AGM:

The AGM is the 16th March at 8pm. Please speak to one of the committee for details and the agenda and to let us know you're coming as we will be supplying food.

Herts Senior Championships are on the 15th May (Saturday):

Check-In Times:

Novices Foil 10:00 - 10:15
Seniors Foil 11:30 - 11:45
Sabre 14:00 - 14:15
Epee 15:30 - 15:45

Milton Keynes Vs St Albans 28 Jan

Unfortunately, this third fixture result was a long way removed from our dead heat last week with Bedford. The Epee team of Jason, Tim and David managed a competent 5:4 victory. There were no marginal results and Tim's heels were much quieter! It was a bit unnerving to see a named jacket with 'WAL' underneath it, but a few discreet enquiries informed us that the opponent was 'merely' a sabreur. Jason managed a vital clean sweep and the exercise helped him along the road in recovering his former svelte figure (last seen in the 1990's?!).

Matters went downhill after that, convincingly losing the foil 7:2.
With the team initially comprising Philip and James, David was persuaded to swap his epee for a proper sword and 'get on with it'. Unfortunately (that word again, so you probably guess what is coming next) Mr 'WAL' doubled up on foil, too! But David promptly stood up to the mark and scored both our victories.

Convincingly lost the foil? Well, let's look at that in a bit more detail, shall we? Were there any 'marginal' defeats? Yes- two, with both lost by Philip.

So............ if Philip had turned them into 5:4 VICTORIES,
then.........? OK, stop right there! I know where you are going with this one- the foil score would still have been a defeat, but 4:5, not 2:7, right?

Yes. And then............? Oh, no! It would have been another dead heat; Bedford all over again! Calculators at five paces, anyone???

Remember: "the fencing is not over until the 5:4 loser swings!" (or is that whinges? ED)

The next fixture is 24 February; away to Watford.

St Albans vs Bedford Jan 24

In our second outing of the season we achieved a dead heat, losing the epee 2:7, winning the foil 7:2, but with indicators across both weapons at -18 and +18. How unlikely or unlucky is that? The scoresheets have therefore been passed to the Three Counties Organiser for adjudication.
Watch this space- although he might decide to do nothing and leave it to our return match in May.

Bedford's Russ, Graham and Adam fenced epee first against Jason, Tim and David. Most of this happened whilst two thirds of the foil team were doing maintenance work on the storage cupboard doors. After their convincing win, Bedford then changed over to foil. My recollection is that Adam was the more controlled, innovative and faster moving team member and probably caused our teams more of a headache. To be fair, Liam H had mentioned a few weeks ago that the Bedford foilists were becoming stronger (previously it had a predominance in epee and sabre).

With the foil comprising Andy, Philip and Ben, it was Ben that got the only clean sweep of the evening, with a fine display of his close quarters swordplay. Some of you may recall this at our Open Air last September (there are still some photos on the website).

With no bones, blood vessels, boxes or blades broken, I suppose you could call that a result in itself!

Since I do not have the scoresheets, I do not know how close the bouts were. The same teams may, therefore, have to be fielded at the next match by default- unless more of you are interested in putting your name forward!?
Let Philip know.

When is snow like a pizza? When it's deep and crisp and even.

What a strange night's fencing that was! We had to call a halt early - the school hall was going to be shut because of the snow that had fallen.
As it was the last session of the year, we were due to hold a social get together afterwards - this turned into a cross between speed dating and the world pie eating competition - Lets do it again next year.
At 10PM it looked like something from Scott of the Antarctic, I hope everyone got home safely.

Match report - 24 November - away to Luton

This was our first fixture of the 2009/10 Three Counties League comprising five clubs within Bed, Bucks and Herts. It was a disappointing start to our retention of the trophy for the third consecutive year, but it is early days and we will not give up without a fight or two (seven, to be precise).

First off was the epee, comprising David, Tim and Hazel and Philip combining as third fencer. Although we won 5:4, four of the nine bouts were 5:4, but only one being in our favour. Not much change since the last report, then, you may say. We were, though, fielding Tim for the first time (step forward, that man) and what a great start to his new found career as an epeeist! It was truly a sight to behold, with Tim controlling the whole piste, renewing attack after attack, until his opponents simply ran out of room to retreat. We hope the heels were not too sore the next day, Tim - they certainly sounded painful! Well done.

Foil was not as entertaining, although fencing suppliers will be pleased with our efforts, as three blades were broken. It should have been four, but Philip's newish Leon Paul blade refused to succumb to an honourable break, but continued throughout pretending to be made from lead. Don't forget to buy a replacement blade for James', Philip! Even though we also fielded James and Hazel, Luton again fielded their old veteran, Geoff, who won all his three bouts. We really must find a way around his effective parries and retreating footwork. Any ideas, Liam? Oh no, not more footwork and first counter riposte exercises?

Do you want to give sweat and bloody beers for SAFC? If so, put your name in the bag - you know where we are!

We're not fencing on Thursday - we're getting fat instead. 7:30 PM at the Portland Arms Pub for our sitdown Christmas meal (which you've all of course booked with Hazel!).
Portland Arms is off the Verulam Rd on the way out of St Albans towards Redbourn AL3 4RA http://theportlandarmspub.co.uk
If you've any questions please get hold of Hazel on social@sa-fc.org.uk
See you there.

9:30 in the morning on the 2nd Sunday in September, it can only be check in for Sabre at the annual St. Albans fencing club open air.


Once again club members and their significant others enjoyed a full day’s fencing in the fresh air, by the end of the day we were glad to get to the barbeque and beer, though it must be said one of our number started on the beer rather earlier than most and had worked out that he could down a beef burger during the 1min break in the Epee semi final – Next year we’ll have to try him on spinach.

Four souls were keen enough to check in at 9:30 for the Sabre, some spirited bouts saw the winner decided in a single pool, before many of us had finished the bacon butties.


Fifteen of us checked in for the Foil, and we were soon running through two rounds of pools to determine the direct elimination (DE) positions. Tactics now played a part as lunch was available – eat now between pools, or wait until the Epee starts? How much quiche can a fencer consume and still fight a bout?

Jon D was all the time working away in the background trying to decipher the scribbles on the pool sheets as we each handed in the results on the way to the refreshments, and then prepared the next round as we stuffed ourselves.

Now it’s the turn of the Epeeists. Much confusion as people try and work out which of the body wires they’re wearing they need to plug in – and a new problem, the sun’s come out and we cant see the scoring box lights clearly – what a great problem to have!

Not as many people signed up for Epee, so we’re put into two pools of 6 and off we go, getting much bigger bruises than in Foil.

Never seems to take a long as the Foil, and even with the bigger pools all to soon most of us are wishing we’d tried that bit harder, reached that bit further, been that bit quicker so we cold have finished that much further up the results table.

Jon says back to the Foil – more tangled body wires, searches for missing lames, then back to the piste for the first (and for some of us last) round of the DE – now we’re starting to get tired we’re also fighting to 15 points, but the breeze through the mask makes it that bit more bearable.

Through the DE up to the final, than back to the Epee to run through the DE, and finally we’re ready for the finals – Foil first, and you can tell it’s a well run competition as the best two fencers give us the best match of the day. The match goes to it’s 3rd 3min period, but the two fencers
seemed as fresh, fast and determined as we’d been at the beginning of the day.

To finish off the fencing for the day we all sit down to watch the Epee final – two very different styles, Philip with a classical style and very neat covering action – Andy, laid back and open almost to the point of horizontalness. A fantastic match, with the lead changing many times, neither player giving up, and neither allowed to get to far ahead, but in the end Andy just managed to get a couple of points ahead and clinch the trophy once more.

A great days fencing, fantastic food and good company, what more could we have wanted? Next year it’ll be even better.

RESULTS

Sabre
1st Paul
2nd Philip

Joint 3rd Terry, Tim

Foil
1st Paul
2nd Ben
Joint 3rd Philip, Terry

Ladies Foil
1st Susie
2nd Lindsey
3rd Susan

Epee
1st Andy
2nd Paul
3rd Philip, Jason

A big thank you to Jon for organising the event and running the day. To John and Phillip for purchasing the food and drink. To Katrina for setting out the lunch and to Helen for running the barbeque. Finally thanks to everyone who helped on the day - moving, setting up etc.