The junior fencers arrived with a palpable sense of excitement and keenness to get going. Having seen the successes of the senior fencers, they were keen to emulate their older (& wiser?) counterparts but found a number of very talented fencers from across the Commonwealth waiting for them. Bearing in mind that there were several of our cadet fencers competing an age-group up, it was very encouraging to see so many strong performances.

In individual events, there were creditable L16 places for Erin Corcoran and Georgia Howes (JWS), Bobby Childs (JMS) and Amelie Russell (JWE).

However, in the team events, this is where Team Wales showed what we could do………

Day 9 saw the start of the cadets events, and what a start it was! After some mixed results in the poules, Sameer Sunder-Rajan knocked out the no.1 seed in the L16 and then proceeded to dispatch yet more higher ranked fencers to eventually meet the GBR no.1 in the final. This was going to be a tough ask; Sameer acquitted himself admirably and came away with a well-deserved Silver medal after losing the final 6-15.

A strong cohort of the “Older, Sneakier and Wiser” veterans arrived for the final 6 days of competition, which started off with VWS and VME.

Please follow the links below to the various Commonwealth Fencing Championship Results and Reports:

The full results are available on Engarde - Commonwealth Championships 2022

The summary report is here: Commonwealth Fencing Championships 2022 Report

The Seniors & Para report can be found here: Commonwealth Fencing Championships 2022 Report - Seniors & Para

The Junior report can be found here: Commonwealth Fencing Championships 2022 Report - Juniors

The Cadet report can be found here: Commonwealth Fencing Championships 2022 Report - Cadets

The Veteran report can be found here: Commonwealth Fencing Championships 2022 Report - Veterans

Congratulations to BF Referee Euan Deamer (Foil), who has passed the 2022 FIE refereeing exams held in Budapest this week.

See the British Fencing website for full details: Read More

On behalf of the membership, the Board would like to thank Mark Ridsdale and Fran Whalley for their contribution to Welsh Fencing.

Both are standing down from their Director and Secretary roles respectively, with Mark also having previously undertaken the role of Chair.

During their tenures, they have both worked tirelessly to improve access to everything associated with fencing across the whole of Wales. Their passion, and focus on participants has improved support for coaches, referees, and fencers. They have also worked tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure that Welsh Fencing is in the strong position that it is from a governance and finance point of view.

On a personal note, I would like to thank Mark for all the support and patience he has shown me in my first 2 years as Chair. His knowledge and wisdom has helped me enormously in understanding the role of Chair, and developing relationships with our stakeholders at Sport Wales and beyond.

Fran continually inspires a focus on our members. Fencers, coaches, referees, clubs etc are the lifeblood of our sport, and she ensured that this was always at the forefront of board discussions.

A huge thank you to you both.

Matt Russell
Chair – Welsh Fencing

Welsh Fencing held their second Cadet Championships on 11^th February. It was encouraging to see several new fencers competing, and the commitment shown by some by travelling a long way to come the event.

There was a high standard of fencing on show, and many congratulations to all fencers, and particularly the medallists as follows:

It is with sadness we would like to inform that John, a Welsh Veteran fencer, and a member of Bangor University Fencing Club for about 20 years, passed away on Saturday 28th of January. He joined the club in his late 60s shortly before his retirement as a Senior Lecturer. Despite being a complete novice, he showed such natural aptitude.