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Life is for Enjoyment and Fun |
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The great enthusiasm and request of a new group of Somerset Fencers in Churchill, caused Maitre James Perry from Burnham On Sea to arrange and preside at the first “Excalibur International” Fencing Tournament which took place over the weekend at Churchill Sports Centre in Weston Super Mare. Mr. Paul Lye the Manager kindly arranged everything to make sure that the event ran smoothly and provided the transport required for the overseas visitors, with the support of the main sponsors Fraser Langdon, to whom great thanks are extended for helping to found the beginning of what is obviously proving to be a tremendous on going event in Somerset.
The exciting event incorporated a training day. Saturday gave all ages, from children to adults the opportunity to improve their blade skills and footwork as well as meet with other fencers from varying clubs, to discuss technique. Maitre Perry also answered individual questions and gave advice and demonstrations. They had a great warm up session with Maitre Perry who, smartly warmed them up for the day, by foot working them off their feet !! |
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The weekend started with a personal performance training day on the Saturday, 40 fencers attended the day using all three weapons (foil, epee & sabre), there was 12 juniors using the sabre, 11 juniors and 4 adults using the foil, and the rest were using the epee. I was assisted be two coaches Kevin Dunne from Dublin and Richard Foster from Exeter.
The day started with a warm up and footwork session which lasted for about 30 minuets. The next two hours were taken up with blade skills working on preparation of attack and “Reaction” (your opponents). After lunch everybody was introduced to the electric equipment as just over half of them had never used electric weapons before. We had 10 electric boxes laid down (3 sabre, 3 foil & 4 epee). |
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The day went extremely well, with everyone thoroughly enjoying themselves and going home tired and exhausted, asking when was the next training day going to be.
Sunday was competition day for the Epee competitors and they were all on boxes, some for the first time. The lights and buzzers recorded every movement of this quick and exhilarating, mental and physical sport that combines sight, reaction, wit and aggression, with technique, suppleness, speed, the knowledge of the Masters, and the strict tradition of set eticates.
It proved a nail biting tournament with everyone so equal on scores, until the last competition. Tactics were being discussed in various corners of the Gym, even the Mayor was also holding her breath on the last round. The spectators tried to be quiet, but every time there |
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Excalibur International |
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was a strike - there were yells of glee from everyone in the room and the atmosphere was truly electric ! The winning teams were 1st Raven A (Bristol), 2nd Cavaliers B (Dublin), 3rd Cavaliers C (Dublin). Better luck for the newly formed Excalibur next year who did incredibly well to remain almost level until the very end and finish forth! – Well done Somerset. The winning trophies were presented by the Town Mayor of Weston-Super-Mare, Councillor Astra Brand.
The event will now be annual with more teams involved, Brittany (France) and Jersey, having already issued a challenge to join the Somerset event next year, and invitations are abundant for return fights from this year’s event! |
