Ed Howlett and James Rutherford in action
It was another excellent weekend's fencing for Fernwood. It was the annual Cadet Winton competition at Millfield School in Somerset. Ed and James were fencing at it for their fifth and last time. Having representing the East Midlands on the previous four occasions, this year they were fencing for Yorkshire. The third member of the men's foil team was Will Lonsdale, a successful cadet fencer from Louth Fencing Club. All three boys train at Sheffield Buccaneers, as well as at their "home" clubs, and thus are eligible for Yorkshire. The format for the competition comprised 9 regions each putting forward a team from each weapon, boys and girls, to U18 level. Each match consisted of 9 fights to 5 points, with 3 fencers on each team.
The first match against Wales went well, with a 9-0 win. The second, against Southern Region was a little trickier, with 4 5-3 wins, a defeat for James against junior Sam Wilson and a 4-3 in the priority minute for Ed against the same fencer, giving a final 8-1 score. The next two matches were more routine, with comfortable 9-0 wins against West Midlands and South West, The final match on Saturday, at 8pm, was another tricky one against London. James squeaked a 5-4 victory over French fencer Louis Guennou, while Ed fenced with superb patience to grind out a 4-1 win against him This match saw Ed's only foil loss of the weekend - 3-5 to Rafael Rhys Pollitt, while James also lost to him. However, the boys won out 7-2 overall.
Sunday morning brought another tough match, against Eastern. Will edged a 5-4 victory in the priority minute against Albert Chambers, but lost 1-5 to Dan Summerfield - against whom James was unlucky to lose 4-5. Another 7-2 win. South East was another tough one. Will edged another 5-4 win over Dawood Khan, while both he and James lost to Harry Gray. Ed was determined not to go the same way and turned up the gas to complete a 5-0 win in a very short period, using great footwork and distance. Another 7-2 win. The boys' final match was against North West and they dropped only 8 points in their 9 fights, resulting in a satisfying 9-0 win.
Interspersed with his foil matches (and sometimes having to run from one piste to another), Ed was having his first ever experience of competitive sabre, helping out in four matches. He managed 2 wins from 3 in his first match against Eastern, then 1 from 3 (including a 4-5 defeat) against Southern. He had a cracking performance against West Midlands, who have a strong sabre team and won their matches against all the other regions over the weekend. Ed lost only 4-5 to Harry Parr, a decent junior. He was 4-2 up against Thomas Woodland (GB junior, who won the trophy for best men's sabre over the weekend), but lost 4-5 in the end. Finally he beat Archie Watt (GB cadet) 5-3. Finally, he won 1 and lost 2 fights against South West, another very strong sabre region. 5 wins from 12, including 3 4-5 losses was good going.
The end result in men's foil was an unbeaten record against the other 8 regions, with just 7 fights dropped from a total of 72. This meant they had won the trophy for men's foil. Ed won the trophy for the best results in men's foil, with (we think) Will coming second. Ed lost out on the trophy for best results for all weapons by a whisker, having the same number of wins as Teagan Williams Stewart in women's foil, but a couple of hits fewer. Unfortunately, his sabre wins didn't count!
Meanwhile, guest fencer Ethan Dakin was competing in U11 men's foil at the Leon Paul Junior Series competition in Bath and winning a bronze medal. He fenced well in the poule, winning 5 fights and losing 1. He had a scare in his first knockout fight, with a relatively narrow 10-7 win. This galvanised Ethan into action and he fenced progressively better, until the semi-final, where he lost 8-10 to the gold medal winner, George Hills of ZFW in London.
