Welcome to the Competitions notice board. Here you will find results, reports and photographs of the team comptetions which Saxon has taken part in as well as (in the near future) results and rankings of Saxon fencers in external competions.

Please select to read the following:

• ULU October 2007, London Team Trophy report.
• Guildford July 2007, Bowden Cup report.
• Abingdon July 2007, White Horse Trophy Report.
• BFA for other competition details.

ULU October 2007, London Team Trophy report.
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Saxon Victorious London Team Foil Trophy
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On Saturday October 20th, Saxon foilists Paul Lowen, Chris Evans and David Standon beat all-comers from London and University fencing clubs to win the London Team Foil Trophy at the University of London Union. The other Saxon teams also put in good performances, the Epeeists taking 3rd place and the Sabreurs 4th in their competitions.

A direct elimination competition was fought in each weapon. Teams of three fought a 45 point “Italian Relay”

Epee

A late selection crisis had lead to “Fred” Thomas moving into the Epee team and accompanied by Epee stalwarts Grant Smith and Kin Ming Looi. The Epeeists looked one of the stronger teams in the competition. Indeed in their first round match against the home ULU “B” Team set the tone for most of the rest of the day, with Fred securing large leads for Grant and Ming to defend and producing a 45-35 victory.

The semi-final was against a far stronger Salle Gadaski team, eclectically named Rommel, Raj and Shakespeare. The first half of the match was close and hard fought. Ming, who fenced very accurately all day, commendably holding off the talented Shakspeare and Fred looking his normal dominant self. With four 5 point legs remaining, the scores were nicely poised at 22-22, but the Saxons were sanguine as Fred was due to fight two of the four bouts and Shakespeare, generally regarded as Gadaski’s strongest fencer only had one to go.

Then Saxon’s game imploded. Fred lost surprisingly, if narrowly, to Rommel, Grant had a disasterous stuffing from the fleet footed, bantam-weight Raj and Ming lost heavily, again to Rommel. From a potentially winning position, the Saxons had handed Fred a huge deficit in the final leg. He fenced with great determination and dragged back a few points, but the gap was too large and his opponent too able so Saxon went down 45-38. The Gadaski team, absolute gentlemen to a man, had fenced superbly well and deserved their victory but the Saxons felt they had thrown away a place in the final.

There was still a 3rd/4th place play off to be fought however, against Stretham. This started well with Fred and Grant securing big leads in the first two legs. There was a brief wobble in the middle when Ming leaked a few more points than was ideal against a ginger bearded giant, but Grant ran the clock down with uncharacteristic patience on his remaining legs and Fred pulled away again to secure 3rd by 45-40

The Epee final, presided over by Grant, was an excellent display of epee fencing, however Gadaski were never going to be quite good enough to beat the favourites, ULU who took the Epee Cup.

Foil

The Saxon foilists began by easing to a 45-31 victory over Gadaski Wednesday Nighters, and looked and relaxed and in good form.

This, however, pitted them against strong favourites and hosts, ULU in the semi-final. ULU had posted a huge 45-8 victory over their first round opponents, Club des Artistes and included ULU legend, Maxim “The Mad Russian” Izotov. This match could, and possibly should, have been the final.

David fenced very well, holding his own against the strong opposition, but suffering at the tip of the Russian flick. Chris struggled a bit, referee Fred showing commendable lack of bias determining that hesitations going forward put him out of time and was forced to give red card penalties for covering with the unarmed hand.

Paul pulled backed much of the deficit, but going into the final leg against Max, widely regarded as the best fencer in the hall, the Saxon captain was facing a score-line of 40-38 in ULU’s favour. It looked like it was all over for Saxon when the ULU fencer took the first two points with a single light. However Paul then put in a quite remarkable performance, scoring the next seven hits without reply to give Saxon a 45-42 victory. Max, a fencer to the core, was gracious in defeat but clearly furious with himself.

Saxon, then, faced Gadaski Oldtimers in the final of the London Team Foil Trophy. In front of a gratifyingly large group of spectators, presided over by ULU captain Graham,

As the name implies, the Oldtimers were a trio of veteran fencers who had made it to the final by dint of their considerable savvy.

All three fencers hit the top of their game in the final. Gadaski had no weak link and, as their presence in the final suggests, were good fencers. The early legs were close, but in the critical middle bouts the Saxon fencers excelled themselves

David’s energy, intensity and aggression were effective in all three of his legs and Chris put his earlier troubles behind him, his speed in attack causing the Oldtimers considerable problems. Although Saxon never completely dominated, they always looked the stronger team and Paul went into the final leg with a narrow if comfortable lead which he defended with ease to win 42-34

The Oldtimers congratulated the Saxons with the chivalry which had been characteristic of the competition and the three foilists went away festooned in medals and trophies.

Sabre

The Sabre team of Andrew Ashmore and Simon Whitaker was strengthened by the return of Adrian Medhurst. Adrian’s experience added a solidity to the sabre team and support to his fellow sabreurs and his considerable expertise at posing for photographs was a boon to the entire Saxon squad.

The report on the sabre is neccessaily briefer than that for the the other weapons as your correspondent didn’t get to watch much of the sabre competition and furthermore did not really understand what was going on in that which he saw! Any further input from the participants will be gratefully received.

In the opening round, Saxon were drawn against the sabre team of Salle Gadaski, Saxon’s omnipresent opponents ion this tournament. They won the close run contest by 45-42, ensuring that all three Saxon teams made it through to the semi-final.

The semi however pitched them up against the very able, if unimaginatively titled UCL A team, the eventual winners of the tournament. The Sabreurs struggled from the start and the match soon got away from them, going down 45-30.

Similarly in the 3rd/4th play of against City Fencing Club, the Saxons didn’t really get going. Despite odd moments of heroics, they didn’t look like beating the able City fencers as they went down to a 45-28 defeat.

Full results can be found on ULU's Website

Guildford July 2007, Bowden Cup report.
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Several Saxon Swordsmen Take Team Tumblers...
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Prologue Saxon teams took a number of trophies home from the Bowden Cup mixed team competition in Guildford.

Saxon fielded two teams. The Huscarls, named for the household warriors of Saxon nobility, was led by Paul Lowen, who fought foil along with epeeist Grant Smith and Sabreur Simon Whitaker.

The Fyrd, after the feudal levy which made up the bulk of Saxon armies, consisted of captain and foilist Michael "Fred" Thomas, Kin-Ming Looi with his epee and the slashing blade of Andrew Ashmore. They quickly gelled as a team, taking a perverse pride at their implied peasant origins.

Episode 1- Poules Eleven teams were entered and each fencer fought in a poule unique against all other fencers of his weapons. Paul won the foil outright, with only one defeat and nine victories, winning a very fetching engraved tumbler for his efforts. Fred also had a strong result, attaining 4th place for his 7 up, 3 down.

In the epee, Grant fenced well, peppering feet and knees to take second place (and an equally fetching, if slightly smaller, glass tumbler) with 9 up 1 down, whilst Ming held his own with 5 wins out of ten to finish 7th.

Unfortunately the Sabreurs struggled somewhat. Simon was disappointed with his eighth place and Andrew propped up the table with one solitary victory.

Episode 2- Direct Elimination The Huscarls, then, were seeded 2nd in the 30 point, "Italian Relay" DE and won a bye through the incomplete round of 16. The 8th place Fyrd had to fight for a ¼ final place.

Which they did in some style. Pitted against Guildford's RKD, Andrew made amends for a disappointing morning, slashing and flunging a strong opponent, handing over to Ming just behind at 10-9. The epeeist was determined to overtake his opponent, and fought a tight, well judged bout to take a one point lead. Fred then outclassed the RKD foilist to take a comfortable team win.

Next the Huscarls faced Guildford team RTM in their ¼ final. Paul, fencing first, was expected to put up a big win against his young opponent. He stuttered a little at first, then pulled away to give a 10-7 victory. Grant was next up, against the only fencer to beat him in the poule, the gentlemanly Tim Schofield. For the first ¾ of his bout he followed his plan and held on to the lead Paul had given to him, then he pushed too hard against the accurate counter-attacker and threw away the lead , leaving Simon a 1 point deficit to make up. Simon had the worst of the early exchanges against his female opponent. At 27-23 down, it looked like another disappointing result. Then the curly haired sabreur dug deep and scored three of his trademark wrist cuts in a row. His opponent was rattled and lost her composure whilst Simon maintained his momentum to overhaul her. Her banshee wail of despair said it all as the Huscarls won a thriller.

Meanwhile the Fyrd faced The Sleepy Heads, a team of young talented fencers from Guildford, including the winners of both the individual epee and sabre. Andrew, first up went down 10-5 to Chris Schofield, a creditable performance against the strongest sabreur in the competition. Ming also fought gallantly against a superior opponent, the tall, fast, youthful and British top 100 ranked Gareth Thomas, but the Fyrd slipped further behind. Fred was the only one of the three to have an edge over his opponent, but it was never going to be enough to reel in the 12 point deficit, and the Fyrd went out fighting in the quarter finals for a 8th place overall.

The Huscarl's Semi final was against the Wimbledon Wombles, a team of veteran epeeist and sabreur with a young very able foilist. Grant was first up and fenced solidly before pulling away to a 10-6 lead. Simon's opponent was a grizzled, canny experienced fencer and the Huscarl sabreur had no answer to him. The lead was reversed leaving Paul to make up a 5 point deficit. The fresh faced, slim young Tom Rowles, although lacking aggression, was an excellent defensive fencer with a top 50 British senior ranking. Paul, as ever, battled hard for every point, but was never going to be able to make up the points against such a fencer. The Huscarls thus bowed out in the semi final.

But their fencing was not over. As they started to strip of sweaty jackets and plastrons, they were informed that there would be a play off for 3rd/4th place against Abingdon. Grant was first up against a stripy-socked youth he had beaten comfortably in the poule. Unfortunately his fencing came completely unraveled. He got his distance completely wrong and was very dejected at his 10-4 defeat, feeling he had cost his team-mates a podium place. However, he should have had more faith in his friends. Paul completely dominated his tall foil opponent and had already gone into the lead when he conceded the first point against him (to ironic applause from the crowd). In one of the performances of the day, he turned a 6 point deficit into a 4 point lead. Simon again stepped up to the plate and exchanged hits with the Nick Battam, who had placed second in the individual sabre Simon defending the lead despite considerable pressure from a strong fencer, giving the Huscarls a 30-27 victory, third place, and some more glassware.

The Sleepy Heads, the young tyros who had beaten the Fyrd went on to comfortably win the final and take the Bowden Cup.

Epilogue Saxon can be very proud of their achievements at Guildford. They took away and individual first and second, a team third and a quarter final place.

Simons progress continues, showing his mettle in DEs in high pressure situations. Andrew in his first competitive sabre competition improved as the day went on. The difference between his performance before and after lunch raising suspicions that the sausage rolls may have been spiked.

Grant's good poule was slightly tarnished by his hit and miss DE performances. Paul was superb throughout, being the bedrock of the Huscarl's success and Fred and Ming both emerged with reputations enhanced.

Most importantly Saxon put in an excellent showing as a club, fielding two teams who both fenced with distinction.

[Once again, any mistakes in fact are entirely Grant's. More photographs can be found on here and full results here on Guildford Fencing Club's website]

Abingdon July 2007, White horse Trophy
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Saxon Compete in the 3 Weapon White Horse Team Trophy

On 1st July Saxon entered a team of three fencers White Horse Team Trophy in Abingdon, competing against fifteen other teams from such far flung exotic locations as Stourbridge and Wrekin.

Veteran Champion foilist Paul Lowen and stalwart journeyman epeeist Grant Smith were joined by up and coming sabreur Simon Whitaker in his first tournament.

Poules were fought in individual weapons, giving each fencer a marathon fifteen bouts. Paul led the way, winning 14 of his 15 bouts in typically combative manner and finishing second in the foil rankings. Simon, showing no nerves on his debut slashed his way to 8 wins and 7 defeats, placing him eighth, earning praise from his opponents for his arm stop-cuts, whilst Grant was quite satisfied with his 10 wins, 5 defeats and 5th place in the epee. Overall, Saxon ranked 3rd after the poules.

After seeding, the Direct Elimination rounds were to be fought in a relay up to 30 points. Because of time restraints it was determined that for each weapon time would be limited to three minutes. The order in which the weapons were to be fought was determined by a throw of dice for each DE, creating some intriguing tactical situations.

First up, Saxon was pitted against Stourbridge C, and the die determined that the order of combat would be foil, then sabre, then epee. All fencers had faced each other in the poules and it was clear that Paul was significantly superior to his opponent. Grant and Simon had narrowly beaten their opponents in the poules, but felt that they were evenly matched. The team decided that Paul should be able to push for a substantial lead, which the other two could defend. The plan proved well founded. Paul fenced just the right bout for the circumstances, moving quickly to a 10-2 lead. Simon exchanged points with his opponent to hand over a 20-15 lead to Grant. Epee is the ideal weapon to defend a lead against an opponent who is forced to constantly attack. Grant played a tactically astute, if aesthetically unpleasing game of opening the distance and counter attacking into his adversaries deep lunges. Although Stourbridge closed the gap slightly, they were always going run out of points and Saxon reached their 30 points with Stoubridge still trailing by two.

Next up, Saxon met another Stourbridge team, this time the much stronger A team. Furthermore, the bout order was very different with Simon's sabre first, followed by Grant's epee and concluding with Paul's foil.

Things started badly for Saxon, a string of green lights in succession leaving Simon 5-0 down with the indecent haste common to sabre duels. He recovered well, fighting back to 10-3, but it left a substantial deficit for the other two to pull back.

The Saxon team remained sanguine, however. Paul felt if Grant could get the scores back in touch, he could reel in the rest of the deficit. Grant knew his adversary well from the open epee circuit and although they were too close in ability to expect to dominate the tall midlander, he was determined to put Paul back into striking distance. Which he did with some tight, judicious, epee fencing and a final fleche with 10 seconds left on the clock to close the gap to four points.

With the score now at 17-13 Saxon felt they were right back in the game. A four point handicap in a 10 point bout is a significant obstacle, but Paul had been almost unbeatable all day and was confident he could overhaul his lady opponent. His main concern was time, three minutes seeming to be a very short period of time. In fact, within 1 ½ minutes, Paul was within a point and soon after drew level and it looked like a Saxon victory was inevitable. However, things then went slightly off plan. Some bad luck, with hits going narrowly off target and borderline refereeing decisions going against Saxon and, it must be said some courageous, tenacious and skillful fencing from the Stourbridge fencer, Stourbridge went back ahead, and re-opened a three point gap. Paul clawed it back again to get within a point, but the clock was always going to be against him and Saxon were still just behind when time was called.

The Saxons were disappointed to go out so early, feeling that they were more than capable of a podium place. However, the very gracious Stourbridge A team fenced well and deserved their win. Simon had a good debut and we have high hopes for his future and we hope to see the Saxon name in more competitions in future.

[Note that all scores and results in this report are subject to the vagaries of Grant's memory and may vary slightly from the historical record in places. Any fault is entirely his].

British Fencing Association
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Visit the BFA website www.britishfencing.com. to find out more about national fencing events, the sport, rules and results:
1 Baron's Gate, 33-35 Rothchild Road, London W4 5HT
Tel: 020 8742 3032
e-mail: British_Fencing@compuserve.com