Sharon Jones reports
Another busy weekend.
Ethan Dakin and Arthur Eakin were competing in the final competition this year in the Yorkshire Youth League at the Rossett Sports Centre in Harrogate - Ethan by virtue of living in Sheffield and Arthur by virtue of fencing additionally at Sheffield Buccaneers. This was the fifth and final leg, with Ethan being a regular and it being Arthur's first competition here. The boys were both competing in the U12 category.
Arthur and Ethan were drawn together in the first poule. Ethan won all his fights, dropping only 4 hits. Arthur was V3D2, losing to Ethan and silver medallist Robert Hind.
Arthur breezed through his his second poule, with 6 wins, dropping 8 hits and beating bronze medallist Nathan Mooney of Harrogate 5-4. Ethan won 4 and lost 1, 3-5 to Robert Hind, having problems with a finger injury from earlier in the week.
Arthur finished the poules in 1st place and Ethan in 4th. Arthur had a bye to L8 and won his first DE against Samuel Gibbs of Harrogate 10-2 in the first period. Ethan beat Adam Dickinson and Luis Andrade to get to the semi final.
The clubmates then had to face each other in a fantastic semi-final. Ethan raced into a 7-3 lead by the end of the first period. Each took a point then Arthur staged a great comeback with two perfectly executed attacks to make it 8-6. Ethan caught another point to make it 9-6. Arthur kept his nerve and fought with great maturity to take it to 9-9. They both took stock and Ethan changed his foil. There was a frantic exchange of hits and Ethan managed a single red light to finish what a number of observers thought was the standout match in the U12s, meaning Arthur picked up a bronze medal.
Ethan had a slightly easier fight against Robert Hind in the final. He went into attacking mode to win 10-7 and pick up his 5th series gold medal this season and the overall trophy.
Congratulations also to Myk Flitcroft, father of Fernwood fencer Lizzie Flitcroft (Myk competes for North Kesteven but he also fences with us). Myk worked hard to get his refereeing qualification over the weekend at Harrogate.
Meanwhile, Ed Howlett was fencing at the Leon Paul Centre in London in the U20 British ranking competition there. He fenced like a demon in the poule round to win all 6 of his fights, dropping only 5 hits and scoring 30. He started the DEs as top seed. He had a bye in L128, then beat Finn McMullan of Northern Ireland 15-3. He then fenced well to beat Sam Blair of Louth 15-9. Blair had beaten GB U20 fencer Ben Attias in the previous round. His L16 match against Aidan Watkins of London's Salle Boston was somewhat controversial. Ed had beaten Watkins 5-0 in the poule. The referee was from the same club as Watkins. Ed went down 2-6. Ed was thrown out of kilter down to the refereeing decisions and was 8-13. He brought the match back to 13-14 but Watkins got a good hit to finish. There were around 6 "hotly contested" decisions. This season generally has been problematic in terms of having competent referees for U20 competitions (which determine GB selection). This was (as an example) the third U20 competition running where competitors have had to "self referee" poule matches and there have been problems in sourcing enough recognised referees for the DEs. Ed finished 9th from 68 fencers but had a realistic chance of medalling, all things being equal.
Guest fencer Serena Patel was fencing in the U20 women's competition at the Leon Paul Centre on Sunday. She had a fantastic poule performance, dropping only 2 points in 5 matches and (in a smaller poule of 6 rather than 7) she went into the DEs as second seed. She had a bye in L64 and then beat Rhiannon Hales of Fighting Fit in London 15-8. She then unfortunately went out 12-15 to Jade Meyer of Bath Sword to finish 9th.