Scarisbrick Hall Fencers Dominate The Northwest Youth Championships

Scarisbrick Hall Fencers Dominate The Northwest Youth Championships

Scarisbrick Hall’s fencing club have won an impressive haul of medals at this year’s regional youth championships. The event was held at the Manchester Fencing Centre in Oldham on Saturday 10th of March. Five children from the school attended the competition, Annabelle Montagu, James Hughes and Grace Michell in the under 14s, Alexander Montagu in the under 16s and Evie Day in the under 18s.

James was the first to show good form, winning the mixed ranking poules and with it a bye to the boys U14 final. There he put up a spirited fight, but had to settle for silver as his opponent’s greater experience won through in the longer eliminator. Evie in the under 18s had a very challenging set of opponents and did well to take the silver. Alex in the under 16s had by far the toughest draw, but never-the-less he gave a good account of himself against some very talented opposition.

Annabelle and Grace in the under 14 girls had very different experiences. Annabelle from the start was fencing at full throttle and finished the poules ranked second to Stephanie Currie from Liverpool Fencing Club. This performance earned her a bye to the semi-final where she managed to prevail by a close 15-14 to secure her place in the final. Grace on the other hand was struggling to find form and languished second to bottom after the poules. Consequently, she had to battle her way to the semis, against seed, where she faced Stephanie. In this match Grace never let Stephanie run away with the score line and fought hard to level the match at 14 all. Keeping her cool, she managed to find her mark in the last play of blade to advance to the final, making it an all Scarisbrick Hall affair. As clubmates, Grace and Annabelle know each others style very well and an incredibly tight match followed. The score line never wavered more than a point apart. At 14 all, championship point, Grace again managed to land the winning hit for a very had won gold medal.

Further bronze and silver medals were won by Sophia (U14) and Michael (U10) Neophytou, who although not at Scarisbrick Hall, do attend the school’s Thursday evening sessions for extra coaching and sparring.

As always, much credit for this success is due to David Stobbs, the school’s fencing coach who has patiently developed the children’s skills to the point that they can take on the regions finest. Grace would also like to thank the the Benjamin Gautrey Foundation whose sponsorship has helped her participate is several major events over the last year.

Going forward, the club has had permission from the school to open up its membership to the wider community and it will be running a beginner’s training course at their Thursday evening sessions during the summer term. If you are 11+ and would like to learn to fence, please register your interest by email (info@swords.website). Places will be limited and allocated on a first come first served basis.