Leon Paul Junior Sabre Competition
8th November 2009
After months of hard training, four Ridings Sabre Club members gained the opportunity to finally show off their abilities at their first competition. Jack Stone (15), John Wilson (13), Jordan Hardwick (12) and Robert Fisher (11) all performed admirably and definitely showed potential for future competitions!
Rob Fisher was the fencer who shone the brightest that day in terms of results, but in terms of determination, Jordan Hardwick rose above all others. Despite not winning any in his first round of poules, he then went on with an exceptional level of ‘go-get-‘em’ confidence that almost certainly won the match for him against Niamh Fenton (Stratford) and Alice Moffat (East Malling, Kent) in his next round.
John Wilson was the only competitor in his age group to win against a fencer of a higher seed, allowing him to progress much higher in the rankings (from 14th to 8th), while Jack gave us the best fight of the day in his direct elimination round, against a fencer much more experienced than him, and although he didn’t win, gave his opponent a run for his money, with the final score being 15-12.
Congratulations to all fencers (including Jo Mountford, a long-time and very successful competitor) for all of their achievements, we were very proud to be your club members that day, and we all hope that you go on to fence many more competitions as successfully!
Luke Frostick - National Age Group Champion
Luke Frostick, who has trained for some 6 years with Ridings recently took his first national title, winning the Leon Paul Junior Series U17 title. The competition is a national league event with rounds all over the country. Luke was unable to attend the last round and a good result at Bath was vital. His Bronze medal there, together with two earlier gold medals ensured him of at least second place, with the overall championship depending on Ben Lucas from Bedford winning the event outright at the Canterbury leg of the championship. Ben couldn't step up to the mark and Luke took the championship by one single point, sitting 3 points clear of third place. Luke received notification in the post of his win shortly after confirming him as the national under 17 champion together with a cheque from series sponsors, Leon Paul and his overall winner's trophy.
Jo Mountford who also trains with Ridings competed in the hotly contested U15 category but despite taking two silver medals in Manchester and Bradford was unable to take the title and finished a highly creditable third place, 15 points of the eventual winner and Great Britain Team mate, Soji Ayenuro from Camden.
Yorkshire team honours for Ridings Sabre
Ridings Sabre club once again dominated the men's sabre selection for Yorkshire taking 4 of the 6 places for the men's sabre team at senior and junior level. Head coach Adam Waller has represented Yorkshire since 1999 and has captained the men's senior team since 2000 and was pleased to be again selected to captain the team for the 2008 season. The team finished at the top of division 2 in 2007 and looks to make the first division this season. In the nine years Adam has been with the County Squad Yorkshire has fought it's way from the bottom of the third division and narrowly missed promotion last year.
At Junior level the men's team was entirely made up of Ridings fencers, Luke Frostick and Jo Mountford again secured their places in the team for a second year running with Matthew Frazer being selected to captain the team at the Winton Cup. All three fencers have trained with the club for many years and compete at national events with Jo representing Great Britain. Ridings is proud that these three fencers have once again secured their places in the team and continue to dominate sabre fencing in Yorkshire.
Yorkshire Youth Championships
Ridings Sabre Club continued to have a large number of qualifiers for the Yorkshire Squad for the national age group championships. These are held at Stoke on Trent each year and selection is gained through the county qualifying event held in Harrogate. For the first year all of our entrants qualified in their respective age categories.
Amanda Smilie (U18), Ellena Rickatson and Becky Wilson all made it into the U18 and U16 events respectively, while Jo Mountford and Luke Frostick qualified for the U16 and U18 events.
The finals saw them placed in some extremely strong poules and all the fencers had to really step up and produce their best to get anywhere at the national finals. Unfortunately many of them were outclassed in one of the strongest national finals of the last few years and despite creditable efforts all of them were knocked out before the quarter finals. Jo, aged 14 was at the bottom of the U16 age group and after a good round in the poules and a win in his first round elimination produced a truly herculean effort against an opponent twice his height and 2 years his senior with a superb match but despite his best efforts he was never able to challenge for the win.
Better luck next year!
Sheffield Open
The club entered a number of fencers again into the Sheffield Open which is a senior national circuit event, open to fencers from all over Europe. Adam Waller, Luke Frostick and Jo Mountford entered the men's event, whilst Emma Little, Amanda Smilie and Becky Wilson entered the womens event. Emma Little, nursing a broken wrist from playing handball had to withdraw, alongside Becky who was diagnosed an illness that meant she was unable to compete.
The overall entries were higher than previous years and the competition much stronger. Adam failed to produce anything resembling fencing that day and slumped to his worst national result in his career, losing in the first round of eliminations to a lower ranked fencer. Luke fenced well in the poules to get a bye through the first elimination. Unfortunately however he lost his second round match, 13:15, in a close and determined fight.
Jo Mountford didn't do so well in the poules but managed to get through his first round direct elimination with an easy 15:7 win over the 29th seed. This meant Jo faced Sam Brightman, the number 4 seed in the second round. Sam, from Millfield School, Somerset is nationally ranked 6th in the U20's and 27th in the senior men's rankings and has represented Great Britain for many years.
Jo absolutely rose to the occasion with an amazing match that saw Sam take an early lead of 8 hits to4 only to have Jo recover to level the match at 10:10. The pair then traded hits for several points, in a second round match easily worthy of being the final. By this time all surrounding sabre matches has stopped to watch and the cheering was louder than it had been all day. Jo stretched out a lead to 14:13 only for Sam to come back to level the match for the final hit. Sam took a huge gamble as he pushed forwards hard and fast for the hit and a mistake in the parry by Jo saw Sam's blade sneak through for the final touche in one of the best matches of the day.
Social Events 2008
Outside of fencing the club arranged two social events this year. The older fencers and adults went paintballing in Scunthorpe for a morning whilst the whole club arranged for a night out bowling at Tenpin in York. Both events were well attended and fun was had by all (once everyone was bowling in the rights lanes and at the pins!). The bowling saw the usual prizes awarded for the winners and the losers with the award for the slowest ball going to Daniel Dear with an incredible (!) 2.1 miles an hour. Manda Smilie came close for a second year but at nearly 3 miles an hour she was positively speeding along. Matthew Frazer once again confirmed his position as the top club bowler in his last summer at the club before he goes off to University.
Paintballing was subject to the vagaries of the weather and what should have been a summer event saw us assembling in a field in the rain to take on a local youth club under damp grey skies. It would seem that the youth club were reasonably able paintballers as they won the first game 5 points to 2. Ridings managed to come back and draw the remaining games but failed to win any, losing outright. It would have been different with swords... It was then back over the bridge to Beverley with stories of heroism (?)and showing off bruises for a BBQ run by the club's assistant coach Emma, who sadly missed paintballing due to a broken wrist sustained playing handball.