FENCING is a growing sport and two tournaments have been held over the last five days, for preparatory and secondary school pupils, the first a completely new venture and the second a reincarnated event .
The inaugural inter-prep school fencing competition was at La Hague Manor on Saturday.
It attracted 21 entrants, from Victoria College Prep, St Michael’s and St George’s Schools.The aim of the event was to break the ice by introducing pupils from the schools to each other, and to compete, albeit at a fairly low level, for the first time.Professional coach Alan Ley and a small team of referees from Regent Fencing Club - Bernard Worrall, Robin Dupré and Luke Stoddart - ran the event over the course of the afternoon and were suitably impressed by the pupils’ efforts.Results: 1, St Michael’s School, 25 points; 2, Victoria College Prep, 16 pts; 3, St George’s School, 11.And two senior schools went into action - for the first time in around 20 years - yesterday afternoon, at Langford Sports Centre, when De La Salle pupils took on worthy opponents Victoria College in a foil team match.Both sides had been evenly matched - De La Salle fencers, with two terms’ training against an equally-trained team from College.
(VC currently has four fencing medal-winners, as well as Alex Petit, the Junior champion-at-arms, who were asked not to fence, to make the match as fair as possible.)The result was 6-3 to College, with both team captains - Luke Chipperfield from Victoria College and David Speller from De La Salle - to be congratulated, for their personal results and their leadership.Like the prep school fencers, these young men are preparing for forthcoming events, the Island’s age-group competition this Sunday, 14 March, at Fort Regent which, in turn, is preparation for the Channel Islands’ Fencing Championships in Guernsey in May.
Many of the pupils at both these senior schools train at Regent Fencing Club as well as in school.Further information on fencing and the Regent Fencing Club from Marcia Lee, telephone 509790.
Article posted on 11th March, 2004 - 12.00am
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