Fernwood Sword Club
It was a another busy week for Fernwood fencers. Domestically, Arthur Eakin and Ethan Dakin were competing in the first event of the Newham U14 series, being 2 of the only 4 fencers of 31 from outside the London area. Both performed brightly in the poules. Arthur was pleased to beat old rival Sebastian Beardmore-Estaban of ZFW 5-1 and only lost one fight, to 4-5 to Sebastian's much improved clubmate George Keogh 4-5. He lost only one fight in his second poule, 3-4 to Newham's Mikhel Archer. Ethan beat Archer 5-4 in his first poule, but dropped one fight in that poule and another in his second poule. Arthur went into the DEs as 6th seed and Ethan as 8th seed.
Both boys comfortably beat their first opponents in L32 - Arthur beat ZFW's Leonardo Markides 15-1 and Ethan Lazaro Val of The Fencing School. Ethan did very well in L16 to overcome Ben Turner of ZFW, while Arthur beat Haywood Down of Cambridge Sword 15-8. Arthur and Ethan both went out in L8 - Arthur to Danielas Juras of Newham and Ethan to Mohan Zu of Cobham. Arthur finished in 6th place and Ethan in 7th.
Ed Howlett had a frustrating day on Saturday in the final Junior World Cup before the selection for the European Championships, in Aix en Provence. Nerves kicked in really badly and he started off by losing 3-5 to an Egyptian fencer - though at 3-4 down the referee failed to acknowledge Ed's parry-riposte which would have made it 4-4. He then lost 3-5 to Italian Alessandro Stella, the top seed in the poule and then 4-5 to higher seed, German Markus Praus after being 4-3 up. Ed then (completely against the form book and in panic mode) lost to a Spaniard 1-5. Recovering somewhat, he beat a Polish fencer (who had won against Stella) 5-1, but couldn't see off a French fencer in his final match. This meant he didn't make the cut for the DEs. He has the 3rd best set of results in Junior World Cups this season for men's foil, but selection for the 4 strong team for the European Championships has not yet been made. If he is not selected he is likely to be the first reserve.
Ed was also part of the GB team, which fenced on Sunday. He was reserve in GB's L16 match against Denmark. GB were losing heavily and Ed was brought on for the final match against Denmark's star fencer, Jonas Winterberg-Poulsen. He lost 4-5 - the best result against Winterberg-Poulsen - and GB went out 27-45. The GB team then went into the 9-16 placing matches. Surprisingly, Ed didn't fence against Sweden, but GB did win that match. They then had a very tough match against against Poland. Ed beat Adam Podralski 5-2 but then had a tough match against the top Polish fencer, Maciej Bem and was subbed out. GB lost overall. GB's final match was against Holland. Ed was anchor and fenced excellently to beat Axel Zoons 6-3, Suhayl Nawar 5-4 and, to finish, Teun Jans Kohneke 5-2, including a stylish flick to back and 2 disengage ripostes. Jans Kohneke had earlier dispatched the GB number 1 7-2. GB won to finish in 12th place.
In a catch up from last week, Ed Campion was fencing for the RAF at the Aldershot Open. He won 3 and lost 3 of his poule matches, making him 30th seed after the poules. After a bye in L64 he was unfortunate to meet Arthur's regular fellow competitor, Sebastian Beardmore-Esteban and went out to finish 35th from 57 competitors.