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LATEST NEWS

Welsh Epee Championships

On Sunday the 20th of January Star Sword Club members Chris Powell and Hayley Porter competed in the Welsh Closed Epee championships. Both performed extremely well, Chris Powell finished 6th narrowly missing out on a medal, and Hayley Porter finished 8th, defeating Zara Wheeler in her pool. Congratulations to both of you!

 

Star Sword Defeats Whitchurch Fencing Club 78 - 59

On Monday the 26th of June Star Sword played Whitchurch Fencing Club in Epée and Foil.

In the Epée Whitchurch were clearly the stronger team and took an early lead. Hayley Porter and Luis Santos made a concerted effort to keep the Whitchurch team from spiralling ahead. Tom Martin gave a superb effort in the final fight against Steve Parker securing 9 points before Whitchurch achieved victory. The final score was 45 points to 33.

Foil saw the Star Sword team dominate from the start. Of particular note was Chris Powell’s performance. He defeated all his opponents and only conceded one hit in the process. Despite a good effort from Paul Redmond, who regained 4 points against Tom Martin, the match finished 45 points to 14.

So in the final score Star managed to scrape a victory 78 – 59. Thank you to Whitchurch for a very relaxed and enjoyable evening of fencing. Hopefully a rematch will be arrange very soon!

 

Star Sword Defeats Howardian Sword 70 - 57

On the 6th of November SSC sent two teams up to the Howardian Centre for a foil and epee match against the resident club. Foil went on first, with Chris Powell and Louise Webster securing a comfortable lead against their opponents, Scott Hamilton and Mike Edwards. Stewart Kelly performed well for his first competitive event, but let the lead slip away in his match against Joe Attard. This was quickly regained and Star managed to maintained a comfortable lead to win the weapon 45 point to 33.

Next up was epee. Hayley Porter went one first, narrowly losing to Scott Hamilton 5-4. Tom Martin quickly regained control scoring six points in quick succession against Mike Edwards. Luis Santos retained the lead and Star were able to just scrape a 25-24 victory to time.

Congratulations to our teams on a superb result, and many thanks to Howardian for an extremely challenging and entertaining evening. The next match will be on the 26th of November against Whitchurch.

 

Shropshire Open 2007

On the 23rd of September several Star Sword fencers boarded the minibus to Shropshire to compete in the national domestic open. Andrew McLeod, Peter Russell, Marisol Taylor, Charlie Dyer, Heather Flemming and Gareth Crowther travelled up and, after a cold night camping in Much Wenlock, made the sign-in at 9am.

The shropshire is usual for an open, having two rounds of pools before the direct eliminations. The first round saw Peter win his pool to gain a ranking of 13th. Andy also did well, winning three of his fights. Although Gareth, Heather, Charlie and Marisol didn't win any of their fights all fenced well, especially considering that this is their first open event.

The second round didn't go as smoothly for the Star fencers. Although ranked top of his pool, Peter lost 3 fights in his next pool, his ranking dropping to 35th. Andy also lost 3 fights to be ranked 37th going into the DE's.

Gareth was first to fight a direct elimination, but despite some lovely counter attacks he lost 15 - 8 in the L64. Peter and Andy both won their L32 fights with ease, beating their pool rankings. Unfortunately their next fights were against the 3rd cede and 5th cede respectively. Peter lost to the 3rd cede 15 - 9, but Andy surprised everyone (not least his opponent) by defeating the 5th cede 15 - 13! This secured him a place in the last 16. A superb result.

In the womens foil Heather, Marisol and Charlie all had to fence in the L64 round. Despite the high quality of their opponents all three fenced very well securing 4, 6 and 8 points respectively.

Final Results:

• Andrew McLeod - MF 16th
• Peter Russell - MF 30th
• Gareth Crowther - MF 74th
• Marisol Taylor - WF 33rd
• Charlie Dyer - WF 34th
• Heather Flemming - WF 35th

Congratulations to all our competitors!

For more pictures from the competition click here.

 

Star Sword Defeats Gwent

On the 10th of September Star Sword Club sent two teams to compete against Gwent. The match is the first Star has taken part in since it's founding less than a year ago. Both SSC teams performed superbly, defeating their Gwent counterparts.

The Women's Team (Morwenna Perrot, Hayley Porter, Christabel Gingell and Marisol Taylor) soundly defeated Gwent Team 45 - 37.

The Men's Team (Chris Powell, Tom Martin and Luis Santos) had more difficulty with their Gwent opponents. Although leading throughout the first 7 fights, Chris entered the final bout 5 points down against his Gwent opponent, Ceri Richards. Things looked even worse when Ceri managed to score 4 points in swift succession, bringing the score to 44-40 to Gwent. However, Chris manage to change his tactics and score the final 5 points without conceding a single hit!

CONGRATULATION TO BOTH TEAMS FOR A SUPERB PERFORMANCE!

 

Dragon Boat Race 2007

On Sunday the 5th of August Star Sword Club raised over £400 for St David's Foundation by competing in the Monmouth Dragon Boat Race. Despite a good performance, coming second in two of their races and winning one, the Star Team were just edged out of the semi-finals. The superb weather, availbility of drink and burgers softened the blow somewhat. All-in-all a fun day supporting an excellent cause.

For more information about the work St David's Foundation does please click here.

The Team boards for it's first race

Relaxing after a hard row

The team ready to set off. From right to left: Vicky (drummer), Andrew, Helen, Tom, Chris, Luis, Paul, Stewart, Peter, Kate and Ellie

 

Millenium Stadium Charitable Trust Grant

"The creation of the Trust takes the Stadium's significance as an integral part of Welsh life to a higher level by providing grant support to inspiring projects throughout Wales. The Trust is an all-Wales organisation and regardless of the public event taking place at the Stadium, all funds distributed by the Trust are allocated to make a difference to people in Wales."

Star Sword Club recently received a grant from the Millenium Stadium Charitable Trust. This has been used to purchase a set of electrical scoring equipment for the club. This allows competitive fencers to train for competitions and Star Sword to host inter-club matches.

 

SCW Minor Equipment Grant

The Sports Council for Wales has recently granted Star Sword Club £1548.00 towards purchasing Beginners' Equipment. The club will be using this to invest in 15 sets of kit from Bladesbrand UK. Each set includes a mask, foil, glove, front zip jacket and plastron.

 

New Coach - Hayley Porter

On the 24th of June Hayley Porter traveled up to Llanidloes to take her level 1 Foil Coaching Exam. Hayley was assessed by the Welsh National Coach, Professor Peter Stewart, and passed without any difficulties. I'm sure her new skills will be of great benefit to the club.

On the same day Head Coach Peter Russell qualified as a level 1 Sabre coach.

 

 

 

National Lottery Community Chest Support

 

Star Sword Club has recently received funding from the National Lottery Community Chest to improve its coaching program. The money will allow the club to train a Sabre coach, an assistant foil coach and send Peter to the Denstone coach education course.