External Results 2005-2006 - Spring 2006

This page gives the results for fencers from Guildford Fencing Club for spring, 2006. Click here for the external results page for 2005-2006

For results from other years, click here.

Rankings now updated to 2006 -Click here

Click here for Vil's Niff Calculator

Click here for Vilya'a ranking points calculator

The weekend of the 18th and 19th March is a very busy one, with several competitions.

Public School Fencing Championships - 2006

Senior Boys Epée

43rd - Matthew Eplett, RGS, Guildford

Junior Boys Epée

5th - Joshua Collins, RGS Guildford

Boys Junior Foil

15th - Gaurav Gupta, Epsom College

Surrey Novices and Intermediate Foil and Epée - 19th March, 2006

Guildford had three entrants in both of the men's foil competitions and one entrant in the ladies epée competitions. Spectacular success was achieved by Gaurav Gupta who won both the Novice and Intermediate Foil. Very well done Gaurav, we are very proud of you. Congratulations also to Rakash for coming 2nd in the Intermediate Foil and Chris for coming joint third in the Novice Foil.

Men's Novice Foil

1st Gaurav Gupta
=3rd Christopher Weeks
11th Rakash Gupta

Men's Intermediate Foil

1st Gaurav Gupta
2nd Rakash Gupta
5th Christopher Weeks

Ladies Novice Epée

7th Julie Schofield

Ladies Intermediate Epée

5th Julie Schofield

Photos: Gaurav with the Cups for Novice Foil and Intermediate Foil (Chris Weeks in the background) and Gaurav and Trevor Langford (coach)
Photos (c) Rakash Gupta

Full Results

Invicta Open - 18th and 19th March, 2006, Folkestone

There was further success for Guildford at the Invicta Open on the Saturday. Niki Lewis was runner-up in the Women's Sabre with Tonya Cheatham coming joint third. Aaron Lewis was 7th in the Men's Sabre and Meg Schofield 8th in the Women's Epée. Full results are not yet known. Very well done Niki.

Women's Epée

In the poule round both mother and daughter did equally badly, winning only one fight in their poules. There was a very serious danger that they would meet each other in the first round, Meg seeding 29th and Julie 35th. However, fortunately, this was not to be. Meg won her fight 15 hits to 10 with Julie going out to Molly, one of Meg's Nottingham friends by 0 hits to 10. Julie was extremely pleased that she held her own and made the fight go to time.

Meg then met Katherine Ferris in the Last 32 and won again by 15 hits to 14. Meg eventually went out to Katy Dolan in the L8.

8th Meg Schofield
36th Julie Schofield

Women's Sabre - picture left - Tonya and Niki with their medals.

In the poules Niki Lewis got 2 victories and sufficient indicators to be ranked 7th. In a broken L16, Niki faced Lindsey Bell and was 5-8 down at the break having only just worked out her style. Following a bit of trading hits Niki fought back to win 15-12 and into the L8. Tonya Cheatham faced Elaine Haywood in the first round and beat her comfortably 15 hit to 6.

Niki fenced Laura Hunter-Thompson, 2nd seed who had been one of the two byes for the competition. Laura had won her poule fight against Niki and Niki thought her supporting spectators were hopeful of a repeat performance. However it was 8-4 to Niki at the break and despite a wobble at 14-9 which saw Laura gain 4 hits Niki managed a 15-13 win.

Tonya faced Kirsty Forester and won 15 hits to 10. It was not immediately clear that the Guildford curse was not about to strike and Tonya and Niki would have to fight off for a place in the final. Fortunately, they were drawn against Ekatarina Malysheva, a Russian student at Canterbury and Justine Aw, an American studying at Oxford University.

Niki was drawn against Ekatarina Malysheva another left hander. The softly softly tactics of the previous fights were abandoned to all out attack from both sides in a fight that was decided on single light hits. Ekatarina was 7-8 up at the break and raised it to 13-11 before Niki drew even and then ahead to win 15-13.

Tonya lost to Justine leaving Niki as our sole entrant in the final.

Stunned to have got further than ever in a competition it remained only for Niki to stay calm, and be mentally ready for the final against Justine. Sadly, by this time the day was beginning to tell, and "despite the spirit being willing the flesh was ready to have a shower, some chocolate and hunt out a quiet place to collapse". This was also Niki's first experience of Leon Paul's 'carpet' piste which "has a sudden stopping power on the old feet". Justine came into the fight just as hungry and was 3-8 up at the break. The second half saw some good exchanges of parries but Nik only managed another 5 hits to finish 8-15. Second place and a very happy person.

Quote from Niki "Stiff, sore and still grinning"

Final Placings

2nd Niki Lewis
=3rd Tonya Cheatham

Men's Foil

40th Hector Ketley

Men's Epée

40th Tim Schofield
Andrew McNeil

Men's Sabre

Aaron had a good poule winning 4 fights and was seeded 9th with a bye to L32. He comfortably won his first DE against Olivier Huin of City 15-4, going on to fight Chris Pittman 15-5 in the L16. After a break the L8 got under way with Aaron facing Henry Gann. Henry beat Aaron 11-15 and went on to be the eventual winner beating Jacob Colligan, Notts Uni and occasional Guildford fencer.

7th Aaron Lewis
11th Phil Shepherd-Foster
=14th Christopher Schofield
29th Antoine Ubaghs
35th Richard Hall

Report - Niki Lewis and Antoine Ubaghs

South of Ireland Championships - 18th and 19th March, 2006

8th Dan Daly

Dan was betean by Hugh Tobin uf UCC in the last 8 by 8 hits to 15 in a small field of 15 fencers.

Eton Foil Tournament - Leon Paul Junior Series - 18th and 19th March, 2006, Rickmansworth

Results not yet available

Edinburgh Coup du North 11th and 12th March, 2006

Format for both days two rounds of poules, 1st for ranking for the day and 2nd for seeding for the DE, with elimination before the first round of DE.

MS
Aaron started well with a good poule dropping only one fight to be ranked 7th. However due to an error in the initial draw his second round poule went from a good prospect to a tricky draw and he dropped to 36th place. Again there was a hiccup in the number of fencers causing some confusion which saw him cut then re-instated to face Alex Erskine, in the broken L64. Both fencers put up a good fight to finish 15-14 in Aaron's favour, but it cost Alex 2 blades in the space of 3 hits. Aaron went on to face Richard Cohen in the L32. Despite giving him a good run he lost 11-15 to finish 32nd.

WS
After approaching the 1st poule with some trepidation Niki got 3 victories out of 6 fights and was placed 19th. However the draw for the 2nd poule saw her facing what Roz Hull named a poule of death with Roz, Nicky Gathecole, Christie Waddington and Jo Matthew. Niki managed 1 victory against one bunny and a very near miss on the other leaving her seeded 28th and at the top of the fencers cut.

Report by Niki Lewis

Men's Sabre

Daniel Brooks - 26th
Aaron Lewis - 32nd

Women's Sabre

Niki Lewis - 28th

Women's Epée

Kirsty Macdonald - 24th

NVA Championships - 10th to 12th March, 2006, Gloucester NVA website

The National Veteran's Association is open to all fencers aged 40 plus. The NVA World Championships will be held in Bath this year and this is a qualifying competition. Tim and Julie Schofield entered the Epée and frankly both feel the less said about their results the better. Tim was 32nd and Julie 25th (joint last - hey she wasn't alone this time, neither Diane Austin or Julie saw the point in fighting out who was going to take the wooden spoon in a poule of two.)

No photos of Tim and Julie but here are some of the final poule of the top six in the men's and women's epée.

First photo of Kate Smith fencing Jane Hutchinson (Kate on left). Pat Casey refereeing. Kate finished third and Jane 5th (winner of the Category 1 medal).

Second Photo: Tim makes himself useful clearing up the masking tape whilst Mavis Thornton tests weapons for the fight between Gerry Simpson (third) and Howard West (2nd and winner of the Category 2 medal).

If you wish to support the NVA's hosting of the World Championships, Julie and Tim have some raffle tickets for sale. Prizes look good.

London International A Grade - Women's Sabre - 4th March, 2006

Tonya Cheatham was one of 84 fencers taking part in the London International A Grade for Women's Sabre held at the Whitgift School. Tonya won two out of her six fights in her poule and was ranked 66th and made the cut. She was beaten 15 hits to 7 in her direct elimination fight. Very well done Tonya. The competition was won by Edina Csaba of Hungary who beat Zue Tan of China in the final. Tonya finished the competition in 69th place. Sadly Tonya missed out on any World Cup points.

Antoine Ubaghs and Aaron Lewis

Great Britain School Fencing Championships, Canterbury - 4th March, 2006

George Abbot Gold and Bronze Medal Rush !!!

George Abbot school stunned the world of schools fencing at an all-day tournament in Canterbury on Saturday.

‘Who on earth are those guys in the yellow socks?’ was what the other contestants were asking at the start of the event, the Great Britain Schools Fencing Championships, at the start of the under-16 Epée competition. The George Abbot team was composed of Conrad Cotton-Barrett and Ian Patterson, both Year 11, and Duncan Patterson in Year 10. Two comprehensive whippings later – with scores around 45-20 in George Abbot’s favour – it was more a case of a respectful ‘Watch out for those guys in the yellow socks!’ (Ed. Not that they like the socks – they rather wore them as a protest!) Sure enough, their form did not desert them in the Gold Medal match, and the fiery team in their trademark yellow socked-fencing gear stormed through to win the Final against Westminster school. The winning margin was 45-39 with Conrad Cotton-Barrett finishing off for the team in spectacular style to bring home the Gold Medal for George Abbot!!

Photo: The winning epée team: Iain, Conrad and Duncan.

In the under-16 Sabre contest it was another stunning result as the team of Conrad Cotton-Barrett, Duncan Patterson and Jeremy McCabe came from 28-32 behind to create a nail-biting finish. The team levelled the scores at first 42 and then 44 apiece before Conrad clinched the George Abbot team a surprise bronze medal in the final bout with the winning score 45-44 against the stunned opponents Kemnal B from Bromley. Another medal for George Abbot, this time bronze, but it felt good to the team, and it was smiles all round as for the second time that day they had the medals hung around their necks!

All 4 George Abbot students are members of Guildford Fencing Club.

Photo: Conrad, Iain, Jeremy and Duncan with their medals

George Abbot looked good at the end of a rewarding day, and hosts Simon Langton boys commented respectfully about their opponents conduct and skills.

Chris Schofield volunteered to help coach and referee on the day, despite the fact he then had to drive up to Nottingham on the Saturday night in order to compete in the Nottingham Open the next day. John writes that "they HUGELY appreciated Chris' visit and coaching/support on the day.

Report by John McCabe
Photos (c) John McCabe

Nottingham Open - 4th and 5th March, 2006

The Epée competitions and Men's Sabre were capped at quite low numbers I understand as a reaction to the debacle at the Leicester Open. Although lots of fencers were disappointed at not being allowed to compete it did mean that the Competitions ran well and efficiently and there was time for two rounds of seeding poules giving all fencers a much better number of fights. The low cap did catch out several of our fencers and on the day there were only three Guildford fencers involved on the Sunday. Phil Shepherd-Forster in the Men's Sabre (Chris Schofield having unfortunately to withdraw through illness) and Tim and Julie Schofield in the Epée. Julie sadly took her all too familiar place as last - but felt she got some very good hits against a variety of lady fencers and was unlucky to lose her first fight in the first poule by 4 hits to 5. She is definitely thinking of replacing her ENG for England on her back and is wondering if it should rather read 'rabbit food' or 'cannon fodder'' or maybe simply "the rabbit". Tim went out in the L32 having got a bye into the L64. Phil also went out in the L32. More details will hopefully be available shortly. Sadly, though, no photographs were taken as we were all too busy fencing. We will be remembering to enter very early next year! On the Saturday, Guildford had two young foilists involved, with both Gaurav Gupta and Harry Ketley taking part.

Results:

Men's Epée - Tim Schofield - 21st

Women's Epée - Julie Schofield - 45th

Men's Sabre - Phil Shepherd-Foster - 21st

Men's Foil -

Harry Ketley - 44th
Gaurav Gupta - 48th

Julie Schofield

South-East Intermediate Foil - 26th February, 2006

Our only entrant was Gaurav Gupta, but didn't he do well, coming 5th out of a field of 31 fencers. Well Done, Gaurav.

Photos:

James Dyke of Brighton and Hove fleching Gaurav - Gaurav was unlucky to lose the bout - (c) 2006 Aaron Chen
Photo (c) 2006 J B Li-Kam-Tin - Gaurav on the right preparing to fight off with James.

Hampshire Open - 18th February, 2006

Men's Sabre

As I commented below about the Surrey, winning titles like London buses seem to come all at once and today Steve Pope added his first Open win to the total. As far as I can recall, this is the first win by a Guildford fencer of an Open since Meg Schofield won the Women's Epée titles at the Bristol and at the Isle of Wight in 2000. A particularly impressive win for Steve as he defeated Jon Salfield in the semi final and Alistair Jupp in the final. Both Jon and Alistair represent Truro - John is at present third in the Senior British Rankings and Alistair 14th. Unfortunately, despite John and Alistair's presence the NIFF is likely to be low. Only 30 fencers took part which is a shame for such an excellent competition.

Steve won three out of his 5 fights in the poule, losing to Murray Morrison (first fight) and Dan Brooks. Steve was seeded 10th after the poules. He beat Barry Coutler of Swash and Buckle 15 hits to 2 in the first round and then beat Clive Galliano, the number 7 seed, by 15 hits to 13. Steve then beat Francesco Egro, an Italian Bristol Uni student who had just knocked out Tom Nicolls. Steve won by 15 hits to 11. Steve was impressed by Francesco's style. Unfortunately, there was a two hours delay before the semi-finals whilst the semi-finals of the
foil were fought. Steve took an early lead against Jon and helt it all the way to

the end. Steve beat Jon 15 hits to 14. Steve felt that Al Jupp was a bit overly defensive and he pulled away to be 13 hits to 9 ahead before Al pulled it back to 14 all. Steve than scored a nice flunge to change the tempo to get the winning hit.

Steve comments "Very pleased indeed, first open title, and really started to fence better, am getting a little run of good placings now, hopefully this will continue".

Owen had a difficult pool with Clive Galliano and John Salfield and lost to both 5-3 and 5-1 respectively, but beat Dennis Ward (Espada) and Barry Coulter (Swash) fairly easily (5-0/1 ish) and then lost to Warren Longshaw (City) who he reckons he should have beaten having been 4-2 up.

Owen ended up being seeded 17th out of the poules on 2-3. He came up against Warren Longshaw again in the L32, went comfortably up to 8-4 at the break then managed to do his best to throw things away to the score being 12-12 before he finally managed to take it 15-13.

Owen then fenced Al Jupp who was number 1 seed in the L16. He comments that "he was fairly thrashed 15-5/6 but obviously managed to soften him up enough for Steve to take him out in the
final ".

Aaron faced the up and coming Cadet, James Honebourne and lost 15 hits to 8 in the L16.

Antoine started well in the poules, beating Jack Boteler and Maciej Pulaczewski and was leading 4 hits to 0 against Mark Giles when his fortunes turned - Mark eventually won 5 hits to 4. Antoine then lost 0-5 to Al Jupp and 1-5 to Carl Morris.

Richard Hall went out to Alistair Murray in the L32 by 5 hits to 15.

With so many Guildford fencers taking part, it was inevitable that one would eventually have to fence another as seems to happen in all competitions at the moment. This time Antoine had to face Chris in the L32. Chris won by 15 hits to 4. Antoine comments "Chris clearly out fenced me hands down, but I would nominate Chris for the good sportsmanship award as this was the first time I had my opponent in the DE giving me advice on how to score more hits".

In the L16 Chris lost to Oliver Coultrop of Southampton Uni by about 9 hits to 15.

Photos - the final, Al Jupp on left. Left, Steve with trophy

Final Rankings:

Steve Pope - 1st
Chris Schofield - 11th
Aaron Lewis - 12th
Owen Gough - 15th
Dan Brooks - 20th
Antoine Ubaghs - 22nd
Richard Hall - 29th

Women's Sabre

Guildford had three entrants out of the sixteen lady sabruers. Tonya Cheatham, Niki Lewis and Kirsty Macdonald. Tonya added another impressive performance, finishing 5th - a massive improvement on last year's result of 15th place. Tonya was fencing really well and lost in the last 8 to Margaret McWilliam by 10 hits to 15. Margaret went on to win the competition.

Photo - Niki Presides

Final Rankings

Tonya Cheatham - 5th
Niki Lewis - 9th
Kirsty Macdonald - 12th.

Men's Foil

Guildford had three entrants in the men's foil. Chris Weeks and father and son Rakash and Gaurav Gupta. There was a much larger entry in the men's foil - 58 fencers competing.

Final Rankings

Chris Weeks - 40th
Gaurav Gupta - 43rd
Rakash Gupta - 51st

Report by Julie Schofield

British Youth Championships - Stoke, 18th and 19th February, 2006

Congratulations to Gareth Thomas 5th and Conrad Cotton-Barett 8th in the U16 Boys Epée.

Especial congatulations toRebecca Thomas who was joint 3rd in the U14 Girls Epée.

Results

Rebecca Thomas, 3rd - U14 Girls Epée
Gareth Thomas, 5th - U16 Boys Epée
Conrad Cotton-Barrett , 8th - U16 Boys Epé
Conrad Cotton-Barrett, 19th - U16 Boys Sabre
Verity Ridgeon, 21st - U14 Girls Sabre

Surrey Epée and Sabre Championships - 12th February, 2006

Men's Sabre - Guildford fencers: Richard Hall, Aaron Lewis, Steve Pope, Chris Schofield, Phil Shepherd-Foster and Antoine Ubaghs, Guildford thus providing 50% of the total entry! Hopefully more Surrey fencers can be persuaded to enter next year.

The men's and women's sabre was combined for the poule round.

Rankings after the poule round:

Steve Pope
Chris Schofield
Aaron Lewis
Murray Morrison, Swash and Buckle
Maiyaran Ratneswaran, Whitgift
Clive Galliano, Kingston
Phil Shepherd-Foster
Ceri Thomas, Streatham
Richard Hall
Mark Oakes, Streatham
Antoine Ubaghs
Jason Chan, Charterhouse

Direct Elimination

The top four fencers received byes:

L16 -

Maiyaran Ratneswaran beat Jason Chan by 15 hits to 3
Clive Galliano beat Antoine Ubaghs by 15 hits to 11
Phil Shepherd-Foster beat Mark Oakes by 15 hit to 7
Richard Hall beat Ceri Thomas by 15 hits to 8

Steve Pope beat Richard Hall by 15 hits to 2
Maiyaran Ratneswaran beat Murray Morrison by 15 hits to 13
Aaron Lewis beat Clive Galliano by 15 hits to 9
Chris Schofield beat Phil Shepherd-Foster by 15 hits to 13

Maiyaran Ratneswaran beat Steve Pope by 15 hits to 14
Chris Schofield beat Aaron Lewis by 15 hits to 11

Both semi-finals were very close and it looked that Steve would go through for an all Guildford final but sadly this wasn't to be. Aaron was ahead at the interval and Chris needed to use all his speed to defeat Aaron in the second half.

Photos above -

Chris, on left, versus Phil in the quarter-finals, watched by Clare Monger and Clive Galliano
Maiyaran Ratneswaran versus Steve in the semis
Aaron versus Chris in the other semi; the box says it all

Final

Chris Schofield beat Maiyaran Ratneswaran by 15 hits to 14.

Photos - Chris and Maiyaran. Chris's support:
Phil, Simon, Dan, Antoine, Steve, Meg, Aaron, Niki, Trevor and Julie
Richard Hall is scoring and Murray Morrison presiding.
In photo 3 Murray congratulates Chris on his win.

This was a very tense affair with the advantage swinging from one fencer to the other. It was never certain who would win but eventually Chris pulled ahead. (Chris and Julie believe the score was actually 15 hits to 13 but whose quibbling?) Congratulations Chris, the first Guildford win of the season.

Final Rankings:

Chris - 1st
Aaron - Joint 3rd
Steve - Joint 3rd
Phil - 7th
Richard - 8th
Antoine - 11th

Women's Sabre -

The event was won by Clare Monger of Kingston who beat our own Niki Lewis in the final. Vidya Nagaran of KCS Wimbledon and Theresa Miarka of Wimbledon Fencing Club were joint third.

Well done, Niki.

Men's Epée

Twenty five fencers took part making it by far the largest event. Guildford fencers: Richard Boddington,, Matt Eplett, Andrew McNeil, Simon Pearson and Tim Schofield

Ranking after Poules

Tim Schofield - 11th
Andrew McNeil - 12th
Simon Pearson - 13th
Mat Eplett - 16th
Richard Boddington - 22nd

L16

Tim Schofield beat Richard Boddington by 15 hits to 10
Miles Graham of Streatham beat Simon Pearson by 15 hits to 13
Simon White of Wimbledon beat Mat Eplett by 15 hits to 12
Gavin Moulton of Streatham beat Andrew McNeil by 15 hits to 12

Brian Harkins of Wimbledon beat Tim Schofield by 15 hit to 10

The competition was won by Chris Howser of Redhill & Reigate who defeated Ian de Whalley of Kingston by 15 hits to 10. Joint third were Andrew Beevers of Tiger Swords and Karolis Petrokas of Redhill & Reigate.

Final Rankings

Tim - 11th
Andrew - 17th
Simon - 18th
Mat - 19th
Richard - 22nd

Women's Epée

There was a small field of 12 fencers (two more than I recollect from last year). Guildford fencers: Jenna Hardy, Alice Merry, Julie and Meg Schofield

Results after Poules:

Niki Ajibode of Streatham
Nichola Lydall of Redhill & Reigate
Meg Schofield
Katarina Horvathova of Egham
Rachel Measures of Redhill and Reigate
Emily Jeanes of Wimbledon
Grace Rowland of Redhill & Reigate
Jenna Hardy
Julie Schofield
Alice Merry
Eleanor Brighton of Shean
Jaime Binder of Redhill & Reigate

In the poule round Julie was delighted to win two of her five fights - beating both Rachel Measures and Eleanor Brighton. She lost 5-0 to Jenna. However, on the first anniversary of entering outside competitions Julie was very glad to be third from last - one better than last year!

L16

Meg received a bye into the last 8

Jenna Hardy beat Julie Schofield by 15 hits to 4
Alice Merry beat Grace Rowland by 15 hits to 11

Niki Ajibode beat Jenna Hardy by 15 hits to 6
Meg Schofield beat Emily Jeanes by 15 hits to 8
Nichola Lydell beat Alice Merry by 15 hits to 5

Meg Schofield beat Nichola Lydell by 15 hits to 7

Photos

Meg on left against Nichola with Jenna and Alice watching.
Meg again on left against Niki in the Final.

Final

Meg Schofield beat Niki Ajibode by 15 hits to 10.

A class act by Meg who was on good form. Well done to Meg and Chris for a great brother and sister double act.

Rachel Measures of Redhill and Reigate was joint third.

Final Rankings

Meg - 1st
Jenna - 7th
Alice - 8th
Julie - 10th

Team Sabre

Until a late entry from Swash and Buckle it seemed that Guildford were to fight the final off between themselves. However, Murrary Morrison, Mark Oakes and Maiyaran Ratneswaran formed a combined team which in the end proved just too strong for both Guildford teams.

Swash and Buckle defeated Guildford A by 45 hits to 42
Swash and Buckle defeated Guildford B by 45 hits to 35
Guildford A defeated Guildford B by 45 hits to 28

We'll get that trophy back next year!

Guildford A - Aaron Lewis, Steve Pope, Chris Schofield and Phil Shepherd-Foster

Guildford B - Dan Brooks, Richard Hall, Niki Lewis, Antoine Ubaghs

Swash and Buckle
Guildford A
Guildford B

Men's Team Epée

Guildford's team of Andrew McNeil, Simon Pearson and Tim Schofield sadly did not make the semi-finals, finishing 5th out of eight teams. Better luck next time.

N.B. TIger Swords, coached by Neale Thomas, won the Men's team epée with a team including Gareth Thomas, defeating Redhill & Reigate A by a single hit after time. Gareth had been leading by 40 hits to 36 but Brian proceeded to level at 41 all against Andrew when time was called. Brian had the advantage, winning priority, but after two double Andrew got his first single to win 42 hits to 41. Congratulations Neale.

Report on final by Neale Thomas

Tiger Swords: Gareth Thomas, Aaron Gardner and Andrew Beevers

Guildford - 5th

Women's Team Epée

There were only three teams entered for the inaugral Women's Team epée competition and Guildford again provided two of them. The third team was Redhill & Reigate.

Guildford Belles defeated Guildford Cadets by 45 hits to 39
Guildford Belles defeated Redhill & Reigate by 45 hits to 37
Redhill & Reigate defeated Guildford Cadets by 45 hits to 21

Meg and Julie Schofield were joined by Kirsty Macdonald to form the Guildford Belles. Meg continued her good form from the individual competition and Kirsty also fenced extremely well. Julie was happy to help keep the score within sight and was very happy to score 5 hits against the third Redhill fencer Jaime and to score hits aginst both Rachel Measures and Nicholas Lydell. Redhill substituted Grace for Jaime in their fight against the young Guildford team of Alice, Jenna and Rebecca Thomas who did well especially in their fight against the Guildford Belles.

Guildford Belles - 1st
Guildford Cadets - 3rd

Photo -

Meg, Julie and Kirsty - the Guildford Belles
Keith Smith congratulates Aaron and Steve on their bronze medals.
Meg and Chris with their medals and the Sabre Cup

A splendid day for Guildford. Like London buses victories seem to come all at once.
It was splendid to see so many of our teenagers taking part and we hope this will spur them on to enter more outside competitions.

Report by Julie Schofield

Photographs copyright Tm and Julie Schofield

Merseyside Open - 11th and 12th February, 2006

Guildford had only one entrant, Vilya Harvey. Here is his report. Hopefully some photos will be available later.

"Here's my impressions of the Merseyside Open.

The Merseyside Open was a very well run competition and a pretty good outing for me (as the only Guildford fencer in attendance).

After the first round of pools I'd managed to win all my matches and was seeded 2nd. There was a little bit of a wait at this point, while they got the first round of the ladies' pools underway. Then the second round of pools where, once again, I managed to win all my matches. Seedings were calculated based on both rounds of pools and I came out top - no. 1 seed. This was, naturally, a bit of a confidence booster.

With 88 entries, the first round of DE was an incomplete 128 and I had a bye. My first DE match was in the last 64, against Martin Kehler from Wrekin Sword. I won it pretty comfortably, 15-4 (I think).

The next round DE, in the last 32, was an altogether different story. My opponent was Tristan Hale of Team Northumbria and it was a very close match. He got off to an early lead, but I responded by levelling the scores. At the end of the first period it was 11-all. Coming back after the one minute break it was a pretty tense affair. There were a few exchanges without a light, then he lunged and I caught him with a stop hit on the bottom of his hand. Shortly after that I landed a nice neat flick to his wrist. Next hit was a quick riposte to his arm. Finally, he lunged at me and I stepped back out of range, then countered with a lunge to his shoulder for the victory. It was a great match & he was a very good opponent; I was extremely happy that I managed to step up my fencing enough to beat him.

The last 16 DE was against Mathew Powell of Solihull. He got off to a significant early lead by keeping extra-long distance, drawing my attack then riposting with a fleche. I figured out too late that I needed to be drawing out his attack instead; he already had quite a lead and was showing no inclination to come forward and take the bait I was offering. I was able to adjust my attacks slightly and make some headway, but not enough: he ran out as the winner, 15-8.

Overall result was 9th, slightly disappointing after being the no. 1 seed but a decent result nonetheless."

Report by Vilya Harvey

Very well done, Vilya, you did us proud.

Slough Open - 4th and 5th February, 2006

This is the last year that the competitition will be held at Bracknell with a move to Rickmansworth planned for 2007. I was told there were over 560 fencers over the whole weekend and certainly it was very crowded both days. Hopefully the new venue will be larger.. Only the small hall is available on a Saturday and this was pretty full with fencers until late afternoon. Both women's sabre and men's sabre was held on the Saturday; together with women's foil. With the larger hall available, the men's and women's epée were held together with the men's foil taking place in the smaller hall. Unfortunately the men's epée got off to a late start so didn't finish until 8.30 p.m. A very long day. Guildford had entrants in all the events with the exception of women's foil.

Men's Sabre - Out of totalof 64 competing, Guildford with nine fencers, contributed nearly 15% of the entries.
Guildford fencers were: Daniel Brooks (U. of Surrey), Dan Daly, Owen Gough, Richard Hall, Aaron Lewis, Steve Pope, Chris Schofield, Phil Shepherd-Foster, Antoine Ubaghs.

In the poules Daniel, since he fences officially for the University of Surrey was very likely to be drawn against a Guildford fencer and so it turned out to be, Dan was in the same poule as Phil. Phil was on amazing form and won all his 5 fights five hits to two. Steve also won all his fights. Aaron dropped just one fight. Chris dropped two fights. Owen won two fights beating Karl Morris 5-4 and losing to Simon Donald (2-5) and Phil West (4-5). Antoine won two fights losing to Richard Cohen 3-5 and Joseph Rightman 4-5. Dan in his first British Open beat Patrick Jackson of City Club 5-3, losing to Natt Lewis 3-5. Richard lost all his fights but scoring 4 hits off Matthew Frazer.

Rankings after the Poules

Steve Pope - 1st
Phil Shepherd-Foster - joint 5th
Aaron Lewis - 16th
Chris Schofield - 20th
Dan Brooks - 22nd
Owen Gough - 30th
Antoine Ubaghs - 32nd
Dan Daly - 58th
Richard Hall - 59th

Photos: Left to Right. Dan Brooks pepares to fight in his poule. Richard Hall and Antoine Ubaghs.
Photos copyright Julie Schofield

L64

Steve v. Gianpual Marini of Salle Ursa - Steve won, unfortunately, I don't have any further details.
Phil v. Richard - The first all Guildford match - Phil dominated the match - winning 15 hits to 3.
Aaron v. Niccolo Capanani of Aberdeen. This was a closr fight but Aaron was triumphant, winning 15 hits to 13.
Chris v. Carl Morris of Seacourt - Chris was nervous going into this match as Karl had knocked Steve out of the Hereford and Owen in a previous Open, both being reversals. Chris turned Guildford's luck beating Carl 15 hit to 9.
Daniel v. David Victory of Bath Sword - Daniel was leading comfortably at 13 hits to 11 but David came back fighting and was the eventual winner by 15 hits to 14.
Owen v. Tony Watford of Bardell. Owen won comfortably by 15 hits to 9.
Antoine v. Dominic Kerr of Taunton Blades - Antoine put up a great effort against Dominic but lost 7 hits to 15
Dan v. Natt Lewis of Taunton Blades - Dan again faced Natt - Natt winning 15 hits to 6.

L32
Steve v Dominic Kerr. Dominic had fenced well against Antoine and the match was very even at 7 hits each when disaster struck. Dom landed heavily and hurt his knee and he was unable to continue. A very unfortunate event and we all wish Dom a good and speedy recovery.
Phil - Phil came up against Rob Partridge of Swash and Buckle, the number 28 seed. Unfortunately a much harder task than Phil had fenced all day and Phil felt that he didn't raise his game until it was too late, losing by 9 hits to 15.
Aaron - had an easy victory against Chris Brenda, winning 15 hits to 6.
Chris v. Edward Simpson. Chris lost to Edward, the number 13 seed, from Bedford Club by 6 hits to 15.
Owen v, Richard Cohen. Owen put up a brave performance but lost 6 hits to 15 to Richard.

L16
Steve v. Aaron. Sadly, Steve and Aaron had to fence each other, although this did guarantee a Guildford fencer in the L8 it would have been much more satisfactory if they had missed each other. The match was very close, with Steve moving ahead to take the fight 15 hits to 12.

L8
Steve v. Ollie Coultrop. "Good performance by Olly, I SO nearly beat him, was a great fight, didn't mind going out so much when it was that close." Steve. Final score 13 hits to Steve and 15 to Ollie. Ollie went on to win the competition.

The NIFF was very low. If the 15 NIFF rule is used, then Vil's points calculator makes points as follows. (These are of course unofficial calculations- the official results are calculated by Neil Brown.)

Final Placings

Steve - 5th - 208 points
Aaron 14th - 139 points
Phil - 18th - 89 points
Chris - 22nd - 86 points
Owen - 27th - 83 points
Dan B - 34th - 31 points
Antoine - 36th - 31 points
Dan Daly - 58th
Richard Hall - 59th

Women's Sabre - Guildford had two entrants, Kirsty Macdonald having to withdraw due to illness. Tonya Cheatham and Niki Lewis competed.

There were 44 fencers,

L64

Tonya won 15 hits to 10 against a fencer from Taunton whose name I have unfortunately written down too illegibly to make out.
Niki v. Judith Holmes. Niki lost by 11 hits to 15 despite being 8-1 up at the interval. Very much better luck next time, Niki.

L32

Tonya v. Ros Hull, the recent winner of Women's Sabre at the Plymouth Open. Tonya put up a good fight, losing by 10 hits to 15.

Photo - Niki Lewis
Photo Copyright Julie Schofield

Final Placings

Tonya - 27th - 250 Points (based on Niki's caclulations of a NIFF of 48)
Niki - 35th

Men's Foil

Two Guildford fencers competed. Gaurav Gupta and Chris Weeks.

Chris was 82nd but Gaurav managed a L64 and was placed 59th.

Photo right - Chris Weeks, on left.

Women's Epée

One hundred and six fencers competed. Guildford had an interest in four fencers: Kirsty Macdonald, Julie and Meg Schofield and Rebecca Thomas.

L128

Julie v.Megan Lomas Julie was the 106th seed but was extremely glad to find there was no cut and she had a d/e fight. Julie lost 15-2, scoring a double hit on the first and last hit. It was a shame about the bit inbetween. Julie felt she gained a lot of experience from the competition.
Kirsty - both Kirsty and Meg went through the the L64 but unfortunately I have made no note of their victories.
Meg - I was watching Meg's fight and I know she won very convincingly by approx. 15 hits to 5.
Rebecca - I didn't see Rebecca's fight so I only know she lost her fight.

L64

Kirsty lost to Mary Perrin by 7 hits to 15 and Meg lost by 6 hits to 15.

Final Result

Meg 40th
Kirsty 49th
Rebecca 86th
Julie 106th

Men's Epée

There was a very large entry for Men's Epée of 156. None of Guildford's seven fencers did well in the poules but fortunately all did well enough to make the cut to the L128.

Placings after the poules

Dan Brooks - 50th (having won three and lost two in the poules)
Andrew McNeil - 55th (again having won three and lost two)
Vilya Harvey - 79th (won two, lost two)
Alec Johnson - 85th (won two, lost three)
Josh Collins - 91st (won two, lost three)
Tim Schofield - 113th (won one, lost four)
Gareth Thomas - 114th

L128

Dan v. Vilya - Dan won a very close fight. Vilya fought back to level the score on 14 hits each after Dan had set up an early lead. Halt for time was called and there was a minute's break for both sides to listen to advice before the start of the next period of fencing. After several tense seconds, Dan scored the winning hit.
Gareth v. Tom Milner - Gareth lost by twelve hits to fifteen.
Tim v. Tom Mulvany. Tim won by 15 hits to 10, reversing his luck of the previous two competitions he'd entered. Well done, Tim.
Alec v.Ian Briggs. Alec triumphed by 15 hits to 5.
Josh v. Andrew Brown of Wellingbourne. Josh lost by 9 hits to 15.
Andrew v. Peter Brakin of Cads. Sadly Andrew lost - I don't have the details.

Tim on right in his fight against Tom Mulvany
Photo copyright ChrisSchofield

L64
Tim v. Alex Upcroft of Haverstock. Tim went out at this stage. Losing by 6 hits to 15.
Alec v.O'Brien. Alec lost by 8 hits to 15.
Dan v. Tom Milner - Another Guildford fencer bites the dust against Tom.

Final Placings (Unofficial NIFF 75)

Dan Brooks - 47th - 129 ranking points
Alec Johnson - 61st - 108 ranking points
Tim Schofield - 64th - 103.5 ranking points
Andrew McNeil - 74th
Vilya Harvey - 86th
Josh Collins - 93rd
Gareth Thomas - 114th

Plymouth Open - 29th January, 2006

Men's Sabre: Aaron Lewis - 2nd. Very well done, Aaron.

Aaron was defeated by Andy Prevett of Roeder in the final. Small field of 16 fencers.

Women's Sabre: Niki Lewis - 10th.

Again a small field of 19 fencers. Competition was won by Ros Hull who defeated Robynne Stenner in the final. Katie Hendra and Mazine McCombie were bronze medallists.

NEW report by Niki Lewis, added 22nd March, 2006

Format for both days was two rounds of poules both counting towards the final seeding for DE.

1st round poule Niki got 3 victories out of 6 and was seeded 8th. 2nd round poule Niki only managed 2 victories and dropped to 10th place for the DEs. With 19 fencers competing Niki got a bye to the L16 and met Lynne Bornemisza. After a good start being 8-7 up at the break Niki slowed in the 2nd half to
finish 12-15. Niki stayed at 10th place.

After a couple of cracking poules Aaron started the DE seeded 1st. L16 fight against King Yu Yiu of Millfield was a smooth DE finishing 15-4. Onto L8 against Martin Corbett of Guernsey. Martin gave as good as he got but was chasing Aaron all the way, 8-6 at the break and 15-12 at the finish. L4, Nathan Coombs. Nathan pressed Aaron and between them they covered most of the piste. But youth was no match once Aaron had his timing, 8-4 at the break, 15-7 at the finish. L2, Andy Prevett. Last year Aaron had met Andy in the L8, so he was familiar with Andy's style and ready for him. However the previous fight had taken it's toll with Aaron 6-8 down at the break and only managing to score one more hit before the end.7-15 to Andy and second place to Aaron.

Pisa International - Boys Cadet Epée - 28th January, 2006

Ninety four fencers.

Gareth Thomas - 19th
Conrad Cotton-Barrett - 39th

Another great result, Gareth.

British Youth Championships - 21st and 22nd January, 2006

Foil Guildford had two qualifiers, the brothers Harry and Hector Ketley. Hector did well to finish 27th out of 61 fencers in the Under 16 boys but Harry did brilliantly finishing 5th in the U14 boys, out of 70 entrants. Well done.

Aldershot Open - Saturday, 14th and Sunday, 15th January, 2006

Men's Foil. Guildford had a bumper 6 entrants for the men's foil. Harry and Hector Ketley, Gaurav and Rakash Gupta, Chris Weeks and Dan Brooks (University of Surrey).

Unfortunately, none made it through to the l32.

Final Results:

Gaurav 38th
Dan 41st
Harry 53rd
Hector 60th
Chris 61st
Rakash 66th

There were 68 entrants, which means both Gaurav and Dan should score ranking points. Well Done.

Rakash ready for action.

Photos of the Aldershot men's foil courtesy of J B Li-Kam-Tin
Copyright (C) 2006 J B Li-Kam-Tin

Women's Epée. Guildford had two entrants: Kirsty Macdonald and Julie Schofield. Julie was very disappointed with her perforamance and vows to do better.

Final Results:

Kirsty 25tth
Julie 33rd

Neither Kirsty or Julie scored any points.

Men's Epée Guildford had five entrants: Vilya Harvey, Alec Johnson (Oxford University), Andy McNeil, Tim Schofield and Daniel Brooks (University of Surrey)

Tim again did well in the poules winning four out of his six fights as at Leicester but he again succumbed in the L128 as did Dan. Dan was unlucky to meet Alp Oge of LTFC - Dan went down fighting losing 13 hits to 15. Tim was beaten 7 hits to 15 by Stuart Laws of Wessex Blades. Andy McNeil was unlucky to meet Vilya in the L64, losing by the one hit 14 hits to 15. Alec had a close fight against Alisdair Baker of the Royal Navy but came out victorious by 15 hits to 14 to join Vilya in the L16.

Final Results:

Vilya 13th,
Alec 16th
Andy 42nd
Tim 65th
Andy
Dan 104th

There were 115 entrants so both Vilya and Alec should score high ranking points. Very well done.

18th International de la Vallée Mosane, 15th January, 2006

Two our of four fencers were competing for the British Cadets at the above competition in Belgium. Gareth Thomas and Conrad Cotton-Barrett.

Final Result:

Gareth 8th
Conrad 24th

An extremely good result Gareth and well done to both of you. Good luck in Pisa on the 27th.

Copenhagen Coup du Nord - Sabre, 15th and 16th January, 2006

Husband and wife team, Aaron and Niki Lewis took part in the Copenhagen Coup du Nord, two of only three British fencers involved. Niki sent in the following report:

Copenhagen Cup, Women's Sabre.

The competition started with a Poule Unique for 9 fencers, covering 5 nationalities, Danish, Swedish, Icelandic Latvian and me, British. Two fencers, Julija Zakule, LAT and Amanda Sears, DEN, were making a strong showing and ultimately finished the poule 2nd and 1st. I won 3/8 fights and was seeded 6th.

With such a large showing of women there was not a second poule and the competition proceeded straight to DE, starting with a broken L16 fight between the two Danish girls seeded at the bottom of the rankings.

I drew Marina Kasimova, seeded 3rd for my DE who was in the 2005 competition. The fight was very even through out, progressing hit for hit but I succeeded in being 8-7 up at the break. After initially trading hits back from the break I had built a lead of 13-10, before subsequently losing the next 5 hits to finish 13-15. None of the other DEs resulted in a
reversal to leave me still in 6th place after the L8.

My opponent met Julija Zakule of Latvia, the only other left hander in the competition, next and lost. Julija went on to win convincingly against Amanda Sears in the final.

Copenhagen Cup, Men's Sabre.

Aaron had a slow start in his first poule winning only 1 fight out of 4 leaving him in 12th place out of 22 fencers after his indicators.

His second poule was an absolute stormer with him winning all 5 fights. His only 5-4 victory being over the young Latvian, Victor Vorobjovs, more of whom later. This placed him as 2nd seed going into the DE.

16 fencers were promoted giving Aaron Claus Kjeldsen of Sweden for his L16 DE. Claus fought valiantly pursuing Aaron down the piste but was down 8-4 at the break as he was allowed to fall short and then chased down in a manner many of us are now familiar with. Claus rallied back to eventually claim 10 hits from Aaron but the fight was very clean all the way through with single lights and no argument on the winner. Aaron was through to the L8, and that World Cup point was intact for another year.

In the L8 Aaron met Jengenijs Tripuks of Latvia. Unfortunately I could only watch this fight from afar. It was very much Jengenijs' from the start. Aaron fought back strongly but as I discovered in the team event the young man is a very good fencer, fast, accurate and with good technique. Aaron was pleased with his eventual 6th placing, having had a good day's fencing.

Jengenijs went on to loose to Mika Roman of Finland in the L4. Mika's experience paid through for him and he waited to face the winner of the other L4 fight between Owen McNamee, IRL, and Victor Vorobjovs. Owen gave his fight everything he had but Victor had him on speed and technique much the same as Jengenijs did on Aaron. He finished joint 3rd with Jengenijs, happy to be the highest ranked Irishman in the world rankings.

The final was between Mika and Victor, another closely contested bout, 8-6 at the break. However once they started again Victor streaked away from Mika to claim victory with ease.

Day two, the team event.

Following a Coupe Du Nord night out, five nations in a curry house then on to an Irish pub, the wreckage formed itself into teams for the Sunday.

Owen as highest ranked had optioned us to be Ireland for the day and we got the larger poule with three fights.

First up Iceland. All fencers we had faced before in Reykjavik in the summer and a good showing considering we Ireland, had each had 4 hours sleep and were sporting headaches. We lost 43-45 but it was level all the way through.

Second Denmark Academy. A leftie, a young lad with a bit of a heavy hand and a tall fencer, who once the mask was down, gave the sense we were facing Antoine in terms of his reach with a sword. This one was ours. I unfortunately can't recall what their score was only that we won.

Third, Latvia. This was the only team that hadn't been near the pub, largely due to the fact they were under 18. This combined with their training and commitment gave us all the experience that had been described only a week before. 'The ref says 'Pret, allez' and they are there, right in front of you before you've even twitched a muscle.' We achieved a good result of 33-45 to give us a 5th place at the end of the poules.

After a round for the 7th placed team, Denmark Academy, to fight the 6th placed team we fought the winner of this, Denmark. With energy flagging we finished 45-40 and ended the team event 5th.

Report by Niki Lewis

Cambridge Winter Open - Saturday, 7th January, 2006

Men's Epée

In a field of 57 fencers, Guildford had three entrants in the men's epée: Vilya Harvey, Alec Johnson (Oxford University) and Andrew McNeil.

Seeding after Poules

Vilya - 28th
Alec - 17th
Andrew - 29th

L64

Alec won very comfortably against Richard Kent 15-1; Vilya and Andrew also went through both beating their opponents by the identical score of 15 hits to 7. Vilya beat Neil Hatton of Haverstockand Andrew defeated Samuel Thompson of Salle Rose.

L32

Alec again went though having beaten Mark Scopes of Salle Rose 15 - 3. However, Vilya was defeated by Stephen Homek of Haverstock , the number 5 seed, 11 hits to 15 and Andrew went out to Paul Townson of Cads again in another close match 13 points to 15.

L16

Alec's run came to an end here with his defeat by George Liston of Raf. George, who was the number one seed, won by the very narrow margin of 15-14.

Final Positions:

Alec - 16th
Vilya - 23rd
Andrew - 24th

The competition was won by Mark Dembitz of Haverstock who defeated his team mate Jermey Raj in the Final.

Men's Sabre

In a small field, Guildford only had one entrant, Richard Hall.

L32 Richard fenced creditably losing by 7 hits to 15 to the number 7 seed, Simon Butler of Cambridge.

Final Position: 26th

The competition was won by Simon Donald of NLSC who defeated Joseph Brightman of Leicester in the Final.

South East Region Epée Championships - Sunday, 8th January, 2006

Men's Epée

Gareth Thomas - Joint Third
Tim Schofield - 13th

Women's Epée

Rebecca Thomas - Joint Third

Congratulations to Gareth and Rebecca on their bronze medals and especial congratulations to Gareth for winning the John Fairhall Memorial Trophy for the highest placed Under 20 fencer..

South East Qualifiers for the British Youth Championships

U16 Girls Epée - Rebecca Thomas, 1st (Qualified), Sarah Eastaff, 8th.
U16 Boys Epée - Gareth Thomas, 1st (Qualified),
U18 Girls Epée - Alice Merry, 5th
U18 Boys Epée - Josh Collins, 17th, Michael Chester, 18th

Congratulations to Rebecca and Gareth for qualifying for the British Youth Championships.

U16 Boys Foil. Hector Ketley and Gaurav Gupta competed but I do not know their final positions. I do know, however, that Hector qualified for the BYC's. Congratulations Hector.

Page produced by Tim and Julie Schofield - tim@foxtree.co.uk - using Nvu and Homesite. Last updated 22nd March, 2006.

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