2009 Wrexham Open Report

This weekend, Wrexham Fencing Club hosted it’s Open. On Saturday the men’s and women’s foil took place, alongside the men’s sabre. Sunday saw the men and women epeeist’s and women’s sabre battle it out for medals. Fencers from all over Great Britain turned up to compete in what was a superbly run event. Wrexham Fencing Club members entered in their droves and all made their mark. From the British International fencers, through to the lesser experienced competition fencer, Wrexham members showed why the club is such a success. (There area total of  6 pictures on the above slideshow and the picture will change after a few seconds)

In the foil event, Wrexham took a clean sweep winning gold, silver and bronze medals. Lydia Johnson and Stephanie Collister had remained unbeaten throughout the whole day in the women’s competition, until they met each other in the final. Lydia, who had been runner-up last year at the competition, managed to go one better, beating Steph in the showpiece finale, which was watched by Wrexham’s Deputy Mayor. This was Lydia’s second Open gold medal of the year and stands her in good stead for the National Championships which are to be held next month. Steph was left holding the silver and at 14 years of age, she also won the best placed Under 18 women’s foil medal.

Lydia and Steph weren’t the only Wrexham fencers in the women’s foil. Sarah Vandewalle also faired well, obtaining a 5th placed ranking after a good round of poules. Sarah’s preferred weapon is epee, but this didn’t show in the manner she was fighting. However in the last 8 fight Sarah came up against Wrexham club mate Steph, who knocked her out on the way to the final. Although fencing under the Abergele banner, Wrexham members Sarah Dolan and Adele Thackray continued to gain experience and fought well throughout. Sarah was unlucky not to progress into the last 16, losing 13 – 15 after seemingly having the fight under control.

In the men’s foil, the clean sweep of medals was completed by Ben Roberts who took the bronze.

After only dropping 5 points in his poules, Ben raced through to the last 4, where he came up against Welsh International teammate Jason Scourfield. After beating Jason in last months Oxfam Open, Ben went into the contest full of confidence, only to lose narrowly after a very entertaining fight.

Ben, Lydia and Steph are all coached by Jayne Hanlon, and their medal haul is further evidence of the hard work and commitment shown by both fencer and coach.

Also in the men’s foil, Luke Potts and Mark Robertson, both had good poule results winning three of their 5 fights. Ranked 28th and 23rd respectively they went ino the direct elimination fights hoping to push on and reach a last 16 place. Both are trained by Wrexham coach Valerijs Shchipanovs, and Luke is part of the highly successful C.O.R.E.S. run by John Hunt. Both fencers lost in tight contests meaning that they slipped down the rankings by a few places.

Ben Hughes, like Sarah Vandewalle, is much more at home with the epee. Ben started off well, and came out of his poules winning 2 fights. Ranked 32nd he won his first elimination fight, but didn’t manage to progress any further losing his next fight. Dennis Callahan won one of his poule matches and was subsequently ranked 45th. He remained in this position after being knocked out in his first elimination fight.

Paul Butler and Peter Morris were both entering only their second fencing competition. They both continued to learn alot about competitive fencing and they both gave good accounts of themselves. In their first direct elimination fights they came up against high ranked opponents and despite scoring some good hits they were eventually beaten.

The sabre competition was as fast and as furious as ever.

Wrexham Head  Coach, Mike Norfolk, at the tender age of 70 entered hoping to pick up some fight practice in preparation for Wrexham’s forthcoming German Twin Town trip. Mike was able to win one of his poule fights and was ranked 25th. He maintained this ranking after being knocked out in his first elimination fight. Josh Wiffen, some 55 years junior to Mike, also managed 1 poule victory. Josh was fencing better than this win tally suggested and in his first direct elimination fight he was unlucky not to progress through to the last 16, losing 13 – 15 in an extremely close fight.

Andy Roberts and Jamie Morris both won two fights in their poules. This was Andy’s first sabre competition and winning two was a great achievement. Andy is Wrexham Fencing Clubs Chairman and showed he is just as adept with a sabre in his hand as he is with a pen. Andy and Jamie were ranked 17th and 19th respectively going into the eliminations fights. These rankings slipped a couple of places after they both lost their next fights.

Daniel Lumb continued his good form and won 4 of his poule fights. Daniel is coached by Valerijs as well as Mike and Gareth Lawn. Daniel has progressed in leaps and bounds this year and he raced through to the last 8 fight after having been ranked 6th following the poules. In a close encounter, Daniel lost the fight meaning he missed out on an Open medal. He did however have some consolation, winning the highest placed Under 18 men’s sabre medal.

Sunday was the turn of the epeeists and the women’s sabre competitions. Wrexham had no members representing it in the women’s sabre, 9 in the men’s epee and a solitary fencer in the women’s epee. That was Sarah Vandewall, and she made up for the lack of other Wrexham ladies in the days competitions. Using her favoured epee weapon, Sarah won 5 of her 6 poule fights which gave her a number 1 ranking, going into the direct eliminations.  She continued her great form from her foil exploits the day before, and powered through to the final where she came up against Welsh International Lori Button. In a very close and absorbing final, Sarah managed to grab a great victory and took the gold medal.

In the men’s epee, Julian Jones and Andrew Stanton both won one of their poule matches, leaving them ranked 66th and 70th in a strong field containing 76 fencers in total. This was Andrew’s first Open, and in his first elimination fight he lost along with Julian, meaning they slipped a couple of places in the final rankings.

Going one better, Dennis Callahan won two of his poule fights. He was ranked 47th, but despite a great effort in his first elimination fight he lost, leaving him ranked 48th at the competition end. Jon Lambert, Mark Robertson and Jamie Morris all won three of their poule fights. Ranked 31st, 38th and 42nd respectively, they all had chances to make it into the last 32. Mark and Jamie lost in competitively fought duels, but Jon managed a great victory setting himself up a next fight against one of the top seeds. He started off this fight magnificently but couldn’t continue his great start throughout the fight and eventually lost

Ben Hughes was ranked 22nd after the poules, winning 4 of his matches. After starting slowly he got into his stride in the latter stages of the poule and he took this excellent form through with him into the elimination fights. Ben easily surpassed his ranking and won through to the last 4 semi-final fight. For a place in the final he came up against the number 2 ranked fencer in the competition. The fight cold easily have gone either way, but Ben was edged out leaving him to pick up a superb bronze medal.

David Gregory and Sean Flanaghan both won all of their poule fights and were ranked 1st and 10th respectively. Although David is part of the Team Melia set-up, he is still a member of Wrexham Fencing Club and was determined to fence well for the club at the club’s home Open. Both progressed easily into the last 32, but Sean came up against a difficult opponent and went out leaving him in 18th position at the finish. David motored on and into the last 4. He started off really well in what was an extremely close and cagey fight. With the scores tied at 5 all, the bout went into a final minute, with priority against David. He pressed throughout to obtain the required point, but was caught with a great hit from his opponent. David joined Ben in picking up the bronze medal.

Most of Wrexham’s epeeists are coached by Valerijs, but Jon and David receive additional coaching from him.  This was clearly evident in their performances at the weekend.

With a total medal haul of 2 golds, 1 silver, 3 bronzes and 2 best under 18 finishes, once again Wrexham Fencing Club showed that they are able to more than hold their own in competition fencing.

Apart from the excellent contributions by the Wrexham fencers, Wrexham Fencing Club would like to thank all the ‘backroom’ staff who helped to make the competition a success. Maria and Mark Hughes, Jane  and Andy Roberts and Kev Dolan for their culinary skills, Team Melia for the smooth running of the whole competition, Gareth Lawn for his D.T. expertise and ‘patience’, Paul Sibert, Valerijs, John Hunt, Olivia Orchart, Caz Benson, Mark Fitton, Ben Roberts, Daniel Lumb and all the other referees, Steve Teggin, Peter Morris for his photographic genius, Mike Norfolk embassador supreme and everyone else that helped, who I have no doubt missed off. A special thanks to the Deputy Mayor of Wrexham for taking the time to come along and present the medals