One of the oldest fencing competitions in the country attracted many of Wrexham Fencing Club’s members this weekend.

The short trip across the border to enter the Merseyside Open, was too much to resist for the North Wales contingent.

Saturday (20th February 2010) attracted 4 of the club’s male foilists. Ben Roberts, Mark Robertson, David Charles-Hendy and Paul Butler. They joined a further 88 competitors, including former Wrexham Fencing Club member, Simon Hedges. Simon now fences out of Salle Scipanovs, where he is coached by Valerijs Scipanovs. Valerijs is of course no stranger to Wrexham, coaching at the club on a Friday night.

At Merseyside there are two rounds of poules. Ben Roberts faired the better of the Wrexham fencers winning 9 of his 10 fights. Mark Robertson won 5 and David Charles-Hendy recorded 3 victories. Paul Butler improved throughout the poules, picking up points in every fight in the second set. These results left Ben ranked 9th, Mark 49th, David 64th and Paul 86th.

Ben received a bye into the last 64, and was joined by Mark and David after they both secured wins in their first elimination fights. Fate brought Paul and Simon Hedges together to fence for a last 64 place, with Simon taking the fight to progress into the next round.

This was as far as Mark and David went in the competition, losing their next fight and finishing 49th and 60th respectively. Simon was also eliminated in his next fight, losing to leave him placed 44th. This left Ben Roberts to fly the Wrexham flag and he powered through the knock-out stage fights winning 15 – 5 and 15 -10 for a place in the last 16 fight. In a very tactical affair, Ben lost narrowly 7 – 9 to the eventual bronze medal winner. Ben finished the event placed 11th.

Sunday brought about the men’s epee, women’s epee and women’s foil competitions. The men’s epee produced the largest amount of entrants for the weekend, boasting 96 starters. Amongst those were David Gregory, Ben Hughes, Denis Callahan and back for more punishment, Mark Robertson.

In the two sets of poules, David won 9 of his 10 fights, Ben 7, Denis 3 and Mark 2. This equated to the athletes being ranked 4th, 24th, 67th and 80th respectively. David and Ben both received bye’s into the last 64, leaving Denis and Mark to have to fight for a place in that round. Both lost narrowly with Denis losing 15 – 14 on the very last hit. Narrow defeats were the order of the day for the remaining two Wrexham fencers. Both recorded easy victories for a last 32 fight, then Ben lost 13 -15 in an epic battle. David managed to progress one round further with a comfortable win, but he then lost in the tightest of matches 9 – 10 to the eventual gold medal winner. At the close of play David finished ranked 10th, Ben 22nd, Denis 72nd and Mark 82nd.

The Gregory family was also represented by Rose in the women’s epee. She managed 3 victories in the two sets of poules and was ranked 30th as she entered the elimination stages. Rose recorded an excellent 15 – 14 win, to set up a fight against number 3 seed and a British Junior International. Despite a great effort Rose was unable to progress any further in the competition.

It was left to the women foilists to try and bring home some silverware, and they did not let the club down. Carolyn Benson, a former winner of the Merseyside Open, and Amy Broadbent represented Wrexham. Also in the starting line up was defending title holder and ex Wrexham Fencing Club member Lydia Johnson. In the two sets of poules, Caz won all her fights and Amy 5. This meant they were ranked 2nd and 25th.

Amy recorded an easy last 64 win, but she didn’t manage to go any further in the competition, losing out in a closely contested last 32 fight. After receiving a bye, Caz strolled through her next two fights, before winning a difficult last 8 encounter. Inevitably she then came up against training partner Lydia Johnson for a place in the final. With both fencers knowing each other so well, it was always going to be a very tactical match. On this occasion Lydia ran out the winner and she went on to retain her title in the final. Caz won the bronze medal and Amy finished 25th.

(There are a total of 10 pictures in the above slideshow. The picture will change after a few seconds)

Filed under: Uncategorized by Phil Collister