George Smith

Scottish Fencing are sad to announce the death of George Smith. George passed away this week. He established Stirling Fencing Club where he coached every week for 50 years. George will be much missed by the members of Forth Valley Fencing Club where he attended until recently.

The details of his service are

Thursday 4th January 2024

 Service at St Ninians Old Parish Church, Kirk Wynd, St Ninians, Stirling FK7 9AJ at 1100.

Followed by interment at Logie Kirk, Blairlogie, FK9 4LB at 1200 

Members of the fencing community wishing to pay their respects are very welcome.

Scottish Fencing Awards 2023

Every year Scottish Fencing presents three awards:

·       The Crosnier Quaich for Performance,

·       The Crosnier Coaching Award, and

·       The Sword of Merit.


The awards were open to nominations from the Scottish Fencing membership with the Crosnier Quaich for Performance being decided by a member vote. The Scottish Fencing Board voted on the winner of the Sword of Merit award.

The winners were announced at last nights’ AGM and were as follows


The Crosnier Quaich for Performance - Zoe Wagstaff

Zoe has had a fantastic year in 2023, making great progress with her fencing. At the end of last season she represented GBR at the Cadet European Championships 2023, she also came 7th British Senior Championships and 13th at the British Open Championships. This season (in her first year of juniors) Zoe has won the Manchester B BRC, Junior A1 BRC, Junior National Championships and U23 National Championships. 

We would like to pass on our congratulations to Zoe on her fantastic achievements so far, and wish her the best of luck for the remainder of the season.



The Crosnier Coaching Award - John Oates, Forth Valley Fencing Club.

On top of a full time job, John coaches at FVFC at least 3 times a week, giving up his own free time without remuneration, running group sessions, 1 to 1 lessons and providing armoury support. 

John makes sessions entertaining, for example, he hosts team matches with quirky, fun challenges.  If one to one lessons are not for you he will fence you and suit his style to your level and what you need to develop, providing a very bespoke coaching service.

He is friendly, welcoming and encouraging to all ages and no matter your question is always  helpful and supportive. John takes time out of his weekend to support his younger fencers at competitions and keeps an eye on competition results so that he can mention to fencers when he sees them. Furthermore he supports parents, finding ways for the less able to attend competitions.

John regularly attends coach development courses and actively encourages and supports teenage fencers to become coaches themselves. A very worthy winner of the Crosnier Coaching Award, Congratulations John.

The Sword of Merit.

George Smith has spent his lifetime contributing to fencing throughout Scotland. He has introduced the sport to a huge amount of people both young and old and has set up and coached at a variety of different clubs. Perhaps George’s most profound achievement was setting up Stirling Fencing Club which he coached at every week for 50 years only stepping back from in with the onset of covid.  George’s contributions to fencing cannot be summed up in just a 100 words and without him many people would never have experienced the joy of fencing.

Many congratulations to George, who has made an incredible impact on fencing, particularly in the Stirling area. He is a very worthy winner of the 2023 Sword of Merit. Congratulations George.




Stephen D'Agostino

Scottish Fencing was sorry to hear of the loss of Stephen D’Agostino. Sadly, Stephen passed a week ago having been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

Many in the fencing community will remember Stephen helping out at competitions setting up and taking down equipment and helping with IT.

For those wishing to pay their respects Stephen’s funeral service and Mass is at 10:30am, on Wednesday 13th December 2023 in St Albert’s Catholic Chapel in the University Catholic Chaplaincy, 24 George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9LD, to which all are welcome. 

 St Albert’s Chapel is located in the garden, behind No 24 George Square. Level access is from George Square Lane, behind 23 & 24 George Square and beside Middle Meadow Walk. 

Coffee and tea will be available after the service. 

 A private cremation service for the family will be held immediately after. 

Refreshments in the Royal Forth Yacht Club, Middle Pier, Granton Harbour EH5 1HF to which all are invited 

 Our condolences to Stephen’s family.

2023 Scottish Fencing AGM - link to register

Further to our earlier posts you can now register to attend the online AGM for Scottish Fencing which is at 6pm on 11 December 2023.

Please register for the AGM here

You can send your apologies using the same link. Also, if you have any questions for the Board you can send these in advance of the meeting using the link whether you can attend or not.

We will send a meeting invite to those registered so if you have do not sign up you won’t be able to attend. Registration closes noon Friday 8 December 2023. We will send the meeting link once registration closes.

Scottish Open 2023 round-up

The Scottish Open took place at The Peak, Stirling last weekend with over 160 fencers taking part over the two days. The event featured an open wheelchair event for the first time, four fencers competed in two rounds of poules, followed by a tableau to determine the medal winners. Scottish Fencing are grateful for the guidance and support received from the team at British Fencing and hope we can build on wheelchair event going forward.

The first day of competition featured Men’s and Women’s foil and Men’s Sabre with two rounds of poules followed by DE. In Men’s Foil Jaimie Cook defeated Vinson Wong in the final. Katie Smith defended the Women’s epee title she won in 2022 when she defeated Mhairi McLaughlin and Calum Kettles won the Men’s sabre title with opponent Quentin Geoffroy pulling up injured early in the final.

Sunday’s schedule featured Men’s and Women’s epee, Women’s Sabre and the Open wheelchair event. The open wheelchair sabre event saw James Burke winning gold in the men’s section, with Stuart Gurney taking silver, and Susie Seddon-Cowell taking gold in the women’s section with Wiktoria Mucha taking silver. In the Women’s epee event Lydia Stannier defeated Zoe Counter in an all Edinburgh Fencing Club final and Kate Daykin defended her Women’s sabre title, beating Elsie Llewellyn in a rematch of the 2022 final. Calum Johnston claimed the Men’s Epee title for an incredible 9th time following the final with Tobias Berry.

Congratulations to the medallists and well done to everyone who took part across the two day of competition.

For full results, please click here.

Scottish Fencing would like to extend thanks to the everyone who helped with the set-up, organisation and general running of the event, especially DT, the referees, armoury and the team of volunteers from Forth Valley FC who gave up their Friday and Sunday evenings to lay pistes and help with the clear up. 

It was great to have Leon Paul Scotland there all weekend with a range of fencing kit and equipment for fencers to try and buy. Visit their website to check out their latest offers https://www.leonpaul-scotland.co.uk/

Senior 5 Nations 2023 Results

Scotland finished runners-up to England in the overall results table after a great day of fencing at the sportscotland National Training Centre, Inverclyde on Saturday. The event was played in great spirit with all five countries fighting hard and enjoying the team competition.

Scotland’s Women’s Foil and Women’s Sabre teams won their respective weapon tables and England were the winners in Women’s Epee and Men’s Epee, Foil and Sabre.

Congratulations to the victorious England team and thank you to the teams from Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales for putting up a good fight. Scottish Fencing would like to thank everyone who played a part in the running of the event, Team Managers, DT, referees and volunteers who helped with event set-up and tidy-up.

Team results

Women’s Epee

Women’ Foil

Women’s Sabre

Men’s Epee

Men’s Foil

Men’s Sabre

For the overall results for the event please click here.

Senior 5 Nations 2023

This year’s Senior 5 Nations is being hosted by Scottish Fencing and will take place at The National Sports Centre, Inverclyde this Saturday 18th November.

The Scotland teams are as follows;

 

Women's Epee

Rachael LEVER

Zoe COUNTER

Megan UPTON

Lucy GRANT

 

Women's Foil

Katie SMITH

Mhairi MCLAUGHLIN

Zoe WAGSTAFF

Ellen BUCKLEY

 

Women's Sabre

Kate DAYKIN

Rosalind GRAHAM

Elsie LLEWELLYN

Lucy HIGHAM

 

Men's Epee

Calum JOHNSTON

Jamie FIRTH

Jonathan WOOLLARD

Isaac MCKERR

 

Men's Foil

Alexander JONES

Nye Ulferts-Kilpatrick

Thomas Walton

Mike McKay

 

Men's Sabre

Caspian WATT

Stuart SCOTT

Ethan LLEWELLYN

Diego Baird-Ludlow

Good luck to Team Scotland!

Scottish Fencing and Scottish Student Sport renew partnership agreement.

Scottish Fencing and Scottish Student Sport (SSS) are excited to re-announce their partnership aimed at promoting and developing fencing among student athletes in Scotland.

Scottish Fencing are committed to developing student fencing in Scotland and reconfirming our partnership with Scottish Student Sport ensures we move forward with dual purpose!

Chris Purdie, Head of Competitions, Scottish Student Sport said:

“Through the renewed partnership between Scottish Fencing and Scottish Student Sport, we aim to actively promote and develop the sport of fencing within the student community. We’re enthusiastic about working together to provide opportunities for students to engage in and excel at fencing, fostering a supportive and competitive environment that contributes to the growth of the sport in educational institutions.”

Clare Queen, Chief Operating Officer/Head of Pathways, Scottish Fencing added:

“We are delighted to renew our partnership agreement with Scottish Student Sport for another two years. Student fencers are an important part of the fencing community and we are looking forward to working with Scottish Student Sport and Scottish Student Fencing to help support and strengthen the student fencing clubs and student fencing events. The key focus will be on providing opportunities for student fencing clubs to develop, coaches, referees and volunteers.”

We can’t wait to see our student fencers back on the pistes!