A busy weekend for our SIX for 16 star
The weekend saw the British Senior Team Championships at the Leon Paul Centre in North London. Ed was competing for Sheffield Buccaneers II (his other club), with Italian/Brit Aureliano Finch and Russian Petr Krasnov. They were seeded 9th from 19 strong teams.
There were two poule matches. First was a strong Salle Holyrood (Edinburgh) side. SB II lost 30-45 but Ed certainly contributed with an 8-3 win over Scottish junior international Jack Douglas and a 4-2 win over Swiss fencer Alex Arbelet. The awesome Keith Cook proved too strong with a 5-0 win. SB II prevailed over Herefordshire 45-35. Ed contributed nicely with a 5-3 win over James Harris and an 8-3 win over Jarred Mittelholzer. He lost 4-6 to former Commonwealth Games medal winner, Daniel Robinson.
This left the team in 11th place, so outside the 8 which progressed in the main tableau. The B tableau provided some great fencing. SB II faced Herefordshire again. The result was (we think) 45-30 to SB II. Ed was certainly dominant in his matches - 5-1 against James Harris, 8-0 against Jared Mittelholzer and a very pleasing 5-2 against Daniel Robinson.
The next match was against the (very posh) Lansdowne Club A team. These guys are veterans but one fenced at the Barcelona Olympics and another at the Atlanta Olympics, so certainly aren't mugs. The boys beat them something like 45-32. Ed beat Tony Bartlett 5-1, Nick Bell 4-2 and John Troiano 5-3.
Finally, in the "final"of the B Tableau, the boys faced Fencers Club London. They lost 41-45 - but what a match. Ed lost 0-5 to Ben Peggs (6th in the GB Senior rankings and reserve/chief sparrer at the Rio Olympics). He then lost 4-5 to GB Junior Sebastian Pallier. The boys were well behind at 17-30. Ed then faced James Joy - taking Petr's advice to attack, he blitzed the match 17-5, leaving SB II 34-35. You don't often see a score like that in a team match . Petr then lost 2-5 to Ben Peggs and Aure 4-5 to Seb Pallier, but that was a real scare.
A great day's fencing. Adam Blight, head coach at Sheffield Buccaneers, filmed the Lansdowne and FCL fights, as well as a number of Sheffield Buccaeers I fights - he'll be putting them up on Youtube under "Adam Blight".