Happy New Year everyone - hope to see you all back this Friday

​Frank and Lee

As mentioned to the Friday's session this week.The Hampshire Open 2017 will take place on the weekend of 13 / 14 May.
The competition will be for seniors and veterans in all 6 weapons:

• Saturday: Men’s Epee, Women’s Epee, Women’s Sabre, Veterans Men’s Foil, Veterans Women’s Foil, Veterans Men’s Sabre
• Sunday: Men’s Foil, Women’s Foil, Men’s Sabre, Veterans Men’s Epee, Veterans Women’s Epee, Veterans Women’s Sabre

Details can be found here.

It was great to welcome Seacourt to Chichester for an end of year match.  Nice to see some familiar faces from Portsmouth and Southsea also.

​CCFC put up a brave fight but Seacourt had the edge and won both rounds of team epee. Well done !   Scores :   37-45 CCFC A team vs Seacourt A, 25-45 Mixed vs Seacourt A


Thanks to ​Mariola Sadlo for the excellent photography (www.mariolasadlophotography.com).  I have embedded other examples within the clubs slideshow on the entry page.

I hope you have all had a good Xmas.  See you all in the New Year and be prepared for more epee lessons !!!!

Lee
​

Are you sure those scores are right ? They've won???

Various club members have been involved in competitions and matches recently. The latest match saw Rich, Rob & Jethro make the journey up to London to fence the Lansdowne Club. Each club fielded one men's epee team and there was enough time for two matches and a bit of free fencing afterwards. The first match saw the Lansdowne take an early lead which, despite best efforts, proved too difficult to pull back with CCFC losing 45-34. The reverse psychology worked wonders though as the Lansdowne let the guard down and Chichester stepped up the pressure mid-way through the second match. However, in the end, Lansdowne pulled away to take the second match 45-40 in what was a much closer contest. 

A great time was had by all, with luck a return match can be organised and we look forward to hosting the Lansdowne in Chichester some time!

On the weekend of the 24-25th October Jethro and Morys Ireland participated in the annual Hallebardiers team epée fencing tournament in Bruges, Belgium. Linking up with Roland Brackx and Johann De Ridder from Brussels Fencing Club they formed an international team under the name of the 'Lansdowne Club', where Morys fences most frequently. For Jethro and Johan this was their first team fencing experience, indeed Johan's first competition, while for Roland and Morys this was the first time they'd fencing together in 7 years. 

The team faced a tough draw from the start with the eventual champions, the Brussels Fencing Club team, in their group. That said, they got off to a good start - winning their first match and getting off to a strong start in the second before eventually being defeated by the 2nd team from Maison d'Escrime, also from Brussels. The final group match saw a 44-31 defeat to the tournament winners, an excellent performance against a strong team and a closer match than the semi-final Brussels got through later in the day to reach the final.

The knock-out stages saw Jethro and Johan play a big role in getting the team through to the last 16, before being knocked-out in a hard-fought match with the Maison d'Escrime 1st team. The team ended up in 15th place out of 28 teams. Great performances were put in throughout what was a long day's fencing, with three out of four team members being left-handed and with a real mix of styles the group was able to cause real problems even for more seasoned opponents.

The competition was followed by an excellent meal in a hall over one of the medieval city gates, part of what remains of the old city wall. The Hallebardiers fencing club actually fences each week in this amazing setting and, importantly, they've even installed a bar - which was much appreciated after a hard day's fencing. You can see their setup in the gallery on their site:

http://www.hallebardiers.be/fotogalerij/kruispoort/ 

Our thanks go to the organisers from the Hallebardiers club for being such excellent hosts. This was the first time any of us from CCFC had been to the tournament but it looks like it could be a great annual event. It's certainly well worth the weekend away, so look out for messages next year if you'd like to participate in this very friendly, mixed team epée event.

Looking forward to seeing you all in the new season.  Frank will be there for this coming Friday, I will see you week after.

Lee

Just to let you know I have been working hard over the summer.  I have just finished a week's course in Sheffield with Ziemowit Wojciechowski(Ziemek) Olympic 2014 and until very recently the GB men's foil coach.  It was an absolute honour to spend time with such a gentlemen and superb coach. The dedicated bunch of coaches and UK national fencers were phenomenal, particularly Phoebe "X" (you know who are ...) who was on her fourth Summer camp !!!  Thanks to coach Adam Blight (Sheffield Buccaneers  and Mount St Mary’s Fencing Club) for organizing everything so brilliantly.