Women & Girls Forum

If you are passionate about developing opportunities for women and girls to participate in fencing, then we want you on our team! Scottish Fencing are currently looking for such people to join our new Women & Girls Forum.

Despite the Scottish population being 52% female, women & girls currently represent just over 32% of total Scottish Fencing membership. Females are under-represented on the British Fencing Coaches register and the British Fencing referee register. 

The Scottish Fencing Women & Girls Forum aims to work with clubs to identify and develop opportunities for females to participate, grow and thrive in fencing.

The purpose of the Women & Girls Forum is as follows:

• Re-engaging the female fencing community as we move out of lockdown.

• Addressing the under-representation of females within the Scottish Fencing membership.

• Scottish Government has highlighted the need for more opportunities for women & girls in sport and physical activity in Scotland.

The Forum will meet 3-4 times per year to share best practice and common challenges. The learning from the Forum will then be used to support clubs that are committed to addressing such issues.

Our first meeting:

Wednesday 12th May

7.30 - 8.30pm

To sign up, click here - Scottish Fencing - Women & Girls Forum

For more information, please contact Blair Cremin (Pathways Manager) on blair.cremin@scottish-fencing.com.

Updated Return to Sport and Physical Activity Guidance 16 April 2021

You can find Scottish Fencing’s updated guidance here

Please note:

Travel:

From Friday 16 April, some travel restrictions will be relaxed to allow travel across Scotland for the purposes of meeting outdoors with friends and family. This will allow travel for informal physical activity, but not for organised sport. Travel restrictions for wider purposes - including organised sport, leisure, shopping, visiting hospitality premises or staying in tourist accommodation will remain until 26 April.

Outdoor gatherings:

Up to 6 adults from 6 households can meet outside. The exemption for groups of up to 15 adults taking part in organised outdoor non-contact sport and physical activity remains.

Scottish Fencing #ForgingTheFuture Programme

Scottish Fencing are excited to launch a new club development programme - the #ForgingTheFuture programme - and would like to invite all interested clubs to attend our virtual information evening on Thursday 22nd April at 7pm.

The #ForgingTheFuture programme will be focused on Changing Lives Through Sport. Clubs who participate will be supported to develop a Changing Lives mindset and approach.

What is Changing Lives?

A Changing Lives approach to sport is all about intention.

We know that the benefits for participating in fencing (and all sports and physical activity) are huge - improved physical health, mental health and social connections, to name a few. For some people, these benefits are the reason they participate. For others, they are just an additional bonus for doing a sport that they love.

Changing Lives moves the focus away from the sport and onto the participant. With this mindset, clubs and coaches will intentionally use fencing to improve the lives of people and / or their community.

Why is Changing Lives important?

As we move out of the COVID-19 pandemic, we will all be getting use to engaging with our sports in a different way. We also recognise that there will be large groups of people that we previous did not engage with that could really benefit from participating in our sport.

In 2019, sportscotland launched their new corporate strategy "Sport For Life". For the first time in Scotland, sport is no longer in a silo on it's own, doing sport for sports sake. There is now a greater focus on how sport can affect the national health agenda, education agenda, transport agenda and environmental agenda. Changing Lives recognises the Power of Sport to affect change in people's lives and in our communities.

By adopting a Changing Lives approach, we will be in a better position to make a greater impact on more people in our communities. This will make our clubs more sustainable.

What is the #ForgingTheFuture Programme?

Following the information evening, clubs will be invited to sign up to the #ForgingTheFuture programme. Over approx. 12 months, this will involve:

·       Regular #ForgingTheFuture meetings with other clubs to discuss Changing Lives tools, techniques and activities that can be applied to develop their Changing Lives approach.

·       Direct support from Scottish Fencing' Pathways Manager to develop a Changing Lives approach.

·       Invitations to meet and listen to clubs and community organisations who demonstrate the Changing Lives mindset.

Information Evening

Our information evening will allow us to explain our perspective on the Changing Lives mindset / approach, and give further information on the #ForgingTheFuture programme.

Thursday 22nd April

7.00pm – 8.00pm

To sign up, click here - #ForgingTheFuture – Information Evening – Sign Up

If you would like more information, please contact Blair Cremin (Pathways Manager) at blair.cremin@scottish-fencing.com or on 07912 267 585.

Updated return to sport and physical activity guidance 5 April 2021

You can find updated guidance on the return to fencing here

Things to note are:

5 to 25 April – Level 4

 ·       Outdoor contact sport is temporarily permitted for under 18s only, to allow activity to start.

·       Under 12 outdoor sport bubbles are subject to a maximum of 30 people including coaches

·       12-17-year-olds outdoor sport bubbles are subject to a maximum of 15 people including coaches.

Also please read the travel restrictions carefully. Children and young people may travel to and from a Level 4 area, if for example, they belong to a club which is just outside their own local authority area.  However they should travel no further than necessary.

We expect a further update to guidance prior to 26 April which is the next provisional date for a potential easing of restrictions. We will publish this document as close to this date as possible.

#CFC2022 Athlete, Staff & Coach information sessions

Our “washup” CFC2022 Information session is for Athletes, Staff and Coaches on Monday 19 April at 6.30pm

This is for anyone who missed the earlier sessions, if you attended one of the previous information evenings you don’t have to join again. Anyone interested can sign up here

If you can’t attend you can read the presentation here and if you have questions please email admin@scottish-fencing.com

A big thank you to everyone who attended our two sessions this week. We have some great ideas to take away and consider so thank you for your time and contributions.

For those that couldn’t attend we will host another session later this month and we will publish this as soon as it is confirmed.

In the meantime you can find further information in the presentation which is here

CFC Athlete & Coach sessions

Scottish Fencing are hosting 2 sessions for those athletes, coaches and staff who expressed an interest in committing to training towards the 2022 Commonwealth Championships.

One session will be for athletes-only and another session for coaches only.

ATHLETES ONLY - To register CLICK HERE

COACHES & STAFF ONLY - To register CLICK HERE

We realise these sessions are being offered at short notice, but it would be great if those who expressed an interest in being part of the team as either athlete or staff could attend.

We will offer a “washup” session in mid-April should anyone not be able to attend either of the sessions next week.

Paul Vaughan - Director of Performance

#ForgingTheFuture

Welcome to new Directors

Scottish Fencing is delighted to welcome the election of Mhairi McLaughlin and Stan Stoodley to serve as Directors on the Board, and Stan’s election as President.

We would like to thank Ann Urquhart very much for acting as our Electoral Officer and running an admirable and efficient process for us.

We would also like to thank the outgoing board members, Martyn Foley, Ross Morrison and Morven Shaw for their contributions to the Board and Scottish Fencing. Their efforts have been much appreciated.

The first meeting of the new Board is scheduled for 22 April. The Board will appoint one of its number as the Chair of the Company at that meeting. It will also consider whether it ought to appoint any Additional Directors to address its diversity and balance.

The new Board will now pursue the recruitment of an Independent Director to fill the vacancy left by Gail Prince's resignation late last year.

You can read the Board's letter of welcome to the new Directors here and see the Directors code of conduct and the job descriptions for the Chair and the President here.

The detailed results are now available here on OpaVote.

Election of Directors & President

As a result of the election which concluded yesterday, Mhairi McLaughlin and Stan Stoodley have been elected to the Scottish Fencing Board as new Directors.

Hugh Kernohan and George Liston have been re-elected to serve a second four-year term.

Stan Stoodley has been elected as President of Scottish Fencing.

The election turn-out was 52.6% with no empty ballots for Directors and five empty ballots for President.

Ann Urquhart

Electoral Officer

Successful SportsAid grant applicants

Scottish Fencing are delighted to confirm 6 young athletes have been successful in attaining over £3000 of grants from SportsAid Scotland.

SF Performance Director Paul Vaughan said “It’s of course fantastic for our young athletes to receive these grants. With the COVID landscape meaning opportunities to fence or train have been limited to say the least, its wonderful to see SportsAid Scotland acknowledging some of our talented athletes and help them on their journey as we hopefully see Fencing on the horizon in the next few months.”

The successful recipients are

Jaimie Cook

Rachael Lever

Elsie Llewelyn

Mhairi McLaughlin

Rory McLellan

Dylan Morrison

First Ministers Update and key dates

Good evening everyone

Please find here a document from the Scottish Government highlighting key dates over the next few months as we continue the exit out of lockdown.

OBITUARY - Lewis Smith

We are sorry to inform you of the recent death of Lewis Smith.  Lewis fenced at Boroughmuir School and I remember watching with awe and inspiration as he took flawless lessons from Bert. 

He achieved great sporting success. He was a member of the Scottish team at the Commonwealth Games, Edinburgh 1970, Scottish Foil Champion in 1972 and won a Bronze Team medal at the 1978 Commonwealth Championships in Glasgow. 

1978 was a good year as he was also part of the Scottish Team who won the Quad, a historic achievement.  At that point it was only Scotland’s 4th win since 1950.

His contribution to the success of Scottish Fencing continued for many years after he stopped competing through George Watson’s College Fencing Club in Edinburgh where he was the teacher in charge of fencing. He helped to develop many of today’s stalwarts of Scottish Fencing.  The school club was hugely successful, dominating the Scottish Schools scene throughout the 80s and producing numerous Scottish and British champions. The combination of Lewis’s kindness, support and encouragement with Bert Bracewell’s boundless enthusiasm was ideal for the generations of young fencers that grew their love of the sport at the school.

When you talk to anyone in Scottish Fencing about Lewis Smith, their first reaction is always what a nice man and a great friend he was.

Words by Sheila Anderson and Sean Walton, Photos Julia Bracewell, and Modern British Fencing – Edmund Gray

George Watsons College Fencing Team