Chichester Fencing Club
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February 2010:
Last year's City of Chichester Open went so well we decided to do it all again in 2010!
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The Ditcham Park Cup
The largest fencing competition in the South-East for juniors took place at Ditcham Park School, run by Chichester Fencing Club. One hundred and twenty-five children competed in different age-groups and all three weapons, and every single youngster fenced superbly. Sharon Blackman, who coaches all of the children competing, said that she would find it impossible to choose the best fencer on the day as all of the youngsters, irrespective of where they finished, were wonderful.
In the U9 foil, which was by far the largest group, Katie Burgess from the Arena’s 5-11 Club was joint third with Central School’s Isaac Thomas. Harry Gray, also from the Arena, came in second, only narrowly losing to West Wittering’s wonderfully talented Lily Kennedy. Westbourne House and Chichester Fencing Club’s Kian Buchholz was awarded the Style Trophy.
The U11 foil was probably the most hotly-contested group of the day. Isaac Jolley from Central and CFC and Gareth Waters from Ditcham Park were joint third. Sebastian Maxted from the Arena and CFC fenced brilliantly to finish in second place losing in the final in what many considered to be the fight of the day, to Westbourne House’s Scarlett Thompson. The trophy for most stylish fencer was also awarded to Isaac Jolley.
In the U15 foil the Arun Leisure Centre’s Jamie Loake and CFC’s Ethan Walker were joint third after having fenced superbly, with CFC’s Devlin Stigant in second place and Bishop Luffa and CFC’s Oliver Hayward taking the crown in splendid style. Toby Holliday-Williams of Seaford College won the style cup.
Seaford College and CFC’s Harry Barden and Ditcham Park’s Richard Culwick shared the bronzes in the very exciting U17 foil. Ditcham’s Nils De Jongh was second and Peter Beadle of Bishop Luffa and CFC won the title in beautiful style.
The U15 Elite Foil is a special class of competition for fencers who have competed in the Sussex Championships or above. It was as exciting as everyone expected with the Arena’s Matthew Baker and CFC’s Liam Stigant taking the bronzes. CFC’s Matthew Warwick took the silver with beautiful fencing and Ditcham Park and CFC’s Oscar O’Hara fenced superbly to take the title and the special accompanying Ditcham Park Cup.
In the U13 epee Fishbourne’s Jack Dugan and Dominic Wilson shared the bronzes in their first ever competition! CFC’s Devlin Stigant took his second silver of the day in splendid form, but Peter Hetherington from CFC was unstoppable to take the title in superbly elegant style.
In the U17 epee Seaford College and CFC’s Max Toozs-Hobson and Harry Barden shared the bronzes. Liam Stigant from CFC took yet another medal and Peter Beadle showed real class taking his second gold of the day.
The U13 sabre was a very exciting and close fought competition. Ditcham Park’s Ben Williams and Seaford College’s Pip Gurney took the bronzes. Seaford College also took the silver with a wonderful performance from Beci Eden. Fishbourne’s Jack Dugan crowned his bronze medal with the gold, a brilliant effort!
Last, but definitely not least, was the U17 sabre. Ditcham Park’s Benjamin Spurge joined Seaford College’s Jonathan Eden to share the bronzes after very exciting performances. Harry Barden took his third medal of the day, this time adding silver to his two bronzes, a fantastic all-round fencing achievement! Max Toozs-Hobson claimed the title to add to his epee bronze earlier in the day.
Chichester Fencing Club would like to extend huge thanks to Ditcham Park School for giving the use of their impressive facilities for the competition and also to all the people who helped on the day without whom the competition would not have been possible.
Viv Mills, BRITISH CHAMPION
Despite having only fenced for the past ten months and the fact that Viv had chosen the British Disabled Fencing Championships as her very first competition, she managed to claim not one, but three medals.
On the Saturday she was competing in the foil and epee events and after a series of extremely tough bouts against
much more experienced fencers, Viv managed to claim two silver medals.
Most people would have been thrilled at their own wonderful accomplishment, but not Viv; she was disappointed and
had hoped for gold!
On the Sunday, still feeling a bit tired after such a tough day previously, things started to go badly wrong in the sabre pool. Viv lost most of her fights and was seeded last, which is the end of the road for most fencers. However Viv is certainly not like most other people and this setback only made her more determined to succeed. She then stepped up several gears and gradually knocked out each fencer until she reached the final. Still not content with her two medals from the previous day, Viv gave the fight everything she had and won the final and the accompanying title of British Sabre Champion with great style and guts. Viv’s sabre coach Maciej Pulaczewski said, “Viv is the most determined fencer I have ever coached and her will to succeed is paramount”.
After the initial shock in the fencing world of a completely unranked outsider taking three medals in a British Championships, the Great Britain team bosses were quick to act, and within days Viv received a letter offering her a place in the Great Britain squad for the forthcoming World Cup, a truly wonderful achievement.
Head coach Sharon Blackman and all the club members are enormously proud of Viv’s achievements and she is a wonderfully inspiring example of what can be achieved given enough tenacity and drive.
COMMONWEALTH GOLD FOR THOMAS
Chichester Fencing Club are extremely proud to announce that Thomas Hendrie,
at only seventeen years of age, has won his first ever Junior Commonwealth Fencing Championships gold medal
whilst competing in Penang, Malaysia for the English Men’s Foil team.
Just to gain selection for the English team is a wonderful accomplishment and something to cherish,
but Thomas has lived up to and, indeed, exceeded everyone’s expectations by claiming the gold medal with his team-mates.
To see a young man from Chichester standing on the winner’s podium whilst the English flag is raised to
‘Land of Hope and Glory’ is a wonderful sight and something in which every Chichester resident can feel pride.
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You can see our fencers with their trophies in our Photo Gallery.