Inter Services 2004

This years Inter Services Fencing Championships were hosted by the Royal Navy at HMS Nelson, Portsmouth between 14 – 17 Jun 04. Sqn Ldr Andy Alcock, Chairman of RAF Fencing, inspired the team with some words of encouragement before handing over to the Captain, Sgt Phil McNulty to provide a further team pep talk prior to the presentation of RAF Brassards to the “New Blues” by the President of RAFFU, Air Cdre Kurth. Colours were awarded to SAC Gaz Morris in the Men’s Epee team, Flt Lt Sarah Chambers and Fg Off Kath Linton in the Ladies Epee team, Cpl Kat Jolly in the Ladies Sabre team, and SAC Brigitte Morgan in the Ladies Foil team.

Inter Service Triangular Match.
After some very exciting fencing from all 3 Services, the RAF Men’s Team lost the title they had successfully held for 8 years, whilst the RAF Ladies Team regained the title lost the previous year.

Women’s Event.
With 4 “New Blues” in the Ladies Team, it was always expected that this competition would be extremely difficult; what wasn’t expected was the closeness of the final result. In the Sabre, FS Ashley Newing and Kat Jolly fenced extremely well, beating the Army ladies but then losing to the Navy team. The Ladies Foil team of Fg Off Sharon Booth and Brigitte Morgan also fenced extremely well, losing to the Army but gaining a victory on indicators over the Navy – and how important those indicators were to prove! The novice Ladies Epee team of Sarah Chambers and Kath Linton also fenced incredibly well, defeating the Navy and narrowly taking a victory on indicators over the Army to win the weapon. Whilst the mathematicians tried to calculate who had won, confusion over the allocation of points, particularly whether a victory on indicators was counted or whether both teams shared the points, resulted in some heated debate. The bottom line was that if teams both had 2 victories and were allocated 1 point each, then the Army ladies would retain the title. If a winner was calculated using indicators then the RAF would win. Discussion between the Service Captains unfortunately failed to resolve the issue, particularly as the Combined Service constitution was not written in a clear and unambiguous manner! In the end a DT was called, and the input of Penny Spink from the BFA, stating how these issues were resolved at events such as the Winton Cup resulted in the award of the Ladies title back to the RAF. A highly impressive performance from a relatively inexperienced team.

Men’s Event.
Strong fencing, team spirit and bags of enthusiasm unfortunately just wasn’t enough to bring the title the RAF’s way as the Army and Navy both fielded extremely strong teams. In the Men’s Epee, Andy Alcock, Gaz Morris and Wg Cdr George Liston battled hard against a very efficient Army team, losing their first match. The next fight against the Navy was to prove equally hard, with the final bout pitting George against his long time nemesis, Capt Baker, Royal Marines. In a closely fought battle, victory went to the Navy by the narrowest of margins 45-44. Over in the Sabre, the experienced pairing of Sgt Mark Gumley and Cpl Dave Long, joined for the first time in the sabre team by Cpl Shaun Taylor, struggled to find their rhythm as equipment problems constantly interfered with their match. As he picked up an injury against the Army, Shaun was then replaced by Cpl Rob Desforges, gaining his RAF Colours as he stepped into the gap. Unfortunately the experienced Army and Navy teams just had the edge, taking victory over the RAF team. In the Foil, Phil McNulty, joined by the experienced and capable Plt Off Graeme Hart and Flt Lt Ruari Henderson-Begg, took a convincing victory over the Army, giving the Men’s team their first points of the competition. This was then followed by a conclusive victory over the Navy, giving the RAF the weapon victory. With the Army and RAF men’s teams both tied on 4 points, a countback of indicators ensured that the RAF took 2nd place overall.

Master Swordsman.
After defeat in the Triangular hopes were high that George Liston could take some revenge in the Master Swordsman title and Sharon Booth could complete the double with the Master Swordswoman. The situations between men and women were reversed from the Triangular as this time George secured an RAF win, but Sharon just missed out to Sub Lt Hale of the Navy.

6 Man and 3 Man Team Events.
With strong opposition in the form of 7 Air Assault Brigade, RAF High Wycome had to fight hard in the 6 Man Team event. The Foil team of Phil McNulty and Brigitte Morgan found themselves under pressure as they lost 3-1, while George Liston and Sgt Graham Nicholson took victory 3-1 in the epee to leave the result in the hands of the sabreurs. Cpl Graham Till, fencing at only his 2nd major competition, teamed up well with Lt Col Bart Klootwyk to take the weapon victory 3-1 and give High Wycombe the 6 Man Team title. In the 3 Man Team, the teams of RAF Leuchars and RAF High Wycombe found themselves up against 2 Army bases. Phil McNulty took 2 victories in the foil, with George Liston also taking 2 wins in the epee for High Wycombe. Not to be outdone, Gaz Morris took 3 victories in the epee for Leuchars, while Iain Wren also fenced well in the sabre, winning the first two of his matches. Once again, the outcome of the team event rested on the sabre, and with victory in all his bouts Bart Klootwyk clinched a 2nd team title for High Wycome, with Leuchars a close 2nd.

Men’s Sabre and Sabre Plate.
This was a good event for the RAF, with Plt Off Graeme Hart taking the sabre title after an extremely difficult and exciting final against Sub Lt Keith Bowers, RN. Wg Cdr George Liston and Sgt Mark Gumley both fought extremely well to come 3rd. Also making the last 16 were Flt Lt Ruari Henderson-Begg with an impressive 6th place, Cpl Dave Long doing well to take 8th, and Sgt Phil McNulty in 12th, JT Iain Wren 13th and Sqn Ldr Andy Alcock 14th. In the plate event, Cpl Rob Desforges overcame the difficulties he experienced in the poules to fight his way through to, and win, the plate competition.

Men’s Foil and Foil Plate.
In the Foil the RAF again took top honours, with 8 RAF Fencers in the last 16. Graeme Hart took his place in the final yet again, this time beating George Liston in a thrilling fight 15-10 to take the trophy. Ruari Henderson-Begg also fenced to form, finishing 3rd, with SAC Andy Hart at his first ever Inter Services taking 5th. Also featuring were O/Cdt Nick Olliver, another newcomer to the Inter Services finishing 9th, Phil McNulty finishing a disappointing 11th, O/Cdt Graham Orme taking 12th and Andy Alcock clinching 13th. SAC Paul Hosking fenced extremely well to take the foil plate.

Men’s Epee and Epee Plate.
The RAF once again managed to get a high number of fencers into the top 16, but this time the best we could achieve was 2nd place after a magnificent performance by O/Cdt Graham Orme. Unfortunately for George Liston, he found himself up against old foe Baker in the last 8, narrowly losing to finish 6th overall. Ruari Henderson-Begg maintained his record to reach the top 8 of every weapon with his 7th place, and it was an RAF 8th and 9th for SAC Paul Hosking and Cpl Rob Desforges respectively. Andy Alcock took the 13th spot, with Graeme Hart not quite emulating the success of foil and sabre finishing in 14th place. In the Men’s Champion-at-Arms, both George Liston and Graeme Hart were tied with 16 points, but the title went to Graeme by virtue of his 2 weapon victories in foil and sabre.

Women’s Sabre and Sabre Plate.
In the Ladies Sabre, a high standard of fencing was evident from the start, and it was FS Ashley Newing, Fg Off Kath Linton (in not only her first Inter Services, but her first Sabre competition) and Fg Off Sharon Booth who started off well for the RAF. As Ashley and Sharon both found themselves up against stronger opponents in the last 8 though, Kath was the only RAF fencer to make it to the last 4. In a very close and hard fought final against Sub Lt Amanda Hale, it was to be a creditable 2nd place for Kath, with Ashley and Sharon taking 6th and 7th respectively. SAC Brigitte Morgan then successfully pulled out all the stops to ensure herself victory in the Ladies Sabre Plate competiton.

Women’s Foil and Foil Plate.
With only 3 RAF fencers entered in the Foil, the chances of a victory were always going to be slim. Kath Linton, once again picking up a weapon competitively for the first time, fenced well but against more experienced opponents found herself out after the first round DE, finishing 10th overall. Fg Off Sharon Booth though fought well to make it through to the last 4, narrowly missing out on a place in the final to finish 3rd. Brigitte Morgan again took victory in the plate competition to earn herself her 2nd medal of the week.

Women’s Epee and Epee Plate.
In a field dominated by Army fencers, the 4 ladies of the RAF fought long and hard, securing some very credible results. Fencing extremely well with what she would class as her preferred weapon, Kath Linton made her way to the last four to finish 3rd at her first attempt at this event. Sharon Booth however went one better, making her way to the final and overcoming her opponent to take the Ladies Epee title. Flt Lt Sarah Chambers fenced fantastically, achieving 8th place and Ashley Newing again showed her considerable skills to achieve 10th in a very high class field.

Conclusion.
In my first year as Captain, I would have liked to have retained the men’s title as well as regained the ladies; unfortunately the opposition had other ideas, but it was still encouraging to see the New Blues raise their game and fence to the standard we on the selection committee knew they could reach. At the end of the day, every single fencer gave it their all, and there is no shame in losing to a better team. I have offered my resignation as Captain, but unfortunately this was not accepted – apparently you don’t get out of things that easily! Failure in the team event though did not translate into failure in the individuals, and we achieved fantastic results across all weapons; with fencers like Ruari Henderson-Begg making the top eight in every weapon, and Graeme Hart winning both the foil and the sabre, we have the strength in depth required to reorganise our team and come back next year to regain the title. In the ladies event Kath Linton showed just what effect a novice can have when the basics are already in place; her 2nd in the sabre testament to that fact, and Sharon Booth once again displayed her versatility with her foil and epee results. I would like to thank every fencer who attended for his or her hard work and dedication to the sport throughout the year, without which we would not do so well. Both the Army and Royal Navy are fielding stronger and stronger teams each year and it is getting harder fought every year. To overcome this we need to start preparing ourselves now by training hard and entering as many civilian and military competitions as possible. We have the skills, we have the personnel; now we just need to hone both.