Category: Competitions

In 23/24 the total number of medals won by Blackheath Members was a record 17!
10 epee, 4 sabre and 3 Foil, comprising 6 Golds, 5 Silver and 6 Bronzes including 2 a Gold and Bronze, by Musketeers.

This follows the 2022/23 total of at least 6 medals, all epee, including 1 gold, 2 silver and 3 Bronze

So far in 24/25 we have amassed 6 medals: 3 Sabre, 2 Foil and 1 Epee comprising 2 Golds, 3 Silvers and 1 Bronze, including 2 (Silver and Bronze) by Musketeers

With Raphael Huille at Uni and Valeria Meng on maternity leave It will be a challenge to match the 23/24 total but I am sure we can have a good go at it.

The full list of medallists is:

2022-23 (Incomplete)

Leon Paul Sumer Open Valeria Meng Epee Silver
Invicta Open Feddy Capitani Epee Bronze
Kent County Feddy Capitani Epee Silver
Kent County Valeria Meng Epee Bronze
Kent County Olly Kendall Epee Bronze
Invicta Open – Plate Olly Kendall Epee Gold

2023-24

GB Cup Henry Fazakerley Epee Silver
LR Intermediate Championships Raphael Huille Epee Gold
LR Intermediate Championships Henry Fazakerley Epee Silver
LR Intermediate Championships Alexander Vandenbroucke Foil Bronze
Kent U10G Alisa Lugova Foil Gold
Kent U14G Scarlet Foil Bronze
LR Winter N&I – Intermediate Jeff Allen Sabre Gold
LR Winter N&I – Intermediate Luke Douglas Sabre Bronze
LR Winter N&I – Intermediate Henry Fazakerley Epee Silver
LR Winter N&I – Intermediate Valeria Meng Epee Bronze
LR Winter N&I – Novice Raphael Huille Epee Gold
Leon Paul Mixed Pairs Georgie Lindsay & Raphael Huille Epee (Team) Silver
British Open Champs Plate Raphael Huille Epee Bronze
Invicta Open Valeria Meng Epee 6th place bronze
Invicta Open – Plate Jeff Allen Sabre Silver
LR Youth Champs U18B Raphael Huille Epee Bronze
Birmingham International Jeff Allen Sabre Top Vet trophy

2024-25 to Dec 24

Kent U16G Olivia Dawson Foil Silver
Kent U16G Maya  Foil  Bronze
Sussex Open Christian Thorley Sabre Gold
Sussex Open Deco Decordoba Sabre Silver
LR Team Jeff Allen, Luke Douglas, Deco Sabre (Team) Gold
LR Team Henry Fazakerley, Georgie Lindsay,(+ Nick Jackson- Crawley) Epee (Team) Silver In Mixed + Bronze Overall

Well done everybody!

The Club has had a very good year overall with over 40 adult and nearly 40 junior members attending regularly some twice a week

This has been matched by some great medal results taking a haul of 17 gongs!

Congratulations to:

July 24	GB CUP Epee	Henry Fazakerley	Silver
	British Open Champs – Men’s Senior Epee	Raph Huille	Bronze (plate)
June 24	Kent U10G Foil	Alisa Lugova	Gold
	Kent U14G Foil	Scarlett Clough	Bronze
April 24	LR Intermediate Epee	Raph Huille	Gold
	LR Intermediate Epee	Henry Fazakerley	Silver
	LR Intermediate Foil	Alexander Vandenbroucke	Bronze
	Birmingham Open Sabre	Jeff Allen	Top Veteran
March 24	Kent Invicta Open	Valeria Meng	Bronze (6th place)
February 24	Leon Paul Mixed Pairs Epee	Georgie	Silver
	Leon Paul Mixed Pairs Epee	Raph Huille	Silver
January 24	LR Men’s Intermediate Sabre	Jeff Allen	Gold
	LR Men’s Intermediate Sabre	Luke Douglas	Bronze
	LR Men’s Novice Epee	Raph Huille	Gold
	LR Men’s Intermediate Epee	Henry Fazakerley	Silver
	LR Women’s Intermediate Epee	Valeria Meng	Bronze
August 23	Leon Paul Summer Epee Open	Valeria Meng	Silver

Some Images from 2023-24

ALL of these competitions require the fencer to be a registered member of British Fencing and most require Compete Level membership. Check the competition’s entry requirements

For competition dates check the Event Zone on the British Fencing website

See our Information for Parents page including the Parent’s Survival Guide

KENT FOIL U10/12/14 CHAMPIONSHIPS  (A good first competition)
Usually around April or May at various venues including Tonbridge and Eltham, sometimes other places in Kent. Fee £10

KENT FOIL U16 CHAMPIONSHIPS (A good first competition for that age group)
Usually around October/November as per above

British Youth Championship (BYCs) –  Southeast Region and London Region For those ready to go up a step. Although a standalone competition, the top fencers qualify for the National Youth Championship, although this is optional. Complies with the usual age groups. Your Region is the one you selected on your British Fencing membership record. For Musketeers, South East Region is recommended.

England Youth Championships (EYCs) – Despite its title this is a relaxed and easy going competition usually in Hatfield and usually held in June each year.

Leon Paul Junior Series – Sponsored by the fencing equipment company these are held all over the country and has a points system to work out Champion of the year.

Newham Swords Junior Challenge (for slightly more experienced fencers)
U10/U12/U14/U17 age groups
Five competitions in the series collecting points September – July . Fencers come across the country to enter these so will definitely push the boundaries!
SportsDock, UEL, E14 2RD (20mins from Blackheath)

Updated February ’23

There are not a lot of competitions for new, young fencers. Our Thursday coach, Antonio Fruili, is organising a series of training sessions where fencers can use foils and electric scoring machines, as in a real fencing competition.

The idea is to offer them the opportunity to fence other fencers than their usual club mates.

If the number of entries for both events are good, they may run a league starting from January. At the end of the year (June 2023), the school or club that wins the league will receive a trophy.

All sessions will be run by the professional coaches from Antonio’s club, Luso International Fencing and will take place at the Windsor Leisure Centre (SL4 5JB) from 10am to 2pm.

The first two events are on the 16th of October and 13th of November.

One event costs £30, but if you book both events in advance you will only pay £50 total.

The club will provide all the equipment needed, you only need a pair of comfortable shoes and long tracksuit bottoms. 

To join, please fill the following form: https://forms.gle/yhR8C3YAaBi6deGP8

We are setting up a new series of competitions with local clubs. Known, for now, as the Tri-Club Competition, Morley Blades, Gravesham Fencing Club and ourselves will be competing against each other over the next three terms using Blackheath as a common base. Epee is the primary weapon but foil teams will also attend from Morley Swords to fence Blackheath.

12th November: A Blackheath Epee team will visit Gravesham. Speak to Gurlal (compsec@blackheathfencing.org.uk) to participate
5th December. Morley and Gravesham Epee teams will compete against each other at Blackheath. Morley will bring a foil team to fence Blackheath.

More dates in the New Year will be scheduled later

It is very easy to get used to fencing your fellow club members and knowing all their habits, strengths and weaknesses. These competitions give you the chance to fence new people and practice working out strategies and tactics on the spot!

Our Summer 2019 battle campaign continued when we ventured into the murky underbelly of central London on 2nd August for our first 3 club friendly team competition with hosts Morley blades and our distant cousins from Staines  a.k.a. Egham Fencing club. 

All participants fielded one foil and one epee team, unfortunately for us we were lacking one epeeist but fortunately we were able to ‘’convince’’ the foilists to take turns masquerading as an epee team member. This however raised some eyebrows when some of them appeared to be hiding hidden talents. Naturally they will be the first to call upon if ever there were another epee drought!

Morley Blades were kind enough to book 4 hours for our little Tri-wizard.. -fencing*- competition and suffice to say everyone enjoyed themselves. Big thank you to them for getting this organised so well! We got to meet and fence new and experienced fencers in a great venue slap bang in the middle of town and spent an hour reminiscing bouts over a beverage and dinner.  

Remi, Khurshid and Dan made up the foil team and produced an impressive display romping to victory in the Foil match. Gurlal and Henry were our only epeeists who could make the event and were teamed up with Khurshid and Dan. The epee team worked very hard but were narrowly ousted by the competing teams with both matches ending in nail biting final bouts. Results below!

That’s all for this season’s campaign! We’ll see you in September for the new term!

For more information on Morley Blades and Egham fencing club follow the links below.

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http://www.southlondonfencingclub.co.uk/

https://www.eghamfencingclub.org.uk/

Blackheath fencers, Laura La Delfa and Henry Fazakerley, took part in the Winter Novice & Intermediate Competition run by London Region on 27th January.

Laura took Silver in the Ladies Novice foil, after returning to fencing from a long break, and Henry came 5th in the Mens Intermediate Epee.

London Region now run the Winter and Summer N&I comps, a team event, the CAPITAL OPEN and the London Intermediate Championship, which is also the qualifying competition for British Fencing’s new GB Cup,  in addition to the London Region Youth Championships for under 18 year olds.

On 22 March Blackheath epeeists took on Gravesham in a friendly club match for the first time in a couple of years sending two teams from its growing group of epeeists.

The A team comprising Gurlal Jagdev, David Antonopolous and Alister Smith won 45:41 and James Williamson, Marlene Sturm and Christian Gucklesberger formed a B team which narrowly lost 41:42 after running out of time.

All enjoyed their visit and thank Gravesham for the invite and hospitality. A return match will be arranged soon!