Another busy weekend for Ed and James
Saturday saw Ed Howlett compete for the second time and James Rutherford for the first time in the GB Senior Championships at the University of East London in Docklands on Saturday. Quite apart from this being a seriously tough competition, the boys are really prioritising next Saturday's British Youth Championships in terms of competition periodisation. It was certainly hard work. Both boys had tough poules. Ed was slightly off his usual pace, losing 3-5 to Husain Saddiq, John Webster and Sebastian Pallier, and 2-5 to eventual silver medallist Matt Billing, whilst beating Nikita Kusnetzov (of ZFW in London) 5-1 and Alessandro Gill (of Salle Paul in London) 5-4. Meanwhile, James beat Christopher Cleves and Nick Mort (to whom he'd lost 4-5 the previous week) 5-0. He had two frustrating 4-5 losses to Ben Andrews and Euan Deamer, having been ahead, whilst also losing 3-5 to cadet Jean-Baptiste Baigneres. He was beating Rio Olympian Marcus Mepstead 3-2, but experience told and Mepstead came out a 5-3 winner - great match, though.
James then had current GB junior Kieran De Lange of Salle Boston in L128. He won that fight very comfortably 15-7. Ed meanwhile had an equally comfortable 15-8 win over former GB junior Peter Jordan, of London's Salle Paul. Their post poule rankings meant that each of the boys would meet top seeds in L64. James met GB senior David Standen of ZFW in London for the second time in a week. This time he lost 8-15. Ed faced top GB junior, Kamal Minnott of Newham Swords, who made L16 at the Junior World Championships in Plovdiv earlier this month. Ed did brilliantly to match Minnott point for point till it was 7-7. Then Minnott pulled away, with Ed managing another couple of points to make it 9-15 - a very decent effort.
James and Ed compete in the U18 men's foil at the BYCs next weekend, while Luke Rutherford and Simon Elliot-Bateman compete in U16 men's foil, Benedict Murray in U14 men's foil, Elizabeth Flitcroft in U12 women's foil and Arthur Eakin in U12 men's foil.
