Mens’ Foil 5th

This was in fact our juniors team of Ray, Merlin and Jonathan representing the club. A tall order against this standard of opposition!

Against Cambridge, Jonathan managed to score some great hits, but otherwise we were predictably overwhelmed 8-45.

Against Newham, it was Merlin who excelled, although we were still beaten 13-44.

This was a better result than the Chelmsford seniors team managed. More importantly, it was an invaluable opportunity for our juniors to both see and experience genuinely top fencers.

It was a courageously contested team foil fight from our young guns Ray, Merlin and Jonathan. They continued to press forward with confidence and determination, despite of the opposing strength of the talented teams of cambridge and newham. They put in a extremely good focussed performance, building up their competition experience.

Ray, Merlin and Jonathan.

Mens Epee; 6th

For this event, we had David coming out for his first competition, Simon being dragged off his sick bed, and young Ben.

Lost 38-44 v Chelmsford
Richard Sims quickly put Chelmsford into a good lead at the start, while our David in his first competition struggled. In fact we quickly found ourselves facing a 13-29 deficit. Up then stepped Simon for an epic fight in which he scored an incredible 16 points in 3 minutes! Young Ben then managed a win as well, bringing the score back to 34-34. Predictably though, the peerless Richard Sims still managed to win it for them at the end.

Lost 23-45 v Salle Rose (Felixstowe)
The trophy holders had no weaker fencers, and were predictably too strong for our rookies. But Simon, David and Ben all managed to get 2 or 3 points against every single one of them, including Jonathan Ainsley!

Lost 36-45 v Huntingdonshire
By this time Simon was completely exhausted and needing to get back to bed! We faced Matt Dalton plus two unknown fencers. The match proceeded with Matt Dalton giving Hunts a lead, then David and Ben winning their fights and putting us back into contention, and so on. Unfortunately though, we were still in deficit for the last fight against Matt Dalton who ultimately won it for them single-handedly.

It was a long exhausting days fencing against some of the best in the Region, during which David actually won some fights in his first ever competition. In fact it was a quite fantastic achievement by each of our Epee rookies to actually win some fights at this level.

The Estuary Epee Rookies (left to right)
David, Simon and Ben.