Sword Club excels
It has been another good weekend for the club.
In the East Midlands U13 mixed foil, U11 Arthur Eakin bravely entered and gave his all against older fencers. He managed a 5-0 win against Charles Miles-Hayler of Radcliffe Sword in the first poule, whilst picking up points against 3 other fencers. He impressed in the second poule, winning 5-0 against Orla Dixon, whilst losing only 4-5 against Joshua Hemmings (the competition winner) and Ethan Platt, and1-5 against Roshan Singh. In his L16 DE, Arthur narrowly lost 8-10 against Charles Miles-Hayler, finishing in 9th place overall.
Meanwhile, 13 year old Benedict Murray and 14 year old Simon Elliott-Bateman were in action in the adult East Midlands Intermediate men's foil. Left hander Benedict had a good poule, beating Nottingham University fencer Toby Willis and Radcliffe fencer Max Chillingwoth 5-4, and the competition winner, Joel Mason, 5-1, losing only to Daniel Rainbow, another Nottingham University fencer. Simon beat Jonathan Bird of Leicester 5-3, but lost to two Nottingham University students and a Nottingham University academic in a tough poule. Benedict had a bye to L16. Simon again faced Jonathan Bird. At 4-4 it looked tense, but Simon clicked into gear and scored another 11 poits without reply. In L16, Simon faced the top seed after the poule, Benjamin Hart, of Leicester University. This was a tougher proposition and Simon lost out 3-15, finishing in 16th place. Benedict again faced Joel Mason (who was also one of the East Midlands Cadet Squad in December). Benedict proved hard to break down and took Mason to time, losing 5-11 and finishing in 10th place.
Great work by our three young competitors with,as always, much to learn from and work on going forward.
Meanwhile, James and Ed were fencing in Liverpool at the Merseyside Open. This was a large competition, with 91 fencers. James had the better of the first poule, winning all his matches. He beat Mike McKay (best veteran at the the competition), Daniel McKay of Liverpool and Richard Morris of Cambridge University (and 14th in the GB senior rankings) 5-3, and William Guild of Academy in London 5-0. Ed beat Kiron Austin of Newham Swords 5-0, Philip Westley of North Tamar and Nicholas Strouther of Liverpool University 5-1 and Nick Dootson (who won team bronze in the Commonwealths for Scotland in 2010) 5-3. He was disappointed to lose 3-5 to Sam Blair of Louth, who relies on counter attacks. The scores were reversed in the second poule, with Ed winning all his fights - 5-2 against Richard Sage of the Lansdowne Club and against William Lonsdale of Louth, 5-1 against Daniel Mckay of Liverpool and 5-3 against Paul Stanbridge of Salle Holyrood and George Dolan of Huddersfield University. James recorded 5-1 wins against John Kemp of Teeside and Kieran Patrick of Leicester University, 5-2 against Philip Westley and 5-4 against Kieran Austin, whilst dropping a fight 3-5 against Thomas Phillips-Langley of Lancaster University. This left Ed as 6th seed and James as 11th seed for the DEs. Both received a bye in L128. They both comfortably beat their L64 opponents - Ed facing Will Gallimore-Tallen of Four of Clubs and James Dave Bass of Abergele. The same applied in L32, with Ed comfortably overcoming Kiron Austin of Newham Swords and James Luke Rees of Lancaster University (and former Toot Hill School). This meant that the boys faced each other in L16, which is the last thing they wanted. Ed went though 15-10, to face Ben Andrews of Salle Paul in London in L8. The last time they fenced each other was at the Luton Open last May, with Ed squeaking through a 15-14 winner. Things were different this time, in that Ed's armoury had developed considerably and he used his confident parry ripostes to come out a 15-3 winner. The semi-final was a tougher proposition, with Ed's opponent being Daniel Kiss, third ranked GB U20 fencer. Ed started off sparklingly, building up a decent lead. However, Kiss fought back and overtook Ed at 13-12. At 14-14 Ed risked a daring attack which didn't pay off. Gutting. Kiss went on to lose 12-15 to former senior national champion, Keith Cook. Ed had to be satisfied with a bronze medal and a medal for best U18 fencer.
Ed and James are training next weekend at the Leon Paul centre in London as part of their AASE course, which is combined with preparation for the European Championships, so there will be a lot of good sparring to be had. Ed then flies out the following weekend to Plovdiv for the Euros.
The attached photo shows Ed with the other bronze medal winner, Tom Corlett of ZFW in London.