Fernwood Sword Club with Sharon Jones
Ed came back to competitive fencing with a bit of a bang after his enforced A Level break, following the end of his exams on Monday. He was still a bit rusty after a few training sessions this week when he competed in the RAF 100 Open at RAF Cosford in Shropshire, a competition forming part of the RAF's centenary this year.
In his first round of poules, Ed dropped just two points, against James Kloss of Russell Swords in Cardiff, who is competing for Wales in the forthcoming Cadet Commonwealths. Ed had a clean sweep against Alexander Cupper of Millfield School, Kevin Parker of Sittingbourne Swords and Timothy Green of the RAF.
He went into the second round of poules as third seed,which was down to being in a smaller poule. Ed's second poule resulted in three 5-0 scores, against (again) Alexander Cupper, Kesh Chauhan of Woodhouse Eaves and Nathan Holt of Bletchley Park RAF cadets. The poule was completed with a 5-1 win over Andrew Cubberly of Loughton Fencing Club and a 5-3 victory over Dominic Aston of Southampton University.
Ed had a bye in L32 and then completed a very efficient 15-2 win over Timothy Green of the RAF in L16. His L8 fight was potentially trickier against tall left hander Owen Grosvenor of Salle Paul in London, but after a couple of testing point losses in the early stages, Ed got the measure of his distance with a convincing 15-6 win. Ed's semi-final match was against the British Youth Championships U18 silver medallist, Oliver Nash of Kenilworth Sword Club. Nash has never beaten Ed and this match was no different, with Ed winning with a crushing 15-4 score, finishing off with a very tidy flick hit.
In the final, Ed then faced Will Lonsdale of Louth, who also trains with Ed at Sheffield Buccaneers. Will is a tall, unorthodox left hander and the pair had a cagey, but enthralling, fight lasting well into the third and final session. The scores mounted fairly equally and the difference between the two in the end was Ed's slight lack of accuracy, resulting in too many off target hits. Ed had to be satisfied with silver but received a number of compliments for his excellent technique.
Meanwhile, regular guest fencer Ethan Dakin was fencing in Paris at the mini Marathon Fleuret in U11 boy's foil (and it really is a bit of a marathon). He won all of his first round of poule fights. He won all of his second round, against French, German and Greek fencers. He dropped only one of his third round of poule fights, leaving him as 6th seed for the DEs. Ethan beat Erwinn Feltgen of Switzerland 6-3, then Ronan Vouille-Rioche of France 6-5. Another 6-5 win over Italian Jacopo Poggio followed and a rather complicated repechage system meant that instead of progressing to L8, he ended up losing to a small fencer who used his distance well. Ethan finished in 9th place from 96 fencers, which was a super result.