of the Ealing rugby Vittorio Spadevecchia and promising youngster Edward Bentley drew Kings 1st for their first match. It was tight throughout, but Kings were always slightly ahead, leaving Vittorio with a 38-40 deficit to make up in his final leg. With the sheer competitiveness which he showed throughout the tournament, as well as the fencing equivalent of a crash ball through midfield, the Italian took the leg by the scruff of the neck to force a Saxon victory. After a second qualifier where they confidently out classed Holloway 1st team in a 45-19 drubbing, they faced a tough looking young team from Kingston in the semi. This was very tight to start with, but a strong middle leg by Bentley, broke Kingston’s back and the Huscarles were ruthless in finishing the bout. This pitted the Huscarles in the final against King’s 1st, who they had narrowly beaten in the first bout of the day. The final was a different story. Saxon went behind early, and despite a couple of mid- bout rallies by Elzette, who had increased in stature all day and the consistent Edward, Saxon were always chasing the score. They were rushed into some late mistakes, bravely trying to make up the deficit and Kings pulled away again for a deserved 45-34 victory.

We can be delighted with taking two of the top four spots, a ringing endorsement of the beginner’s programme (well done Lance and John) from where all of the fencers graduated in the last few months but most of all, of course of the hard work and application of the fencers. It was certainly a tremendous development exercise, after nervous starts, the improvement in the fencing of all six could be seen as the day went on. Well done to all.

National Veteran Age Group Championships

Saxons Paul Lowen, Adrian Medhurst and Tom Girn all competed in the 2009 National Veterans Age Group Championships on Jan 14th.

Paul had taken the Cat 2 (50-59 year olds) foil championship for the last two years, so cam alonto defend his title. The competition was going well for him , but he lost out in one of his bouts by losing track of time (a common problem in the older categories of Vets fencing) when 1-0 down and being timed out. In a tightly fought contest, this was enough to tip the balance and Paul took a, still very creditable, forth place.

Tom and Adrian, after persistant pestering from Paul, entered their first veteran competition, in the Cat 1 Sabre for 40 somethings. Adrian was on a wave of confidence after his SE Regional performance. In a report on the match, told a week later in the Red Lion and Pineapple, the hirsute armourer described his tactical decision to rely entirely on foot speed, guessing that his oppenents, although experienced and skillful, might not be as quick on their feet as they were in their prime. This paid off and the wing-healed sabreur (pictured above in his pre-veteran days) took 4th place.

Tom, being new to sabre, struggled somewhat against the wiley vets, and his non-attendence at the pub to report his exploits, means the ghost can only report that he came in 14th. Paul, also fenced oin the sabre, as a digestif after his foil performance, taking 8th.