Fernwood Sword Club
First up was the BUCS university individual championships in Sheffield - with the men's foil on Friday. James Rutherford did brilliantly in his poule and went into the DEs as equal 3rd seed. He finished in 10th place from 91 fencers. Congratulations to Alex Jones, our guest coach from Nottingham University, who came 6th.
Ed Howlett was taking part in his last ever U20 Junior World Cup in Terrassa, near Barcelona on Saturday. It wasn't a good start when he was violently sick just before the start of the poule. He was frustrated by his first opponent, a Colombian, who had a dodgy bodywire and lost out to a Pole, a Belgian and an American. He beat a Spaniard 5-0 and had a famous win over the current Cadet World Champion, who is Russian. He was very frustrated indeed to lose 14-15 in L128 to Spaniard Alexandro Garcia Moreno, who went on to L32. The margins between success and losses have been so narrow this season.
However, he had a fantastic day in the team event. GB men's foil haven't had a better result in a Junior World Cup for over 3 years, with the team finishing in 6th place. Ed was the anchor against Kazakstan in L16, with a dominant 45-22 win taking team GB through to L8. Ed didn't feature in the match against Russia and GB lost 35-45. The first placement match was against Denmark. GB was losing 31-34. Super-sub Ed came on in the 8th match and thrashed Jacob Brandt-Lang (who had finished in L16 the day before) 9-3, giving GB a 40-37 lead. GB's anchor finished 5-4 to give GB a 45-41 lead. This was the first win over Denmark in 3 outings this season. Finally, Ed fenced in the 5th/6th place match with a strong Poland side. it finished in a 38-45 loss. He finished with a 0 indicator, which was the best of the GB fencers. Overall on the day, Ed's indicator was significantly better than each of his other 3 teammates, which is pleasing to take away. (The photo shows Ed on the right with his two ZFW clubmates, so 3 out of the 4 GB team).
Ryan McGahey and Alex Nickerson fenced in the U12 and U14 boys' foil today in the Yorkshire Youth League. It was Alex's first competition and both boys were in the younger year of their category.
Finally, well done to Ethan Dakin for gold in the U13 LPJS in Cornwall - and well done to his parents for braving Storm Dennis. Results included a pleasing win in L8 over Edward Thompson of Fencers Club London.
