Southern Fencing

This year Southern Region again fielded a young team, although many of the fencers were part of the 2017 team. We welcomed new fencers to the team, Celena Abbleby Prince, Eva Reston, Ashwin Selvan, Jacob Drew and Joshua Biggs. The fencers were all very enthusiastic and worked well together as a team, supporting each other in many ways throughout the weekend.
In her final year, Constance was the Ladies Epee captain and overall team captain. She led the Ladies Epee team to the best overall result and won seven out of nine matches. Eva Reston, in her first Cadet Winton, had the second highest amount of victories in the Ladies Epee individual weapon event. The Men’s Foil, Ladies Foil teams and the Men’s Epee team all won five out of nine team matches. In addition to the team successes we need to mention more notable achievements: Ashwin Selvin, in his first competition, was third and team mate Joe Donahue fifth highest in the Men’s individual foil event; Celina Appleby Prince (one of our youngest fencers and also first Cadet Winton) achieved fourth in the individual Ladies foil event and Imogen Edgecliffe-Johnson was seventh. These results were backed up by three wins for the Ladies Sabre team and one for the Men’s Sabre team.
This year we won five regional team matches and drew one match out of nine. Included in the five victories was a first-ever victory against the South West and a hard-fought draw against the South East. Overall the team finished fifth on indicators with South West having the same number of match victories.
I would like to add that all our young fencers are always well behaved on the piste and in the boarding houses, they are a credit to our Region. I think all the officials would agree with me that it is a pleasure to be part of such a great team. This year we have had to say farewell to Phoebe, Constance, Sunny and Ashwin.

I would like to thank Allen Cooke and Jacky Faulkner for their continued coaching support and Seth Blackmore and James Kwan for taking responsibility of the refereeing. Finally, thank you to the fencer’s parents, clubs and coaches who have supported the team by preparing their fencers for this amazing event.