Match Report by Sqn Ldr Ruari Henderson-Begg, Vice Captain

This years Wellesbourne Team competition took place at the Handy Cross Sports Centre, High Wycombe on 29 Oct 06. The competition is fenced over 5 weapons, sabre being mixed and follows the poule unique format. Nine teams were invited to take part; however, the Milton Keynes team were forced to withdraw at short notice. Their mens foil and epee teams were replaced by scratch teams but the organisers were unable to fill the other teams. Additionally, the short notice withdrawals of 2 RAF fencers forced consolidation of the ladies foil and epee teams to field an epee team and concede the foil matches.

The remaining RAF fencers spanned the whole spectrum of experience, from established fencers like Cpl Shaun Taylor and SAC Gary Brailsford to Cpl Odette Scutt on her first outing. This experience range was mirrored across the competition, with a wide range of abilities being evident.

All the teams had mixed fortunes during the day meeting various levels of competition from the opposing teams. The strongest RAF weapon team was the Mens Epee team consisting of Cpl Shaun Taylor and Sgt Steve March. Unfortunately, Mens Epee was also the strongest weapon overall and, despite some good blade work the team finished with 14 victories from 32 bouts. Many of the defeats were by one point, emphasising the calibre of the team.

The Mens Foil team consisted of Sqn Ldr Ruari Henderson-Begg and JT Gary Brailsford. Despite almost constant assertations that he was in fact an epeeist, Gary put in a credible performance with the practice weapon and the team only lost to 3 teams overall. Unfortunately, a 4-0 defeat courtesy of the Civil Service limited the foil team to 15 victories from their 32 matches.

Mens Sabre was represented by SAC Pete Dewey and SAC James Downes. RAF Mens Sabre is developing at the moment; however, both fencers put in enthusiastic performances and won 16 of their 32 matches. How much of this was down to the distraction caused by James’ colourful socks and how much was purely due to talent is debatable; nevertheless this was an encouraging results.

Ladies Epee consisted of SAC Brigitte Morgans and Cpl Odette Scutt, Brigitte having stepped across from the foil team to consolidate the ladies teams. Odette gave a competent performance on her first outing and was ably supported by Brigitte. The team took advantage of 2 missing teams to win 17 of their 32 bouts, the best RAF weapon result of the competition.

Few teams were consistently good over all 5 weapons apart from the Civil Service, who have won the competition for the last 4 years; consequently, winning 62 out of the 128 available bouts was a credible result. Unfortunately this was moderated to 62 bouts out of 160 by the lack of a ladies foil team, leaving the RAF languishing in 8th place. While this is not a good result, apart from the Civil Service, the British Veterans and the Wellesbourne team, the other teams only came away with a few more victories than the RAF, indicating that a full team would have been capable of a far better overall performance.

My thanks and congratulations go out to all those who represented the RAF at this prestigious, friendly competition. The developing fencers did well and were ably supported by the more experienced fencers. If the RAF can continue to develop its younger fencers in this way then strength will develop across the board.