Local and national level success for fencing teams

On Saturday 15th March the U12 and U13 teams travelled to Ardingly College to participate in, for some, their first fencing match.

The U12 team comprised Year 6 girls who started off really well and led through the first couple of bouts. Ardingly then caught up which made for a highly exciting finish.

It was left to Ella Bubb who finished by beating her opponent 12-5 to pull back to a tight finish of 45-42 in favour of Ardingly. The U13 competition was a different story altogether and the team was always in the lead and comfortably won its match 45–33 with some excellent tactical fencing.

On Tuesday 18th March the U13 team travelled to Crystal Palace Sports Centre for the Public Schools‘ Fencing Competition, the largest meet of young fencers in the country. All the girls made it through the first poule of the Mount-Haes Foil class, and the majority through the second.

A special mention must be given to Claudine Hodges who made it to the last 32 which was a great achievement in her first competition. The match was an extremely close encounter which, unfortunately, Claudine lost 15-13.

The girls gained experience competing against 81 other participants and they enjoyed themselves enormously.

Wednesday 19th March saw Farlington’s County Epee champion Eleanor Harvie take her stance at Crystal Palace in the Junior Epee class of the Public Schools’ Fencing Competition. Eleanor fenced fantastically well, not dropping a single match all day, winning 9 out of 9 poule matches. This is an amazing feat at a national competition with such high calibre competitors. Eleanor was ranked 4th after the poules.

Things did not go as well in her next match, at one point she was 11-8 up, but then her opponent fought back and she lost the match. Eleanor was delighted that she made it through to the last 16 and she finished 10th overall.

Sara Whittaker, Director of P.E. and Games at Farlington, says, ‘We are very proud of our young fencers and their achievements last week.

They all attend Farlington’s after-school fencing club and for some girls it was their first major competition - a very valuable learning experience which will stand them in good stead for the future.’

Report and picture contributed by Farlington.